Duds and More Duds - Week 8

[ThunderDan]

Alright I will leave it to you guys this week. I was at a Halloween Event at the Zoo until halftime and the second half was horrible.

I hope our season doesn't rest on Mason Crosby's leg at any point this year.

I hope all of our injured players make it back.

[denverYooper]

I thought Morgan Burnett had a better game. 11 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL.

[denverYooper]

And for being a hurtin' unit, the D locked it down in the 3rd when the game was close. Jacksonville's 3rd Q drives:
3 plays, -10 yards punt. (fumble and recovery by Gabbert)
3 plays, 6 yards, punt.
3 plays, 3 yards, punt.

Jax had 3 points on 1 substantial drive in the second half: 11 plays, 61 yards, after GB had scored a TD to go ahead 21-12.

While I wouldn't say the D was "studly", they locked down the Jags while the score differential was only 2 points.

[red]

boy, i really can't think of a single stud from the game today

james jones had a decent day for the small number of balls thrown his way.

just a so-so game at best from everyone on the team

[denverYooper]

Slocum would have made the studs list if not for that wacky fake FG/Punt/Pass. I'm sure that looked better on paper.

[denverYooper]

James Starks was studly. He had 8.0 yards per carry. And he was the goal line back for both of Rodgers's TDs.

[pbmax]

How about Brad Jones? he could have been out of position a bunch but he forced a fumble, had a sack and made a few nice tackles.

[LegandofthePack15]

Mice:

Packer secondary - unit made an average but handsome qb (Gabbert) look like a great and handsome qb (Brady).

[Smeefers]

I thought Goode had an excellent game.

[pittstang5]

Stud: House - Blocked the punt

[LEWCWA]

DD got him a td!

[digitaldean]

Stud...McCarthy.. He didn't waste any replay challenges plus tried staying with the run.
Can't give D a stud rating because of the free space the JAX WRs had today. Thankful their RBs and WRs had more drops and poor route running than our WRs.
ST also would have been studly but the Crosby shank and Masthay's throw on the fake overshadowed everything else.
Duds... All the Dropped passes by Finley, Starks, etc were abysmal. O-line blocking overall stunk. Rodgers nearly got killed again. Run blocking lanes were inconsistent at best.
I think Heyward had best game of all DBs but given the free room JAX had most of day, that's not saying much. Thankful Blackmon did his Randy Moss impersonation on their last meaningful drive.

[red]

i disagree with MM being a stud. sure he stuck with the run, but why? a team like ours with a 2nd rate running back needs the rush for 3 things. to keep D's honest, to burn the clock with a big lead, and to set up the play action.

i only remember the play action being used one time in the second half. wtf is up with that? instead we had long drop backs again.
and we were barley clinging to a lead, we needed points, not time run off the clock

imo, without the use of play action, all those 2 yard runs were just a waste of downs.

not MM's best called game. if it wasn't for a blocked punt for a td, we might have lost to the most pathetic team in the nfl today

[pbmax]

They used play action more than once in the second half that I remember but they also used that delayed handoff/zone read to Green several times. That's designed to hold a LB or DE just as play action is.

[Tony Oday]

Well we are down our #1 RB, #1 and #2 WR so at least we won! Cobb played well.

[Patler]

Well we are down our #1 RB, #1 and #2 WR so at least we won! Cobb played well.

...and the #1 FB. That leaves only Rodgers and Finley as starters in the ball-handling positions.

[denverYooper]

...and the #1 FB. That leaves only Rodgers and Finley as starters in the ball-handling positions.

And Finley's ball handling is questionable these days. It wasn't any mistake that Rodgers looked "out of sorts" or that he was looking at tighter coverage on his receivers, as the announcers mentioned several times. It wasn't a surprise that they didn't take many deep shots, either. They were missing the guys who could stretch the field and the whole deck was shuffled. Jones, Driver, and Boykin are not known for their speed. Cobb is fast with the ball in his hands but does most of his work pretty close to the line and I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one that the Jags focused on because he was the most dangerous of the group.

Plus, Kuhn out was a big blow to their protection unit and run game. He's been very good at picking up blitzers this year and allowing Rodgers to be so effective with 5+ man pressure on.

At the end of the day, they still won by 2 scores with so many guys on the sidelines and never trailed.

[denverYooper]

How about Brad Jones? he could have been out of position a bunch but he forced a fumble, had a sack and made a few nice tackles.

He was a plus in this game. He might even be an upgrade from Smith come year's end.

[denverYooper]

Rodgers maybe gets a little lazy against weaker opponents. He gave the Jags the ball deep in GB territory to set up a TD that kept the game close. It was the first time he's fumbled in a long time.

