The Green Bay Packers have the right mind-set here just past the quarter-pole of the 2013 season - every game is big, every game is critical, every game must be won.
I love that. You never take a game off, you never take a series off and every freakin’ down is important. It’s a philosophy you can see on almost every down with the Packer defense. I think I’m seeing it in the Packer offense but the difference is the D is executing and the offense is not.
For the second week in a row, the Green Bay offense shows a lot of grit and determination in the middle part of the field. When they get into scoring position, however, the magic goes away. Over the last three seasons, the Packers were the best in the NFL inside the 20: give the Packers the ball in the red-zone and you can put up six on the scoreboard. In the last two games, the Packers have zero red-zone TD’s. One score this week and one last week have both been from long distance. From one of the most consistent scoring machines in the NFL, the Packers have devolved into field goal central. In the wins last week vs. the Lions and the victory over the Ravens this week, the Pack as tallied 9 field goals and only two TD’s.
What’s going on? The development of the more dependable running game has opened up many more opportunities for Rodgers and Co. to pass the ball. We are seeing dropped passes and overthrown passes and passes that are just plain off-target. “Out-of-synch” is a cliche but it would seem to me to be an apt one in this situation. Aaron Rodgers, even when he’s given protection, has been erratic. All the wideouts have had drops. The play-calling, especially in short- to medium-yardage situations has been questionable.
If you think the offense looked iffy this week, hold on to your butts: Things are about to get much, much worse. Both Randall Cobb and James Jones went out during the game with leg injuries and returned in street clothes, Cobb hobbling around the sidelines on crutches. Neither guy had the look of “just dinged up” to me. Later in the game, the Packers got some nice production from both Finely and and Nelson and some very inconsistent play from the #4 (now #2) receiver Boykin. But as soon as Jones went out, the offense got even more inconsistent. When Cobb went out, you could see the panic in Rodgers’ eyes. I’m not sure what possessed him to throw three times in a row (for zero catches) to Boykin, but the predictable results did not fill Packer fans with a lot of confidence in the future. We will have to wait and see what the prognosis will be for the two starters. I am having a severe case of deja vu, here. Don’t I write just about every week about some crucial starter going down? For about the last three years?
If you want to talk about crucial guys, you have to talk about Clay Matthews and his yearly excursion to the injured list. The Packers have a great defense when he is in there, gobbling up double-teams, flying all over the field and creating havoc. Last year, the Packers went 3-1 while Matthews sat out with a hammie, so you know they can win without him but it makes it so much harder. The Packers, with only one starting linebacker in the game, played a fantastic game on Sunday. They stuffed the run, got acceptable pressure on the Flacco and even forced a crucial turnover at the end of the first half. AJ Hawk was all over the field, Francois was outstanding and Neil and Perry might have just made us all say “Clay who?”. Just fantastic. Aside from one two-play span, the Packer defense did everything they could to keep the their team in the game.
What? A two play span? One of the absolute worst two-play spans in recent memory. In the fourth quarter, the Packers had the Ravens in an ugly, ugly 4th-and-21 desperation situation. They rushed three and dropped nine players. Throughout the entire game, the Packers OWNED the Ravens on long-yardage situations. So, instead of a careful, tenacious defense, we let a young 3rd year guy named Tandon Doss (who???) split the seam, run behind our safeties and record a 63-yard reception. On 4th-and-21. What defensive scheme allows a receiver behind the DB’s on 4th-and-forever? What kind of head-up-the-ass secondary play allows that to happen? On the very next play, Dallas Clark goes up the middle and Flacco hits him for great, one-handed touchdown. It took a Packer two-score lead and trimmed it to two points. Instead of a comfortable, run-out-the-clock situation, the Packers now had to drive the length of the field, maintain possession and make zero mistakes to record the victory. They did it and the win goes up on the board, thanks to some gritty play on the part of the badly undermanned offense. The defense, who kept their team in the game all afternoon (did you SEE that goal-line stand? Wow!) had made the worst kind of mistake in the worst kind of moment.
I have to throw out some props here again to Mr. Eddie Lacy. After last weeks hard-nosed 99-yard performance, Lacy ground out 120 yards and did what he was drafted to do - make the tough yards and set up the pass. His biggest run wasn’t even his longest: On 3rd and 2, on the Ravens’ 13, with 1:32 left in the game, Lacy hit up inside, bounced to his left and gained 4 and slid down on the nine yard line to keep the clock running and avoid the possibility of a turnover. For a rookie, that is one of the most savvy football moves I’ve seen for a long time.
