"Deja vu all over again"

[Patler]

This game sure had a familiar feel to it. A very winnable game thrown away in almost unbelievable fashion. We have now seen it too many times in too short of a time to believe it is an exception, an abnormality. This is what this team is.

Sure didn't do anything to alleviate my concerns written earlier this off-season:

I'm not excited about the upcoming season. Hopeful, maybe, but not excited. My feeling starts out at 9-8, 10-7; plus or minus a game or two depending on their own injuries and the injuries of their opponents when they play them. My concerns:

- I'm losing faith in LaFleur. Haven't liked much of what he has shown the last few years.
- The stench of the end of last season and the playoff loss has not cleared.
- Running back position could be a real mess.
- Placekicking could be a real mess.
- Pass rush may struggle early with no experienced success to rely on.
- New DC adds uncertainty and a period of adjustment.
- Same for STC.
- Until new/young players prove themselves, the roster is weaker at RB, WR, DL and LB.
- Not sure the roster was improved at any position. Maybe CB, but that is certainly not a given at this point.

The team and coaching staff have a lot to prove after the miserable performance last year.

[pbmax]

I think the new DC comported himself pretty well. The offense collapsed but I am not sure the defense did. However, this is week 1, meaning they could have, if they chose to, surprised some people. He seemed to be in mostly base and nickel (not Penny which is a 3 safety dime using run defense 3 man D line and a pass rusher) and launched a number of blitzes.

We will see if they can maintain it.

My newest concern might be that the teams seems extraordinarily susceptible to down swings after emotional beats (the fourth down failure).

Edit: Forgot to mention the penalty filled drive they gave up on D in the second half. This is definitely a terrible carry-over from last year.

[texaspackerbacker]

The primary deja vu is the bad officiating.

[Sparkey]

Packers 1 - 4 in the redzone. Same shit, different season. LeFluer cant seem to get out of his way. Maybe they should let Love call plays since FLower seems to call plays to NOT LOSE instead of TO WIN.

On the topic of the OFFENSIZE O-line, players change and coaches don't, but yet the same communcation issues exist ? If the you try 10 pairs of size 12 shoes in different makes and they call give you blisters, maybe try one size bigger ? ? ?

FINALLY; MADs' website goes down in flames, then he starts the game thread and we know what went down there. Correlation or just coincidence ?

[Fritz]

Patler, in terms of your overall sense of this team and particularly this head coach, I agree with you. I am really, really souring on LeFleur. Two weeks to prepare for the opener, knowledge of what the opposing DC has a history of doing, knowledge your nominal starting left guard might not play, yet the offensive line coach, the offensive coordinator, and most of all, the offensive-minded head coach rolled out an offensive line that was completely unprepared.

I thought the defense played reasonably well, outside some bad, bad penalties (some were bad calls; some were warranted). I think the kicker situation will be okay, and I think the defensive line is pretty good. Special teams had a long return on them but also did some good things on returns themselves.


And yes the running back room isn't great.

But to me, all roads lead back to LeFleur. If your team has a history, in the past few years, of having leads going into fourth quarters and then blowing those leads over and over, it's a little tough to argue you just don't have the talent - your team's been ahead for three-quarters of a lot of games. So while Gutekunst isn't perfect (see Banks, Aaron, Hobbs, Nate, and several third-round picks), I think that LeFleur is not developing and using the talent he does have.

The Packers rank third in the NFL in the number of fourth-quarter leads blown in the past three seasons.

Unless LeFleur can somehow change this team's identity as the season goes on, then they is who they is.

Man, I thought with the team's good health - Watson, Reed, Kraft, Wyatt, all back and playing - that they'd do better than they did on Sunday.

Weird that a week two game suddenly looms large for the season.

[pbmax]

They had 2 first time starters at the Guards (Monk has one career start at center). They had a vet (23 games) at a new position (LT) and a vet center with 7 starts at that position. Without Jacobs they weren't going to run as much. There were going to be growing pains.

In retrospect they needed a veteran guard which should have been Banks and when it became apparent he was at risk of losing games to his knee, they needed another option. They chose instead to ride the youths. The combo of youth and no Jacobs was going to hurt.

