My Analysis of what went wrong today.

by Nels Winkler on Dec 18, 2011 8:07 PM CST

We played like crap. Dur. We were uninspired, flat, undisciplined, and could'nt hold onto the ball. These are things we took advantage of in the past, and were victims of today.

But there were more.

1) McCarthy's inexplicable desire to go away from the run. I get it. We were down in the 4th quarter. In my opinion, Ryan Grant and Randall Cobb were the only guys out there that were ballin'; grant much more than Cobb. Grant was getting 4-5 yards most of the time he was allowed to touch the ball, yet MM decided that he was not going to go that route. He was going to put the ball in Rodger's hands and that was it. The result? 18 incompletions, 4 sacks, and about 85% pressures. Like I said, Grant was ballin'. Feed the man the damn rock. The turf was bad, and Grant is a mudder. He's the only guy on our team who can win ugly. 12 runs, 66 yards. With Rodgers struggling, Grant should have gotten the ball more than that.

2) I don't understand why we are playing 10+ yards off with our cornerbacks on the WR's on the edge. I'm sure there are some reasons to it, but last year, when we were killing people, we were playing tighter on the wr's closer on the line. This soft coverage is making our defense more easily exploited, resulting in the holes we are seeing far too often this year.

3) I remember reading an article earlier this year about how well we were holding onto the passes. The past month, we haven't really been disciplined enough in that aspect. Finley especially has been hit by the dropsies. Last week there were 1/2 dozen drops, today, Finley alone had 3 or 4.

4) Our continued inability to protect our passer and put sustained pressure on their quarterback needs to get fixed. What did we do right last year? Was Jenkins that vital to our performance? Our blitzes aren't reaching home, and it seems like the opposite OLB (walden) is doing nothing but running headlong into the LT, occupying a block. It also seems like we're far too vulnerable to the screen pass and over compensate on the end around giving up huge amounts of yardage.

If we want to win, and continue to win, this must change immediately. We still are a good team, the best, and hopefully we can use this as an example.

Stay Thirsty my friends

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Comments

Pretty much agree

with 2,3, and 4. While grant looked productive its hard for me to question taking the ball out of #12’s hands even on a bad day. The other thing with grant is he needs a hole to run through where he can make his second level cut. So hes hit or miss on his runs in my opinion.

by packers34 on Dec 18, 2011 8:27 PM CST reply actions

Weak sauce...

You mention Jenkins and not Jennings? Third most TDs in the NFL (48) since 2007? The trickle down effect from losing Jennings (less one-on-one looks for Jordy Nelson, etc) was palpable.

We’ve had drops, porous offensive line play and all that most of the year. And we even survived McCarthy’s awful play calling during the 19 game winning streak (*groans). Difference is KC played lights out. Seamless offensive football. No ridiculous INTs like Eli and Phillip Rivers had (otherwise we could have a couple more losses). The redzone offense was their only flaw in their game. And their defense was simply outstanding. Even Rodgers said guys were covered during the game (post game conference)…

We finally played a team that put it all together and probably played a little over their head. But to quote McCarthy “they flat out beat us”

On to Chicago…

Looking forward to the Packers three-peating and visiting President Ron Paul at the White House in 2013

by PackFaninFL on Dec 18, 2011 9:19 PM CST reply actions

last week all we heard in here was that we should be able to make up for Jennings without skipping a beat. Maybe we learned he is the key to this offense more than Finley (as some were trying to say).

The Green Bay Packers...Putting bad coaches out of their misery since 2010

by TrevorR on Dec 19, 2011 10:04 AM CST up reply actions

They both are crucial.

13.

Build Lasers And Stuff For More Ownage, Dude!

by Wiedmann on Dec 19, 2011 11:12 AM CST up reply actions

I think you might be right about Jennings being the real key to the offense.

by MikeDB on Dec 19, 2011 1:29 PM CST up reply actions

Personally...

