Week One ZEROS and Heros----Time to let it loose

[Bretsky]

START YOUR LISTS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[RashanGary]

The Fraud of Fargo is a loser. I would have rather seen Romeo running that route. Romeo cooked right passed Stokes in practice. He woulda been open too, and caught it.

[Bretsky]

HERO'S

Aaron Jones---Carried 5 times for 49 yards averaging nearly 10 yards per carry ---Caught 3 balls for 27 yards - Ran and blocked hard.....MOST UNDERUTILIZED PACKER TODAY

AJ Dillon-----Carried 10 times for 45 yards averaging 4.5yds per carry---Feel forward on most runs. Caught 5 balls for 45 yards. Played well and hard

[beveaux1]

Zero- Savage and Amos. Out of position and chasing plays.

[Bretsky]

ZERO'S


MattyFloor set a new floor for coaching today. He fails to realize the 2nd and 3rd best players on offense and at some of the most important drives they are ignored and not out there together in key situations. When Devante missed time last year AJO was featured and excelled. Matty made little to no effort to scheme him into some routes to expose LB's and often they were just safety valves just standing out there or blocking (more with Dillon).

Jon Barry's shit on himself today and looked like the clueless defensive coordinator he was on his two previous jobs. Hopefully that improves. Justin Jefferson is an amazing WR; so make some changes to shut him down even if that means utilizing your best CB and a safety. Just a sad and pathetic job by Barry

And while I'm at it with coaching (sorry I got back from a plane and found out the Badgers shit on themselves yesterday as well), Paul Christ has to start taking accountability as well. In football (and quite possibly basketball) we have the classiest coaches around. I want a winner who has no issues being bold and hurting feelings to win. We need a change there to reach the next level

BACK TO THE PACK NOW......I'll add more later......

[smuggler]

Can't be too tough on Newman and Hanson, but they got humbled for sure.

[red]

the new punter looked good, indoors

i'm not sure if we had a game plan today on either side of the ball, it was just that bad

[MadScientist]

Heroes: Jones and Dillon.

The punter didn't shit himself, but didn't do anything special to deserve hero status.
special teams as a whole were adequate. Not hero status, but much better than the shitfest last year.

Zeroes: The rest of the team and coaches. Speaking of shit fests, the team was bad enough that the coach was calling them out at half time, but he needed to call himself out as well. Any defensive plan that has a LB with solo coverage on Jefferson is incompetent. Rodgers looked like he did his first year, holding on to the ball way to long hoping something happens. The OLine was anemic and the receiving corpse was a bunch of stiffs that either couldn't get open or couldn't catch the fucking ball. Defense was only lacking in run stopping, coverage and pressure, besides the poor scheming.

They better fucking turn it around next week.

[King Friday]

Aaron Jones has to touch the ball 20 times a game if this team is going to win the division. He was not nearly involved enough in the game plan.

Rodgers, Barry and MiLF brought zero juice to this game. Utter embarrassment from the top leadership.

Granted, the Packers rarely win in Minnesota, and the Vikings will be one of the 4 best teams in the NFC at year end. We didn’t get clobbered by a patsie. Next week will tell us all we need to know about this team. The Bears will play tough, but lack the dynamic talent that the Vikings have. The Packers have to look capable next week, or this will be a very long season.

[Fritz]

I expected the offense to suck - bunch of newbies at WR, the refusal to start Zach Tom at RT, the offense hasn’t played a down together.

But the defense was supposed to be great. Three top-level corners, but nobody could cover Jefferson at all. Supposed continuity since Joe Barely is in his second year with lots of returning guys. TWO new FIRST ROUND draft picks. But they looked like a typical clown show GB defense. I am stunned and disappointed at how bad they looked.

[Fosco33]

I’m not concerned. Wouldn’t be if I was a Rams or Niners fan. Might be if I liked the Cowboys or Cardinals.

No time to panic or overreact.

