More Banjo - Packers vs. 49ers

[run pMc]

A little more Brady in his game would've gotten us to the 'Owl a couple more times, in my estimation.

Agree. There are many, many instances of him going for a more difficult, lower percentage throw than taking what the defense is giving you and letting others make a play. Maybe Gute needs to draft more YAC monsters, but they had Lazard and Cobb.

Speaking of Cobb, I was surprised he had so little impact -- I thought SF would try everything to stop Davante and Cobb would benefit from it. Really disappointed in the offense.

[Freak Out]

I am starting to really like the Harv idea of a Raiders trade. Arod will probably be ok with it as he's much closer to home, pretty solid team around him, will still make a ton of money, and will play home games indoors.

[Bretsky]

JS Packer Beat writer basically submitted an article to get the draft picks for AROD and Adams, build up that defense, resign all the guys on defense, and set themselves up for years to come.
It was interesting

[texaspackerbacker]

Are you referring to Silverstein? That media bastard is a God damned idiot, and so is anybody else trying to conjure up a way to get rid of Rodgers.

[Bretsky]

Are you referring to Silverstein? That media bastard is a God damned idiot, and so is anybody else trying to conjure up a way to get rid of Rodgers.

yes

Reality sucks on this one Tex; Rodgers was not good Saturday. If he was just average we'd win. ST's costs us the game. But Rodgers failed to win it and we should have expected him to

[George Cumby]

Had Rodgers made one or two more throws, or handed the ball to the back-up RB STD's wouldn't have been an issue.

The MVP should play like the MVP in the biggest games.

[Joemailman]

Late in his career, I think Favre lost the mental toughness it takes to put the cold out of your mind and just play. Rodgers looked like that guy against the 49ers. Especially that last pass to Adams in double coverage. A mentally sharp Rodgers doesn't miss Lazard breaking wide open over the middle.

[texaspackerbacker]

I know the haters are really gonna come out of the woodwork on this hahahaha, but my take on the game regarding Rodgers is that they shoulda unleashed him. As so often happens, LaFleur - who I still think is an excellent coach overall - relied too much on just about everything other than having his GOAT QB throw it down the field. That and the same old thing, as LaFleur himself said in his video conference, you can't blame the QB when the D is in his lap the whole damn game - in other words, shitty O Line play basically the whole game after the first series.

[th87]

I know the haters are really gonna come out of the woodwork on this hahahaha, but my take on the game regarding Rodgers is that they shoulda unleashed him. As so often happens, LaFleur - who I still think is an excellent coach overall - relied too much on just about everything other than having his GOAT QB throw it down the field. That and the same old thing, as LaFleur himself said in his video conference, you can't blame the QB when the D is in his lap the whole damn game - in other words, shitty O Line play basically the whole game after the first series.

You should watch the all-22. Tons of open receivers and time to get the ball to them.

More often than not in the playoffs, Rodgers plays just well/poorly enough to get within one possession (or tie), but just can't get over the hump.

Solution is to either get him more weapons so we're not in this position, or to part ways.

[MadScientist]

I know the haters are really gonna come out of the woodwork on this hahahaha, but my take on the game regarding Rodgers is that they shoulda unleashed him. As so often happens, LaFleur - who I still think is an excellent coach overall - relied too much on just about everything other than having his GOAT QB throw it down the field. That and the same old thing, as LaFleur himself said in his video conference, you can't blame the QB when the D is in his lap the whole damn game - in other words, shitty O Line play basically the whole game after the first series.

I agree that the o-line was shitty (thought you always said the o-line didn't matter with Rodgers). However, if you can't stop the pass rush, there's no point in 'unleashing Rodgers to throw downfield' because that will just end up with Rodgers ass on the ground. Instead of running the MLF offense of a couple of years ago that schemed receivers open and used pre-snap motion, everything was static and predictable. It looked like MM was running the show. So really instead of unleashing Rodgers, they need to leash him and tell him do this offense the way it's supposed to work and the results will be better.

[call_me_ishmael]

Late in his career, I think Favre lost the mental toughness it takes to put the cold out of your mind and just play. Rodgers looked like that guy against the 49ers. Especially that last pass to Adams in double coverage. A mentally sharp Rodgers doesn't miss Lazard breaking wide open over the middle.

I had the same thought while watching. Of course, it's easy to make that comparison when there are so many other similarities.

The big thing that jumps out to me about the game is how difference and "vanilla" our offense looked compared to SF. Didn't MILF do a lot of stuff like them in his first year? What happened in year 3? Why'd they play it so vanilla and not try to scheme up anything?

