Brilliant post Savage57, as usual. Thanks, Since '61

Spot on!!!

It’s actually worse, I agree: the effort didn’t come till the second half: LaFleur stated after half time that he’d had to exhort his players to play hard.

This coaching regime is bankrupt. LaFleur is a massive failure as a leader and the symptoms are everywhere.

I'm not torn on the Claypool miss (he was in Tomlin's doghouse for reasons), but I am steamed about missing Hockenson. Tonyan is not all the way back and Lewis is an offensive lineman at this point - the Packers certainly could have used a good, young pass catching TE. Second in 2022 and third in 2023 with two fourths coming back with Hockenson so the price was reasonable. This could have been a key player for the Packers for years to come.

Nick- I'm not a fan of the defensive celebrations either especially when the Packers are losing and playing on the road.

They should consider Paul Brown's advice, "When you win say nothing, when you lose say less."

Good post. Thanks, Since '61

I was thinking the same thing about when the celebrate in the end zone… what a GD shame!!!! :p

It suggests that the O is just as full of discontent as the D is allegedly. This team is teetering.

Gotta agree with you on Walker. Immature reaction? Sure. But it was the first sign of fire from anyone on this team. I live in Cleveland and last week after their game reports were there was yelling and screaming in the locker room afterwards. Then came out and imposed themselves in the Bengals. Wishing for that to happen with this team.

They need to go with four down linemen (hand in the ground) via 4-3/4-2 looks. Krys Barnes should help when he comes back and Wilson was a good pickup for SpT. We all knew the score from Game One; the veteran WRs were slow, brittle and best used as #3-5 type guys. Gutedkunst's failure to bag a TE from this year's class was a crime, then he can't sweeten the pot for Hockenson?? No guts, no glory. I liked Devin Lloyd over Walker and still maintain the position. We will see. I agreed, he should be coming off the Edge and stunting with the DE-5/OLB. He is not physical enough to shoot the A gaps , or is poorly coached in the technique. Do not expect Teddy Bruschi.
Finally, this cluster of an Offense seems to understand the need for a Fullback with Deguara in the spot, full squadron of TEs and downhill running for Dillon. The RPO bullshit can stay in college. It is designed for a running QB who may or may not make it through a NFL season in one piece. The WR position has to run through the rookies who should be capable to play with the big boys @ this point in time. Denny Green, "No time for Crybabies."

7 apparently, a little over 40%.

He said he thought he was pushed from behind. Which makes it weird for him to not turn around before lashing out. Sounds like a simple heat of the moment misconception case.

I think the coaches need to do their jobs and actually teach!… as the best coach ever said… be teachers of the game… in all aspects… and nonsense to being their friend…

Spot on comments Razer!

How about trying Savage on the bench. Any decent receiver would wear him out one on one.

They never play base defense and they never blitz. That means on every single play, the oline has a 5 on 4 advantage and if they have a tight end inline thats 6 on 4. That means Lowry is getting double teamed on virtually every run play. Lowry is a base defense 5 technique. Hes not built to take on 20+ double teams per game. You combat this by playing base and using some run blitzes to keep the front 7 in one on one's but Joe Barry has no aggression whatsoever. Lowry is a good player and hes being misused like so many other players on this roster. For too long, the Packers have played their own version of moneyball where they've completely ignored the run on both sides of the ball. Just pass and stop the pass and we'll win. Well people are finally starting to see that it doesnt matter who the skill players when you just forfeit the line of scrimmage every single play. I've been saying this for years now and it just never changes. Packers are like a boxer terribly afraid to take one on the chin so they just willingly accept body shot after body shot till their ribs are broken and their organs are mush. And on offense, they just go for knockouts and never even attempt the body shot. Give me a coaching staff who emphasizes controlling the line of scrimmage above everything else and you'll see this team change over night. They have the players, what they dont have is a coaching staff with any balls or attitude.

*Rodgers gotta go! Terrible leader, he was better with Danica!

*It took almost half the season to figure out your two best playmakers on offense?! Criminal.

*Talky CB’s?! Gotta walk the walk and they didn’t.

*Bakhtiari, he good, but for how long?! He gone in the off-season.

*Claypool, he’ll probably kill the Pack for years to come, that’s how it seems to work.

*Doubs & Toure, love these kids, may as well play them a lot at this point, the packers aren’t going anywhere.

*Watkins, was a crappy signing at the time and he is who he thought he was! Gutekunst must have been in Peru drinking the same tea as Rodgers!

*Walker, just another sign the wheels are coming off!

*Time for Rodgers to go (either by trade or retirement)

LET THE REBUILD BEGIN!

Hold on a sec: In Cory's piece yesterday, wasn't Aaron Rodgers portrayed as sounding unenthusiastic about the great success of the running game against the Bills?
Is that not a thing, a big deal?
Our ground game runs wild against the Bills for big chunks, but Rodgers seems to question if that's the way the offense wants to play, adding that it needs to take shots downfield.
To quote Cory, "The Packers finally did something meaningful on offense and Rodgers wants to do something different."
***
So, not only is Rodgers apparently saying that he isn't interested in doing what worked so well against the Bills, he is also attempting to undermine and override his head coach once again by diminishing and dismissing this strategy that actually worked.
If I'm accurate in this assessment, then that means the continuing arrogance and intrusiveness of Rodgers means continuing dysfunction and decline for the Packers.
How is this not a huge story, the most important news of the week for the Packers?