Getting healthy Oline and game speed for WRs is priority. And of course sorting out 2ndry coverage.

[Teamcheez1]

Studs:
Dillon
Jones
Special Teams (low bar)

Duds:
MLF
Rodgers
Watson
Oline
First half defense
Secondary
Other Rodgers
Bakh

[HarveyWallbangers]

Watson had the drop and Doubs had some mental mistakes, but I'm even more firmly in the camp that these guys are going to be good. It's good to see Watson's electric athleticism translate to the NFL. It was his first game action, first play. I'm sure he was amped up. He had drops in college, but rarely on that type of route. Deep ball tracking was a plus for him in college. Doubs looked similar to how he looked in the preseason. These guys are going to be good.


Daire Carragher
@DaireCarragher
Watching some offense from yesterday, they had Watson and Doubs running some meannn routes.

Watson can break routes at full speed and he looks electric.

I wish Rodgers/MLF would have gone back to him sooner.

[run pMc]

Jones and Dillon were good if grossly underutilized, especially Jones. How you give him 8 or 9 touches in a game is beyond me.
Special Teams didn't embarrass themselves

OLine did not protect Rodgers well and he was uncomfortable all day. 4 sacks is not good.
Christian Watson has to catch that throw. You won't see many easier than that. Shades of MVS right there.
Defense was not elite. Vikings tested Quay.
Secondary looked unprepared. Communications issues and blown coverages shouldn't be happening.

[run pMc]

Watson had the drop and Doubs had some mental mistakes, but I'm even more firmly in the camp that these guys are going to be good. It's good to see Watson's electric athleticism translate to the NFL. It was his first game action, first play. I'm sure he was amped up. He had drops in college, but rarely on that type of route. Deep ball tracking was a plus for him in college. Doubs looked similar to how he looked in the preseason. These guys are going to be good.



I wish Rodgers/MLF would have gone back to him sooner.

I get that they pulled Watson after that drop, but I think he'll be good. Was hoping they throw a fade or jump ball to Doubs in the red zone.
When these guys get it figured out they are going to be a mean duo.

[HarveyWallbangers]

The move Watson put on Peterson was reminiscent of Ja’Marr Chase. Chase will drop the ball, but that type of athlete really stresses the defense—provided the QB goes back to him. I don’t knock Rodgers often, but I have two minor criticisms. The first is that he generally seems to hold onto the ball too long early in the season. The second is that he always needs to be the smartest guy in the room. Thus, all the checks at the line and him saying there’s MLF’s offense and his offense. Well, that works when you have veteran WRs. When Doubs and Watson are in there, maybe you stick to the play call more often.

[Fritz]

I think it was Marlene Dietrich who used to say, "I vant vat I vant." I think that's Rodgers with this offense. He's going to run it as he wants to run it, and everybody else better catch up. I don't think adjusting to new personnel is his strong suit.

I get what everyone's saying about the long-term, but I would hope MLF will look at the last two year's first games and the injury lists going into them, and maybe re-think how he does things. This year, he had a veteran defense with two new first round picks, the supposed best set of corners in the league, two returning safeties, a supposedly dominating front seven, all facing a team bringing in a brand new offense, and an opposing defense that was also transitioning to a new coordinator. Yet the Packers could do nothing. The Green Bay defense was soft and the offense non-existent. Last year, the excuse of the Packer defense was that it had a new coordinator, so of course the communication wasn't good and people couldn't play fast cuz they didn't know the defense yet. But Minny has a brand new defense this year, and they stopped the Packers cold. And Minny's brand new offense didn't have a problem chewing up the Packer defense on the first drive and for the first half.

So - is it worth an opening-day loss to save your starters for the season and not risk injury, especially when you ended up with a pretty long injury list anyway? I don't know. I don't. But I do know that defense was a real let down for me. A real disappointment. They were supposed to be flying around and getting in the backfield and covering like Sherwin Williams paint. But they looked slow and lost and lacking focus. Not as advertised. I hope they all - starting with Joe Barely - take a look in the mirror this week.