I think it takes a couple weeks to adjust to the loss of any of the primary playmakers. We didn’t respond immediately when Finley went down either IMO. Jennings is very important to the offense and so is Finley. Losing either of them is taking a primary playmaker out of the offense and teams suddenly don’t have the same difficulty matching up.

Our Biggest Challenge is how we deal w/ Success!

by Strohman on Dec 19, 2011 10:01 PM CST up reply actions

Yeah probably right stroh…by the time we adjust, he’ll be back too. haha The real question is how quickly we can adjust to our Oline!

The Green Bay Packers...Putting bad coaches out of their misery since 2010

by TrevorR on Dec 20, 2011 7:32 AM CST up reply actions

Im thinking our OL will be fine

Bulaga and Cliffy should be back for our first playoff game after the bye. The only thing we need to worry about is winning one more game with a banged up line. The Bears will be the easiest game remaining for us. Their offense is falling apart, and their defense has problems with their safeties.

by Shoes31 on Dec 20, 2011 9:34 AM CST up reply actions

yeah…I think the Bears game should be a win. Detroit might be a challenge with a banged up line though.

The Green Bay Packers...Putting bad coaches out of their misery since 2010

by TrevorR on Dec 20, 2011 11:56 AM CST up reply actions

this is a good point

they didn’t immediately start being great offensively last year after Finley, it took a few weeks to adjust

football does not build character, it reveals character.

by sheehan on Dec 20, 2011 2:43 PM CST up reply actions

Technically I don’t know how great we were even with Finley last year. We only had one 300+ passing game in the first 5 games last year and that was WITH Finley (2 of them were under 200 yards passing).

The Green Bay Packers...Putting bad coaches out of their misery since 2010

by TrevorR on Dec 23, 2011 3:39 PM CST up reply actions

Window dressing...

What it comes down to is this… KC dictated the game to us! Whether you wanna say ToP or poor offensive production, play calling or too many yards allowed. The bottom line is that KC dictated the game to the Packers, not the other way around! And that was on both sides of the ball. Call it what you want, but in the end it comes down to them dictating the game to us. Everything else is just window dressing and stats…

Our Biggest Challenge is how we deal w/ Success!

by Strohman on Dec 18, 2011 9:48 PM CST reply actions

Yeah. They imposed their will on us all game…which is SHOCKING.

The Green Bay Packers...Putting bad coaches out of their misery since 2010

by TrevorR on Dec 19, 2011 10:04 AM CST up reply actions

KC won the battle on the line on both sides of the ball

that, to me, was the biggest difference in this game. Their offensive line dominated Green Bay’s defensive front, and their front 4/3 dominated Green Bay’s offensive line. The Packers have gotten away with this a few times this years – most notably the Giants and Bucs games – but they didn’t today because they weren’t catching the ball well, and the line play was even worse than in those games

football does not build character, it reveals character.

by sheehan on Dec 18, 2011 11:13 PM CST reply actions

It was more of a perfect storm

In order to beat us, people have been saying you need to play a perfect game. Well, they played a perfect game. It happens. All they needed was a game manager at QB with their D and their receivers / running backs. Well, they got their game manager in Orton.

How many other games are we going to play where the D does not get off the field on third down, the receivers drop at least 6 passes, the OL gets injured and loses its ability to block, our #1 target is not out there, we only have 2 RB’s active, and we don’t force a turnover? We can learn from this, and have a few things to correct, but its not as big a deal as other people are making it out to be.

by Shoes31 on Dec 19, 2011 10:42 AM CST reply actions

Agree

We should have run the ball more. It was working, and it could have reduced the pass rush.

Our CBs play so far back, I believe, because we’ve given up so many long plays. I think Capers is trying to stop the big play. Ain’t working.

Walden played very poorly. They just ran at him, ran screens toward him, end around. He was always out of position.

by MikeDB on Dec 19, 2011 1:32 PM CST reply actions

Referring to #2

I agree the CBs are giving a bigger cushion than last season, but losing Collins is a big part of that. Peprah doesn’t cover even close to as much field, so he can’t stop the deep ball over the top. Not to mention we’ve been getting beat deep alot this season.