He threw a pick in GB territory against Indy that let the Colts (and fans) back in that game. Colts are 4-3 now BTW. Maybe they're not so bad...

That said, I don't think every player and every team plays balls-out week in and week out. Guys get hurt, get tired (mentally and physically), and get a little lax at times. They have a tough go coming up next week against the Cardinals so I am not too surprised that Rodgers and the offense sagged a bit (injured players notwithstanding).

[RashanGary]

I've always been a fan of B Jones, so maybe I'm just looking for an excuse for him here, but I thought he looked good too. I was at the game. I liked how he looked on his inside blitzes. Maybe he doesn't have the pop of Bishop. He probably won't be steam rolling RBs the way Bishop did. He is long, and is good prying his way between/around lineman. I could see him getting a few sacks inside, they type where a lineman has to shuffle to stop him, not the kind where a RB blocks him.

[RashanGary]

I also thought Pickett had a very good game. In the third quarter, it was him and Raji in there quite a bit, and they locked it down. I thought Casey Hayward had a good game. He played quite a bit in the slot. It was Tramon getting beat more than anyone. Burnett had an alright game, but showed his lack of range when he was the only safety deep. There were plays Collins got to every time, that Burnett was late getting over on.

I think Shields is going to lose his job to House. I also think Hayward is going to take over the nickle job (rather than have him play both inside and out, I'm guessing they'd like to have him focus inside if possible. That's a tough job.

I don't even know if Shields would be in the dime. In that case, I think you'd move Woodson to the other slot, and bring in a safety.

I just have a hunch we're not going to see much of Sam Shields if all of our guys are healthy. As bad as Williams looks in zone coverage, SS is twice as bad.

[pbmax]

Hayward got very lost on a coverage during the drive that, I think, led to their TD late. Kept running wide with his guy and failed to switch when Tramontana did. Someone mucked that up big time.

[channtheman]

Did Cobb line up in the backfield at all in this game? He's such a dangerous weapon and it's worked really well up to this point that I am not sure why we aren't using him to his full potential.

[Cheesehead Craig]

Did Cobb line up in the backfield at all in this game? He's such a dangerous weapon and it's worked really well up to this point that I am not sure why we aren't using him to his full potential.

He did, but only once or twice that I remember. With Jordy out, I think they were lining him up more in the traditional role as they were just short bodies out there. Once Jordy comes back you'll see him back in the backfield more

[denverYooper]

He did, but only once or twice that I remember. With Jordy out, I think they were lining him up more in the traditional role as they were just short bodies out there. Once Jordy comes back you'll see him back in the backfield more

I think you're probably right. They had a pretty nice hi-lo going on with Cobb and Jordy for the last couple of weeks that spread the defense out vertically. With the other plodders in yesterday, they had a much harder time stretching the field.

Is it me or is Finley slower now? I know he's gotten in trouble for gettin' all swole up in the offseason. It looks like it took some pepper out of his step.

[HarveyWallbangers]

How about Brad Jones? he could have been out of position a bunch but he forced a fumble, had a sack and made a few nice tackles.

Jones had a good game statistically, but he caught my eye in a bad way on several plays. Then again, who didn't. I don't think he played as well his stats, but I can't say that I watched that closely. The game was too ugly to rewatch. I actually deleted the game off my DVR immediately after it ended.
:)

[Fritz]

The beer vendors were stellar.

[mmmdk]

Stud: House - Blocked the punt

This, House a stud!

[denverYooper]

Rodgers maybe gets a little lazy against weaker opponents. He gave the Jags the ball deep in GB territory to set up a TD that kept the game close. It was the first time he's fumbled in a long time.

He threw a pick in GB territory against Indy that let the Colts (and fans) back in that game. Colts are 4-3 now BTW. Maybe they're not so bad...

That said, I don't think every player and every team plays balls-out week in and week out. Guys get hurt, get tired (mentally and physically), and get a little lax at times. They have a tough go coming up next week against the Cardinals so I am not too surprised that Rodgers and the offense sagged a bit (injured players notwithstanding).

I forgot that Rodgers actually had 2 fumbles that were recovered by the Jags, on back-to-back drives (not counting the run-out-the-clock 1 play "drive" at the end of the 1st half). His second fumble was negated by a penalty and didn't end up counting against them.

[Teamcheez1]

Jones had a good game statistically, but he caught my eye in a bad way on several plays. Then again, who didn't. I don't think he played as well his stats, but I can't say that I watched that closely. The game was too ugly to rewatch. I actually deleted the game off my DVR immediately after it ended.
:)

The Jaguars had 12 plays of 15 yards or longer. I'm not sure the defense played that great considering how awful the Jaguars offense really is.