[Sparkey]

My only ZERO is Stenavich. The new Packers offensive coordinator did a pretty offensive job.

[RashanGary]

The special teams looked solid. But Am Rodgers will muff a punt soon. He didn’t even look natural fielding a punt in a dome. He just doesn’t have a feel for the ball flight. Outdoors hes gonna muff one.

[MadScientist]

Watson had the drop and Doubs had some mental mistakes, but I'm even more firmly in the camp that these guys are going to be good. It's good to see Watson's electric athleticism translate to the NFL. It was his first game action, first play. I'm sure he was amped up. He had drops in college, but rarely on that type of route. Deep ball tracking was a plus for him in college. Doubs looked similar to how he looked in the preseason. These guys are going to be good.



I wish Rodgers/MLF would have gone back to him sooner.

Rodgers has a fit when a receiver screws up. They'll need to work their way out of his dog house. Unfortunately that will slow their development and weaken the offense for the time being. In two years they both could be in the verge of stardom.

[Bretsky]

Watson had the drop and Doubs had some mental mistakes, but I'm even more firmly in the camp that these guys are going to be good. It's good to see Watson's electric athleticism translate to the NFL. It was his first game action, first play. I'm sure he was amped up. He had drops in college, but rarely on that type of route. Deep ball tracking was a plus for him in college. Doubs looked similar to how he looked in the preseason. These guys are going to be good.



I wish Rodgers/MLF would have gone back to him sooner.


<ME TOOO

I wish they would have ran a high percentage pass to him right away...maybe a WR screen or a jet sweep. Get him involved right away after the drop

[Bretsky]

HERO---Vikings OC to move Jefferson around and let him expose us

ZERO SQAURED again, Barry for his piss poor adjustments and letting one guy dominate him

[Spaulding]

Any ideas why Barry is so stuck on playing zone? You have arguably one of the top 3 cover corners in Alexander and Stokes is supposed to an upper tier cornerback himself. Thus I would think you cover Jefferson with Alexander and put Stokes on Thielen and let the cards lay where they may. If the Vikes use rub routes we can go back to zone coverage or brackets to counter and swap back periodically. Just seems a shame to play zone when you have upper tier cover corners.

[HarveyWallbangers]

This whole overreaction to the scheme is ridiculous. Most teams in the NFL mostly play zone now—except maybe the Rams with Ramsey and he got torched by Diggs. The players played the scheme poorly—especially the safeties. That will change.

[Bretsky]

[QUOTE=HarveyWallbangers;1119725]This whole overreaction to the scheme is ridiculous. Most teams in the NFL mostly play zone now

[MadtownPacker]

Let’s just get it out the way, Aron sucked bad. As for the receivers well all of you know how I feel about Adams and I do think he might’ve helped last night. But at the end of the day it is what it is and he wasn’t gonna be able to be kept. I actually like the new receivers quite a bit especially Romeo Doubs. I think he’s going to become the go to Guy. I felt horrible for Watson on the drop because it’s just one game it’s just one throw it’s just one catch but we will never know with that could’ve done for his career. To catch that and get the TD, and he damn sure was going to get the TD, could have set him on a different confident path (breakout season). Guess I was hoping to see some Moss type destruction by him on the purple defense.

RB situation looks good right now. I liked a lot of what I saw out of the defense. Vikings seemed fired up and the defense withstood several surges without any support from the offense. They did enough to win. I didn’t like the decision to go for it. Just had a bad feeling and the 3 would have taking away the crowd that was loving the shutout.

[Sparkey]

Any ideas why Barry is so stuck on playing zone? You have arguably one of the top 3 cover corners in Alexander and Stokes is supposed to an upper tier cornerback himself. Thus I would think you cover Jefferson with Alexander and put Stokes on Thielen and let the cards lay where they may. If the Vikes use rub routes we can go back to zone coverage or brackets to counter and swap back periodically. Just seems a shame to play zone when you have upper tier cover corners.

