Thoughts

[ND72]

I have to admit, some of these guys are starting to even impress me.

DB's - Woodson can speak for himself. I like Tramon as a starting CB, and if teams are going to try to pick on him, I'm ok with that. Collins is starting to show signs of his pro bowl level more and more each week in this defense. We just don't have much depth...which was evident since every time Jarret Bush was on the field, Baltimore was throwing at him. I'd rather see Underwood.

LB's - What can't you say about these guys? I love Aaron Kampman, but when Brad Jones plays, we're a different team. We run a more true 3-4 defense. Jones has simply impressed me, I don't know what else to say, kid can play. Matthews is going to be a star, and is showing he was worth everythign we gave up for him. Our ILB's are really starting to come on now. Barnett seems to be all over the field, and Hawk is playing like that big tough ILB you need in a 3-4. I've taken plenty of beatings for my feelings about Hawk, but he is really looking good.

DL - So B.J. Raji is going to be a beast. He has definitely been showing his maturation process this year the more healthy he has become. He is just hard to run at, Detroit and Baltimore have found that out. Jenkins and Jolly are perfect for this defense, and Pickett has even showed he is tough in this defense, even though many people thought he wouldn't fit well, and wouldn't want to fit either.

QB - Rodgers = Future MVP

RB - Grant is running hard, and that's what I like to see come playoff time. Plus, I think we have a great compliment with Jackson as a reciever, and Green filling in both sides.

WR's - When our WR's catch the ball, they are dangerous, so much so I don't think teams would want to face us in the playoffs. We need to stick with what has worked though. McCarthy seems to get impatient and wants to go long too often, which I'm cool with taking shots, but short quick routes turn into big plays for us, and we need to stick with that idea.

TE's - Donald Lee can't catch a ball, and Finley is a budding star. Need I say more?

OL - Starting to turn that corner for sure. Sitton has been tough, Wells has played well, Colledge has even been playing pretty decent...again, and Clifton and Tauscher just do what they've done for years, nothing real special, but nothing that hurts a team. I do think Lang gives us a more solid front than Tauscher does, but we're looking good, so keep it going.

ST - Slocum should be fired. Crosby is pissing me off. Kapinos is looking like a good punter all of the sudden.

[red]

i like it ND, almost all of it i agree with

except, i think green runs a lot harder then grant. grant should take notes to see how a former dominate running back runs.

and i think i would like lang in the game instead of clifton, not taucsher

[pbmax]

I thought Bush had some good plays on the ball. Was he playing nickel or dime? Seemed like he was the nickel back. He still seems better than in years past.

Pickett has been as good as anyone could have been expected.

Worried about drops, ST coverage and penalties at this point. With four turnovers, the O should have had more points. Time to find a designer steroid firm to create a new, legal stickum.

[ND72]

Worried about drops, ST coverage and penalties at this point. With four turnovers, the O should have had more points. Time to find a designer steroid firm to create a new, legal stickum.

Agreed!

[Patler]

Re: Thoughts

ST - Slocum should be fired. Crosby is pissing me off. Kapinos is looking like a good punter all of the sudden.

Slocum has done nothing to improve what has ailed STs all year. Hard to justify keeping your job when performance is bad to start out, and no different 13 weeks later. I have long been a critic of MM's hiring and promoting decisions. This is more evidence.

Just curious, did you watch the various replays of the missed FG? Flynn mishandled the ball, and at one point had it lying flat on the ground. He did a good job getting it up to save the attempt, but it looked like Crosby had to hesitate a little as he started to swing through the kick, and ended up just sort of punching at it rather than kicking through the ball. Maybe Crosby should have been able to adapt, but as he started his kicking motion he saw a ball lying flat on the ground, and timing is everything on placekicks.

I'm not suggesting Crosby gets no blame if things aren't perfect, he does. Receivers are expected to catch some less than perfect throws, and kickers should be expected to come through when things aren't quite right either. But when a failure occurs, you need to look at where the problem really was. This one was a mishandled placement by the holder more than a missed kick by the kicker.

[ND72]

Yeah, I saw the replay. Agreed it wasn't really his fault, but Flynn did get it set by the time the foot hit the ball, not that it makes it a perfect set though.

[red]

i think crosby should be able to adapt to that. it was there for him, a split second late, but it was there. from that distance you should be able to just stand there and put the ball through

i mean, thats all he does, he kicks the ball, he should be kicking for at least 3 hours every single day

any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable IMO

[Patler]

Drops have been a problem on and off all year, and they seem to come in bunches. There have been several games when everyone seems to have at least one.

The amazing thing is having a game when Rodgers is not at his best throwing the ball, throws a couple interceptions and is less than average (his average) on accuracy; the receivers have 5 or 6 drops, there is a fumble in the passing game and a sack, yet they score three TDs, still manage to move the ball, win the game and Rodgers has a mid 80s QB rating.

I like that for the inevitable bad game that will happen from time to time!

[RashanGary]

Re: Thoughts

ST - Slocum should be fired. Crosby is pissing me off. Kapinos is looking like a good punter all of the sudden.

Slocum has done nothing to improve what has ailed STs all year. Hard to justify keeping your job when performance is bad to start out, and no different 13 weeks later. I have long been a critic of MM's hiring and promoting decisions. This is more evidence.

Good points. I really hope he has learned and gets it fixed this offseason. We're winning now. He's buying time, but it's getting to the point where nobody in this Packers organization is going to get many more chances. Win or be gone.


And Capers started out getting burned in the run (Benson). He fixed that, and just got beat badly in the run (S. Jackson). The next week the run was fixed. The next week we had secondary errors. The following weeks we went simpler and slowly started to add in the different packages until now when it seems we are peaking. This defense didn't start great, but it's finishing that way. It's starting to gel.

