More Banjo - Packers at Cowboys

[Joemailman]

Jordan Love - 337 passing yards, 3 TD, 28 rushing yards

Romeo Doubs - 6 catches, 58 yards, 3 TD

Josh Jacobs - 86 rushing yards, 2 TD. 4 catches, 71 yards

Emanuel Wilson - 81 total yards

Blocked XP cost 3 points

Defense allowed 436 total yards, 1 sack for 0 yards, 0 turnovers

Discuss

[ThunderDan]

Another game we should have won but found a way to tie.

MiLF completely blew the time management in the OT.

Love played great. O looked great.

The D that looked strong the 1st 3 weeks got gashed.

[MadtownPacker]

Yeah that XP was the dagger like we all felt it would be.

What a dirty feeling. This shit will come back to haunt in the playoffs chase.

Pepe LaFleur needs to get his hair shaved off and put on notice. He was horrendous tonight with the bad play calls and time out chokes.

[Jaire]

MLF played to tie and ran out of time. ...... I'm concerned about his end game; it's happened too many times now.

Dallas did not stop us in the red zone once all game.

[Jaire]

Yeah that XP was the dagger like we all felt it would be.

What a dirty feeling. This shit will come back to haunt in the playoffs chase.

I would have said that before it became a shoot out. But MLF blew the overtime. Dallas (and esp Dak) played great on offense second half. You gotta go for the win. MLF did not.

[MadtownPacker]

I would say that. But MLF blew the overtime. Dallas (and esp Dak) played great on offense second half. You gotta go for the win. MLF did not.

I added to my post and 100% agree. Got his weewee all wound up and couldn’t see the road for shit. Real mad at dude right now.

[Jaire]

Dallas is the best offense in the league imo. They've needed more receivers than just Lamb for a few years and also a real running back. I predicted that playoff loss a couple years ago: just takes Jerry way way too long to figure out their needs. This team would be very dangerous if they still had Micah. lol. Dak is better than Goff: he was getting that ball out very fast and is more mobile than Goff. I prefer Williams to sonic/knuckles: he is a pounder, which is what you need in playoffs. Their dbs (back from injury) were much better than their first 3 games outside the first GB drive. They should have beaten Phillie in week one. If that defense can find just a little pass rush, Dallas will be hard to take out.

That said, GB should have won this; repeat of the Browns game. The only silver lining is that it wasn't a playoff game and they have 3 months to fix this.


Preseason is over now.

[MadScientist]

That said, GB should have won this; repeat of the Browns game. The only silver lining is that it wasn't a playoff game and they have 3 months to fix this.


Preseason is over now.

They have 2 weeks to fix this. Dallas got pounded by the Bears. The Packers could not generate any pressure at all, against a line that had a couple of backups playing. It took the league just 4 weeks to figure out what the Packers were doing and neutralize it. They need to sort it out or figure out how to get turnovers, or at least some more 3 and outs.

[pbmax]

So going for the win. Dropping back deep and throwing often against a decent pass rush is something the Packers cannot do at the moment. Given their O line and injuries, I was kinda stunned they were as successful as they were in the second half. Those were nice adjustments and very good play from Love.

I just don't think MaLF trusted them to keep Love upright though I think ideally with a last drive offense in OT, you get into definite FG range before you start to wait the clock out to ensure (absent a TD) that any FG is the last play. I also think their timeouts used later in the red zone would have been more effective once the Boys were out of them. But I cannot entirely fault the HC here (despite other MaLF reservations) because ...

All of Gutekunst's offseason is blowing up in his face right now. His attempt to fortify the interior of the O line have sent them backward with injury playing a big part and adjustments to new personnel the rest. His CB room cannot really cover man to man and Hafley does use m2m when need arises, Valentine isn't having a good year and Hobbs has been hot and cold and injured. Banks is living up to his injury reputation. If I am not mistaken, he's had three: one in camp, the week one and the ankle after that. This guy has be available and be better because ...

