Week 3: Packers @ Tampa Bay Bucs - PG: Packers WIN 14-12, Move to 2-1!

[vegas492]

12 hours ago, Billy86 said:

If only MLF had the back to back reigning MVP. Or a multi time all pro playing alongside one of the best linemen in the game and mtuliple other decent players there. Or arguably the best RB combo in the league. Or a capable set of pass catchers.

Oh wait. He does. Which is why he was able to call such a good game for those first two possessions. 

Then Bowles figured him out, and as much as I love MLF, he again had no plan b of any sort. 

Thankfully, Barry and the defense bailed us out with an incredible display (along with Bisaccia and the special teams doing well). 

Nitpicking here, but it was 3 possessions.  We fumbled into the end zone on the third one.  Huge mistake and it turned the tide of the game.

[Packerraymond]

Amazes me that anyone would complain about a win against a SB contender on the road, no matter how it looked.

Did the Packers look better this week than they did the prior 2? Yes. Did we get another win? Yes. That's all that matters in September. Makes no difference the kind of football team you are in Sep, Oct or even Nov. Just keep getting a little better every week, try and stay healthy and gather W's. If you accomplish those 3, it was a good week.

 

[Mazrimiv]

3 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

Amazes me that anyone would complain about a win against a SB contender on the road, no matter how it looked.

Did the Packers look better this week than they did the prior 2? Yes. Did we get another win? Yes. That's all that matters in September. Makes no difference the kind of football team you are in Sep, Oct or even Nov. Just keep getting a little better every week, try and stay healthy and gather W's. If you accomplish those 3, it was a good week.

Fans seem to live in a fantasy world where GB plays up to its max potential every weekend.  As if that ever happens.  Yesterday was a far from perfect performance by GB, but way more things went right than went wrong.  The team is clearly trending in the right direction.

[vegas492]

10 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

Amazes me that anyone would complain about a win against a SB contender on the road, no matter how it looked.

Did the Packers look better this week than they did the prior 2? Yes. Did we get another win? Yes. That's all that matters in September. Makes no difference the kind of football team you are in Sep, Oct or even Nov. Just keep getting a little better every week, try and stay healthy and gather W's. If you accomplish those 3, it was a good week.

 

It was a great win, no doubt about it.

Defense showed up.  Specials showed up.  The offense did enough to win and came out with a great gameplan against an excellent defense.

 

[vegas492]

Just now, Mazrimiv said:

Fans seem to live in a fantasy world where GB plays up to its max potential every weekend.  As if that ever happens.  Yesterday was a far from perfect performance by GB, but way more things went right than went wrong.  The team is clearly trending in the right direction.

True.

But, in terms of max potential and this team.  We played pretty darned close to our max potential in this game.

You can't expect much more out of the passing game.  We knew running was going to be tough.  But, we didn't give up our run game.  And we didn't force the passing game.

We relied on the D, and even though Barry tried killing that on one drive, we held.  

[squire12]

2 hours ago, cannondale said:

Still not a fan of running either back out of the shotgun. Seems like it happens more often as the game goes on. I think it makes it easier on the opposing defenses as well

very possible that is a Rodgers preference on being able to read the defense.  need to be able to run and pass from both shotgun and under center 

[Leader]

27 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

Amazes me that anyone would complain about a win against a SB contender on the road, no matter how it looked.

Did the Packers look better this week than they did the prior 2? Yes. Did we get another win? Yes. That's all that matters in September. Makes no difference the kind of football team you are in Sep, Oct or even Nov. Just keep getting a little better every week, try and stay healthy and gather W's. If you accomplish those 3, it was a good week.

 

I'm over the continued and downright predictable (at this stage) total collapse of the offense in tough games. It's happened way too often. It's not a fluke. It's become something to be expected at this stage.

Why that is (scheme, play calling, individual / collective player talents.....) and what we have to do to get out of this cycle - I'll leave to others....but I'm past it. I expect better than a total half of 3 & outs (or what felt like an entire half). A full game of it would be more palatable. Okay - they kicked our *** from start to finish. They're just better.

Given our injuries going in - the fact it was a road game in an environment we've not played well in since before I was born - I fully expected we'd lose. So I'll gladly take the W. It matters....but I want something to change and believe it will have to in order for us to get where we hope we can get. 

 

[Packerraymond]

12 minutes ago, Leader said:

I'm over the continued and downright predictable (at this stage) total collapse of the offense in tough games. It's happened way too often. It's not a fluke. It's become something to be expected at this stage.

Why that is (scheme, play calling, individual / collective player talents.....) and what we have to do to get out of this cycle - I'll leave to others....but I'm past it. I expect better than a total half of 3 & outs (or what felt like an entire half). A full game of it would be more palatable. Okay - they kicked our *** from start to finish. They're just better.

Given our injuries going in - the fact it was a road game in an environment we've not played well in since before I was born - I fully expected we'd lose. So I'll gladly take the W. It matters....but I want something to change and believe it will have to in order for us to get where we hope we can get. 

