You raise a good point, Al, about the Packers designed plays to use a team's aggressive pass rush against themselves.

Whatever happened to Screen Bay? I remember it was once a staple of the offense to make a D pay for their zeal.

I suspect there's a school of thought defenders have been coached up to defeat it, but like the power sweep, it's outcome is predicated upon execution, not trickeration.

One thing I'd like to see more of in the Broncos' game is the quick game. The downside of that is no rest for the D if it's not successful, but so far, they've been very good at it, slowing down the D and D rotation and putting long drives together by starting fast.

One other thing...

Matt, please jump into the Wayback Machine, and go dig up and dust off the up-out-post, fish route that AR and Jordy perfected.

Watson has the speed to run it, and Love has the arm to drop the biscuit in the basket, to borrow a hockey metaphor.

Every game the rest of the way will be a BIG test. The Broncos are a soft 11-2. Believe it or not , I see the Pack being 11-3-1 before our last regular season home game. Like John Madden would say, “You don’t win Championships in September, you win them in December,”Go Pack Go!!!

A lot of good things happening for the Packers lately. O-line is playing better and our secondary is firming up to name a few. If we could sprinkle a little consistency on the picture there would be no doubt. BUT, either the plan only goes to two quarters or the cracks start showing up as the game progresses. Watching the Bears control the game in the second half was not fun. If not for a poor last play decision the game was heading to overtime. Credit to the boys for some clutch plays when it mattered most.

Excited to see what a healthy offense will look like. Reeds return helps everyone. IF Lafleur could incorporate Golden the downfield pass would be king and this offense would be sick.

Would it be greedy to ask for a Bears smackdown in a couple of weeks. Eliminate the scramble to the right and shore-up the interior D-line would take away the 2 things that hurt us the most.

"Of course Gary is the better player than Enagbare, steadier and more consistent overall, but Enagbare finds a way to make impact plays every game."

Really Al? Boy I don't know. Gary really does nothing for me. It drives me crazy watching him crash into the RT and going NOWHERE each time. Kingsley may not have the "Stats" Gray does, but he seems to make a play every game. Something that seems impossible for Gary.

Personally I don't see how they keep Gary next year. IT IS TIME...To move on!

“ it's rather obvious that Christian Watson was THE key part of the equation that was missing and has made up for the loss of Tucker Kraft. Now you also get Jayden Reed back and this presents some real gut wrenching decisions opposing defenses will have to make on the fly.“

Those two make a huge difference in this offense. I’ll make one prediction about our offense. By the end of this season many of us will be singing praise onto Musgrave. Each of the last two games he has made diving catches (yes, the one called incomplete was a catch in the bears game) about 20 yards downfield. He has great hands. His speed downfield, in the seam is real and is a mismatch that D Coordinators have to plan for. It will open a lot of routes for others on this offense.

Still wish kick wheels on Wilkins, not one more in DL with more experience, D on field way to long 2nd half of Bear game!

On Valentine and Nixon: "They have the aggressive attitude that's needed for the position."

Spot on Al. That's how I see the duo...and the Safeties too. X, Williams and Bullard are probably the best Safety group in the NFL. But the two CBs line up after every play with the attitude of "bring it on!"

Valentine fell in the draft, because while being seen as a very good playing man coverage at Kentucky, he tended to joust too much with the receiver during the play and get flagged on PI. That aggressiveness has continued in the pros. His tackling still needs work. But his mindset and coverage ability are looking good.

Nixon is a scrapper. Amazing to realize a few years ago he was viewed as a ST player only. Then forced into some spot duty at slot. Did that job ok. Then pressed into boundary CB with Alexander the Occasional mostly watching games from the bench. Did that job fine too. Now he's sharpening his skill set and is continuously improving...2nd in the NFL in PBUs. And as always, when he makes a mistake, it doesn't bleed into the next play. He's ready for the next snap.

So our last 3 games. To me the tough one was the Lions. We were fortunate that they lost their talisman receiver and don’t have LaPorta. For the second time this season they omitted to pound us in the run game. Gibbs doesn’t match us well. Montgomery does. Thank you Campbell. That was a good win nevertheless.

The Vikings are, despite their win last week, just impotent. That was a win that looked easier than expected at the start if the season, but the Vikings are in disarray against teams not as dysfunctional as them. A win we barely had to try for and barely did.

Then we get to the Bears. The be more I watch that game the worse I think the Bears are. Caleb Williams has more fundamental tells than any QB I recall at this level. Their run game is not bad, but Swift was a non factor. It only existed between the tackles and really only took off due to tactical errors in terms of personnel choices pre game and in managing our offensive calling.

If they aren’t running then more often then more often than not, Williams is, to his right. We took away yards with his feet, but even though 90% of his passing yards were coming from one throw: straight ahead within 10 yards of the right sideline, we did nothing to adjust to that. In pocket, maybe 2 in 10 of his throws are a problem. Hafley seems astute. I think we have the opportunity to shut Williams party trick down next time. As for the run, hopefully we have more DL options active and go less light.

So a nice win against the Lions and wins against a bad team at odds with itself and perhaps at its nadir in Minnesota and a Chicago team with a terrible D and an offense that’s incredibly self-constricted. I’m not all that blown away by the 3 and 0 outcome. The Bears are, in my view, more not less of a fraud than thought and possibly heading down a blind alley.

I firmly believe that we ought to be able to completely frustrate that offense and tear up that D next week, if our coaching is worth its salt. Before then, we face a team with a real D and more comebacks than the pretenders to the south. I think we can contain Harvey on the ground, but it’s going to be a real test of our short pass coverage and they will sporadically go deep. Nix ordinarily gets the ball out really fast. This might be a game for Hopper not McDuffie and Hobbs not Bullard. They advance primarily by the short pass. They have put up more points than we have, so dont underestimate their ability to hang in there.

