Avenues to get better?

[texaspackerbacker]

Seriously? As I said, the Giants DC figured out how to stop what we were doing - unlike our own DC who can't figure out shit. LaFleur shoulda countered what they did with something else that worked, but he is severely limited by having a lame-assed O Line.

[Anti-Polar Bear]

From winning ugly to losing ugly. Shit. Plenty of good comments, though, here and the gameday thread.

Hell yeah, lousy coaching - we got horribly outcoached on both sides of the ball. Somebody said "something like doing less with more"? Absolutely. That especially describes the Packers D. I doubt any DC in the whole league has more talent to work with than Barry, but he manages to fuck it up, bad enough in the close ugly wins and culminated in the loss today. Barry didn't make any adjustments to what the Giants were doing? Disgustingly true. He basically doesn't make any adjustments - any that work anyway - to what any other team does. Somebody said fire him and replace him with Gray; Yeah, maybe. A large part of the problem is playing to much zone pass D and not playing it very well. Is that on Barry? Or on Gray? If it's Gray's doing, I don't want him either.

And it seems like a lot of people are coming around to what I've been saying for years about the Packers O Line - mediocre on a good day, pure shit on a bad one. Other teams open holes to run; Other teams pass protect; For all practical purposes, we do not. Is there an avenue to improve that? I don't know. I don't think it's just having Bakhtiari and Jenkins get healthier or whatever. IMO, Jenkins ain't a Tackle, never was one, and never will be a good one. I do think (and said before anybody else started saying it) he should go back to Guard where he was very decent. And IMO - as that worshippers of the sacred cow really hate hearing - Bakhtiari has always been overrated and was not much better than mediocre even before the injury. That's just now being noticed. Why? (next paragraph)

NOBODY is a bigger supporter of Aaron Rodgers than I am, but sadly, he seems to have declined a little bit this season. Sure, part of it is lower quality receivers without Adams, but that's not the biggest thing. The O Line has stunk it up and kept Rodgers under constant pressure, but IMO it was always pretty much that way, just in the past, he mostly had the mobility and receivers to overcome it. The biggest thing I see in Rodgers, though, is deterioration albeit slight in his magnificent level of accuracy. With all that, he's still the best in the league mainly because of his mindset not to throw interceptions. What I see in that area, though, is a general tendency around the league to emulate Rodgers in that way and throw less stupid passes into coverage and get picked.

And what about the playcalling? Was that on LaFleur? or on Rodgers? or only noticeable because of the shittiness of the O Line and to a lesser extent the receivers? Somebody commented they doubted it was LaFleur calling those unsuccessful long passes late in the game. Maybe. They weren't RPOs, as there woulda been linemen down field. Did Rodgers change the call at the line? If that's the case, LaFleur needs to grow a pair and assert coaching control. If Rodgers had his usual accuracy or if he'd had more time to throw, it probably wouldn't have made a difference, though. 3rd and 2 on the last drive, why didn't we just run it into the line - once, twice if necessary? Maybe because we couldn't. It's a sad fact that when other teams' D know a run is coming, there's about zero hope of success with our O Line.

So what's the best avenue to improve? Is it time to just R E L A X? Maybe, but there are real problems. The O Line probably isn't correctable in the short term, but we've always won with that situation anyway. Defense, though, needs to be fixed, and Rodgers needs to be a little more accurate if possible. More early down running? Hell no.

Something is fucked when Tex lacks optimism. The silver lining could end up being, amidst the sadness of a fucked Packer season, I might finally quit burger flipping.

[ThunderDan]

Seriously? As I said, the Giants DC figured out how to stop what we were doing - unlike our own DC who can't figure out shit. LaFleur shoulda countered what they did with something else that worked, but he is severely limited by having a lame-assed O Line.

And they did that by getting two of their CBs injured? As soon as the backup CBs came in the game, AROD tried to torch them. He completed one to Lazard on the first series after half time and then we had this horrible drive:

1st & 10 at GB 25
(10:03 - 4th) (Shotgun) A.Rodgers pass incomplete deep right to A.Lazard.

2nd & 10 at GB 25
(10:03 - 4th) A.Rodgers pass incomplete short middle to R.Cobb (N.McCloud).

3rd & 10 at GB 25
(9:59 - 4th) (Shotgun) A.Rodgers pass incomplete deep left to A.Lazard (F.Moreau).

After that we went back to the run and short pass. We moved the ball on 5 out of 8 drives with no problem for the game.

[texaspackerbacker]

And your point is? I said - or asked - if those seemingly dumb unsuccessful long passes were LaFleur's calls or if Rodgers changed the play at the line. Do you know for sure one way or the other? In hindsight, I guess we both agree they were mistakes. I knew they had one back up Corner in the game; If it was two like you say, then maybe trying to take advantage wasn't so dumb after all.

[texaspackerbacker]

Something is fucked when Tex lacks optimism. The silver lining could end up being, amidst the sadness of a fucked Packer season, I might finally quit burger flipping.

What are you reading in my post that says I lack optimism? 3-2 at this point when nobody is unbeaten except the Eagles - and that sure ain't gonna last - is NOT what I'd call a "fucked season". There's a lot of good teams looking kinda shaky so far. I'm pretty sure the offensive problems are very fixable, and we're loaded with talent on D. If Barry can't stop the bleeding, then maybe they really will get rid of him.

And is this breaking news or what? - you maybe quitting flipping burgers? Like firing Barry, should doesn't mean it will happen hahahaha.

