How Will The Packers Do In The Postseason?

[Maxie the Taxi]

I didn't see the Dallas win in Seattle, but the box score seems to indicate that Dallas took what Seattle gave them. A lot of short passes not only to WR's but to RB's and Witten. I would bet Romo threw a lot of screen passes. Witten and Escobar caught the only TD passes for 3 yds and 2 yds respectively. Of course, they also got 115 yds of rushing from Murray and another 52 from Randle.

GB should be able to follow this pattern equally well. ...IF Stubby can resist his downfield shots every four passes, which he's been resisting a little lately.

[ThunderDan]

I didn't see the Dallas win in Seattle, but the box score seems to indicate that Dallas took what Seattle gave them. A lot of short passes not only to WR's but to RB's and Witten. I would bet Romo threw a lot of screen passes. Witten and Escobar caught the only TD passes for 3 yds and 2 yds respectively. Of course, they also got 115 yds of rushing from Murray and another 52 from Randle.

GB should be able to follow this pattern equally well. ...IF Stubby can resist his downfield shots every four passes, which he's been resisting a little lately.

Come on Man!

We are the highest scoring team in the league and average the most yards per play. Time for MM to get some credit for calling an exceptional year of O.

[mraynrand]

IF Stubby can resist his downfield shots every four passes, which he's been resisting a little lately.

It comes from not having a leg to stand on

[denverYooper]

I didn't see the Dallas win in Seattle, but the box score seems to indicate that Dallas took what Seattle gave them. A lot of short passes not only to WR's but to RB's and Witten. I would bet Romo threw a lot of screen passes. Witten and Escobar caught the only TD passes for 3 yds and 2 yds respectively. Of course, they also got 115 yds of rushing from Murray and another 52 from Randle.

GB should be able to follow this pattern equally well. ...IF Stubby can resist his downfield shots every four passes, which he's been resisting a little lately.

Since Rodgers's calf injury, they've been running a lot more short stuff. They had no one going deep on the free play last night... pretty unusual to see that.

[denverYooper]

It comes from not having a leg to stand on

Beat me to it.

[Maxie the Taxi]

Come on Man!

We are the highest scoring team in the league and average the most yards per play. Time for MM to get some credit for calling an exceptional year of O.

No argument there. Credit MM where credit is due. If those stats against the rest of the league result in a Lombardi Trophy, I'll eat my words. I just have my doubts MM's SOP is the best strategy against Seattle.

[Packers4Glory]

You need all 3 phases to win in January. They don't all have to be great but at least solid.

Offense = great
Defense = Solid to Good.
Special Teams = terrible.

We can't expect to beat Dallas or Seattle w/ just 2 phases. In fact being able to kick a FG and get 3 points vs a team like Seattle is critical.

[Packers4Glory]

Come on Man!

We are the highest scoring team in the league and average the most yards per play. Time for MM to get some credit for calling an exceptional year of O.

except for when we get inside the 10. How the hell we run the ball down their throats last night on the opening series w/ Lacy and Starks only to give it to Kuhn and then call passes on the 1 is mind boggling. He finally got back to Lacy on 4th down....It's like MM's B-hole puckers when we got down in that area.

This team should not be struggling so much in the red zone.

also that 50+ yard FG last night was stupid in those conditions.

MM's had a good year, but A-Rod makes up for a lot of weaknesses in game calling.

[Striker]

You need all 3 phases to win in January. They don't all have to be great but at least solid.

Offense = great
Defense = Solid to Good.
Special Teams = terrible.

We can't expect to beat Dallas or Seattle w/ just 2 phases. In fact being able to kick a FG and get 3 points vs a team like Seattle is critical.

I was kind of surprised they elected to kick the FG and not go for it on 4th down there. A 52 yarder at Lambeau in the winter is no lock.

[Maxie the Taxi]

I was kind of surprised they elected to kick the FG and not go for it on 4th down there. A 52 yarder at Lambeau in the winter is no lock.

I thought they should have punted to the coffin corner. (Yeah, I know, another special teams inability.)

[Harlan Huckleby]

I thought they should have punted to the coffin corner. (Yeah, I know, another special teams inability.)

I don't see many teams attempt the coffin corner anymore, the go for the pooch punt. Maybe the cc fails too often.

I think the FG there would be my third choice

[Maxie the Taxi]

I don't see many teams attempt the coffin corner anymore, the go for the pooch punt. Maybe the cc fails too often.

I think the FG there would be my third choice

Some of the old school guys were pretty good at it. Nowadays it's that backspinned "Austrailian" punt or whatever you call it. Masthay doesn't seem to have mastered either.

[mraynrand]

Some of the old school guys were pretty good at it. Nowadays it's that backspinned "Austrailian" punt or whatever you call it. Masthay doesn't seem to have mastered either.

he was pretty damn good at it in 2010. I wonder what happened.

