Green Bay Packers Thread

ScummyMan

Patww79 wrote: »

That's Bulaga gone for the season now too.

Blut2

Another terrible result. Its going to be a long season.

I'm going to try to look for positives to cheer myself up:

1) Less miles on Rodgers' clock with taking most of this season off. Hopefully some of the other older guys like Matthews might benefit from a more relaxed season too, and come back healthier next year
2) A higher draft pick
3) Now that theres no Rodgers single handedly dragging the team into the late stages off the play-offs we might actually see some management changes. Maybe.

Barney92

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

Does Matthews still have it though? He has been a shadow of himself the last year or two I have thought

He might benefit from a reduced role. Use him as a specialist pass rusher.
But then we'd need someone to replace him in other areas.

I think we match up well against the Bears, given that I reckon we'll be able to keep them relatively quiet on the ground. There are still games on the schedule I think we could win (Browns, Ravens, Bears, Bucs) in that order of likelihood so I'm still going to hold out hope for the playoffs, with some maybe a win against the Lions or Vikings.

But regardless of that, something needs to be done this offseason. They can't just keep relying on Rodgers.

Brendan Bendar

Good post, maybe now the penny will drop that Rogers was carrying the team.

Next game against the Bears in SField.

I would be in favor of giving Hundley the start but if he didn’t produce something in the first quarter or half give Callaghan a run.

He can’t be any worse, and seems to have much more energy and drive than Hundley.

Why can the D contain downs 1 and 2 quite often for a loss and then give up the third with depressing regularity, usually down the middle with a pass play, while the opposing QB has all day to throw.

I have now come to the conclusion that Hundley is not the answer, and won’t ‘train on’.

Serious changes on all areas of this ball club are needed quam celerrime!

Barney92

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Why can the D contain downs 1 and 2 quite often for a loss and then give up the third with depressing regularity, usually down the middle with a pass play, while the opposing QB has all day to throw.

I think the answer there might be that teams run it on first or second down, which we are generally decent enough at stopping I believe. Yards per carry against us is average I think. Whereas we must be one of the worst in yards per pass attempt. We don't get many sacks, so when we do force them into passing situations they've all the time in the world for a gap to open up somewhere.

Brendan Bendar

Barney92 wrote: »

I think the answer there might be that teams run it on first or second down, which we are generally decent enough at stopping I believe. Yards per carry against us is average I think. Whereas we must be one of the worst in yards per pass attempt. We don't get many sacks, so when we do force them into passing situations they've all the time in the world for a gap to open up somewhere.

Yes, good point there.

Brendan Bendar

Break out Callahan, nothing to lose now

Blut2

Martellus Bennett cut because of "failure to disclose physical condition". Should save some cash if they successfully void his contract based on that. Won't help with this season's woes, though.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2743255-martellus-bennett-reportedly-cut-by-packers-after-less-than-1-year-with-team

Billy86

That's fine, he hadn't been up to much anyway and I've been a little intrigued by what I've seen of Kendricks. Shame though, I think we were all certain we'd pulled off a coup with those two as opposed to Jared Cook (who is on pace for 75 catches for 885 yards right now in Tennessee).

Brendan Bendar

A very important game for Hundley vs the Bears.

A poor display could see McCarthy losing confidence in him.

Love to see Callahan getting a chance.

A lot more energy about him.

baby and crumble

Hundley is just so dull to watch play and in general. Plus he drives me absolutely bonkers chewing ALL the damn time. Like, dude, you're GOING to get sacked and tackled. Do you really want to choke on whatever the hell that is aswell???

Billy86

My biggest issue with Hundley is that on top of looking a bit lifeless, he just doesn't seem to have it between the ears to keep on top of everything going on in an NFL game. The FG he nearly cost us doing a 5yd pass with about 12 seconds on the clock last week just before half time was a great example of this (ST deserve credit for getting that kick off, let alone making it, by the way - not the flashiest play, but amazing effort and extremely well drilled).

Brendan Bendar

He also seems to be far too quick to abandon the pocket and move way back.

Could be 20 yards behind the LOS before he tries the throw.

Unfortunately teams will now have learned that the Packers are no threat from deep throws,so they can virtually ignore that and concentrate on what will happen, a short dump off or a run attempt....... back to the LOS!!!

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Billy86

It really says a lot that until there were 2-3 mins left in the half we are only 7-0 down (e.g. not nearly enough to force us to pass pass pass) and even down by 11 at the half wasn't the end of the world, yet we finished up with over 75% of our plays being pass attempts and Aaron Jones getting all of five carries - four of which were in our first drive. Now yes, he only had 12 yards on those carries but you need to build into it over a game. We ran the ball five times in the first nine minutes, then made only eight more attempts over the next 51 minutes.

That first drive, using run and pass, got us to Detroit's 20 and should have had us three points up early on. We only ran more than once in literally two other drives all game, one of which say us get 17 yards on back to back runs (8yds + 9yds) and resulted in a FG, and another of which had three rushing attempts mixed in and wound up with a TD to bring the game half-alive at 20-10. That is 10 points that should have really been 13 if not for the missed FG... four of our other five drives resulted in nothing (the fifth got us a junk time TD with 00:00 on the clock, so doesn't really count).

