By Dave Begel Contributing Writer Published Sep 09, 2014 at 5:32 AM

Dick Corrick was the director of player personnel for the Green Bay Packers for almost two decades and a very respected judge of football talent.

One day in the middle of April in 1978, I was in his office trying to get information for a story on the upcoming NFL draft. Corrick wasn’t going to be pinned down, but during the discussion he gushed about a wide receiver from Stanford named James Lofton. He had everything, Corrick said, speed, hands and toughness.

What really sets him apart, I asked, from the dozens of other receivers in college?

Corrick smiled for a second and then took the index finger on each hand and used one to point to his head, the other to point to his heart. "Smart," Corrick said. "And he’s got guts."

Corrick drafted Lofton in the first round and the receiver ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

From that time on I have always thought those two things, intelligence and courage, were critical elements in any football player. And that’s why I am so overly disappointed in the way the Packers opened their season last week against the Seahawks in Seattle.

This was a football team -- and I’m including everyone in uniform and the entire coaching staff - that played without intelligence and played as if they were walking through a minefield and one misstep would bring havoc down onto their heads. 

I wasn’t surprised that the Seahawks won and I wasn’t particularly surprised by anything they did. But I was stunned by how uncompetitive the Packers were. It was almost as if they had heard all that crap about the Seahawks' 112th man and decided to just phone it in without any of the kind of risk taking that might give them a chance.

This team looked almost like a chicken to me. They were late to the ball and to the ball carrier. They had no passion about their game. It was if there was no belief in any of the schemes or plans they had.

I’ve talked about it before but I think the middle of the Packer defense is a weakness just waiting to be exploited. Without a stout nose tackle and with two ever-more mediocre inside linebackers this team offers up tantalizing opportunity for a running back. Coming up for Green Bay are Reggie Bush, Matt Forte, Adrian Peterson and LeSean McCoy and if the Packers can’t solve this problem then it’s Katy bar the door.

At some point this team has to put its big boy pants on and play with the kind of boldness and courage that the NFL demands.

That fearful offensive plan to not even try to pass in the third of the field guarded by Richard Sherman is a chicken way out. When the defense knows you aren’t going to do one thing, it helps them stack the deck on top of all the other things.

When you have the guy who may well be the best quarterback in the league and an imaginative head coach and a deep well of receivers, you’d think that the Packers would take some chances. But not in this game. That third of the field was off limits.

And much of that defense looked like it was wearing cement cleats. Neither A. J. Hawk nor Brad Jones show even a hint of ability to cover backs or tight ends who run pass patterns in their area. It looks like a tackle-free zone and it’s pretty easy for an opposing offense to recognize it.

That wide sweep by Percy Harvin, over and over, shouldn’t have surprised anyone, but each time it looked like the Packers were caught with their mouths open and their pants down.

The Packers did look like they had the rumblings of a pass rush, but that doesn’t do much good if the linebackers and defensive backs can’t keep up with receivers. You just get rid of the ball at the earliest opportunity.

Mike McCarthy often talks about how football is a simple game, blocking, tackling, throwing and catching. But it’s not that simple.

Football is also a battle of wits and brains and daring. Smart decision. Tough in the crunch Those are the qualities that get rewarded in the NFL.

And those are the qualities that were missing for the Packers last week. 

Dave Begel Contributing Writer

With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.

He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.

This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.

Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.