This ST's reminds me of Bob Sanders, it's teh same problems every week, week after week with no sign of improvement (bigby chasing a TE across the field, pass int pentalties, getting run on over and over, etc). Just disappointing. It's really making this a tough season for me to watch because I think this team could really be good. I have almost no confidence that it will get fixed.

[Patler]

i think crosby should be able to adapt to that. it was there for him, a split second late, but it was there. from that distance you should be able to just stand there and put the ball through

i mean, thats all he does, he kicks the ball, he should be kicking for at least 3 hours every single day

any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable IMO

So Flynn gets of blameless, and regardless of what he does, Crosby should make the kick? Any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable?

I think those are completely unreasonable expectations.

[pbmax]

i think crosby should be able to adapt to that. it was there for him, a split second late, but it was there. from that distance you should be able to just stand there and put the ball through

i mean, thats all he does, he kicks the ball, he should be kicking for at least 3 hours every single day

any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable IMO

They need to practice it and decide on an approach. Either he ignores the holding trouble and proceeds, trusting Flynn to get it upright or he has to practice a short step and kick.

[red]

i think crosby should be able to adapt to that. it was there for him, a split second late, but it was there. from that distance you should be able to just stand there and put the ball through

i mean, thats all he does, he kicks the ball, he should be kicking for at least 3 hours every single day

any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable IMO

So Flynn gets of blameless, and regardless of what he does, Crosby should make the kick? Any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable?

I think those are completely unreasonable expectations.

not for a guy whose only job in life, and only thing he ever has to do, is kick a football

and i just watched the replay of the kick again. crosby hardly even moved when the snap was being bobbled. he was able to take a full approach and make a normal kick

yes flynn should be blammed for the bobble, but after that he did a great job of getting the ball down and in position for crosby to make the kick

lets say at youg job all you did was sit in a chair in front of a computer, and all you have to do is hit the enter button every minute. now lets say you somehow only manage to do that right 80% of the time

you'd be fired right?

[Patler]

i think crosby should be able to adapt to that. it was there for him, a split second late, but it was there.

Was it really "there"? Neither you nor I know the answer to that. The kicker puts his plant foot down expecting the ball to be in a certain place. If it is too far back, too far forward, left or right of the "spot", the kicker has very little room to adjust once his plant foot is down.

If you golf, trying teeing the ball up just a few inches "off" from where you normally do, take your normal swing, and see what happens to your drive. What happens when a batter is lined up on a pitch, but misjudges the speed and makes contact out in front of the plate, or is late on the swing and makes contact to early in the swing.

Same goes for a kicker. He can adjust somewhat as he approaches, but once his plant foot is down there is not much more he can do if the ball is not where he expected.

I don't know if that happened here or not, but when Flynn smothered the ball flat on the ground, all he did after that was tip it upright where it was.

We will probably never know, because unlike Longwell did his last few seasons here, Crosby is not likely to blame the snapper or holder when a kick goes wrong.

[pbmax]

Re: Thoughts

ST - Slocum should be fired. Crosby is pissing me off. Kapinos is looking like a good punter all of the sudden.

Slocum has done nothing to improve what has ailed STs all year. Hard to justify keeping your job when performance is bad to start out, and no different 13 weeks later. I have long been a critic of MM's hiring and promoting decisions. This is more evidence.

Good points. I really hope he has learned and gets it fixed this offseason. We're winning now. He's buying time, but it's getting to the point where nobody in this Packers organization is going to get many more chances. Win or be gone.


And Capers started out getting burned in the run (Benson). He fixed that, and just got beat badly in the run (S. Jackson). The next week the run was fixed. The next week we had secondary errors. The following weeks we went simpler and slowly started to add in the different packages until now when it seems we are peaking. This defense didn't start great, but it's finishing that way. It's starting to gel.

This ST's reminds me of Bob Sanders, it's teh same problems every week, week after week with no sign of improvement (bigby chasing a TE across the field, pass int pentalties, getting run on over and over, etc). Just disappointing. It's really making this a tough season for me to watch because I think this team could really be good. I have almost no confidence that it will get fixed.

Jackson and Benson were two different problems. Benson and the Bengals won the LOS at times and just pounded it out. Benson also broke tackles and kept going forward for good gains. I stopped counting how many times he ran into a pile, bounced backward and then went left or right for four yards.

Jackson was much more bottled up play to play. But he broke a couple long runs on blitzes where the Packers lost gap control. Jackson wasn't close to dominating the game.

[Patler]

i think crosby should be able to adapt to that. it was there for him, a split second late, but it was there. from that distance you should be able to just stand there and put the ball through

i mean, thats all he does, he kicks the ball, he should be kicking for at least 3 hours every single day

any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable IMO

So Flynn gets of blameless, and regardless of what he does, Crosby should make the kick? Any miss under 50 yards is unacceptable?

I think those are completely unreasonable expectations.

not for a guy whose only job in life, and only thing he ever has to do, is kick a football

and i just watched the replay of the kick again. crosby hardly even moved when the snap was being bobbled. he was able to take a full approach and make a normal kick

yes flynn should be blammed for the bobble, but after that he did a great job of getting the ball down and in position for crosby to make the kick

lets say at youg job all you did was sit in a chair in front of a computer, and all you have to do is hit the enter button every minute. now lets say you somehow only manage to do that right 80% of the time

you'd be fired right?

I'm not sure why you think kicking a ball accurately from 40 yards away is such an easy thing to do. Most anyone can hit an enter key all day long, very few can kick 40 yard FGs all day long.

And what does Flynn have to do in practice other than catch and place balls for the kicks? Not much because he doesn't get many snaps with the offense. At least Crosby also has to practice kickoffs!