Heroes & Goats

[ThunderDan]

No blitz pressure (though on tipped pass) and he whiffed in the flat on Sproles (?) and that was the tackle Collins and Williams collided on.

Everyone missed tackles last night so I don't care as much about that for Hawk.

What did concern me last night is that Hawk lost a lot of 1-on-1s in the run game where all he needed to do was get a draw and clog up that running lane. On a lot of the bigger runs Hawk let the OLine player that he was engaged with toss him out of the way. Bishop was horrible last night also. The 2 ILB last night were disappointing.

[RashanGary]

There was no pass rush, the Packers kept sending multiple rushers up the middle and Saints O-linemen seemed to easily pick everything up. Who is at fault for that? The blitzers? Dline? Capers?

As MM would say, "we'll get that cleaned up."

Matthews played too disiplined. Once in a while just say screw it and go balls to the walls. Taht play whre he bit on the fake in the redzone at the end. . . screw it, just seek and destroy the QB. Another play he put his hands up mid rush when Brees pumped, then brees had time to throw it away. Screw it put your head down and kill him. Clay closes so fast, just the pure speed that he closes when he's going 100% is better than putting his hands up. If he's that close, there's no way the QB can get a good pass off unless he ends up dead on the ground from a hit. . . . At best, if he has any self preservation instinct at all, he gets off a wounded duck of an off balanced pass.

Matthews has more aggressivness in him. We need to see that next week. 10 yards on a play, ah well. One QB killer is worth a couple 10 yard screens.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Brees is hard to get pressure on. He's rarely sacked. He has a good OL, he knows where he's going with the ball, and he gets rid of it quick. You can give most of the guys on defense goat status (including Hawk and Bishop), but it's a tough matchup. I actually thought Hawk blitzed more and was relatively affective blitzing. He got Brees off his spot a few times. He did miss a couple of tackles and got a legit pass interference call on the last play though. It was kind of a tough break because he did a good job keeping with the defender and making a play on the ball, but he did hit the guy in the head early.

I'm trying to figure out how much of it is the Saints and how much of it is us. Atlanta had a pretty good defense last year, but we torched them. Same with Pittsburgh. Sometimes, the other team is just good.

[pbmax]

Did anyone play bad enough that they weren't just a goat, but that they blow too?

[mission]

And how many tackles did Burnett have? Like 37? Guy was everywhere cleaning up piles.

[Packers4Glory]

Cobb needs to leave that God stuff out of it...I mean I believe an all, but I hate when guys use it like he did about the return TD. He should have just kept it to explaining how he messed up haha Thats good stuff. esp about the route he got wrong and still scored.

He gets a partial goat for his post game God comments!

[mraynrand]

I'm trying to figure out how much of it is the Saints and how much of it is us. Atlanta had a pretty good defense last year, but we torched them. Same with Pittsburgh. Sometimes, the other team is just good.

Right on the money. This is a very good Saints team. They have talent across the roster, but most of it is on offense. They look a lot like the Packers. But they've had an entire off season to fester over that loss in Seattle, and you can bet they were chomping to erase that memory. We got everything they had. Solid win in a great game.

[smuggler]

I was disappointed that Shields dropped both of those interceptions when he had better position.

[pbmax]

And how many tackles did Burnett have? Like 37? Guy was everywhere cleaning up piles.

14 total with 9 solos. A few more than you would like a free safety to have (I will never understand why the Packer roster lists him at SS), but given the number of Bree's passes, understandable. And as always, better than no tackle.

[Cheesehead Craig]

And how many tackles did Burnett have? Like 37? Guy was everywhere cleaning up piles.

14 total with 9 solos. A few more than you would like a free safety to have (I will never understand why the Packer roster lists him at SS), but given the number of Bree's passes, understandable. And as always, better than no tackle.

Plus he had a big hit on the last play at the goal line to stop Ingram.

[denverYooper]

Brees is hard to get pressure on. He's rarely sacked. He has a good OL, he knows where he's going with the ball, and he gets rid of it quick. You can give most of the guys on defense goat status (including Hawk and Bishop), but it's a tough matchup. I actually thought Hawk blitzed more and was relatively affective blitzing. He got Brees off his spot a few times. He did miss a couple of tackles and got a legit pass interference call on the last play though. It was kind of a tough break because he did a good job keeping with the defender and making a play on the ball, but he did hit the guy in the head early.

I'm trying to figure out how much of it is the Saints and how much of it is us. Atlanta had a pretty good defense last year, but we torched them. Same with Pittsburgh. Sometimes, the other team is just good.

