the things that most stood out for me was Love's consistently throwing at the ankles though he got a bit better in the second half and wicks's stone hands. i would play heath or melton ahead of him. i am not sure Love was ready to play and i think i would have had Willis go one more game. i could not help myself, but i wanted aaron jones to have a monster game; as it was he a good game. I am I must admit a Love skeptic and think of him as in the middle of the pack of the league's qbs.
as usual TGR gives the most useful game commentary with a close second to Jersey Al midweek.

Very true about Jordan Love's play being eerily reminiscent of the first half of last season. Another way to put it is that rather than looking like a top-tier QB, he looks more like Derek Carr, i.e., he makes a lot of great throws but he is not consistent and sometimes he just chucks it up there to see what will happen when it comes down. Both of his starts have been a little weird, with a bad field in Brazil and now looking rusty coming back from an injury. I think he will get better. Still, it's disappointing that he did not hit the ground running this season.

I don't know what to make of Luke Musgrave. He's their big-play TE who can get down the seam, but they just throw short stuff to him. It's like they've written him out of the offense. Love said that the pass Musgrave tipped that got intercepted was intended for Doubs.

I had heard that the Vikings had good OTs but were vulnerable in the middle of the line, so I thought our DTs might be difference makers in this game. It didn't happen at all. Wyatt did nothing and then got hurt. Karl Brooks was invisible. The lack of pass rush doomed the CBs, who had to hold coverage too long. It looked like the mush rush they used against Jalen Hurts and Anthony Richardson, but of course that's not what it was. It was just everyone losing their matchups on almost every pass rush attempt. The only two sacks were on blitzes, but there were other blitzes that didn't get home.

For the second year in a row, we have one of the worst kickers in the league. With Anders Carlson, I clung to this hope that he just had a mechanical kink that he had to straighten out, or maybe he needed to mature a little, but Narveson just looks like a flat-out bad kicker. The announcers said he was missing a lot of kicks during warmups.

I think Love looked like he was in training camp last week and needed to get some game reps to get up to speed. Glad he got that out of the way.

The D is starting to show a propensity for starting slowly. Good teams are going to make any D look like that though. They also had to try to make up for major contributors sitting out in the back end. Don't you think the DC should start to dial up the front-end pressure sooner? It seems to work when he finally does, and it would have sure helped the back end get settled. Finding out JA and CV weren't playing at game time sure surprised me. I must have missed that during the week. I thought they were just light practicing and would be good for game day.

I don't think they can ignore the kicking issues any longer. Are they going to have to start going for forth downs and two-point conversions all the time again?

There is no doubt in my mind that the cause of that debacle falls squarely on the coaches. LaFleur for preparation and discipline and rushing Love back when it took him 2/3 of a game to start to look ready. However the lions share of culpability goes to Hafley.

It has become clear with Cousins and the similar Darnold that given a clean pocket they can and will make throws. It’s similarly clear that, regardless of who plays corner, defending Jefferson and Addison playing soft off coverage is doomed. To win one needs to take some risks and play sticky and attack the catch point and look to disrupt more than one concedes. At the front, you need to get pressure any which way you can. Against this line that’s up the middle and probably means blitzing and stunting heavily.

Hafley had a game plan that was the exact opposite. My heart sank as I watched their first drive. The results seemed inevitable. They were. The sad reality is that any study of past games should have made that a hugely obvious mistake. As should any knowledge of what our DBs are best at and what those WRs have thrived upon (not just against us). If I could grade Hafley on that it would be so far below the chard as to be indescribable politely. One would think, if they discussed the approach, LaFleur could have set him straight immediately. That’s the kind of thing a true HC does.

Hafley did adjust, all though he back slid on DB coverage on the drive that gave them their last field goal in no seconds flat. A different knock on Hadley is his fixation on Nixon. Not only will he not get others in the slot, but, and here is the line crossed, he played him outside at times with typical results. Rochell is a better athlete and natural cover corner. He may not have done better, but he may well have. It would be hard to be less effective outside. That needs not to happen again. Again, one of the roles of a head coach.

