More Banjo - Packers At Bears Wildcard Thread

[Freak Out]

People love that though. They're in the news today. It's great IMO.

It's nonsense. The lack of respect is childish nonsense and if I'm a Bears fan I'm embarrassed. I get that they have stunk for a long time but damn....Cheese graters? It was their SB after all.

[Freak Out]

Aaron Nagler
@AaronNagler

This is a guy who knows he's going to be on the street looking for a gig soon and doesn't want to risk an injury. Seen it before.

Warren Sharp
@SharpFootball

Nixon with the business decision at the goal line

https://x.com/i/status/2010196711998988434

I saw that earlier. Ugh

[George Cumby]

Quay Walker: Surprisingly, the audio/video did not get posted on Packers.com.

This screams "Coach has lost the team" to me.

[pbmax]

This screams "Coach has lost the team" to me.

Maybe. But to me it reads more like a guy with one foot out of the door.

[NewsBruin]

I saw that earlier. Ugh

Trying to prove to the doubters that he's a real cornerback?

[pbmax]

From Packers Wire:

The first play of the second half helps demonstrate the ugly truth.

"A good play is the first play of the second half," LaFleur said Sunday. "We have Luke Musgrave, it's going to be a huge, explosive gain, and we don't fan out to the corner blitzing off the edge. There were multiple protection busts. They amped up their level of pressure and we did not adjust to it."

This seems eminently fixable and not exactly a talent question. Were they still getting adjusted to Rhyan calling the game?

Of all the items I have seen mentioned for reasons to can LaFleur, this seems interesting. The answer probably tells you what needs to be done.

[pbmax]

Same article. If any Packer reporter can suss out what is happening here, you have a reason to act.

Take the first play of the Packers' third series in the second half. Remember that wild play to Darian Kinnard? It only happened because of another protection break down. LaFleur called a man coverage beater based on the tendencies the Bears showed when bringing Kinnard into the game. Once again off a run fake on first down, Love would have had two open receivers breaking into space -- including Musgrave running a deep over route for a likely explosive play -- but Walker once again blew the protection and allowed a free runner. Under immediate pressure, Love had to get rid of the ball to an eligible receiver, and Kinnard was eligible. Another missed opportunity.

Also:

Skip ahead to 1:33 left in the third. Second-and-10. Another run action fake, another missed block by Walker, who let Austin Booker go free, and Love was flagged for intentional grounding because he tried to get rid of the ball before the sack.

This kinda screams unscouted look to me. Like Allen devised a blitz or two the Packers hadn't seen and they reacted poorly to it live.

[Sparkey]

It screams POOR COACHING. I may be off on my timeline, but since Stenavich to OC duties and they hired BUTKUS as the Oline coach, the line has always looked shaky and unprepared at times.

[pbmax]

It screams POOR COACHING. I may be off on my timeline, but since Stenavich to OC duties and they hired BUTKUS as the Oline coach, the line has always looked shaky and unprepared at times.

Time for the grizzled O line coach. Where have you gone Larry Beightol?

[texaspackerbacker]

I do not see it as the coaching staff as having "lost the team" - far from it. This game, and the season as a whole, was a product of injuries totally fucking things up, the 5 of our top 10 players or whatever going down. In the first half, contrary to losing the team, LaFleur and in particular Hafley had the Packers fired up and playing over their head, given the personnel and injury situation. Being fired up and/or compensating for weakness with scheme represents quality coaching. Unfortunately, our guys came down to earth and/or the Bears sucked a little less than usual and adjusted in the second half.

As optimistic as I usually am, I don't think we woulda gone very far in the playoffs anyway if we had won this game. When we were 9-3-1, the team didn't seem as good as their record. And it was pretty predictably downhill from there. That being said, though, I really don't see the Packers as all that far from being elite next year, assuming Kraft and Parsons and Wyatt and Tom are back at full strength, which they should be.

[Fritz]

Time for the grizzled O line coach. Where have you gone Larry Beightol?