Over the last 2-3 years I've lost any faith that McCarthy knows how to utilise a run game, and is afraid of doing so even if it's our only choice - he often looks like Chuck Pagano out there when it comes to it. It's been noticeable down the years (spending more than a season running Eddie Lacy of all people out of the shotgun maybe being the shining example) but was hard to tell how much was of it was to do with Rodgers just being so good passing, but it's really showing now that there simply is no plan B. The more I think of it, crazy as it would have seemed not too long ago, the more I think we might be better off with a change in HC and nearly the way down.

Brendan Bendar

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Why so?

cosatron

I think this match could be a watershed moment for MM. Last year he was bullish enough saying that he was a good coach etc etc only for Rodgers to put the team on his back and carry them to the nfc game which again down to poor coaching got destroyed. Now there is no Rodgers and the coaching on both sides of the ball is very poor. If we lose bad to the bears and Turbisky has a coming out party which he probably will against our secondary, I tihck dom MM and TT positions are under severe pressure.

Brendan Bendar

Lads lads lads before this thing breaks out, it’s Trubisky.

Please...I know it’s a small issue.... and not trying to be pedantic or insulting.. but it’s


TRUBISKY


Very sorry for the rant.

OldMrBrennan83

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raze_them_all_

Id say packers will be getting a couple of million back from Benett, cut him for the failure to disclose physical condition thing

Billy86

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

Id say packers will be getting a couple of million back from Benett, cut him for the failure to disclose physical condition thing

raze_them_all_ aka zerks.

D9Male

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Whatever about Callahan, Hundley isn't the answer.

baby and crumble

:pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:

https://twitter.com/NOTSportsCenter/status/929211298063310849

Brendan Bendar

Nice win by the Pack.

Hundley showed a bit of form.

However........A veteran QB would have beaten them, in my opinion.

A win is a win.

Barney92

Some very nice throws there by Hundley. They did well to win having lost Jones and Montgomery.

Got slightly lucky with the touchback fumble by Cunningham, another long screen pass against us.

Brendan Bendar

Barney92 wrote: »

Some very nice throws there by Hundley. They did well to win having lost Jones and Montgomery.

Got slightly lucky with the touchback fumble by Cunningham, another long screen pass against us.

Have to say I think Jones has been kind of ‘found out’ so not a major loss.

Williams did very well and showed a lot of toughness particularly in yards after contact,especially for that vital third down he converted which was really the game winner.

Montgomery did well for the TD but for me is injury prone.

People will praise the defense but as I saw it Trubisky’s rawness contributed to the ‘success’ of the D who I think would have been taken apart by a reasonably competent veteran QB.

Delighted with the win..... but let’s not get too carried away.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Billy86

In typical form for this season decade Aaron Jones is out for a month, though it was good to see Williams do well in his place - if Rodgers doesn't return we're finished anyway so it could be nice to see all three (incl. Monty) get a run out and maybe give us a good unit back there along with some of the young defensive players who have stood up, going into next season.

If the season is done, the injuries along the line might also have a silver lining there, because we had zero depth coming into this season it seemed and guys like Kyle Murphy, McCray, Patrick, John and Pankey (all 25 or younger, all undrafted apart from Murphy (6th rd.) and John (7th)) have really not looked so bad out there. Thompson seems to have gone from nailing WRs all the time to nailing mid/late round OL men - Bulaga is a first rounder and Spriggs a second, but every other player in our full list of offensive linemen is fourth round or later

A shakeup in coaching might also be called for at that point, and with Rodgers at QB and some of that young talent, I'd imagine we'd be one of the more attractive options for DCs.

That said... Pittsburgh we can put down as a loss right now, but with the Ravens as badly hit by injuries as there are we might have a chance there. I wouldn't be holding my breath, but if we did get the win against Baltimore we would have @PIT, vs CLE and @TB - with the state those last two are in we might well be 8-5 by week 15. Like I said don't hold your breath and I don't know where Rodgers' timeline is but that is the earliest he can come back for games vs CAR, @MIN and vs DET (without him we lose all three easily, of course). If it were to happen, 8-5 with three tough games, two in the division, and the rest of the team hopefully on a high from what would be a 4-1 run without Rodgers... certainly could be interesting!

Also hoping Trevor Davis gets it between together the ears with a bit more experience, but I really like him as a returner!

Brendan Bendar

Ty. Montgomery out for Sunday.

Looks like a dose of Williams and Davante Mayes.

Not expecting a win as can’t see the Packers beating a veteran QB even one as out of form as Joseph Flacco.

What odds Flacco having a ‘career’ day.

Blut2

The bookies still have it surprisingly tight. The spread is the Ravens -2pts. So it might be a surprisingly close game hopefully.

(a terribly out of form Ravens, in Lambeau in November, being the favourites at all is of course a whole depressing other story).