 

That's the best defense in the NFL, with a top 5 coordinator. Their gameplay was to be aggressive, probably knew their offense couldn't score and wanted to setup some short fields for their O. They've tormented Rodgers before with fumbles and picks, this time no Davante or MVS, probably were more confident than ever.

Rodgers and LaFleur shredded them in the first half. I assume (haven't looked at the film) they went conservative and sat in 2 shell all 2nd half. If you can't run the ball with a defense in 2 shell, you're going to get your *** kicked. Especially when you have no vertical threat with speed that a defense needs to be concerned with. It was the exact same reason the Bucs didn't do a damn thing against our D. We sat in 2 shell, stopped the run, and had no vertical threat to worry about.

[Leader]

7 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

That's the best defense in the NFL, with a top 5 coordinator. Their gameplay was to be aggressive, probably knew their offense couldn't score and wanted to setup some short fields for their O. They've tormented Rodgers before with fumbles and picks, this time no Davante or MVS, probably were more confident than ever.

Rodgers and LaFleur shredded them in the first half. I assume (haven't looked at the film) they went conservative and sat in 2 shell all 2nd half. If you can't run the ball with a defense in 2 shell, you're going to get your *** kicked. Especially when you have no vertical threat with speed that a defense needs to be concerned with. It was the exact same reason the Bucs didn't do a damn thing against our D. We sat in 2 shell, stopped the run, and had no vertical threat to worry about.

Understand all that and perhaps now you'll understand why in previous years I've commented that the team I did not want to meet in the Playoffs was Tampa - for which I was called fearful. Nope. Not the case. I can simply appreciate what that defensive system has done to the Packers offense multiple times over the years.

Hence - my claim that *something* has to change. No?  Unless it's simply the composite of the rosters that continually dooms us to these "non-showings" - something has to change.

Again - we got the W - I got that and it's a good thing. By the skin of our GD teeth....but it's an important conference W against a team we'll probably have to meet again.

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Leader

[Spartacus]

5 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

Especially when you have no vertical threat with speed that a defense needs to be concerned with.

I was thinking throughout the game that it sure would be nice to have Watson out there during some of those play action passes. Hopefully he is ready to go next week. Those young guys need reps. 

[R T]

57 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

Amazes me that anyone would complain about a win against a SB contender on the road, no matter how it looked.

Did the Packers look better this week than they did the prior 2? Yes. Did we get another win? Yes. That's all that matters in September. Makes no difference the kind of football team you are in Sep, Oct or even Nov. Just keep getting a little better every week, try and stay healthy and gather W's. If you accomplish those 3, it was a good week.

 

It amazes me also the high degree of b*tching that has gone on since the end of the game. They played in 100-degree heat against one of the SB favorites and yet the Packers didn't earn enough style points in victory to satisfy some. Crazy stuff.  

[Billy86]

2 hours ago, vegas492 said:

Nitpicking here, but it was 3 possessions.  We fumbled into the end zone on the third one.  Huge mistake and it turned the tide of the game.

Good point - almost perfect for 3 drives (bar the fumble and fact it would have been fourth down though on the 1 which is still a very good spot to be in). 

[PossibleCabbage]

The game probably plays a lot differently if Jones breaks the plane of the endzone before he fumbles.

[Leader]

44 minutes ago, PossibleCabbage said:

The game probably plays a lot differently if Jones breaks the plane of the endzone before he fumbles.

That's something Jones needs to be more cognizant of going forward. That's two straight games where Tampa's clobbered him and he's turned it over. Hard to imagine it's not a directive to their defensive players.

I believe following this event, Jones carried the ball wrapped up with two arms. Maybe yes...maybe no. I think I saw him do it a few times in the second half.

[LLcheesehead12]

Well, having spent the rest of the day yesterday enjoying the win, I now have to still point out the bad here.  I'll still take an ugly 14-12 win over a pretty 31-28 loss, especially against Tom Brady considering this win could make a huge difference in playoff seeding by the end of this year.  But I still fear we may not win that last Superbowl for Rodgers because the Matt LaFleur is still failing in many regards as a head coach.

1.  The offense's problems after that Aaron Jones fumble, an ongoing problem that we saw as well after Mercedes Lewis fumbled it in the playoffs against SF last year.  And I could find other games where this has happened and LaFleur never has an answer to put the juice back in the offense.

2.  Building on that previous point, he's looking bad again with adjustments after opposing defensive coordinators make changes at the half and clamp down on him

3.  Compounding on the previous two, he still has yet to overcome a sizable deficit in a game for either a win or to send it into OT.  No, we didn't have to do that yesterday, but there's a good chance we'll find ourselves in some deficits out in Buffalo, Philly and Miami, and we're screwed in those games if he doesn't have answers.  Think the most we ever overcame under him was 14 points in Detroit back in 2019, but ... yeah it was the Lions and a badly injured team at that lol.

But that is a knock I got on him, and as much as Mike McCarthy had his own failures with play calling and adjustments and all that, particularly in the latter years, at least he had a few major comebacks in his time here.  LaFleur has yet to show he can do it against a major opponent.