Playing a mix of man and zone, depending on the looks the opposing offense gives is just asking for trouble. Especially early in the season.

Minny has a new OC and a new DC and Green Bay really had no film on what they would do. That is why first games are always a crap shoot. Now there is some tape on Minny. Will be interesting to see how they fare next week.

[Fritz]

I dunno, Sparkey, last year the Packer excuse for their crappy defense against New Orleans was that they had a new defensive coordinator; this year Minny has a new DC but now it's the reason they played well, because the offense didn't know what to expect.

I don't understand people being okay with the defense in this game. They got run over early and late. And they were supposed to be one of the elite units in the league. Sure, the season is long, and all can and will change, but it's a disappointing effort nonetheless.

[run pMc]

Re: defense, I'm not sure if it was more the coaches or the players. Packers play a good amount of zone, and they tightened up in the 2nd half. The miscommunications in the secondary were really troubling -- they've had all of camp to work on basic pro-level things like how to handle crossers. I also wonder if, given the amount of talent they have, Barry is not a very good DC. I don't think he's very creative and seems a little slow to react or counterpunch to what an offense is doing.
Despite all that, they held a good offense at home to 23 points... with Aaron Rodgers, that should give you a good chance to win.

That offensive line though. Whew. They were offensive. Again, you have all of camp to figure out assignments but completely blow them in week 1? MLF/Steno should have run the ball or at least done more to get Jones/Dillon more than 23 touches combined if they are among your "best 11". Rodgers held the ball too long and showed some bad habits from 2018-19. I'm not sure what their game plan was on offense -- it's like they had the first play to Watson and that was it for ideas.

Not a fan of playing "what-if" with the Watson catch, the Dillon goal-line run (thanks for blowing your block, Hanson), or the Rodgers fumble and how those cost points.

Based on the pressers, seems like they are confident a lot of these are first-game mistakes that will get resolved this week. We'll see. Losing 2 division games in a row to begin the season would be a very ugly start. I expect them to play better next week.

[Fritz]

I am sure they will. MLF may be of the opinion that it's worth losing the first game of the season to rest your starters all preseason. This is the second year in a row they've absolutely pooped the bed in the opener. They look confused and slow.

I also can't imagine that, if Jenkins isn't playing RT tackle soon, that MLF can keep Tom out of the starting line up much longer. Hanson just isn't that good, and frankly Newman will still be the line's weak link once he goes back to RG.

Any word on injuries? I saw Runyan go out with a possible concussion, Khrys Barnes seemed screwed - taken off the field in an air cast - Quay Walker injured. Are we starting already with the injuries?

[bobblehead]

Rodgers sucked. Whoever didn't get the ball in Jones and Dillons hands more often sucked. Both Hansen and Newman sucked. Bith safeties sucked.

Jones and Dillon were good. Doubs was solid. Nijman was good. Not many players actually impressed me.

[texaspackerbacker]

By far, the biggest ZERO in that game was JOE BARRY.

We have the best cover Corners in the NFL, and what does he do? He goes to the latest "in style" thing and plays a lot of zone D - zone D that he and his staff apparently were sadly deficient at coaching up his talented players to play.

We were supposed to have much improved run D, primarily because Kenny Clark finally had some help in the middle, but instead of mostly Devante Wyatt, we got an overdose of that worthless old plug, Dean Lowery. And T.J. Slaton is supposed to be "much improved"? He looked like he was doing a B.J. Raji impression out there - pushed around like a 340 pound rag doll. Scrapp the damn rotation thing, Joe, and play Clark and Wyatt most of the time with Reed as a fill in if/when they need a break. And leave damned Lowery on the bench.