I'd like to see them use moe of their third stringers in games and occasionally practice to get everyone experience. Not handing off to the 3rd RB was really problematic IMO. Do we even have a fullback on this team? Bottom line - there needs to be more than two people that can handle the ball and have the QB feel comfortable with it.

[Bossman641]

The offense has been blended to accommodate what Rodgers likes and to allow him to make checks/adjustments pre-snap. I think that has drastically cut down on the misdirection and fakes. Just my opinion, but I also think they saw SF secondary as a weakness and saw spreading them out and going multiple WRs as the best way to attack.

Rodgers made a comment after the game about the defense really taking away a lot of the short stuff they wanted to do. Somehow though, they took away both the short and deep stuff. Their was the desperation heave to Adams, the attempt to hit him up the sidelines in the cover 2 hole, and one successful pass to Adams on a post route on a third down. I can't think of any other deep-ish attempts.

[MadScientist]

The offense has been blended to accommodate what Rodgers likes and to allow him to make checks/adjustments pre-snap. I think that has drastically cut down on the misdirection and fakes. Just my opinion, but I also think they saw SF secondary as a weakness and saw spreading them out and going multiple WRs as the best way to attack.

Rodgers pre-snap adjustments are overrated, especially by him. Spreading out and attacking with multiple WRs might have had a chance if Rodgers looked beyond Adams, but it would have worked better to scheme receivers open. All the shit that wasn't working under MM still isn't working and needs to go. Special teams was abysmal, but Rodgers wasn't much better.

[Fritz]

I agree that the o-line was shitty (thought you always said the o-line didn't matter with Rodgers). However, if you can't stop the pass rush, there's no point in 'unleashing Rodgers to throw downfield' because that will just end up with Rodgers ass on the ground. Instead of running the MLF offense of a couple of years ago that schemed receivers open and used pre-snap motion, everything was static and predictable. It looked like MM was running the show. So really instead of unleashing Rodgers, they need to leash him and tell him do this offense the way it's supposed to work and the results will be better.

I think this is a good post. That offense was very vanilla - what happened to scheming people open? This really did look like the old MM and Rodgers offense - Rodgers waits and waits until he's sacked or unloads to Adams.

This shit about Rodgers needing more receiving help - I am so done with that. So on that long bomb to a double-covered Adams, how does having more receiving help mean anything when ESB AND Lazard were both wide, wide open? IS "More receiving help" going to mean that new receivers will be more open? And you look at that All-22 video, that was not a one-time thing. Rodgers just went back to how he was playing before MM got canned - waiting and looking around and oops, he's sacked! Or oops, he threw to a double-covered receiver! Or oops, he made a lousy throw!

The o-line was not good. No doubt. But Rodgers all season long worked around that with quick throws. But he did not play like he did during the regular season, at all. It was like turning back the clock to that last painful season with MM. And by the way, Tex's bitching about the o-line rings rather hollow, as Tex has been howling for years that the offensive line doesn't matter because Rodgers makes everyone look so good.

Oh, and Tex also spent the season yammering about how the ST play was not the ST coach's fault.

So here we are, one-and-done.

I also agree that Taylor needed to get the ball a few times - he has a little more hammering power than Jones does, and in those last two drives, that was sorely needed. Did MLF not call for that, or did Rodgers choose not to give Taylor the ball? This whole "Rodgers needs to trust his people or they don't see the ball" thing is turning out to be detrimental to the team in the playoffs.

[texaspackerbacker]

I agree that the o-line was shitty (thought you always said the o-line didn't matter with Rodgers). However, if you can't stop the pass rush, there's no point in 'unleashing Rodgers to throw downfield' because that will just end up with Rodgers ass on the ground. Instead of running the MLF offense of a couple of years ago that schemed receivers open and used pre-snap motion, everything was static and predictable. It looked like MM was running the show. So really instead of unleashing Rodgers, they need to leash him and tell him do this offense the way it's supposed to work and the results will be better.

Good Point there. I did say that, and in general, I do say that. However, and maybe this has something to do with collapsing in the playoffs, when the D, especially the pass rush is tough enough, O Line does matter at least a little bit. That combined with the weather conditions/poor footing, etc. didn't allow Rodgers to use his mobility like he usually does and find open receivers. I re-watched the game, and I did NOT see the plethora of open receivers that some have said. Also, like you and Fritz said, a lot of what seemed to work scheme-wise in the past they seemed to abandon. I don't know why. I do remember when we did all that motion and jet sweep stuff, Rodgers praised it. My guess is that maybe you can't run jet sweeps when the D penetrates so quick into the backfield. We do still run a lot of the pre-snap stuff.

San Fran apparently did a good job of adjusting after the first series. Everybody knew they had the great pass rush, but I didn't expect their DBs to shut down our receivers like they did. Weather may have been a factor in that.