It was all too easy for Jefferson. A bad plan badly executed. From that one can recover. Stokes is not a great zone player. Douglas covered well when directly in Jefferson, but the zonal coordination was dire and we suffered from being an active DB short. It was a mess that could have been foreseen and mitigated had we had a better plan going in. We still have the players and thus there’s hope that Barry gets it right in future and that time will help mesh too.

I am far more concerned about whether we can learn the lessons on O, which go far more acutely to the heart of personnel and ability and requisite mindset.

A tidbit from A Christmas Story, as Scrooge faces the tombstone in the Xmas future scene.

"Before I draw nearer to that stone (gravestone) to which you point," said Scrooge, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?"

It seems, no matter the change in personnel, MLF and Rodgers cannot or will not alter their respective mindsets, as to the game plan/adjustment by one, or the expectations/demands placed by the other, less themselves.

This team, with the ease of the schedule, would have me thinking, not believing, yet, that things 'Will Be' as has been, with three years of visual evidence supporting the likelihood of a repeated past. Are either capable of altering their mindsets to change the repeated future path and ending the season without a chunk of coal.

Time will tell, but it doesn't appear, at the moment, either is ready, willing, or able.

Fingers crossed.

No, a win over the Bears next week will not be enough to believe change has come about.

Barry is so passive he puts his own players to sleep. Preston Smith isn't a top rusher anymore and neither is Reed. So it's up to Gary and Clark. They were doubled. Yet Barry rarely blitzed and Cousins had all day. Meanwhile the secondary are all standing in zone, in place, so Jefferson just found the soft zone. It was an incredible display of stupid.

Gute gave Barry the horses I don't think he knows how to ride. And LaFleur with his constant "I have to do better" isn't much better. He simply refuses to adjust when things are unraveling and everyone else in the world can see it. "The Genius" on offense, did he not see Hanson on roller skates? How long do you allow that to continue? I honestly don't think he watches the game.

Now we'll go on to beat a bunch of bums and wait for the inevitable coaching meltdown in the playoffs again. There are good coaches and good big game coaches. This was a big game, even though it was the first of the year, and LaFleur and Barry were destroyed by a young first-year coach. Doesn't bode well.

This team has a ton of talent. The coaching is horrible.

Maybe now some of the naysayers will believe what I said when they picked Gary: In college he went missing in games and oft took himself out when other teams were handling him. He was never on hand whenever M played the better teams so how Gutt picked this guy in Feb as his one pick is mind boggling to me.
Stokes is just as bad. Size, speen and the brain of a walnut. He cant play pass d if he had to and the other dbacks, minus Alex, are slow of foot and cant cover.
Firing Barry solves nothing because this is what he has to work with.
Right now we have the worst pass d in football till they prove otherwise.

It's sort of weird they looked like a team that hadn't played together recently.

Oh wait...

It’s just one game and was against a tough unscouted team. But it did not look good for the defense. I expected the offense to struggle yet was surprised that the defense did as well. Others have questioned the coaching and I will add my voice to it as well. With the injuries to Quay and Barnes I fear that the team will struggle with talented offenses.

Didn't like the DL spread out. Savage still looked lost to me. And he still looked like he was playing hurt.
Defense wasn't physical enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unbelievable. We have the second worst offensive performance in the 55 games of the LaFleur Rodgers era, and all people want to do is talk about the defense.

The defense was very good in the 2nd half. The adjustments were solid. If they stay healthy, they'll be more than fine. The offense, if it does not play like the team Gute set up, will NOT be fine. This is on the coaching staff to get the best 5 OL guys out there (not Hanson and not the mullet). Nijman at RT. Jenkins at RG. Zach Tom as the 6th man.

And 12 needs to stay IN the system and help the WRs grow. Dink and dunk if you need to and RUN the damn ball. 12 was atrocious (again) yesterday.

Did you ever think maybe the Defense is not as talented as you think...? Stokes looked like a JV player out there against Jefferson. Za'Darius Smith gets the last laugh yesterday. Maybe its time Packer MGT move on...? Take the Bears plus the points next week.. The Packers were out played, out coached and out managed yesterday. Plain and simple... So much for not playing your starters during preseason...

100% agree with this article. I'm just really tired of always having a D-Coordinator that is conservative. When I watch the good defenses around the league I see aggressive, attacking, in your face play. When you face a good NFL QB, vanilla zone coverage is going to get eaten up ALL DAY. The rules favor the offense already. Don't make it easier on them by presenting easy pitch and catch scenarios. You have to frustrate and confuse the QB or its game over. Stunts up front, in your face bump coverage, sprinkle in some blitzes... Don't be afraid to get beat here and there if you are being disruptive to their offense. We seem often to be playing not to lose on defense and we have way too much talent for that.

Why is everyone generally blaming the defense for this loss? Yes, it was another reminder that Joe must get out of his passive "comfort zone" and get more aggressive! Remember the 2nd game in Detroit last year? Joe played passive and the Lions shredded the Pack D by halftime. Then Joe got aggressive from that point on in the season. Let your talented players play aggressively! You've got some great DBs - let them play man when zone isn't working!

Yes, 23 points against is not good. But scoring only 7 on offense with the MVP QB from the last 2 years who makes $50M per season are a lesser problem? That's pitiful! From the moment Watson dropped that first pass, it looked like AR went into his childish, frustrated routine again! An MVP should act and play like one. He did neither.

And MLF? He has exhausted his standard excuse "I have to be better prepared". Duh! If you're not prepared, how can your team be? No wonder he is never voted Coach of the Year. He keeps making the same mistakes, year after year. Matt, you amassed great regular season records over your 3 years. But someone should give you a big in the backside when you keep making the same mistakes over and over again...

Minority opinion here, but I think the D was not as bad as it looked. Jefferson's numbers were wild and inexcusable, but the vikes are loaded at the 'skill positions' and Cousins, though fun to laugh at, is a good QB. Holding them to 20 or 23 should be good enough to win. (I'd predicted 16 or 17 thinking MN wouuld have their own first game mis-steps and that the GB offense would have better time of possession.)

Now, from my couch it seems like GB has three good cover men so designing a zone-based defense seems unwise to me, but Greg Olson had a couple good observations on this during the game. He thought JA could handle Jeffferson but noted that following him around would force the others in the secondary to make reads, adjust, and switch very quickly. If the defense scheme is not built around this, a mid-game switch from zones to man is very difficult.

I expected the offense to suck because it's the first time they all played together in a game situation, and because Jenkins and Bak were out.

The defense was just disappointing. On one run play, 3 or 4 guys watched as one guy tried to tackle the ball carrier, then got bowled over when the OL guys showed up resulting in about 5-7 extra yards.

What is it going to take to get a play called, offense lined up over the ball such that our brilliant MVP can get a play off before the play clock hits 10 seconds. If they did , three timeouts would be available at the end of the 2/4 quarters. An occasional up tempo is not a bad thing.

Joe Barry’s defense has the illusion of competency.