Agree with most all of that. I was miffed about the PI last night but at the end of the day, he prevented a TD and the fatties finished off the kill in the end. Those guys had 2 huge game saving stands. Looks like they've been hitting the jazzercise classes over at the Y because they displayed some big man cardio last night.

There aren't many like Brees (and Rodgers) who can take over games no matter what the D is doing. I'm willing to bet that those guys had a blast last night trading punches as they did--you could see how dialed in Brees was at the end of the game, just excited to get back out there with a minute left. Those first 4 games are wacky but especially hard on Ds until they get more film to work from, especially on top of a shortened preseason. And especially for a D that relies very heavily on film study. When both QBs come out setting the field on fire, well shit.

That said, Shields got his hands on a couple of balls early. Needs to finish those out!

Cobb has some serious Kung-Fu. I wish they had a helmet cam on him because it looks like he can see the matrix dissolving into 1s and 0s at times. I swore he was hesitating too much but then he would find a path. It's weird because he doesn't look like a burner but it sure looks like he can see it. His stiff arm was some filthy nasty stuff.

[3irty1]

Heros:

Mike McCarthy. Out-coached one of the best offensive minds in the game. Once again had a flawless game plan, for the most part the offense did whatever it wanted.
Jarius Wynn. Sandbagging SOB. He looks like a different player now that the games count. A year ago we were using TJ Lang instead of him for goal line stuff, it appears he's turned a weakness into a strength.
Raji/Pickett. If those Saints guards can't move them than no mortal man will.
Starks. HH's dark rituals seem to have paid off. He's got really nice vision.
Jennings/Finley. These two guys are the difference between our O and the Saints O.
Rodgers. Some might say that of all the players in the NFL, he is the most valuable. He will probably win awards for being good.
Sitton was a crushing block for us last night.
Clifton. I don't know if its just because Lang was next to him but Clifton had his best game as a run blocker in a long time.
Scott Wells has been playing at Collinsworth-pants-creaming level for a while now.
Jarrett Bush might have had the best game of everybody in the secondary for what that's worth.
Randal Cobb is better at football than he is at listening.
Moneyball and that fighting robot movie. I kind of want to see both after seeing the previews.

Goats:
The secondary. I'm not super worried or anything, they are the best secondary in the NFL but Drew Breez can make anyone look like a Goat on a good day.
Mathsay. Consider this a warning you practice star bastard.
Everyone who tired to tackle Pierre Thomas. Partially because its embarrassing and bad but also because some asshole at Madden saw it and is now justified for having that situation appear in the game all the time.

[denverYooper]

And how many tackles did Burnett have? Like 37? Guy was everywhere cleaning up piles.

+1.

7 tackles, 7 assists.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Heros:

Mike McCarthy. Out-coached one of the best offensive minds in the game. Once again had a flawless game plan, for the most part the offense did whatever it wanted.
Jarius Wynn. Sandbagging SOB. He looks like a different player now that the games count. A year ago we were using TJ Lang instead of him for goal line stuff, it appears he's turned a weakness into a strength.
Raji/Pickett. If those Saints guards can't move them than no mortal man will.
Starks. HH's dark rituals seem to have paid off. He's got really nice vision.
Jennings/Finley. These two guys are the difference between our O and the Saints O.
Rodgers. Some might say that of all the players in the NFL, he is the most valuable. He will probably win awards for being good.
Sitton was a crushing block for us last night.
Clifton. I don't know if its just because Lang was next to him but Clifton had his best game as a run blocker in a long time.
Scott Wells has been playing at Collinsworth-pants-creaming level for a while now.
Jarrett Bush might have had the best game of everybody in the secondary for what that's worth.
Randal Cobb is better at football than he is at listening.
Moneyball and that fighting robot movie. I kind of want to see both after seeing the previews.

Goats:
The secondary. I'm not super worried or anything, they are the best secondary in the NFL but Drew Breez can make anyone look like a Goat on a good day.
Mathsay. Consider this a warning you practice star bastard.
Everyone who tired to tackle Pierre Thomas. Partially because its embarrassing and bad but also because some asshole at Madden saw it and is now justified for having that situation appear in the game all the time.

This post is both good and funny. Well done, sir.

[red]

we just beat what might very well be the "other" best team in the NFC. a team with an offense almost equally as awesome as ours, and a D that was just as good as ours last year

it wasn't always pretty, but it was a big win against a very, very good team, and one that we could be seeing again late in january