I've been reading a lot of Justis Mosqueda lately, and he's been screaming from the rooftops that the Packers pay assistant coaches very poorly and thus end up with poor assistant coaches. He just had an article about the drop off in performance of the linebackers after Campanille left. Mosqueda also thinks the offensive line coach has hurt the team.

How many times this year have we seen blown protections? Over and over and over. The Packers, as an organization, need to pony up and start hiring assistants and assistants to assistants who have some experience and credibility. How can you, for example, make the assistant line coach the receivers coach, as the Packers did? Drops still an issue, yes.

After McAnus missed the 55 yarder at the end of the first half, I turned to my daughter and said "This is how it starts." We've watched enough Packer football over the years to know how it goes in games like these. And when the Packers came out in the second half with that very limp three-and-out, I knew it was going to be an epic collapse. The only question was if the Packers could manage to hang on. But no.

Had they hung on for the win, I would've been really down about their chances this week anyway. So I'm not too heartbroken - this isn't 4th-and-26, or the Seattle playoff game in 2014. This is a team that, like Patler said earlier, put together stretches of great, great play on defense (early in the year) and offense (once in a while) but never, ever put it together as a team. The offensive line never got it together (coaching?), and the defense, even before Parsons was hurt, seemed vulnerable to a smart offensive game plan.

I was also disappointed the LeFleur tried at halftime the "We need to finish the game." I would've preferred "We need to play like it's zero-zero." The team definitely went into turtle mode, and then got desperate.

I don't think they'll fire The Flower. They've got a one-year window - next season - with most of the current cast and crew. It would seem crazy to dump the HC and start over when you only really have a one-season window before you have to pretty much re-jigger the team. But LeFleur did not do a great job this year, I don't think. He never did get the offensive line to perform, and he didn't seem to figure out how to revamp the offense after Kraft got hurt.

I would think at this moment that Jenkins, Gary, and Quay Walker are gone, gone, gone. And McAnus better be, too. I'm sorry that he had a bad day, but in his profession you don't get to have one bad day at the office during the playoffs and get to shrug it off and come back. But to be clear, he was far from the only reason they lost.

As we've all noted, they lack corners. They lack interior defensive line. I'm sorry, but Wooden and Brooks did not cut it in the middle. And their offensive line, which they've put a lot of resources into, was pretty lousy this year.

Ed Policy has some big challenges ahead. I'm guessing he's going to try to extend LeFleur for as short a period as LeFleur will accept, so if Policy fires him in two or three years he doesn't have to keep paying LeFleur for years while also paying the new coach he hires. But Policy also needs to do something different with the assistant coaching structure. He needs to open up the checkbook to get some higher quality assistants in there.

And Guter needs to put some of his limited draft resources into the defensive line and the cornerback room. And probably offensive line, center for sure.

For a team that, early in the season seemed so, so close, this team now feels so, so far away.

[Joemailman]

Someone pointed out that McCarthy early in his tenure had some pretty established coaches on his staff. Not so much early LaFleur. I remember when he put together his first staff thinking some of the resumes seemed a bit thin. Makes me wonder if Murphy significantly restricted how much LaFleur could spend on coaching help. If needed changes to the coaching staff are what is holding up LaFleur's extension, which way does that go? Does Policy and/or Gutekunst want LaFleur to make changes, and LaFleur is resistant? Or does LaFleur want to make changes and Policy won't provide the money at attract established coaches?

[bobblehead]

Everyone on this board wanted Leonhard as our DC at one point. Rumor was that he was offered it but stayed at WI for a shot at the top job later. Its not like they weren't willing to pay him.

[bobblehead]

And again, we can't hire Evero or Fanzio to be DC. They have DC jobs. We can ONLY give guys a promotion or grab from college. No DB coach in the NFL is going to say "nope, don't want that DC job in GB cuz they won't pay me as much as the DB coach in Carolina makes".

[Joemailman]

Everyone on this board wanted Leonhard as our DC at one point. Rumor was that he was offered it but stayed at WI for a shot at the top job later. Its not like they weren't willing to pay him.

Actually I wanted Evero. MLF did interview him.