Next week, the Cleveland Browns come to town and these are not your pushover Browns anymore. They did not cover themselves in glory by getting smacked around by the Lions on Sunday but they have shown they can win games, something entirely missing in their repertoire over the last dozen seasons. The Packers will still be missing Matthews and Brad Jones on defense. They will definitely be missing Randall Cobb and probably James Jones. We all looked at the schedule and saw this game as a total lay-up for the Pack. With the injuries and the absence of production from the offense, this is a much, much more interesting contest.
The Green Bay Packers had a big test to pass on Sunday. Sitting at 1-2, looking up at the Lions and Bears both tied for the lead in the North (what a revolting state of affairs THAT is!), the Packers knew that to fail this early-season test would be to hand Detroit a massive advantage in division play (they’d already beaten the Bears and Vikings) and virtually assure that their own path to the postseason would have to come via the Wild Card.
So what grade would give this team in their 22-9 victory? Well, I’m just glad this particular test isn’t graded: It’s a pass/fail situation and the Packers definitely passed.
The Lions presented a major challenge to this Packer’s team. If you look at the match-ups coming in, you just couldn’t help but be a bit pessimistic. Forget the fact the Lions hadn’t won in Wisconsin since Brett Favre was an Atlanta Falcon - that’s just history. You have a very good QB in Stafford throwing to possibly best WR in the NFL in Calvin Johnson against a Packer secondary that has been suspect all season long. You have a game-changing running back in Reggie Bush able to take any handoff to the house unless you stack the box with defenders. You also have one of the best defensive lines in the league that can stop the run while rushing the QB with only four, something that has been the bane of the Pack for many years.
So when news came that Calvin Johnson was going to be inactive due to a gimpy knee, a window opened and the Packer defense knew their task, while not easy, was suddenly much, much simpler. They focused their attention on keeping Reggie Bush under control and control him they did - he had only 44 yards on the ground and 25 yards in the passing game. The Lions, without their most potent weapons, had no Plan C.
So, you’d think blowout, right? The powerful Packer attack, newly energized with an effective running game, would slice and dice the Lions and win going away, right? Wrong. The Packer offense tore up the Hallowed Turf at Lambeau in between the 20’s (449 yards net offense) but was so out-of-synch all day they could only manage one touchdown (that gorgeous 83-yard score to Jones) and had to settle for five Mason Crosby field goals. All well and good but you have to narrow your eyes a bit at an offense that cannot put the ball in the end zone when presented with all those opportunities. If the Packer covert even three of those field goal drives, we’re all talking about the great blow-out game against the Lions. A win is a win, I know. So why am I so bothered by a good looking Packer offense that can’t seal the deal? Wasn’t that the problem in the loss to the Bengals? Couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities?
Maybe I’m just bothered by everything.
One thing I’m not bothered by is the Packer running game. The whole stats-crazed sports nation is going to look at the game and say “Meh. No 100-yard rusher for the Pack. Back to their old ways again.” To those folks I say, “You want stats, I’ll give you STATS!”
Eddie Lacy had 99 yards on 23 carries. Many of those runs were gained pounding it up the middle and slamming into Suh and Fairely. He had one run called back on a penalty. He was one ankle-tackle away from breaking huge runs on four separate occasions. If the only measure of success for a runner is 100-yards, well, we’re just not paying attention. Just the threat of the run is enough to make the Packer passing attack just that much more deadly. Add in the big run by Randall Cobb who they snuck into the backfield and future offensive coordinators now have to honor the run AND the pass. Win for the good guys.
You and I and pretty much every single Packer fan called for Mason Crosby to be fired last season. We all had good reason - he had devolved from one of the best kickers in the NFL to one of the worst in the space of one game. He hit his last four in a row last year and has yet to miss a kick this year, including five field goals on Sunday, the only consistent scoring weapon the Packers had in the game. These weren’t chip shots after drives stalled inside the five. I don’t know what happened to get Crosby’s head right. Maybe it was Mike McCarthy’s faith in him. Maybe it was the competition from two separate challengers in the pre-season. Maybe it was moving the kick-off duties to the punter Masthay. Whatever it was, we should all be grateful it happened and realize that all men should have second chances, a shot at redemption. Kudos to Crosby for taking advantage of it.
