NFC Championship Game: Tampa Bay Yucs at Green Bay Packers

[BAM]

I am as deeply disappointed by this loss as anyone. I find it helpful to feel that, take a deep breath and try to keep things in perspective. My thoughts are as follows:

Special teams has to be a priority - the Packers have lost too much blood for too long in this area. Fire the coach, perhaps, commit to developing players that can thrive in this 3rd leg of the stool is equally important. I think everyone agrees that this is an area that has to stop being ignored and/or made excuses for.

I agree with Leader, make a change at D.C. if the right guy is available, but change just for changes sake does not assure improvement. Players like Amos love Pettine. LaFleur needs to do a thorough assessment and get the support of the organization with whatever decision he makes. Personally I have no dog in that fight.

Losing a conference championship game is such a hard gut punch to absorb, especially for a team that has been on the  cusp so many times. On the other hand, the Packers have a 2nd year coach who has led his team to successive 14-4 seasons and conference championship games. 29 other teams would give their eye teeth to be in the position the Packers find themselves. I am not saying they should be satisfied, rather that they should keep their eyes on the prize and get back to work.

[Leader]

2 minutes ago, BAM said:

On the other hand, the Packers have a 2nd year coach who has led his team to successive 14-4 seasons and conference championship games. 29 other teams would give their eye teeth to be in the position the Packers find themselves. I am not saying they should be satisfied, rather that they should keep their eyes on the prize and get back to work.

Correct   👍

[Norm]

 

[Striker]

31 minutes ago, Norm said:

 

[MaryTsraining3s]

I would say my biggest and perhaps only complaint about MLF would be that he didn't start working in Elgton Jenkins at LT when Bahktiari went down. I know that's kind of out of Left Field, but anybody who thought Ricky Wagner and Billy Turner win you a Super Bowl is a little to blindly optimistic. Did they play fine vs LA/Chi? Sure, but that first TB game should have showed you what you could be dealing with from a pressure stand point, and we sure paid the price. There's a reason Edge rusher is a top 4 important position: it can destroy game plans. Billy Turner surprised the heck out of me how well he did play, but there's a reason LT's get paid the big bucks compared to RT, and his limitations just were too much to overcome, along with Ricky just being an old decript fill in. Do I understand not wanting to weaken another position? Eh, not really. You have something special in Jenkins, and you have a hole in the second most important position on the line (RT). Billy Turner is not your future there, go find out if Jenkins can in fact be a future tackle, and I have reason to believe he can be and would've held up better than either of those two did based on the little he's shown at tackle earlier this year and his all around versatillity. Maybe they didn't like what he showed earlier, but I would bet they just had too much faith in those other two.

[packfanfb]

There were a ton of "big" misses by the Packers, which is why, despite being the better team, they lost. This was one of the biggest. We have pounded the table ALL YEAR about Redmond being a liability on the field. He simply should not have been out there. It didn't hurt us all year, until it did. When you have inferior players and are forced to count on those players, they are going to let you down just about every time. Playing Will Redmond didn't stop the Packers from getting to the NFCCG, but playing Will Redmond directly contributed to us not getting to the Super Bowl. 

Yet, this is Green Bay, so I expect Redmond to be playing 50% of the snaps again next season and we'll do this song and dance all over again. 

[Leader]

19 hours ago, MaryTsraining3s said:

I would say my biggest and perhaps only complaint about MLF would be that he didn't start working in Elgton Jenkins at LT when Bahktiari went down. I know that's kind of out of Left Field, but anybody who thought Ricky Wagner and Billy Turner win you a Super Bowl is a little to blindly optimistic. Did they play fine vs LA/Chi? Sure, but that first TB game should have showed you what you could be dealing with from a pressure stand point, and we sure paid the price. There's a reason Edge rusher is a top 4 important position: it can destroy game plans. Billy Turner surprised the heck out of me how well he did play, but there's a reason LT's get paid the big bucks compared to RT, and his limitations just were too much to overcome, along with Ricky just being an old decript fill in. Do I understand not wanting to weaken another position? Eh, not really. You have something special in Jenkins, and you have a hole in the second most important position on the line (RT). Billy Turner is not your future there, go find out if Jenkins can in fact be a future tackle, and I have reason to believe he can be and would've held up better than either of those two did based on the little he's shown at tackle earlier this year and his all around versatillity. Maybe they didn't like what he showed earlier, but I would bet they just had too much faith in those other two.

Be interested to know Lewis's snap count. Given the pressure AR was under, I'm surprised #89 wasnt parked at one end of the line (or the other) on every snap.

