More Banjo - Packers vs Cowboys

[Joemailman]

Jordan Love - 23-41, 276, 1 TD, 1 INT

Matthew Golden - 6 catches, 104 yards, 1 ID (a few Drops)

Interceptions by Evan Williams and Brandonn Cisse

Trey Smack made all 5 kicks

Daniel Whelan - 3 punts, 50.3 avg, no touchbacks

Packers 11-18 on 3rd down

Both teams with 11 penalties

PB with 3 straight winning game day threads

Discuss

[pbmax]

Mat LaFleur's late game management is too loose and he goes clock management way too early. It was a two score game and he seemed willing to concede them the time and field position to let them do just that.

The Packers O line has improved from its former implosion status. Its still a work in progress. And Sean Rhyan, if he's not going to pass block well, needs to go too.

#Bring On Burton

[Joemailman]

Attn: Brushing the shoulder of the QB with your fingernail is now roughing the passer.

[MadtownPacker]

Attn: Brushing the shoulder of the QB with your fingernail is now roughing the passer.

Yeah that was hard to watch. Clean shots that shouldn’t have been called.

[Joemailman]

Jerruh now 3-9 at Lambeau.

[pbmax]

Packers had 11 penalties for 96 yards. That was a back to the ugly part of the season development.

Boys were 11 - 108

[beveaux1]

Dallas is Chicago South.

[texaspackerbacker]

Excellent game for Love and the receivers. Excellent game for the defense. I like Gannon's D a LOT better than any of the Packer D Coordinators in a helluva long time, maybe ever. I don't recall any Packer D in the past that was genuinely unpredictable.

It seemed like most of those blitzes were zone blitzing - a LOT of DBs and LBs attacking with Edge Rushers dropping into short zones. Also, they faked out Dak numerous ways - Safety(s) in the box then dropping back too late to change the play, etc.

I didn't see McKinney make a play all night, but it's safe to say he had more to do with shutting down the usual Cowboy long chunk plays than anybody else. Cisse did a good job; Nixon was a lot better than usual, Bullard and Williams were downright excellent. McDuffie was maybe 90 or 95% as good as Cooper usually was. Dennis-Sutton is gonna be a star in the league sooner rather than later. Zaire Franklin was better than he has been.

Regarding O Line play: the Cowboys were a highly rated O Line, loaded with first round picks. That fact was fairly meaningless against Gannon's D. The Packer O Line was about as bad as always - virtually no running game, and Love had pressure on him most of the time, same as Rodgers always did, but did the crappiness of the O Line make a dimes worth of difference in the grand scheme of things? Hell No IMO - PREDICTABLY/just like I always say about the relative importance of O Line or lack of it - and the same old crowd of O Line-ophiles consistently inexplicably dispute.

Playcalling: LaFleur wasn't as bad as usual. There was still way too much run first crap - a tiny tiny portion of which is necessary to keep them honest. However, he again like last week unleashed Love, trusting him to get the job done passing despite the mediocrity or worse of the line.

Having Strong instead of Brooks is addition by subtraction IMO. Hopefully he is not the one cut when Jacobs is activated.

[pbmax]

From Cheesehead TV:

Gannon's creativity along the defense has been inspired, but don't forget about Bobby Babich, Green Bay's defensive pass game coordinator. Babich was the coordinator of a #1 pass defense in Buffalo, and together, he and Gannon have this secondary playing with their hair on fire.

Forgot about that guy Babich. So far he's been doing his job quite well.


Missed one of these:

Cisse, Rhyan, Lloyd and Kraft all left the game with injuries at some point. I think all came back in? Cisse has a stinger.

[Joemailman]

PFF scores:

Top 5 offense

• QB Jordan Love: 79.2
• LT Jordan Morgan: 73.1
• WR Christian Watson: 67.3
• WR Matthew Golden: 66.5
• RB Pierre Strong Jr.: 65.0

Love had four "big time throws," and he was particularly good under pressure, completing 9 of 15 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown when pressured. Morgan allowed two pressures, but he earned the offensive line's top pass-blocking grade and second-best run-blocking grade while not committing a penalty. Watson caught three of his eight targets for 64 yards, but he was 0-for-2 on contested catches. Golden caught six passes for 104 yards and a touchdown and averaged 2.54 yards per route run, but he also dropped two passes, was targeted on the interception and went 1-for-5 on contested catches. Strong caught five passes, produced 36 yards after the catch and created four total first downs rushing and receiving, and he was excellent in pass pro.

Top 5 defense

• CB Carrington Valentine: 91.5
• S Evan Williams: 87.6
• CB Brandon Cisse: 77.6
• CB Javon Bullard: 74.6
• EDGE Barryn Sorrell: 73.6

Valentine broke up a pass, had an interception negated by a penalty and made four tackles without a miss, and his coverage grade was an elite 91.4 over 25 coverage snaps. Williams had two QB hits, eight tackles without a miss, a team-high four stops and an interception. Cisse also had a pick, and he allowed only three catches for 30 yards on eight targets into his coverage. Bullard broke up two passes and gave up only 53 yards into his coverage despite being targeted 10 times, and he made six tackles without a miss and drew a holding penalty. Sorrell produced two QB hits and two stops against the run over 40 snaps.