One big area we should all be concerned about is injuries to our linebackers. Brad Jones went out with a hamstring injury. His back up, Robert Francois, then had to be helped off the field himself. Most importantly, Clay Matthews, who just got over his own hammy pull, went off with a thumb injury after sacking Stafford. In a 3-4 defense, the linebackers are the heart and soul. They rush the passer, drop in coverage and make the majority of the tackles. To lose three guys in a game could be devastating for this Packer team. We won’t know for a few days what the true nature of these injuries are but if you take a guy like Matthews out of the mix, even for a little while, the Packer pass rush completely disappears. AJ Hawk really stepped up and Nick Perry really showed me something today, but the Packer defense will have to struggle if any of these guys miss significant time.
Scraping together field goals out of failed offensive possessions is not a great recipe for winning football games, but if it works, a win is a win, right? The Packers travel to the 3-2 Super Bowl Champs Baltimore Ravens next week and need to start stacking up wins to get on a roll. Field goals are not going to cut it. Aaron Rodgers is going to have to hit the open men. Those men are going to have to make the catches. No more lost drives and missed scores due to the dropsies. Eddie Lacy is going to have to continue to be threat on the run. And, yes, Mason Crosby may have to continue his streak in order to win that game. Its a world of pass/fail, win/loss and no other grades count.
The fans of the Green Bay Packers have long, long memories. Walk into any Packer bar on game day (or any other day for that matter) and you are just as likely to hear someone talking about an interception by Ray Nitschke or “4th and 26” as you are about the game last week. As such, I can pretty much guarantee you this loss will stick in the craws of Packer fans for a while. Maybe not as long and the “Fail Mary” last year, but it’ll be a while.
The game definitely had one of those “what the hell did I just see” vibes that left Packer fans stunned. Mrs. MMQB and I had to give #1 Son a lift home after the game and here is a sampling of what we saw just in the few blocks around our house: A man in a Favre jersey, standing in his driveway, staring blankly out at the road, possibly mumbling very bad words under his breath. Another man tossing a kiddie golf club like he just dropped his third straight tee shot into a water hazard. A woman hand-spreading something in her lawn which I would have to guess would be salt so nothing would ever grow there again.
Yeah, that was a painful one.
This game had more ups and downs than a carnival at the county fair. The Packers, thanks to a lax defense and a “you’re being cut before we get to the airport” play by Jeremy Ross, found themselves down by 14 before their jocks could get settled in place. Then, with the offense sputtering and the defense making stands and taking away the ball, reeled off 30 unanswered points. Then, thanks to that same inconsistent offense and a defense that suddenly found itself without it’s biggest playmaker, gave up the next 20 unanswered points. Add it all up and you might as well run yourself into a wall (try it sometimes - it feels GREAT when you stop!) as watch this football game.
Mrs. MMQB and I hosted #1 Son, DIL Becky and granddaughter Gracie for brunch prior to the game and we had a few mimosas, and some home-brewed barley wine, but even that nice little Sunday morning buzz was not enough to minimize the damage to our brains through the sheer whiplash of this game. How many times can you trade high-fives and face-palms on one Sunday afternoon?
And the injuries - all I can say is OY! Before the game, the Packers gave injury scratches to Eddie Lacy, John Kuhn, Jarrett Bush, Morgan Burnett and Casey Hayward. During the game, they lost Finely, Matthews and Starks and even Franklin for a while. Can a team sustain those kind of losses and still continue to play football in the NFL? Want to make a bazillion dollars? Figure out how to prevent or treat hamstring injuries and sell your idea to the Green Bay Packers. Even if you do it as piecework, you’ll make a mint!
What was up with Aaron Rodgers today? When he wasn’t missing his wideouts, he was hitting his opponents. #12, the best QB in the NFL, had a worse passer rating today than Christian Ponder of the 0-3 Minnesota Vikings. Can you fathom that stat? He went 26-for-43, 244 yards, 1 TD and 2 interceptions, breaking a 41-game streak of games without multiple picks, best EVER in the NFL. By comparison, Rodgers had over 250 yards last week in the first half! Wow. Now, the Bengals have a much, much better defense than the Redskins. They play tough, the make tackles and they don’t beat themselves. Still, you would think that our offense, with all our weapons (even with Finley looking for his marbles on the sidelines) could find some way to put up even a field goal after DOMINATING the Bengals and going up 30-14. Sadly, they never even got close. The turning point - you guessed it: going for in on fourth and 2 (the correct call), failing to get any push by the line, handing it off to a rookie RB (only guy left) who fumbled the ball before he hit the line and giving up a recovery TD for the final go-ahead score. How many ways can you fail in one play? I’m not sure but I think the Packers found them all. If the Packers make the first, they continue their drive and most likely put some points on the board. A TD wins it, a field goal puts them up by six and requires the defense to step it up. Either way, that was the ball game.