Jordan Morgan will be a good tackle and maybe a passable Guard eventually, but he really isn't a guard. This has not worked out like I thought because when I saw Belton drafted I thought that he was going to move in and push Rhyan out of a job. When your front office offseason results in Morgan playing guard, the big FA signing injured and Sean Rhyan still starting, you get an incomplete at best. Sean Rhyan is so bad at pass pro that in the Washington game the announcers said that the Commanders had a free rusher up the gut, they missed that Rhyan had fallen for a head an shoulder fake so bad he never laid a glove on the guy 1.5 feet in front of him.

In answer to a Tex post earlier, yes the Packers did have pressure problems up the gut last year when Josh Meyers and Rhyan would take turns losing DTs or blitzing LBs and let them cross their face. This year its injuries, new player adjustments and Rhyan.

I'll find another thread to clog up with the upcoing 15,000 essay about MaLF.

[Jaire]

I'll find another thread to clog up with the upcoing 15,000 essay about MaLF.

Look forward to it....

Wonder if they're rethinking taking Morgan over Graham Barton (only gave up one sack last year btw). Might have saved a lot of money and kept Jenkins at guard. Now, we have a 2 year redshirt LT.

edit: and pick up Josh Simmons this year with a move down. (I've been saying oline is the biggest need on the team since 2020.)

[texaspackerbacker]

The Packers O Line is still their biggest weakness for sure. However, this game on offense demonstrated what I've thought and said all along - O Line just isn't that important. You can get by and have a really high powered offense even with mediocrity in the O Line (although part of the offensive success was mediocrity in the Dallas defense, and that's putting it charitably). We were our best in the O Line when Meyers was at Center and Jenkins and Tom at Guard. Jenkins has been mediocre at Center and Tom IMO has been way less effective at Tackle than when he played Guard. Strength up the middle is more important than at Tackle. That's true both in run blocking and pass blocking. I had hope that signing Banks would help that/compensate (at about three times the expense) for losing Meyers. That still could happen, but it sure hasn't happened yet. If/when both Tom and Belton get healthy, I'd like to see Belton at Right Tackle and Tom at Guard, but I very much doubt that will actually happen. Rasheed Walker actually looked good maybe 50-60% of the time on run plays. He was awful at pass blocking, though. Morgan, sorry and mediocre at best that he was, still played better than the week before. If everybody is healthy after the bye, Morgan should ride the bench.

Hafley - who I generally still have a good opinion of - got outsmarted by Schottenheimer. Our great pass rush got completely counteracted by Dak getting rid of the ball so quick. Our DBs got exposed as mediocre without the pass rush getting home. Somehow, Hafley should have been able to compensate or put something together to stop their passing game. Where was Xavier McKinney? He was hardly visible all day. Williams was playing single high Safety and apparently not doing a very good job of it. Edgerin Cooper also didn't have a very good day. The worrisome thing is that what Dallas did could possibly be copied by future opponents.

LaFleur - who I also still have an extremely high opinion of - got away from what worked early and what was taking advantage of the Cowboys biggest, deep and medium passing. Partly that was shoddy O Line play, but Love has proven often he can make plays even with losuy pass blocking. Those two passes for no gain or loss on the last drive before the FG were poor play calls. If Love had thrown it into the endzone three times, he very likely would have connected on one of them.

I'm still looking for a great season, but it sure hasn't looked great the past two weeks.

[Jaire]

The Packers O Line is still their biggest weakness for sure. However, this game on offense demonstrated what I've thought and said all along - O Line just isn't that important. You can get by and have a really high powered offense even with mediocrity in the O Line

.... that is absolutely not true in the playoffs. 2020 and last year etc., etc. demonstrated that. gotta have a plus oline (and dline) for Jan/Feb.

edit: maybe, IF everyone gets healthy, we can salvage the line with Walker -- Jenkins -- (all pro center per Gutey) Tom -- ?? -- the Beltman.

[Joemailman]

Best, worst PFF grades:

Top 5 offense

RB Josh Jacobs: 81.8
QB Jordan Love: 78.6
RT Darian Kinnard: 74.8
WR Malik Heath: 71.3
TE Tucker Kraft: 68.0

Jacobs gained 73 rushing yards after first contact, forced three missed tackles and had three runs over 10 yards while adding four catches for 71 yards. Love was excellent from clean pockets (again) and perfect on 26 passes thrown under 10 yards downfield. Kinnard gave up a team-high five pressures but earned a near-elite grade as a run blocker (88.8). Heath caught a pass for nine yards and was strong as a blocker. Kraft caught all five of his targets and produced 55 yards after the catch. Romeo Doubs isn't listed here, but he went 4-for-4 on contested catches and had three scores.