The Packers were our prepared and whipped tactically. The second half showed that Darnold is Darnold if you can heft him sensing pressure and that that team can be run on. It can be caught on too, though aside from Doubs and particularly Reed, perhaps not by the Packers. Wicks catch rate should have him sitting. I found it odd you cast shade on Doubs but excuse a guy who struggles even if it hosts him mid chest and was body catching in the late game. Wicks gets open, but for 3 of 4 games this season has been so bad catching we’d be better off throwing to another at his position. No catch reliability or radius.

This game was lost by the coaches and the second half just showed how much better we could be than they were. Eerily reminiscent of early last year when the team only came alive in second halves after the scripts were done and LaFleur had to give more latitude to his players. Hopefully Hafley learns fast, but I admit the fact that he needed to learn to this extent really weakens my faith in his acuity or at least greatly increases my view of his needed learning curve. I will leave him with a hint: the Lions and Goff will do the same to us if you try that again. An opportunity wasted. An example of how coaching can undermine writ large.

Your report confirms my thinking, the Vikes came in with a specific game plan. attack our pass defense.
Yes they have had a very good passing game but they almost abandoned the run because passong for big yardage was easy. You keep doing what works.
I see zero difference between this defense then Barrys other the pass rushing assignments.
Hafly cant make a silk pusrse from a pigs ear anymore then barry could. We gave no talent o pass d.

Lots of individual problems are causing team failure.

Love was not stepping into his throws in the first half and resulted in a number of short throws. He got better in the second half but still had a couple of underthrows. The problem is likely due to his injured left knee and hopefully will get better.

D. Wicks caught everything thrown at him last year and is dropping most passes thrown at him this year. Not sure if this is a concentration problem or something else but he doesn't look like the same receiver. He will be passed by Melton and Heath if he doesn't clean up this issue. Receivers are there to catch the damn ball.

Narveson. All his misses are to the right. Like a golfer with a bad slice, he can't seem to correct it. Likely time for a new kicker.

D-line (all of 'em). An inconsistent bunch that fluctuates in their ability to generate pressure. If Hafley's D needs consistent pressure from a front four to succeed, then the Packers need several of these guys to step up. Clark, Smith and Gary are the big contract guys and they need to pressure better for this defense to succeed.

Lots of football left.

When a kicker gets his chance, the team gets one chance. One chance to make that kick. When a receiver gets his chance, the team may get another chance unless it is a go for it on fourth down chance or game on the line catch. Line it up and try again.

I say that because there is rightful criticism of the kicker's woes but in the big picture of this game I think Wicks left more points on the field than Narveson, or at least the same amount of points. That throw to him in the end zone pretty much nailed him in the numbers. It was a perfect ball to catch. Catch it! On the first drive at the Minnesota 14 he dropped one that was going to be at least a first down if not maybe a score opportunity. Make that catch and there's likely no 37 yard doinker.

In the McCarthy days Big Mike would have a dog house waiting for Wicks. Not saying that was the right way but there needs to be a consequence for poor play. Sure hands needs to get snaps.

-Not certain if Clark, Gary or Smith were ever elite. They also look as though they have reached their ceiling. I don't expect any of them to be anything more than what we've recently seen.

-The corner room has been weak all year. Who decided to pay Nixon 18M (over 3 years)to be a slot cornerback? He is not a cornerback.
(Maybe Snoop Dogg pulled some strings-lol) Most of the nation knows GB has a weak CB room.

- The linebackers are substandard.

I have come to the conclusion that the common denominator is Gutekunst- someone with defensive savvy needs to accompany him on his next Draft adventure

I don't know what Hafley is capable of but he does not have the personnel.

Here is what I really don't get - with key injuries to our corners, why wouldn't we blitz more? I get it that blitzes mean man to man coverage, and we were without 2 good corners. But Darnold needed to be pressured and we just didn't pressure him enough - especially in the first half. Hafley got schooled by Flores big time! We need more QB pressure! I feel that everyone got over confident from the Titans game re: our pass rush.