It’s a shame, really, to have Franklin’s day be marred by such a terrible play. Coming in for the injured Starks (himself in for the injured Lacy), Franklin had a great afternoon, going 103 yards on 13 carries (7.9 yards per tote) and one TD. That’s right, sports fans, the Packers have put up back-to back 100-yard rushers in the last two weeks. But we won’t be talking about that on Monday. We’ll be talking about his fumble on the biggest play of the day. Was it too much to ask of a rookie who had never played a down on offense before today? Maybe it was.
A few weeks ago, I talked about the Packers having a “ridiculously early” bye this year. #1 Son called me on that almost as soon as the words left my fingers and it turns out HE is the prophetic one in the family. The Green Bay Packers have three defensive backs injured, four running backs injured, one tight end injured and their most valuable player on defense (Matthews) injured. If the Packers have ANY hope (I say unto you again ANY HOPE) of converting a 1-2 start into a Super Bowl run, all these men need to get healthy and do it in a hurry. Rodgers can throw the ball to Quarless but I’m not sure if he can catch it. Our second and third string DB’s can go out on the field, but I’m not sure if they can cover. Our front seven can blitz as one but I’m not sure if they can get a sack. Our QB can attempt to hand off the ball...well, I’m not sure if anyone will be back there to take it. So this bye, coming in week four of the season, could not be better timed.
Did this look like a championship team on Sunday? Last week, the Packers did what a better team does and pretty much stomp on a lesser opponent. This week, when the foe is a little more equal, the Packers looked alternatively sad and dominant. What happens when they face a team that might be a little bit better than them? Are we looking at a blow-out? Do we get smacked around? I’m not sure. All I know is that an inconsistent team is a team that is usually sitting at home in January.
The Green Bay Packers did NOT want to go to 0-2. You just cannot dig yourself a deep hole like that in September and expect to control your own fate in December. You had a feeling that going into their home opener, the Pack would be ready to rumble.
Except they weren’t! Starting the game with three straight passes (who the heck was calling the plays? MM LOVES to run on first down, especially the first first down), losing Eddie Lacy to a concussion, having a TD by Cobb called back, driving down inside the ten, giving up back-to-back sacks and then having to settle for a Mason Crosby field goal...it all just looked flat, unsettled.
Our inexperienced tackles were one display early for all the NFL to see. The Skins brought the pressure early and often and got home with alarming frequency. Rodgers was so rattled early he started getting happy feet in the pocket, something that never comes out well. A funny thing happened, though: McCarthy and his coaches saw what was happening and actually (!!!) made adjustments! That’s right, the coaching staff that sticks to its guns even in the face of overwhelming evidence it shouldn’t, started calling quick throws, quick outs, receiver screens and anything else that would get the ball out of Rodgers hands faster. And it worked! The pass rush slowed down, the wide-outs began to pile up yards and (wonder of wonders!) the running game started to bust wide open.
James Starks, in relief of the concussed Lacy, started to rip off great runs. There where holes to run through, there were tackles broken and there was speed. All the things we expected to happen when Eddie Lacy began running the ball happened when Starks came in for him. For the first time in 44 games (that’s all the way back to the Super Bowl season of 2010) a Green Bay Packer running back rushed for over 100 yards. Starks ended his day with 132 yards and so many of those yards led to advantageous down-and-distance situations that allowed Rodgers to get his groove on.
And groove he did! Official NFL stats put him at 34-for-42, 480 yards, 4 TD’s and no interceptions and a passer rating you could only match playing Madden against a toddler. Those 480 yards equals the Packer record set two years ago by Matt Flynn when Rodgers was a healthy scratch against the Lions. One comment on that - Rodgers had tied the record by the time the Packers hit the two minute warning, up by 18 and on the ten yard line. After the time out, McCarthy chose to call kneel downs on three consecutive plays to run out the clock. The victory was in hand, but I think he owed his indispensable QB a shot at the record. Even three shots and the record. I’m sure some stats guy knew where they were. What was the worst that could happen? Three incompletions and a field goal? An interception and a 102-yard runback for a TD? NFL pundits accusing Green Bay of running up the score? The Packers still win the game and maybe Rodgers gets one more (or ten more) yards and another score and he has a career afternoon. Why the hell not, Coach?