The entire season thus far is nothing short of a Shit-Fest, even the games they've won, and there's plenty of blame to go around.
You can blame a coaching staff that has ridden the arm of an aging MVP quarterback to three consecutive NFC championship contenders, three 13 win seasons, and now, not adjusting or sticking with the run game. You can blame an injury plagued, inconsistent, under-performing, and arguably misaligned, out-of-position offensive line. You can blame a (history of not being trusted) young receiver group, and the injuries to the veteran receivers left on the team.
And that's just the offense!
You can also blame Gutey for his hard-headed, somewhat arrogant drafting and free agent selections, and his unwillingness to ever make that 'one big trade' that can change a team.
And then there's the defense, and there's a coaching problem here! Go ahead and give me the thumbs-down for this, but there's enough talent on this defense to be far better than they are, even with the fact we took Quay Walker over Devin Lloyd. The D-backs are a group a number of teams would covet, and yet they get torched far too often, playing 10 yards back. C'mon Man! Alexander talks trash as good as he plays, and sometimes better! Stokes is a talent just waiting to be tapped, and Douglas is Douglas, maybe the best football IQ in the bunch, the safeties need a transfusion and Douglas might be it. The D-line, while not all Pro-bowlers has a new 1st round pick and 'should be' adequate and the LB's should be too. But where's the leader, there hasn't been one since Woodson departed, which is about the time the defense started its decline to being soft.
Someone has got to grab the bull by the horns and it doesn't appear Joe Barry and his staff are capable.
Let the thumbs down begin.

If they trot Savage out there to start the Lions game that will tell me all I need to know about the coaching...I'm not saying there's someone better, but are the other guys actually worse? Needs to be accountability.

First, great job AL. As for being ready to play I think the offense was ready to play but the defense didn't get the message until the second half. Four straight scoring drives allowed basically ended the game at halftime. I've asked a few times since Sunday why did it take until halftime for MLF to challenge his team. He should be doing that before the game begins and should be doing that before every game. Check coach Lombardi's approach to preparing for every game.

Run the ball speaks for itself, specifically get the ball to Aaron Jones as often as possible.

On defense the only player who plays up to his level. of trash talk is Alexander. Allen was 0-5 on throws towards Alexander with a pick. The DL can't hold the point of attack and is repeatedly pushed all over the field.

DBAK - had his best game of the season. Hopefully his knee continues to hold up. He is the only OL who we can count on.

Claypool - glad we held onto our pick(s). I agree that he would not make a significant difference.

PFF - I have questioned the PFF model from the beginning. I've seen their model. It produces inconsistent results at best and part of the reason is because the variables in the model can be manipulated. It's OK for the skill players but with limitations. As for OL, DL and defense in general it's unreliable as as far as I'm concerned. Your examples of Savage and P. Smith are excellent examples of why I ignore PFF scores. Not everything that is counted counts.

Doubs can be a good one if we give him the chance. Toure should play more.

Watkins - why is he here? Gute? anybody?

Walker - stupid mistake. Another area where are coaching is lacking. Failure to instill any type of discipline in our players. No discipline, poor attitude, non-aggressive, great job guys.

Bring on the Lions. Thanks, Since '61

I like the rollercoaster, and very much prefer it to the merry go round.

Rodgers comments about it being the first time the energy was right........dude, you are the leader of this team. In every team sport I've ever known, the leader always sets the tone, so even though I hate to say this, but if the energy isn't right, the first place I'd look is the leader.

I take PFF with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, all they're doing is quantifying subjective observations. What constitutes a drop, or a bad route, or a missed tackle isn't chiseled in stone someplace.....there's a lot of gray area.

As far as Offensive Lessons......Run More, Pass Less. Yeah, it's nice to have company on the bandwagon.

Sammy Watkins, Toure, etc.: I'm about to say the Watkins move has failed. It looked like he might be a guy who could make up half of what we lost with Adams, but he hasn't. This is a classic example of what Ted Thompson always said about free agency, that you get a guy who isn't an improvement on what you already had, and that it's easy to make expensive mistakes. Better to draft and develop. Would we be any worse off playing Toure? Maybe as a blocker, but that's about it. I'm not a guy who thinks you need 4 or 5 Superduper WRs on the field, but I think it's damn helpful to have ONE guy who is the straw that stirs the drink and creates opportunities for others. None of the guys we have looks like that guy, and I'd predict we're going to look for one next offseason.

XXXXXX

Take heart, brethren. We have a game in a few days. If we win, we'll be able to talk about getting to .500. If we lose, it'll almost certainly trigger many of the changes we'd like to see. Either way, it's not going to be like it is today a week from now.

