Week 18 Gameday Thread (Win And In Edition) - Green Bay Packers (8-8-0) vs. Detroit Lions (8-8-0)

[Isherwood]

I am the least sentimental football fan you’ll ever meet. I won’t “miss” Aaron Rodgers. I don’t think about “all he’s done for us” as if it was charity on his part. Sure, I had fun over the years watching some incredible QB play and some great seasons. I went to the Super Bowl and they won it and I didn’t waste my money. But I watch football for two reasons: the skills and the strategy. I almost like the draft more than the actual game. That’s why I am at “Football’s Future” in the first place. Maybe it makes me a prick, but Aaron Rodgers is paid handsomely enough that I feel more than fair treating him with “what have you done for me lately?” gloves. To me, the human interest element is the least interesting part of sports.

[Pugger]

13 minutes ago, Norm said:

You guys mad after Favre? Did you long for him?

 

We legit just did the worst thing you can do after keeping Aaron. You happy with that?

This isn't anti anyone. It's pro franchise. Get off it. 

Good lord.  Why are you jumping down my throat?  All I said was fans will miss him after he retires.  There are fans who still miss Favre.  Both QBs were great for us and we won a boat load of games and 2 rings with these guys.  

I do agree we shouldn't have given AR that huge pay raise because it cripples us cap wise.  But don't be so damn disagreeable.

[Pugger]

16 minutes ago, Norm said:

Is he going to age in reverse?

We ****ed up. He played amazing this year honestly (for what he had). But it's over and now we're ****ed. 

But we're stuck one more year

LOL!  You say he played amazing but now that we lost we're screwed?   Even if we had won and got in the playoffs there is no way in hell we were gonna get past SF in the WC round.  AR showed in our little run he can still be a top QB but he is no longer Godgers and needs a good team around him like other older QBs do.

[ThatJerkDave]

Ok, had some time to let this one digest and here is my 2 cents.  Isn't it lovely to be able to take days off because you know you are going to stay up too late watching and then discussing football?

+Christian Watson is here.  Get on board the freaking bandwagon.  5 catches for 104 yards.

+Mason Crosby.  This was probably his last game.  He was 3/4 with a hit and a miss right at 50 yards.

+Darnell Savage.  Probably grading him on his own curve, but that was satisfactory.  I am not happy about the 5th year option used on his contract, but we can probably live with this Darnell Savage. (now watch PFF and Herman grade him like negative 100)

+David Bakhtiari and Zach Tom.  Both tackles played well.

~Quay Walker.  I thought he played a pretty good game, then he has a really stupid penalty to end his season early.

-Matt LaFleur.  I really didn't like his game plan in this instance.  Somehow we are the only team that can't put up a million points on the Lions.  Too many long developing plays for Dillon and Lazard, and once again, a lot of attacking the edges of the defense instead of going north-south.  

-Aaron Rodgers.  Forgiving him some of the stuff that is likely on LaFleur, the last pass was floated into double coverage on a hope and a dream.  Stuff that Rodgers has never done before in his career.  That was horrid, and directly leads to losing the game.

-Rasul Douglas.  Stupid penalty and didn't defend a whole lot.  Got carried for at least 1 first down.

-Interior Line and Yosh Nijman.  Allowed too much pressure, and didn't run block very well either. And that is against a front that has been routinely abused.

-Romeo Doubs.  2 targets zero receptions.  One was a bad pass.  The other was possibly the best ball that Rodgers has thrown since 2014, you have to catch that.

-AJ Dillon.  I think a lot of this is not his fault.  But this was not a strong game from him, 3.7 yards per carry and 3 targets with 0 receptions, at least one was a horrible drop.  

 

Misc for offseason:

-I like Tonyan and Lazard.  But I think they do more or less the same thing.  Please pay one, but not both of them.

-Really wish any other player could have gotten Rashan Gary's injury.  

-He didn't really do anything against Detroit, but I think we got a good rotational player in Justin Hollins.

-In the draft, I think we need to use our OL resources on guards, or tackles that can play on the interior.  

[BluePacker]

Just got back from the game and I'm disappointed. Not so much in the outcome; while I would have preferred a win 5 weeks ago I wouldn't have believed they would have been close to a win and in scenario. 

I'm disappointed in two things. First, a lack of, I guess I'll call it "want". It seemed like Detriot wanted the W more than GB. From the players to the coaches. I thought Detroit players overall seemed more consistently fired up vs GB, and the coaching was far more imaginative.

Second, and more suprising, the number of Detroit fans present. A few times during the game you could hear Lion chants, and the stands behind the Detroit bench all the way up was pretty solidly Blue. I wish GB could do a refresh of ticket holders because having a division rival bring in that many fans to your home stadium is just embarrassing. I know I know, sellers can't really control who buys the tickets vs attends the game, but this was just sad. Like if you aren't going to attend X amount of games per year then you lose your season tickets, or something. Bring in fans who want to be there.

[Sandy]

Where do we go from here? Based on his body language and responses in the press conference, he seemed done. Walking off the field, he seemed done.

Does he force himself to come back? Right now I don't see it. Maybe he gets the itch. I don't know. 

Something about this just seemed final. Tough to describe. Like I knew I was watching him walk off the field for the last time.