Or #49 lined up in the backfield.

Sure - it takes a more skilled position player off the field - but if you give AR time to find the open guy - good chance he does it.

[Rainmaker90]

I did not need to see this. I don’t know what angers me more. The fact that they let them play all game , or that it was an uncatchable ball, or that the ref that threw the flag called it late AFTER he signaled incomplete .... 

[vegas492]

And that there is why WR's should never tuck in their jersey and why they should have a jersey on that has some "give" in it.

The jersey expanding out made it a pretty easy call.

 

[StartBarr]

On 1/26/2021 at 5:31 PM, MaryTsraining3s said:

I would say my biggest and perhaps only complaint about MLF would be that he didn't start working in Elgton Jenkins at LT when Bahktiari went down. I know that's kind of out of Left Field, but anybody who thought Ricky Wagner and Billy Turner win you a Super Bowl is a little to blindly optimistic. Did they play fine vs LA/Chi? Sure, but that first TB game should have showed you what you could be dealing with from a pressure stand point, and we sure paid the price. There's a reason Edge rusher is a top 4 important position: it can destroy game plans. Billy Turner surprised the heck out of me how well he did play, but there's a reason LT's get paid the big bucks compared to RT, and his limitations just were too much to overcome, along with Ricky just being an old decript fill in. Do I understand not wanting to weaken another position? Eh, not really. You have something special in Jenkins, and you have a hole in the second most important position on the line (RT). Billy Turner is not your future there, go find out if Jenkins can in fact be a future tackle, and I have reason to believe he can be and would've held up better than either of those two did based on the little he's shown at tackle earlier this year and his all around versatillity. Maybe they didn't like what he showed earlier, but I would bet they just had too much faith in those other two.

100% agree and said this on almost the first snap....like we are still trotting Wagner out there???? He’s gonna get smoked... I mentioned this in the video I made for a new sports/comedy YouTube channel I just started. It actually helped me feel a lot better making this stupid video cuz I tried to use my pain as humor.
 

Any feedback would be appreciated too here’s a link  

https://youtu.be/n-9_x5WmQ0E

 

[Chili]

So two communication issues involving LaFleur on both offence and defence on two critical moments in the game.

LaFleur need to take a long hard look at himself and figure out what he can do to improve to prevent this from ever happening again.

[MaryTsraining3s]

38 minutes ago, Chili said:

So two communication issues involving LaFleur on both offence and defence on two critical moments in the game.

LaFleur need to take a long hard look at himself and figure out what he can do to improve to prevent this from ever happening again.

As Lafleur has done his whole tenure in Green Bay, he's simply refusing to throw Pettine under the bus. 

[Leader]

53 minutes ago, Chili said:

So two communication issues involving LaFleur on both offence and defence on two critical moments in the game. LaFleur need to take a long hard look at himself and figure out what he can do to improve to prevent this from ever happening again.

Two hindsight comments. Fact MFL is taking ownership of the issues (when he actually doesnt need to....) is a positive. I dont fault him in either instance however.

In case of the former - I dont think he could have conveyed to AR they'd be kicking on 4th down. In the heat of battle, he probably hadn't reached that conclusion yet and the decision was affected by the third down result. Different outcome - possible different decision.

In the latter case - thats on the DC IMO. A "veteran" DC at that.  Belichik (a former DC) probably would have interceded.....but MLF isnt BB yet. He's learning and taking ownership along the way. Good for him   👍 

[Smidgeon]

17 minutes ago, Leader said:

Two hindsight comments. Fact MFL is taking ownership of the issues (when he actually doesnt need to....) is a positive. I dont fault him in either instance however.

In case of the former - I dont think he could have conveyed to AR they'd be kicking on 4th down. In the heat of battle, he probably hadn't reached that conclusion yet and the decision was affected by the third down result. Different outcome - possible different decision.

In the latter case - thats on the DC IMO. A "veteran" DC at that.  Belichik (a former DC) probably would have interceded.....but MLF isnt BB yet. He's learning and taking ownership along the way. Good for him   👍 

I agree with all this.  Nothing says M4 isn't learning.  I think he's growing too.  He's young, he's going to make mistakes, and he seems to be showing an ability to learn from them.

[{Family Ghost}]

We will need better from LaFleur in the future .. this was not one of his better performances.  He could have easily called timeout when he saw the coverage before the half.

Nearly everyone out there thinks the decision to take the ball out of Rodgers hands, kick a field goal, and then give the ball back to Brady was a major gaffe.  Ultimately our odds of winning were pretty minimal, but hopefully he will be bolder next time.