Top 5 defense

DE Micah Parsons: 94.2
LB Isaiah McDuffie: 79.5
LB Edgerrin Cooper: 77.5
DE Rashan Gary: 71.4
DL Devonte Wyatt: 70.1

Parsons produced a season-high 10 pressures on 30 pass-rushing snaps and had an elite 94.3 pass-rushing grade. McDuffie made four tackles without a miss and was strong in coverage (allowed one catch for zero yards). Cooper missed three tackles but broke up a pass and was solid in coverage. Gary didn't have a pressure but was excellent against the run, creating two stops. Wyatt played only 13 snaps before exiting with an injury but was good as a pass-rusher early on, and the defense crumbled without him.

Bottom 5 offense

TE Luke Musgrave: 45.7
RG Sean Rhyan: 46.2
WR Dontayvion Wicks: 47.4
TE John FitzPatrick: 49.4
C Elgton Jenkins: 60.3

Musgrave struggled as a run blocker but did have a big block on Josh Jacobs' 18-yard touchdown run. Rhyan gave up four pressures, including two quarterback hits. Wicks caught two of four targets for 19 yards while running 37 routes (0.51 yards per route run). He also dropped a pass. FitzPatrick had two missed blocks and didn't have a catch. Jenkins didn't allow a pressure but struggled in the run game and had a penalty.

Bottom 5 defense

DL Nazir Stackhouse: 30.1
LB Quay Walker: 45.5
CB Carrington Valentine: 45.6
DL Colby Wooden: 46.3
DE Kingsley Enagbare: 56.8

Stackhouse had a hurry and a tackle, but he earned a poor run defense grade over 27 total snaps. Walker had a team-high five stops, and missed only one tackle, but he earned low grades as a run defender, pass-rusher and in coverage. Valentine gave up five catches on five targets for 72 yards and one touchdown, and he was penalized once. Colby Wooden had a QB hit but was almost as poor against the run as Stackhouse.

Special teams

The blocked extra point was a killer play, and the Packers allowed a 45-yard kickoff return late in the fourth quarter. The special teams missed only one tackle and did not have a penalty. Brandon McManus made his other six kicks, including a 53-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. Daniel Whelan put both of his punts inside the 20-yard line. Evan Williams, Xavier McKinney, Isaiah McDuffie and McManus had tackles covering kicks. Matthew Golden was replaced at punt returner by Romeo Doubs.

Quarterback play

Jordan Love: 78.6

Love completed 25 of 27 passes from clean pockets for 278 yards, three touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He completed only 6 of 16 passes for 59 yards on 19 pressured dropbacks. Love was also a perfect 26 for 26 on throws under 10 yards down the field, but completed just 1-for-5 on deep throws over 20 yards. Of his 31 completions, 12 came on designed screens, gaining 106 yards. The playaction passing game produced six completions for 64 yards. Love had two big-time throws and one turnover worthy play (lost fumble).

Stat to know

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott completed 12 of 14 passes for 162 yards and one touchdown pass under pressure. He was fine from clean pockets but deadly under pressure. Not many quarterbacks are capable of performing this well under duress. His passing grade was 90.5 under pressure. Prescott also hit 4 of 7 passes thrown at least 20 yards -- this was a veteran quarterback playing at a very high level.

[Teamcheez1]

In my opinion, several decisions by MLF were lacking:
Punting on 4&2 from the 50.
Punting on 4&5 from the 45.
Attempting long passes before the half with a shaky Oline and no timeouts.
Going slow on the last drive of the game.

Are we playing to win, or not to lose?
I think Andy Reid, Nick Sirriani, Dan Campbell, and several others would make different decisions.

[pittstang5]

These last two games, I've come to this conclusion: Three of the four head coaches in the NFC North look to annihilate their opponent. One coach hopes not to lose.