Bottom 5 offense

• RB MarShawn Lloyd: 31.2
• RG Travis Glover: 49.9
• WR Savion Williams: 51.8
• WR Bo Melton: 52.5
• TE Tucker Kraft: 55.0

Lloyd's eight rushing attempts gained only 10 yards, and he dropped his only target. Glover allowed three pressures and was penalized for being illegally downfield. Williams caught all four of his targets, including a contested catch for 15 yards, but he averaged only 1.19 yards per route run. Melton didn't have a target over 13 routes run. Kraft struggled as a run blocker and was charged with giving up three pressures in pass pro.

Bottom 5 defense

• DL Devonte Wyatt: 40.7
• LB Ty'Ron Hopper: 40.8
• DL Chris McClellan: 40.9
• EDGE Dani Dennis-Sutton: 47.5
• EDGE Brenton Cox Jr.: 51.9

Wyatt had zero pressures despite playing 36 pass-rushing snaps, and he finished with only one tackle. Hopper missed two tackles and had an illegal contact penalty on 3rd-and-20. McClellan had just one hurry over 29 pass-rushing snaps, and his 38.7 grade against the run was a team-low. Dennis-Sutton missed a tackle, was evaded on a potential sack and was penalized for taunting. Cox Jr. missed a tackle and finished with only two pressures across 29 pass-rushing snaps.

Special teams


Ty'Ron Hopper led the way with three total tackles covering kicks and punts, while J. Michael Sturdidvant earned the top special teams grade (75.5). The Packers didn't have a missed tackle or a penalty, and Trey Smack made all five of his kicks, including a 44-yard field goal. Coleman Owen had a 16-yard punt return in his Packers debut. Smack didn't have a touchback over six kickoffs. Daniel Whelan's net punting average was 44.3, but all three of his punts were returned.

Quarterback play

• Jordan Love: 79.2

Love finished with four "big time throws" and two "turnover worthy plays," and he created his top passing grade under pressure of the season. He averaged 9.0 yards per attempt and had a touchdown back under pressure. PFF credited the Packers with only four drops. Play-action passes didn't work; Love was 1-of-6 passing for seven yards and a sack over seven dropbacks with run action. He was also 1-for-7 passing on throws over 20 yards, although his receivers did him no favors. Overall, Love was under pressure on 40 percent of dropbacks and averaged 2.65 seconds time to throw.

[Fritz]

Van Ness didn’t even hit Prescott on that call. He just pushed off Prescott to stop his momentum. What a stupid call. Even the taunting call on The Dentist seemed a little ticky-tack.

The o-line is still poor, but not tire-fire. However, when they did open creases, Strong or Lloyd would try a little shuffle or feint instead of getting through the crease. We have possibly the worst running back room in the league.

The tacking by the secondary was fantastic. Fantastic. There was almost no YAC. Bullard is flying around back there. Nixon playing very well, Cisse showing up big, all if them.

I still maintain the loss of Cooper will eventually sink them, but Hopper shows flashes. Franklin had his best game so far.

Love is great. I think we’re under estimating how good this guy is. He’s got no running game and his pass protection is spotty at best but he’s still on target and on fire. Imagine his stat line had Golden and Watson not had so many drops.

[Joemailman]

Mark Oldacres
@MarkOldacres

Brandon Cisse passer rating allowed by week:
135.4
119.4
113.7
81.3
70.8
9.4

[Joemailman]

Van Ness didn’t even hit Prescott on that call. He just pushed off Prescott to stop his momentum. What a stupid call. Even the taunting call on The Dentist seemed a little ticky-tack.

The o-line is still poor, but not tire-fire. However, when they did open creases, Strong or Lloyd would try a little shuffle or feint instead of getting through the crease. We have possibly the worst running back room in the league.

The tacking by the secondary was fantastic. Fantastic. There was almost no YAC. Bullard is flying around back there. Nixon playing very well, Cisse showing up big, all if them.

I still maintain the loss of Cooper will eventually sink them, but Hopper shows flashes. Franklin had his best game so far.

Love is great. I think we’re under estimating how good this guy is. He’s got no running game and his pass protection is spotty at best but he’s still on target and on fire. Imagine his stat line had Golden and Watson not had so many drops.

Love has had 18 passes dropped. The next most is 11.

[bobblehead]

Mat LaFleur's late game management is too loose and he goes clock management way too early. It was a two score game and he seemed willing to concede them the time and field position to let them do just that.

The Packers O line has improved from its former implosion status. Its still a work in progress. And Sean Rhyan, if he's not going to pass block well, needs to go too.

#Bring On Burton

Busy day for me, but I wanted to stop in to say that if Sean Rhyan doesn't have a PFF grade of about negative 6 then I have no use for their rankings. He was simply awful. If Burton isn't better than that, then I missed something in his tape or for some reason the NFL speed is just overwhelming to him. Hell, I'm not convinced Monk would be worse at center.

Edit: I hadn't scrolled down enough to see Joe posted the PFF already. Seeing the grades I'm not sure I have any faith left in their system.

[bobblehead]

Attn: Brushing the shoulder of the QB with your fingernail is now roughing the passer.

Those were "network" calls. Have to keep the fans engaged until the end as it affects what you can charge for future ad spots which in turn affects what the NFL can charge for future contracts. The PI or holding or whatever the call was on 3rd down to extend the drive is getting old as I see one in every primetime game in the 4th quarter to extend drives when not calling it would effectively end the game. I'm losing all respect for the NFL as they turn into the WWE or the old NBA (the NBA has worked hard to get better. Still flawed, but more fair than it used to be).