And Barry's supposed area of expertize is ILBs? You don't have them trying to cover WRs in short zones while your star Corners get run off the line. And the price of that was not only shoddy pass coverage; It also was having the ILBs AWOL in the run game a large part of the time.

The Offense wasn't very good, but it wasn't the reason we lost the game. Coaching there too didn't do much on the good side. Clinging to the old WRs most of the game and telegraphing a lot of plays when both Dillon and Jones were in the game didn't help. I'm not sure how much of the problem was on coaches and how much was on Rodgers for that, though.

Was anybody a "hero"? I'm sure not gonna say special teams just because they rose to a level of mediocrity, not having any major fuck ups. The gunners, though, seemed to at least do their job getting down field.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Good plan. Poor execution. It was pretty obvious watching the game.

They doubled Jefferson most plays.


Sam Holman
@Sam_DHolman

Rewatching the game, I actually thought Barry’s plan for 18 was quite sound. GB doubled him on the majority of passing plays (70%+). Did it a bunch of different ways too - lots of Fangio’s Zeus call, some Saban Cone stuff, etc. Execution was what really hurt GB, not the gameplan.

[RashanGary]

This whole overreaction to the scheme is ridiculous. Most teams in the NFL mostly play zone now—except maybe the Rams with Ramsey and he got torched by Diggs. The players played the scheme poorly—especially the safeties. That will change.

I agree completely. Jaire is a decent man corner, but probably the best off corner in the league. And just about every team in the league can completely chew up man coverage if that’s what you play. That’s why no one but Jacksonville does it. It’s just not effective.

And then there is the matter of Dalvin Cook. The only thing worse than getting torched by Jefferson for 180 is getting the ball run down your throat for 4 quarters and getting physically beat up. That’s the worst feeling in football.

So we put a lot of resources into stopping Cook. And then tried to weather the Jefferson storm with the defenses our guys do best. Jefferson is a rare player and he was schemed to be open the same way we did with Davante last year. We went up against a team with an elite back and a rare true number one receiver. Mark my words, a whole lot of teams are gonna get beat by the Vikings offense. They’re that good. Especially at home.

The defense isn’t my primary concern. It’s that the offense doesn’t have any cohesion in the passing game. The rookies are our talented players and Rodgers makes it hard on them. Let’s hope we win a couple close ones early and the offense puts it together late. That’s our path to a possible title.

Special teams was solid too, but am Rodgers will muff a punt soon. He’s baffled by the ball flight. He’s not it.

[texaspackerbacker]

Just because most everybody else runs zone doesn't mean we have to. Other teams don't have Alexander, Stokes, and Douglas. And if we must run zone sometimes, for crying out loud, coach up your players to do it right.

[RashanGary]

Just because most everybody else runs zone doesn't mean we have to. Other teams don't have Alexander, Stokes, and Douglas. And if we must run zone sometimes, for crying out loud, coach up your players to do it right.

Great players make plays. And they have Cook and Jefferson. The Vikings, if they’re healthy, are going to have an all world offense this year, even with a decent QB, not a great one.

[Upnorth]

Our rb duo were the hero's. Our oline sucked and rodgers got happy feet missing wide open wr. Love played better

[run pMc]

I actually think Jaire is a top cover corner who can also play zone well - the opposite of what RG said above.
As for zone, GB has played mostly zone for years now. The Brandon Staley defense Barry was an assistant on for the Rams plays a lot of zone. It's just what they do, and is representative of many defenses these days. The league rules favor the passing game, all many defenses can do is hope the offense screws up, otherwise it's keep plays in front of you and rally to the ball.

Offenses throw a lot of wrinkles and complexity and sometimes a zone is the best way to prevent a big play in theory. Giving up big plays gets you fired and these guys want to keep working.
That's not to say they don't or can't play man coverage or some hybrid. I sometimes miss the days of Al Harris jamming guys at the line and all the press-man they used to play. It's hard for players to do that well even harder to do it well against pro WRs with all the illegal contact/DPI rules for 4 quarters.