The reason the Packers ran the ball so well is the Bills LET them. The Bills had faith that if the Packers were forced to sustain long drives to score they would screw it up. Faith confirmed. They played with light boxes most of the night and got the result they wanted. Good breakdown on how the Bills defended them here.

https://youtu.be/Jq94dTAUbDo

Many have pointed out the Packers were a soft team. They went against an aggressive team and got their behinds beat.
We have seen this all year esp after what Jersey Al pointed out about the defensive backs. Now a team has to see their future decline before they decide a change is needed. I think they see it and are starting to realize where they can be successful.
Why it’s taken so long is an indictment on the coaching staff. They can work that out after the season, but until then you will find out who wants to play football and who just play for a paycheck. That will play out the rest of the season.

I know everyone wants scalps for this season, but this was the route that the front office decided was the best chance to land a SB win with Rodgers. Unfortunately they doubled down on the last two contracts to Rodgers and missed on some of their high picks. The results are in and they are not pretty. Building a better future starts this year. Find out who can play, and start drafting and finding players for the future.

The Packers aren't going anywhere fast this season, but here are some things they could do to maximize what they could get out of their personnel and potentially make the playoffs:

1. Fix the Secondary. Convert Savage full-time to nickel CB. He likes playing there, and is bad as a safety. Put in Rudy Ford at Safety. Move Douglas as the primary starting outside CB opposite Jaire; he's better there. If Ford doesn't work out at Safety, then move Douglas there.
2. Play Toure and Deguara more. We will get healthier at WR soon, but Toure deserves starting consideration in the slot. Deguara has shown potential in the last couple of games, and deserves more pass catching opportunities to see what he can do.
3. More D-linemen. Play with 3 DTs on the field more, not 2, like in the nickel alignment. This will help vs the run. More Slaton and Wyatt (to see what he can do) and less Lowry. Jack Heflin should also be elevated to see what he can do.
4. Run the Ball! Self-explanetory.
5. Use more than 5 O-linemen. This will help the Packers run the ball. On Monday night, I saw the Browns run a play where they had 8 offensive linemen on the field lining up at different positions. This will get better blocking for our RBs, and help us in the red zone. Using O-linemen as TEs also helps. Imagine lining up Caleb Jones or Rasheed Walker as a TE - very interesting what this could do for our offense.
6. Put Keisean Nixon as punt returner as well. Amari needs to go, and Nixon looked nice on Sunday returning kicks

Devondre Campbell also needs to play better, as he's missed a lot of tackles this season. I saw quite a few on Sunday.

There are some big questions to be answered. Is the defense vastly overrated, or is the DC terrible? Why can't LaFleur get this team ready to play? Remember when Z. Smith said after the playoff loss to SF, 37-20? He didn't feel ready to play the game, and that the team didn't seem ready. So they got the ball run down their throats all night. What will it take to get this team ready to play every week? Even Detroit seems more fired up, and they've been terrible for years. The O-line is going to have to undergo some evaluation this off season. Bakhtiari is a rock, but unfortunately, the caveat "when healthy" now has to be added. Is it coaching, or are the caliber of players just lacking? And why did it take so long for there to be changes? And hanging over everything is how long Rodgers is going to stick around. Because once he leaves, the salary cap hit is going to be extremely harsh. This was supposed to be another year of SB contention. Instead, it looks more like dysfunction and dissension, especially between the QB and HC (again).

"Finally Ready to Play"

Last night I watched "A Football Life: Bruce Arians" on Youtube (excellent series, check them out if you haven't!). Anyone who says something along the lines of NFL players are professionals, they shouldn't need to be fired up to play well, yadda yadda yadda needs to go watch that documentary. Along with every other one about a successful coach. Player after player talking about what an impact just wanting to play well for their great coaches was on their game - and seeing the results. All of the great coaches I've watched are:

1. Great motivators
2. Great teachers
3. Great schemers

If you can't motivate them, they won't care what you have to teach. And if you haven't motivated or taught them anything, the greatest schemes in the business won't be enough to win.

Joe Barry has no aggression… and… obviously… no teaching skills!!!

I’ve got to say people should lighten up on Walker ! Yes it was an immature reaction but we see this every game every week! Whatever game is played , things happen on the sidelines. Yes he shouldn’t of pushed the guy ,but we don’t know what was said on the sidelines. What I find most egregious is not only a fifteen yard penalty but an ejection! Really !!?? Helmet to helmet,late hits or roughing the quarterback…which are usually worse ,generally don’t warrant ejections

I disagree with Rodgers sentiment. The team was riled up because it was the first game this year not only were they favored to lose but they were expected to get a beat down.
Hell that will ignite ferver in anyone that you got to fight back.
My two cents, this team is a dumpster fire from top to bottom and the pain your seeing now is just the beginning. Heck your losing five starters next year due to lack of funds and your going to replace them with late round conditionals and drafting to replace some of them.
This is a turnstyle football organization that is in a constant mini rebuild. The draft is one thing, but drafting to replace people who can play football and are experienced with rookies aint working.