 

 

[Zycho32]

5 minutes ago, Sandy said:

Where do we go from here? Based on his body language and responses in the press conference, he seemed done. Walking off the field, he seemed done.

Does he force himself to come back? Right now I don't see it. Maybe he gets the itch. I don't know. 

Something about this just seemed final. Tough to describe. Like I knew I was watching him walk off the field for the last time.

 

 

He'll probably be back around April, in time for another contract adjustment.

[incognito_man]

5 hours ago, deltarich87 said:

Think this decision by Gute is gonna lead to his eventual firing in a few years

His only real hope is giving Love the opportunity next season and hope he's legit, and this will have to be done with a roster that'll be bleeding talent due to FA/cuts to try and manage their terrible cap situation in the immediate future.

Learning year. We'd be playing next week if Love had started all season. If Gute and MLF don't recognize this and adjust they'll be a footnote in GB history.

[Brit Pack]

I think Rogers is done now: 

• Big Dawg, Crosby, Cobb will all be gone
• Having another year like this one is a risk to legacy, that TD to Int ratio is important to him
• Seems like play calling and him don't gel
• It didn't really look like he had fun out there this season
• Lots of frustration with mental mistakes from team mates, don't see that ending soon, still a young team
• He knows the team will not be comeptitive enough next season
• Brady will probably carry on playing
• He mentions his age alot, how much he has done, he sounds finished
• He got a billionaire's daughter to impress

Also I think MLF will be better out of the shadow of Rodgers but like many I question does he have the personality to drive a team forward.

Defo a fan of Gute, such a nice man, like him

[HokieHigh]

1 hour ago, incognito_man said:

Learning year. We'd be playing next week if Love had started all season. If Gute and MLF don't recognize this and adjust they'll be a footnote in GB history.

The last interception by rodgers was a perfect show of the thing people have been saying around here. He choked. Tough to watch, tougher to be a part of. 

 

Instead of watching I should have gone to bed at normal time and woken up to this garbage in the form of print. 

[Old Guy]

5 minutes ago, HokieHigh said:

The last interception by rodgers was a perfect show of the thing people have been saying around here. He choked. Tough to watch, tougher to be a part of. 

 

Instead of watching I should have gone to bed at normal time and woken up to this garbage in the form of print. 

What about the other two passes to Jones the same dude should have picked off? This was playoff Rodgers in rare form, brutal. 

I think it's time to get used to the fact we are moving on from Rodgers without the haul of draft capital we would have gotten had our GM has stones. 

Next year we will be 5-12 as we get rid of bad contracts and get our cap situation straight going forward. We'll make the playoffs in 2024. 

[GHARMON9]

Turned the game off in the 2nd after Aaron Jones Fumble. Offense really couldn't score on the Lions? 

But Aaron Jones is really anti clutch.

Two critical fumbles versus the Bucs. (This year and the playoff game years back).

The catch he had versus the 49ers where he cut it back instead of trusting his speed or staying near the sideline to get out bounds.

Then last night... I was hoping to be wrong when I woke up but guess not.


 

[craig]

This may have been analyzed within earlier 115 pages.  But what was Rasul thinking on that weird walk-up between the two lines and pick up the ball before the 15-yard penalty on the field goal?  I didn't understand it, and TV guys didn't really make it clear.  

1. The ball seemed to be placed, then the center lifted it and pulled it 10 inches closer.  No call was made.  Is that fine and happens all the time, I've just never noticed?  Or should that have been a penalty called, false start or something?
2. What was Rasul thinking, what was his purpose?  
3. The announcers seemed to think Rasul messing with the ball may not have been the penalty?  After doing the weird walk up to mess with the ball, did he then subsequently get hassled a little and he did some stupid personal foul that the TV didn't show?  

From the TV presentation, I just had zero idea what was going on there.  Never saw anything like that, so trying to understand.  It just seemed characteristically Packers dumb/undisciplined.  And a 48-yard field-goal in the cold was no gimme.  So the impact might have made a 3-point difference plus field position besides.  

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by craig

[craig]

While asking about bizarre, dumb/undisciplined plays, what was Walker thinking?  He's gotten a bunch of personal foul penalties, it seems.  

Is that something a guy can "learn" with experience?  Or if you're wired as a crazy, impulsive hothead, is that just built in, kinda unfixable, and personal foul penalties will plague him all his career?  Or just a few rookie flukes and he'll outgrow that?  

Given the physical centrality of ILB in a defense, kinda ominous to have a kinda dumb guy there.  Seems like a lot of good ILB are pretty sharp, alert diagnosticians.  I kinda fear Walker may not have that.  

[hitnhope]

8 hours ago, Zycho32 said:

Oh he totally did. But I'll dispute your contention about there being others who wouldn't have caved in had they desperately needed a big name QB and were staring down the barrel of an ultimatum(which I have to presume was made by AR during the contract negotiations, because otherwise we've been living in clown world all this time). That's in a vacuum, mind you, because several of them already had secure situations at QB to varying degrees, or just simply lacked the firepower to acquire him in the first place.

 

Why couldn't they have let Rodgers play out the previous contract and Franchise tag them for 2 years if need be?

The Packers had leverage and gave it all up and gave AR the leverage.   It was extremely poorly played by the GM.

It's not like Rodgers is some universally loved character who has always acted in the best interest of GB, so we needed to "do right" by him.

It was GM malpractice.