The Obama administration last week directed the U

Why He doesn't get enough carries to rack up the yardage.Grant's done a good job so far running downhill and falling forward, and he does have big-play ability. But with only 13 or so runs per game, he doesn't have the chance to flash it.McCarthy needs to get away from his classicIncomplete pass down the fieldRun from a formation that features no threat of a passAttempt long pass for first (or just throw a screen, depending on how far back we are after penalties)McCarthy is too predictable inplay-calling, and there's another previously mentioned problem: penalties. The Packers killed themselves with unnecessary and stupid penalties against the Bengals, and it showed. This lack of discipline falls again, on the Head Coach.The season isn't doomed by any means but this is a huge problem that needs to be remedied. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pentagon budget cuts are increasingly seen as inevitable, given President Barack Obama's promise to draw down U.S forces in Iraq and the dire, worsening state of the U.S. economy.The big question is how the Obama administration can quickly trim its outlays without cutting the size of a military it has pledged to increase, lowering readiness or gutting weapons modernization plans officials say they urgently need.The Obama administration last week directed the U.S. Defense Department to make substantial cuts to a budget proposal prepared under the leadership of Defense Secretary Robert Gates for fiscal year 2010, which added more than $60 billion, according to InsideDefense , a trade publication.Fox News said the White House was seeking cuts of more than 10 percent, but U.S.

officials declined to comment.Pentagon officials said they had not received any guidance from the White House budget office, but InsideDefense said the Pentagon planned to appeal the ordered cuts.Jim McAleese, a Virginia-based defense consultant, predicted the Pentagon would barter a smaller war spending budget for fiscal 2010 in exchange for a final year of growth in the base budget. Overall spending would probably be flat to slightly down in 2010, he said.Defense analysts and industry executives have long predicted that a dramatic eight-year increase in American defense spending sparked by the September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks was coming to an end. They see budgets flattening out at a high level, not declining precipitously.Steve Kosiak, appointed this month to oversee defense budgets at the Office of Management and Budget, said last August when he was at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments that a day of reckoning was looming for the Pentagon.Given the gap between its funding outlook and ambitious modernization plans, the Pentagon must consider a range of options, Kosiak wrote at that time. economic crisis.On Friday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said one of the first targets of spending cuts should be a long-range U.S. arsenal.A number of high-profile think tanks and Pentagon advisers have outlined possible ways to cut the budget."Eliminate programs and activities not vital to the mission," the Defense Business Board, a group of outside advisers, recommended to the incoming administration just days after the election Cuts at the margin "won't work this time," it said "Nor will pushing things off to the later years."U.S. defense spending has climbed more than 60 percent during the eight years of the Bush administration, and will total at least $612.5 billion in fiscal 2009. This includes $542.5 billion for the core defense budget and an initial allowance of $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.The outgoing administration, under Gates's leadership, worked out a budget proposal that called for an increase of about $60 billion in the Pentagon's base budget for fiscal 2010, including some $20 billion for weapons modernization."That was a preposterous idea from the start," said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.

The massive fiscal crisis, an expected drawdown of forces in Iraq, and Obama's focus on domestic issues and health care pointed to budget cuts, not increases.Delays in some big-ticket programs like a $35 billion program to buy new aerial refueling tankers, and a $15 billion competition for new search and rescue helicopters would save the administration some money immediately.Eliminating existing weapons programs could be problematic because they involved tens of thousands of jobs, Thompson said, but future projects like the proposed development of a new bomber already drawing an estimated $1 billion a year in classified spending were likely to fall away for now.Reducing forces in Iraq would generate immediate savings, and the administration could save billions more by slowing the repair and replacement of battle-worn equipment."The faster we're out of Iraq, the more we can save without damaging long-term military preparedness," Thompson said.Lower fuel costs would also help trim the budget, he said.(Editing by Maureen Bavdek). (Adds detail, background, quotes from Aegis Trust) By Andrew Heavens KHARTOUM, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Peacekeepers on Sunday said Sudan's government had asked them to withdraw from a rebel-held Darfur town, amid reports state troops were preparing to attack the settlement. The joint United Nations/African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force said it was trying to convince Sudan to let its troops stay in their base in the south Darfur town of Muhajiriya so they could continue to protect more than 30,000 civilians in the battle-scarred area. Muhajiriya has been the scene of more than two weeks of fierce fighting between Sudan government forces, troops from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and other fighters. Fighting in Darfur has escalated in the build up to an expected decision from the International Criminal Court on whether to issue an arrest warrant against Sudan's president on charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur. JEM, which holds Muhajiriya, told Reuters its commanders had reported four columns of Sudanese army troops, including one unit with tanks, were approaching the south Darfur town from different directions on Sunday afternoon. "We think they are planning a large attack," said JEM official Al-Tahir al-Feki.