Another guy having a career afternoon was James Jones, (11 catches for 178 yards) who was skunked last week and Nelson had the great day. This just goes to show that if you take one guy away, another one is there. Cobb was doing his usual job, as were Nelson and Finley. Those four guys, when things are clicking, seem almost machine-like. Boom, boom, boom, right down the field and then someone breaks one. As I’ve said so many times before, the running game can set up the passing game and never was that proven more true than today.
Another word about Cobb: he reminds me more and more of Donald Driver in his prime - the possession guy, willing to go over middle, out in the flat, wherever. That play where Cobb split the D down the middle and went for a 35-yard TD in the first half was vintage Driver.
A few words about the defense - as dominating and powerful as they were in the first half, they came out flat and soft in the second. Is this how our team puts people away? Big lead and pitching a shut-out at the half and they come out and allow three TD’s in the second? I understand playing a bit off and relaxed with a lead but that was nuts. And can someone explain to me how Pierre Garçon can be so freakin’ wide open on every single down? He must have borrowed the cloaking device that Anquan Boldin was wearing last week. If this is going to become a habit (leaving the opponents best receiver uncovered all afternoon) the Packer defense is going to be torched every single Sunday.
And a few words about the refs, those lovable and sight-challenged zebras. It seemed like they had blinders on when the Redskins were committing fouls. I saw one great Washington run that could have drawn four separate holding calls. James Jones had his jersey practically removed trying to run under a Rodgers pass, no flag. Brandon Merriwether took out Lacy with a helmet-to-helmet hit and almost did the same to Starks, no flags. He will no doubt be fined heavily by the league but wasn’t h-to-h hits supposed to be a point of emphasis with the refs this year? Even with replay, the Redskins were given a TD on a close play when Moss failed to gain possession with both feet down in the end zone.
The Packers started playing run-out-the-clock with over eight minutes to go, to the glee of the Redskins who quickly converted that tactic into their own points. Props to MM and his staff for adjusting again, letting Rodgers complete passes and chew up the clock. A good running day is one thing but when they are stacking nine men in the box, you have to take what they give you and throw the ball.
So we are back to even at 1-1 going into Cincinnati next week after this convincing victory. The Bengals are 0-1 going into Pittsburgh Monday night and we’ll have to wait and see if they are for real this year or not. The Packers will have to build off their successes and learn from the miscues. I get the feeling they will.
The Green Bay Packers have a new nemesis and it’s not the Vikings and it’s not the Bears. The team the Packers would most like to beat these days is the San Francisco Forty-Niners.
The Packers have been beaten by the Niners three times in the last 12 months (game 1 in 2012, the playoffs and now game 1 in 2013) and if they were to meet again in the post-season this year, I would hope somehow they could break up that streak.
I have to admit that I was not filled with a great deal of confidence going in and was pleasantly surprised to see how close this game was. The Packers were very successful in making the Niners, the best rushing team of 2012, one-dimensional. You have to count that as a pretty big win, considering they ran at will against the Pack in the playoffs. The problem, unfortunately, was that the passing dimension was extremely profitable.
Kaepernick was able to torch the Packers for 412 yards through the air and three TD’s. They were only able to put up 68 yards on the ground but the passing was enough to win the game. The Packer defensive backs seemed to have trouble locating Mr. Anquan Boldin all day long. Even after he had emerged as the main threat, he was running uncovered in the secondary, seemingly in some sort of stealth mode. So any time Kaepernick went back, he was able to find his primary wide open. Boldin accounted for 208 yards and 1 TD. Many of those 208 yards happened on third down, which just made those catches that much more impactful.
The short-handed situation in the Packer safety corps was supposed to be somewhat mitigated by the depth at cornerback but it just didn’t matter. The lack of any sort of pressure on the SF QB allowed him to wait, survey, wait some more and then find Boldin or Davis wide open for big chunks of yardage.