[SudsMcBucky]

I put this loss squarely on the coaching.

Agree for a lot of it, but I'm also wondering how much AR audibled out of runs into passes in that 2nd half, especially on those 2 plays at the end.

[run pMc]

Plenty of avenues. Off the top of my head:

(1) Jenkins is really struggling at RT. Is he really the best option there after what they've seen for 4 weeks? Could Njiman or Tom do better? We know Jenkins can play G, I think he should move back. Don't worry about the contract- no matter where he plays, he's going to get paid a lot of money.

(2) Rasul should not be in the slot. Jaire is a more natural fit there.

(3) Improved tackling on defense. Campbell has missed more tackles than all of last year already, and the safeties have not looked great. I think Gute restocks at safety next offseason.

(4) More creativity and deception. The TD call to Marcedes was great, but generally speaking Daniel Jones, the Giants D, and Mark freaking Sanchez could all tell what GB was going to do pre-snap. Brian Daboll took MLF and Co to the coaching woodshed.

(5) Your biggest playmakers on offense are your RBs, feed them the ball. Rodgers and MLF have to realize they are a run-first team.

(6) Rookie WRs should improve over the season, APRH. (I'm not sure Watson has been healthy this year yet.)

[texaspackerbacker]

I just saw a LaFleur interview with Larry McCarren where LaFleur seemed to be saying he made the calls. He always has sort of a "buck stops hee" attitude, though, so I'd say it's still a question mark.

[drayge]

I just saw a LaFleur interview with Larry McCarren where LaFleur seemed to be saying he made the calls. He always has sort of a "buck stops hee" attitude, though, so I'd say it's still a question mark.

I just wonder how much FA Bryan Bulaga has left. It would seem an easy call in an "all in" season.

[run pMc]

I just saw a LaFleur interview with Larry McCarren where LaFleur seemed to be saying he made the calls. He always has sort of a "buck stops hee" attitude, though, so I'd say it's still a question mark.

Yeah, I mean he's not gonna throw Rodgers under the bus. Also, there's a theory that the pass plays on the 3-and-out were actually good play calls but bad execution since they had backup CBs in and 1v1 opportunities. With Rodgers getting leeway to audible it's hard to say. It looked like bad throws and hero-ball stuff to some.

Either way, I think when your defense just gives up a 8.5 minute TD drive you have to be able to pick up some 1st downs and give them a rest. GB barely had the ball in the 2nd half (3 possessions) and the defense couldn't get off the field. Jones and Dillon were being productive and even picking up a pair of 1st downs or a FG would have shifted the momentum of the game.

[SudsMcBucky]

(4) More creativity and deception. The TD call to Marcedes was great, but generally speaking Daniel Jones, the Giants D, and Mark freaking Sanchez could all tell what GB was going to do pre-snap. Brian Daboll took MLF and Co to the coaching woodshed.

Don't mock the Dirty Sanchez too much. He was able to take the freakin' Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship games.

[Vincenzo]

It’s too early to be thinking about contending RG, you bonehead.

[Sparkey]

For the season, Rodgers is 6-of-22 on passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield. That’s 27.3 percent. Of 30 quarterbacks with at least 10 deep attempts, that ranks 26th, according to Pro Football Focus. Even Marcus Mariota, Joe Flacco, Justin Fields and Mitchell Trubisky have been better from a percentage standpoint.

https://www.si.com/nfl/packers/news/packers-lose-to-giants-three-reasons-for-concern

[run pMc]

I'm fine with them attempting a deep shot off play action, but they need to do it when they are running the ball and in an advantageous situation. They don't have an automatic guy like Davante they can feed to bail them out.

Side note -- what is this team's identity? What do they do well? I don't think they are playing as if they are a run-oriented, strong defensive team. They don't run the ball enough and panic if they fall behind, giving up on the run too fast. The defense has tons of talent, but once again the whole is playing less than the sum of its parts. Barry has them playing a lot of standard Cover-x and zone stuff with the corners off and they still can't figure out how to handle simple crossing routes, or how to defend a mobile QB on rollouts.

They really don't have that many new faces starting on offense or defense, so I'm not sure if that's a good excuse either.

There's a lot of football season left, but I keep waiting for this team to put it all together and play a good game for 4 quarters in all phases and haven't seen it yet. I'm starting to wonder if maybe it just isn't going to happen at all this year, and that maddening inconsistency is actually their identity.

Right now this is a team who will at best lose in the wildcard round. Sorry, that game really made me mad...this team has enough talent to beat a lot of teams and it seems like they can't get out of their own way long enough to do it.

[RashanGary]

Elgton should get better as he gets stronger and settled in. Bakh concerns me because he was off his legs for 2 years. That’s a lot of atrophy. I don’t know if he’ll be himself this year. Newman is inconsistent. But do we have a better option? Tom is an undersized rookie and Rhyan isn’t ready. Hansen is probably a downgrade.

I could see them getting better at tackle just playing Yosh and having Jenkins settle in. Let Bakh build back strength on the bench and getting full workouts during the week.

At receiver, I see them getting better with Doubs. He’ll just keep getting better.



On defense Quay will improve but they don’t have too many other guys who are ascending. Maybe Stokes. They’re gonna have to get better by becoming more diverse in their scheme and being harder to predict.

Special teams is doing pretty well.


We’re just gonna have to hope for a lucky health year so we can solidify as other teams get decimated.