My issue with La Fleur isn't so much the protection problems (they were gonna happen with these choices) it was was were you going to do to counter it. The answer was apparently to have Love drop seven steps and huck it downfield. Now part of that is the coverage that Flores deploys to cover his heavy pressure, but man you needed another answer in the second half when the Vikings adjusted.

[Fritz]

I think some of the O line problems you're giving The Flower a pass on are a result of his coaching staff's decisions regarding how to use players. Insisiting on using Morgan as a right guard, first. Moving Belton from tackle to guard to tackle, second. Playing Jennings instead of the rookie-who-practiced-with-the-ones Burton, at left guard, third. Moving Jenkins from left guard to center last year.

In other words, I think this could have been avoided if LeFleur/ Stenavich/Butkus/Whoever had not shuffled pieces around at such a head-spinning rate.

That is, the very choices Le Fleur had to make ("they were gonna happen with these choices") caused this disaster, at least in large part, in my estimation. And I know a whole lot of shit about football, as you all know.

[sharpe1027]

Let me play the foil. This team has upside. I think they're going to improve and have a really good second half of the season. Parsons only being part of that story.

[Patler]

I often write things here just to elicit responses, (much more so in the past) but I am being totally honest here:

I have not felt this way since the 1970s to early 1990s. It's not despair or lack of hope, I'm always hopeful, but I have a definite lack of expectations. For thirty years I have been disappointed when they lose, especially when they lose like they did Sunday, and the end of last year. But this week, I just kind of shrugged and said to myself, "Just another 'close game" loss. That's the way I made it through the '70s and '80s.

The Vikings and Bears are building.
The Lions are maintaining.
I'm not sure what the Packers are doing.

[Sparkey]

But this week, I just kind of shrugged and said to myself, "Just another 'close game" loss. That's the way I made it through the '70s and '80s.

The Vikings and Bears are building.
The Lions are maintaining.
I'm not sure what the Packers are doing.

Debbie Downer, but pretty much where I am as well.

[run pMc]

They had 2 first time starters at the Guards (Monk has one career start at center). They had a vet (23 games) at a new position (LT) and a vet center with 7 starts at that position. Without Jacobs they weren't going to run as much. There were going to be growing pains.

In retrospect they needed a veteran guard which should have been Banks and when it became apparent he was at risk of losing games to his knee, they needed another option. They chose instead to ride the youths. The combo of youth and no Jacobs was going to hurt.

My issue with La Fleur isn't so much the protection problems (they were gonna happen with these choices) it was was were you going to do to counter it. The answer was apparently to have Love drop seven steps and huck it downfield. Now part of that is the coverage that Flores deploys to cover his heavy pressure, but man you needed another answer in the second half when the Vikings adjusted.

The backs rarely had anywhere to run. I wasn't surprised by an inefficient run game.
The inexperience was going to hurt that team on the road in a noisy dome. I'd have hoped coaching would make up some of the difference.

The seeming lack of hot routes/sight adjusts is troubling to me... it was that way in the 2nd half of the playoff game with CHI too. Dennis Allen blitzed like crazy and they didn't adjust well. Jordan Love is good at avoiding sacks historically, but as his pressure rate increases so does his depth of target, i.e., he'll huck it deep if blitzed. Be nice if they could get Kraft or someone with RAC ability on a short route to punish a blitzing defense. MLF should absolutely be baking that in to his game plan against a team known for blitzing. (Yeah there was the one game where Flores went against type and that caught MLF off, maybe that's why, but still FLORES LIKE TO SEND PRESSURE)

It was a bad Week 1 matchup, and that was the worst OL performance I can recall in years. It was also a very poor job of coaching and planning for this game and this opponent.

[bobblehead]

The defining failure was going with Jennings. 2x they replaced Yosh from the final game in the playoffs. Both times the replacement failed. Stenovich has MiLFs ear and he is awful. And MiLF is to blame because the buck stops with him. Burton needed to be in that spot but he wasn't, and the entire line suffered