Aaron Rodgers wasn’t so lucky. I saw a stat come up showing Kaepernick hadn’t been hurried, hit or sacked in the first half. Rodgers’ same stat was chock full of pressure. Part of the problem is a rookie left tackle and an inexperienced right tackle. I think, though, the biggest issue is the lack of running production.
What? Is that right? The running game sucked? It still sucked after highly touted running backs were drafted and Mike McCarthy’s promise that the Packers would be better at the run? Yup, still sucked.
Eddie Lacy ran for a grand total of 41 yards, most of those coming on the Packer’s last touchdown drive. Aaron Rodgers, as the second most prolific Packer runner, chipped in a whopping 12 yards. Why so poor? Well, first of all, Mike McCarthy is the world’s most predictable play-caller. In the first half of any football game, he will call a running play on first down 90% of the time. In his first series of the second half, he will call a run 99% of the time. So the defenders are standing there, in the backfield, waiting for the runner to arrive. Secondly, the Packer offensive line is just not that good. They can’t open holes consistently without holding. Third, our new rushing attack is going to need time to gel. Lacy might be the next coming of Edgar Bennett but he’s still a rookie. When he got a hole or when he got out in space (as he did on a great screen pass for 31 yards) he looked great. So maybe we just need to be a little bit patient and allow the new run attack to develop. It sure didn’t look very promising today, but maybe it will in the weeks to come.
I’m very disappointed that the Packers were never able to take advantage of the opportunities the Niners presented them. When the Niners mis-fired, the Packers stalled. When the Packers answered a Niner score with one of their own, the defense would disappear. When the Packers finally got ahead on the scoreboard, the Niners were able to drive quickly down the field and put themselves up for good. There were many turning points, but it just seemed like the Packers were never able to put together that key drive or that key stop when they needed them most. Call it early season jitters or a poor plan or maybe they are getting intimidated by the Niners as a team. Whatever. It was a real and tangible phenomenon Sunday afternoon.
I would be remiss if I didn’t show some well-deserved loathing for the referee crew. They blew a call in the first half, giving the Niners an extra play on third and six that should have been fourth and two after offsetting dead ball penalties. Instead of attempting a field goal, they scored a touchdown. With a tight, tight football game going on, that’s an egregious error on the part of an NFL officiating crew. Who knows how differently the game ends up if maybe the Niners go for it on fourth and fail or miss the field goal. Might have been the turning point of the entire game but we’ll never know, will we? Thanks, zebras. Up to your usually high standards already I can see.
I’m busy tearing apart the effort of our team and, to be honest, I really shouldn’t be. After that pathetic performance in the playoffs, the Packers looked like a team that shouldn’t even be on the same field and the Forty-Niners. For this game to be close in the fourth quarter and for the Packers to have a shot at victory right up until the final play is a HUGE improvement! This was a tough, hard-fought game and it was a privilege to watch the back-and-forth as each team sought advantage. The final result might be disappointing but the progress we witnessed bodes well for this team.
So, as 2012 started with a loss to the Niners, 2013 also begins with the same result. San Francisco is a consensus contender to win the NFC and the Packers played them right down to the wire. Someone had to win that game and you have to look up and down the stats and admit the Niners were the better team in every phase - they deserved the win. We can build on this, take pride in the effort and start getting ready for the Redskins next week, maybe with a hope in the back of our minds that we might just get a shot at redemption in January, which would not be such a bad thing.
So the season for the Green Bay Packers ends, not with a titanic struggle between powerful NFC contenders but with a white flag waved by Dom Capers and his defense.
Everybody (and by “everybody” I mean every single football fan in America from the owners to the fans to my 9-month-old granddaughter Grace) knew that this game was going to be won and lost on the performance of the Niners offense versus the Packer defense. All those people knew that if the Packers could contain the rushing attack of Gore and contain the scrambles of Kaepernick the day would belong to the Green and Gold. Unfortunately, nobody got that message to Dom Capers, the Packer defensive coordinator. Message from Gracie: YOU MESSED UP, DOM! San Francisco outplayed the Packers in every phase of the game, from coaching on down.
One week past a dominating performance versus Adrian Peterson and the Vikings, the Packer defense comes out vanilla and lame, failing in almost every key battle. Stop Gore? Well, he gained 119 yards and a TD on the ground and chipped in two catches for 48 through the air. Stop Kaepernick? He ran for 181 yards and two TD’s on the ground (the BEST day rushing for any quarterback in any NFL game. EVER) and 263 yards and two scores through the air. I’d have to assess that as a monumental FAILURE by the Packer defense and the Packer coaches, led by Dom Capers.