To beat Denver we will have to overcome the best collective rush in the league thus far and a backfield with a true lock down corner. They also give up the least yards per carry on the ground. So what’s our plan to string together effective drives? I’m sure we will try to establish the run. On paper that doesn’t look like a reliable gambit. LaFleur is going to have to be a lot more imaginative than in any recent game and a lot more flexible to find and adjust to an effective strategy.

So to me, the real tests aren’t the last three games but the one on Sunday against a team I think are the best we have faced in all phases, well coached, and without glaring weaknesses. Then we face Chicago again, but this time we’ve seen them and the fact that they are tied to traits that limit their options dramatically and we should be able to thwart and deliver a kill shot.

Do we have that in us? In different ways the next two games will show us whether LaFleur can show a killer instinct to down Denver and prevent them clawing past us late. Chicago will tell if we can learn from an opponents weakness and burst the bubble of a division rival. That type of second game adjustment I’d not something LaFleur has been adept at in the past. As you note, that foot-on-the-neck mentality seemed absent last week despite the opponent. One starts to wonder if it will ever manifest.

What has become clear to me is that this roster is better than many claimed now we have done returns from injuries and seem to have, at the 11th hour found (perforce) our best OL, which is hopefully going to improve with snaps and familiarity. We have what we need to take off and fly. Do we have the piloting skills necessary to reach the desired destination? We are about to find out.

My polluted thoughts:
First, appreciation for Josh Jacobs and Micah Parsons. Jacobs is money in the red zone. And Parsons is playing lights out. They are worth every penny and more!

And situational football. Score 21-14 and late 3rd quarter. A TD would have forced Chicago into one dimensional, pass and pretty much put the game out of reach. But a three and out occurred. For Love and Lafleur, they have to learn from this. The 2nd down long pass with receiver coming open underneath was on Love. He needed to get a first down and take time off the clock. Defense was gassed.

And third down is on Lafleur. The package included Brooks, Wiley, Melton and Golden. When is Lafleur going to learn to have Watson, #11, Doubs, Jacobs and #88 to have best chance to get a first down. Lafleur put the scrubs in and missed the first down. As these games become more important, Lafleur better get his best players in when you have a chance to put the game out if reach.

So I don’t know how many total ST plays there were, but they had penalties on three of them. Is it that hard to not have ST penalties? Are their # of ST penalties the same across the league but I don’t pay attention to others like the Pack? Still hold my breath every ST chance and feel like they’re on the brink of costing them a game 😩

Parsons is working in tandem with Enagbare and elevating his play. Parsons set up one of Enagbare's sacks

The Denver game is not crucial to the Packers division hopes and is being played at altitude. Expect heavy substitutions on defense and amongst the skill positions on offense. Also expect LeFleur to clench up a bit and revert to a more conservative game plan. The Packers eye's will be set upon the rematch with the Bears in Chi town. That said, they can still win this game if they play cleanly. No TO's and fewer penalties should keep it close and I like J Love over Bo in a tight game. 19-14 Pack takes it.

I'll admit, I barely watched anything from Denver this season. The only time I watched them was a few weeks ago when Washington played them. The hapless Washington team put up a lot of points on Denver and really gave them a run. Every time I looked it seemed like Washington was running big chunk yards on the Broncos.

How?

Was this some oddity or did Washington figure something out that they were able to exploit for that game? I do think Denver has a well coached team, as much as I don't personally care for Payton there is a good supporting cast with him. Everyone speaks of what a good defense Denver has but in the one game I watched Washington was giving that defense all it could handle.

Go figure.

Draw play? What's a draw play?

Draw play? What's a draw play?

I've bought my ticket, but remain hesitant to board the "MLF Love Train." I have no doubt there is more going on w/ the offense than I can process; however, like Brady, I'm a big fan of high-percentage throws that move the chains, and allow your defense to rest.

the only question about Gary next year is will he choose the Bears or Vikings.

"As for the Love interception, one has to wonder what he saw, but with this caveat; LaFleur did say in his presser "There was some detail in the play that wasn't correct." After watching the play multiple times, it's really hard to figure out what that might be. Golden's route was fine, and a good pass would have been a first down conversion, but I think the ball was just severely underthrown. Perhaps Chris Brooks was supposed to continue his route and force CJ Gardner-Johnson to stay shallow, but even if CHGJ wasn't there at all, it doesn't look like the ball would have reached Golden. So, I'm stumped."

Golden ran a nice-looking route, but maybe he ran it to the wrong depth/spacing. Without knowing the exact play call and the way it was specifically drawn up, there's no way to be certain, but signs point to that. MLF alluded to something being incorrect in the running of the play when asked about it. It sure looked like Love was expecting someone to be where he was throwing the ball. And I believe that's why Golden hasn't been more involved in the offense, even when healthy. If they can't count on him to run the play exactly the way they want it to be run, he's going to get fewer opportunities.

Al happy holidays and thanks for the great commentary. I really like the way everyone has seemed to up their game ever since Parsons arrived. There is a lot of enthusiasm and toughness to this team all of a sudden. Not much to criticize other then nit picking small stuff.
The good news is Denver for some reason has dropped off a lot the last couple of games, Their D is solid and but even then have screwed it up the past few games, not sure if they have some big time injuries and guys missing or not. Go pack go

As far as the Packers offense, I can't wait to see how the receiving corps does when everyone is fully healthy, which hasn't happened yet this season. I expect big games on Sunday from Watson, Musgrave and Doubs.

Gotta vary the snap relative to the playclock - can't let these dudes time the snap