Yeah definitely well written; that should be agreed no matter what one thinks of the analysis.

Do you really think it was all only about the two Viking games though? Not me. I think there is a lot more to it than that. 4th quarter comebacks & winning seasons, for start. THAT is what this guy is talking about, not just the head to head matchups.

You think Rodgers? “youth” explains him hanging onto ball, and not throwing it away when he needs to? Not sure I follow.

I don’t really think AR is trying too hard to avoid being Favre. Our line sucks period. Our game plan needs to revolve around having horrible players in the line to patch up some of the sacks.

Thanks for posting this though. :)

So these past 3 games we have only allowed 4 sacks? I’m too lazy to go look but if that’s the case then that’s pretty impressive.

No, no, no… the O-line is expected to give a QB only 3 seconds, I haven’t timed all sacks on Rodgers this year, but I’m pretty sure 20 or so came after 4,5 + seconds.
And if the protection is a problem, you need to adjust to quicker throws, the QB has to get rid of the ball faster, this should also be blamed a little on the playcaller if it is a continious problem.

Haha what do you mean no, no, no? I think it was Jabooty who said he read an article that said that 28 of his 37 sacks have been under 3 seconds. It’s not really a debatable thing, unless the writer was just making that stat up but I tend to doubt that.

And really when looking back at games and thinking about some of the sacks Rodgers has taken it’s not that hard to believe. Pretty much every sack I remember from the Bears game week 1 was Ogunleye running by Barbre without even being touched. The next week Antwan Odom did the same to Clifton and Colledge. And we all saw what Allen did to Colledge week 4. And so on…

You are right about the quicker throws and for a while McCarthy wasn’t doing that. But it was probably hard because a lot of teams were just sitting on the slants, ins, and outs we run and forcing us to go down field because they knew our o-line couldn’t give Rodgers the time he needed to do so.

I see what your saying about our possession that could have potentially given us a lead against the Vikings. But Rodgers actually didn’t throw the ball away on 3rd and long (which happened because Wells got thrown like a rag doll by Kevin Williams allowing a sack that happened in 2 seconds). He tried to force a pass to Driver over on the left sideline but as you know it fell incomplete.

I think trying to kick a FG is absolutely the right decision in that situation. Crosby was 13 of 16 up too that point and if he would have made it, we’re within 2 points. As you know, that would mean if we were to stop them and get the ball back we would only need 3 instead of a TD. And when looking at our o-line and their inconsistencies, having too only go maybe 30-45 yards instead of 60-75 yards is huge. As we saw on our drive that ended in a Crosby miss, our o-line can stall a drive at anytime.

We were driving down the field on the Vikes at ease. We had 2nd and 3 on their 26, and looked to be in good position to move the chains at least one more time. Instead, we line up in the shotgun, and despite leaving Grant and Lee back to block Kevin Williams still gets to Rodgers in what was easily less then 3 seconds. That puts us at 3rd and 10/11, and then Rodgers gets flushed out of the pocket and isn’t left with much too do. So just like that, what looked to be a very promising drive was all washed away because of a drive stalling sack.

When you have an o-line like ours, and a d-line like theirs, you have to look at some situational factors. And deciding whether to kick a FG now, hope he makes it to be within 2 points, hope your defense can get a stop, and then hope your o-line can hold up long enough for Rodgers to lead the team into FG range is much better then Rodgers just “throwing one up there” to get picked or punting, hoping that they don’t get a good return on either option, and then hoping once you get a stop, that Kluwe doesn’t boom one 50 to 65 yards down field putting you back at your own 25 or 30 (like he had been doing all game). I just think if you look at all the different situations, the McCarthy chose to do was the best one, and one that gave us the best shot at winning.

As for us defending Brett Favres ints over the years, sure, I’ve done my fair share of that too. I don’t think any of us remembers or, will go back and look at all 313 of them, but based on experience, very few would be graded as bad throws, some of them are surely because of a great defensive effort, a significant number because of a tipped ball, or when one of his rocketballs bounced of his recievers hands/chest (anyone remember Robert "stonehands" Ferguson??) yet most of them would be graded as Favre being the gunslinger, trying to force a ball to a reciever in heavy coverage, or toss one up for grabs when nobody were open. The last two, also resulted in a significant number of big plays for the Packers.

So you basically think that Favre’s INT record is a result of bad luck and dropped passes? Sure, some of them are a great defensive effort, some are because of tipped balls, and some are because of drops. But too say that the majority of them are because of that is just silly. Favre has the INT record because he is a gunslinger. He believed that he could make any, and every throw. Obviously this is going to get you into trouble, and it certainly did sometimes for Favre. I mean, I don’t care how good you are..Trying to squeeze a 30 yard pass bewteen 3 guys, and a window that not even my 10 year old brother could crawl through isn’t going to work a whole lot.

Now I realize it did work for Favre many times, but it also failed many times. Him trying to sling balls into nearly impossible windows did work sometimes, and it did result in many big plays.
But since Rodgers has come in and taken a different approach, our big plays haven’t decreased one bit. In 07’ Favre threw 16 passes for 40+ yards. In 08’ Rodgers threw 16 passes for 40+ yards. And this year Rodgers has 13 40+ yard passes this season.

If I had to choose between a Qb who makes big plays but also throws a lot of INTs as a result of this and a Qb who makes big plays but doesn’t throw a lot of INT’s along with the big plays, I would take the one who doesn’t turn the ball over much in a heartbeat.

Your scientific examination of all things Rodgers/Favre is just too hard to combat.

I haven’t timed all sacks on Rodgers this year, but I’m pretty sure 20 or so came after 4,5 + seconds.

I don’t think any of us remembers or, will go back and look at all 313 of them, but based on experience, very few would be graded as bad throws, some of them are surely because of a great defensive effort, a significant number because of a tipped ball, or when one of his rocketballs bounced of his recievers hands/chest (anyone remember Robert "stonehands" Ferguson??) yet most of them would be graded as Favre being the gunslinger, trying to force a ball to a reciever in heavy coverage, or toss one up for grabs when nobody were open

You are aware that Rodgers has been sacked 20 more times then Cutler has right? Rodgers has been under much more pressure the entire season then Cutler has. And many of Cutler’s INTs have poorly thrown balls (see: underthrown ball to Knox in the endzone) or him making poor decisions. Granted a lot of those poor decisions probably appear much poorer then they are because of Cutler and your Wr corps lack of chemistry.