The Niners were thin at wideout but had a huge threat in Crabtree. So the Pack should be able to shut that one guy down, right? Wrong. Crabtree was open all night, catching nine balls for 119 yards and two TD’s. Tramon Williams was tasked with shutting down the SF threat and spent most of the game chasing him from behind. On his TD catch in the second quarter, NOBODY bothered to cover him across the middle. That’s a poor scheme and poor execution.
We saw the Packers come up with a masterful plan to contain Adrian Peterson and the running QB Joe Webb last week but that all went out the window when faced with the even better tandem of Gore and Kaepernick. Why? I couldn’t really tell you. I’m sitting in my home in suburban McFarland, Wisconsin and I could see the failure coming in the second SF series. Our outside linebackers who looked so clueless versus the Vikings in week 17 and so dominating in the Wild Card game last week again lost track of the opposing quarterback time after time. If the Packers blitzed, Kaepernick made them pay with is legs. If they dropped into coverage, Crabtree was always able to get open. In the fourth quarter, when all the Niners wanted to do was run out the clock, Dom Capers and his defense seemed to wave the white flag and signal a wish to cease hostilities. The Niners, wisely, said “up yours, cheese-eating surrender-monkeys” and drove for yet another score.
It’s painful right now and I’m sure we’ll be talking about this in the off-season but do you think the game has passed Capers by? Seriously: he’s a great defensive coordinator when facing your standard QB and conventional passing attack but get him in a game against one of the new wave of QB’s who can run or throw the ball with equal effectiveness (Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick) and it looks like our guys are rooted to the ground, unable to keep up. It might be our players or it might be our scheme or it might be our coaches but it’s got to be something: on Kaepernick’s 56-yard run for the go-ahead score in the third quarter, he was not only untouched, he was unnoticed until he was already in the secondary. I can’t say I’ve ever seen an easier touchdown scored in the Mike McCarthy era.
Despite the defensive failures, the Packers were tied in the third and certainly could have made a game of it if it weren’t for the disappearance of the vaunted Packer offense. Oh, I’m not dismissing the Niners defense as they are an EXTREMELY good unit. But when Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Greg Jennings are completely absent from your attack through the first two quarters and end up with a combined 124 yards and one score, well, that’s just pathetic. You are not going to win a playoff football game when your biggest threats are not producing.
The Packers that went 2-3 to start the season and clawed their way into the playoffs and dismissed the Vikings so rudely last week were absent in their contest against the Niners tonight. Many things will be different next season and I don’t think most Packer fans are truly aware of that. We are likely to see the departure of Greg Jennings (too expensive, too fragile), Jermichael Finely (too expensive, not productive) AJ Hawk (backloaded contract) and Donald Driver (retirement). Charles Woodson may retire as well. These potential departures will allow the Packers to sign BJ Raji, Clay Matthews and finally give Aaron Rodgers the payday he deserves as an elite quarterback. So we will likely see a much different product on the field in 2013 and I’m sorry to say we didn’t send those guys off in the sort of game they deserved.
We come to the end of 15 years of The MMQB. It’s seriously been a blast throwing down in this space every week for the last decade-and-a-half and I hope I can keep doing it for many years to come. I hope you’ve enjoyed the rants and raves and maybe been made to pause and think a few times as a result.
I’ll be talking to you again when the draft rolls around.
OK, I’m a big enough man to admit when I am wrong. In this space last week and to anyone else who would listen, I was picking the Minnesota Vikings to win this Wild Card round game. I had my reasons: the Vikings beat the Packers last week by out-executing them in the basics of tackling and blocking, not something you can correct in a week of practice. Well, I guess you can!
The Packer defense was handed a huge gift 90-minutes before kickoff when the Vikings announced Christian Ponder would be inactive due to an elbow injury he suffered the previous week versus the Packers. It was remarked, when Leslie Frazier in a pre-game interview said they were “saving him for next week” that Ponder was channeling his inner Jay Cutler. Now, make no mistake: Ponder was never going to win this game. It was always going to be about Adrian Peterson. All Ponder had to do was make no mistakes and complete four or five passes in key situations, just as he did last week, but he would not get the chance to repeat that feat--Joe Webb would be under center. Webb, a little-used backup, completed exactly zero passes during the regular season. He’s more of a running threat than a passing threat, something he demonstrated several times on Saturday. He also demonstrated a distinctly not-ready-for-the-NFL passing arm.