[pbmax]

he was pretty damn good at it in 2010. I wonder what happened.

Lack of activity.

[wist43]

I think we make it to the NFC Championship game and then get bounced by Seattle.

It's just not a good matchup for us in any way. Dunderdummy is always dunderdummy, and Stubby is a very predictable playcaller. If the game were in Lambeau I'd say we had a 50/50 shot, but in Seattle I give us about a 20% chance of winning.

The Buffalo game screwed the pooch.

[Striker]

Seattle is near unbeatable at home and there front four have shown to be able to pressure Rodgers w/o blitzing. Their LB's are very fast and at home they are stellar against the run.
Their secondary is still probably the best in the NFL.

To me they are clear favorites at home. I would have considered us slight favorites at home...but slight. They are built to beat us. They are way better than Buffalo. If you look at our wins on the road we have not excelled there.

I have not read logic besides our gut feeling as Packer fans that would sway me o believe we have anything better than a 25 percent chance

The Packers line was actually doing decently to start the game against Seattle this year. Then Richard Rodgers collided with Bulaga and it pretty much spiraled out of control from there once Sherrod was in.

As has been pointed out by myself and others - it all depends on if the Packers offense is willing to take what the Seahawks give. That means be content with a short/middling dink/dunk type game instead of playing home run ball. Assuming it's Packers/Seahawks in the NFC Championship, you'd have to guess that Seattle will play a lot of 2 deep safety or cover 3 and dare the Packers to run and/or be content with short passes. They did that yesterday vs. the Lions and - what do you know - they methodically moved the ball down the field and put up 28 points and 377 yards of offense up on the #1 DVOA defense (or the #2 defense in the NFL's regular stats). They even ran the ball more than they passed it yesterday, with 23 passes and 38 rushing attempts.

The key will be what Capers can scheme in this hypothetical matchup. They should hopefully play it smarter than they did the first game. No experimental packages they were trying to "hide" during the offseason, no freaking out about Percy in motion. Just keep Wilson unsettled (aka Matthews playing spy) and do your best to contain Lynch. Our corners should be able to handle their WRs. And no Brad Jones. Leave him in Wisconsin, please.

[Striker]

I don't see many teams attempt the coffin corner anymore, the go for the pooch punt. Maybe the cc fails too often.

I think the FG there would be my third choice

I think it's a lack of specialists with the coffin corner.

Also, Masthay is probably just trying to get the ball out of there with a rush bearing down on him.

[Striker]

I think we make it to the NFC Championship game and then get bounced by Seattle.

It's just not a good matchup for us in any way. Dunderdummy is always dunderdummy, and Stubby is a very predictable playcaller. If the game were in Lambeau I'd say we had a 50/50 shot, but in Seattle I give us about a 20% chance of winning.

The Buffalo game screwed the pooch.

If we get "Patriots game planning" McCarthy and Capers, I'd agree with 50/50 and maybe as high as 60/40.

If we get "we had perfect balance in Buffalo" McCarthy and "We weren't expecting the read option" Capers then the Packers lose by 20+.

[Maxie the Taxi]

The Packers line was actually doing decently to start the game against Seattle this year. Then Richard Rodgers collided with Bulaga and it pretty much spiraled out of control from there once Sherrod was in.

As has been pointed out by myself and others - it all depends on if the Packers offense is willing to take what the Seahawks give. That means be content with a short/middling dink/dunk type game instead of playing home run ball. Assuming it's Packers/Seahawks in the NFC Championship, you'd have to guess that Seattle will play a lot of 2 deep safety or cover 3 and dare the Packers to run and/or be content with short passes. They did that yesterday vs. the Lions and - what do you know - they methodically moved the ball down the field and put up 28 points and 377 yards of offense up on the #1 DVOA defense (or the #2 defense in the NFL's regular stats). They even ran the ball more than they passed it yesterday, with 23 passes and 38 rushing attempts.

The key will be what Capers can scheme in this hypothetical matchup. They should hopefully play it smarter than they did the first game. No experimental packages they were trying to "hide" during the offseason, no freaking out about Percy in motion. Just keep Wilson unsettled (aka Matthews playing spy) and do your best to contain Lynch. Our corners should be able to handle their WRs. And no Brad Jones. Leave him in Wisconsin, please.

+1. Makes total sense. As someone else mentioned, GB may have to play dink and dunk due to Arod's injury. They say the reason Romo is playing better this year is that his injury has forced him to play more conservatively.

[Packers4Glory]

if we're getting ahead of ourselves and figuring out how to be Seattle, we have to use the entire field. I'm sick to death of teams fearing Sherman. Yeah he's good but he's not the best cover corner and he can be beat and attacked in certain ways. You simply can't win if you refuse to play on both sides of the field vs that defense.