With the threat of the pass virtually eliminated, the Packers could concentrate all their efforts on stopping AP. Peterson still had an impact, especially on the Vikings’ first drive and ended up with 99 yards in the contest but the majority of his yards were not impactful.
One of the Packer’s problems last week was that they were not able to “set the edge” on defense. This is the ability to keep running plays between the tackles and prevent backs from bouncing outside. Peterson did this over and over again last week as our outside defenders crashed down on play after play, hoping to gang tackle. The difference this week was the outside defenders took a patient approach, held their positions and were there waiting for Peterson when he inevitably tried to take the ball outside. You have to give credit to Dom Capers and his coaches for instilling this in their players and to the players for executing it properly. And more props to Charles Woodson, back from his broken collarbone, for sticking his nose into almost every running play, notching four tackles and four assists and a great deal of impact.
Webb, without the Vikings main weapon in Peterson, was not up to the task. His throws were into the dirt, over the heads and in general off-target. Three times, while in the grasp of defenders, he chucked the ball wildly to avoid a sack, something that the Packers should have converted to turnovers and points. If ever a guy was thrust into a situation he wasn’t ready for, it was Webb.
The Packer offense had some problems early on. Aaron Rodgers could not find any wide receivers open downfield, so he had to keep checking down or handing off to Dujuan Harris. While you could tell A-Rodg was a bit frustrated by his inability to throw longer passes, the short, controlled passing game served a larger purpose in chewing up clock and keeping Peterson on the bench. Once the short game became successful and the running game did it’s (limited) work, the Viking defense began to loosen up and the receivers started to come open. Once the Packers got the lead, the Vikings were pressed into passing more (not good for them) and deemphasizing the run (not good for them again) and the Packers were able to take their foot off the gas in the third quarter. Personally, if my only weapon is Adrian Peterson, I’m riding that horse no matter what the score is. But the Viking coaching staff hasn’t been very smart since Bud Grant retired...
There was a lot to like in this game and very few things to complain about. Rodgers was sacked three times, which is three too many in my book. Finely dropped a sure touchdown pass and was held to one catch for only ten yards. Cobb, relieved of kick-return duties, was also held to one catch.
You have to love the effort of Greg Jennings (4 catches for 61 yards), including his clutch catch and run on 4th-and-5 in the second quarter, good for 32 yards, to set up a Mason Crosby field goal, which really opened the flood gates. To see Jennings make the catch, dodge a would-be tackler and use that beautiful, long stride of his...just like old times. Many have said (including Jennings himself) that next year he might not be wearing a Packer uniform. His contract is up and, by all reports, the Packers have made no effort to sign him. After watching this game, I’d love for Ted Thompson to at least make the attempt. There are several key guys (Rodgers, Raji, Matthews) that need to get contracts done next year and there may be no cap room for Jennings but you never know: he may be willing to work for less to stay a Packer but you don’t know until you ask!
I would be remiss if I didn’t make a special mention of Harris. This guy is what I call a “nifty” runner: he’s quick to the hole, can cut on a dime and has a burst of speed when he gets in the open field. If we had a better offensive line, capable of opening up actual holes, Harris might have the potential to be a 1000-yard back. If you add in his pass catching ability, this is just the kind of back the Packers need to have in their stable. He had only 47 yards on 17 carries (plus 5 catches for 53 yards) but those were big, big yards. It will be very interesting going forward to see what kind of future this guy has with the Packers. As it stands right now, Harris may be the key guy who provides just the right spark at the right time to propel the Packers even further in the post-season.
Next week against the Niners, there will be no gifts: there will be no last-minute scratches of the starting QB. The Packers lost to San Francisco to open the NFL season, so these two teams are familiar with each other. This will just be a knock-down, drag-out battle. The Niners have a tremendous defense, a great running game and a young quarterback who can get it done with both his arm and his legs. I’m not saying this will be on the same par as some of those epic games in the 90’s between the Packers and Niners but I’m looking forward to it. Randall Cobb will be another week more recovered, Jennings and Nelson are starting to kick out the jams, Harris is adding a new dimension and the Packer defense, if they are able to contain AP, should matchup well against San Francisco.
