Packers Texans post game. Packers ****** victory from the jaws of defeat after trying to ****** defeat from the jaws of victory.

[DannyB]

6 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

I am kind of surprised at the negativity and disappointment with this win.  The Texans are a first place team, and at least coming in to the game, were the number 2 seed in the AFC.  We topped their average PPG, passing yards per game, held them to way below their average yards per game, and below their average points per game.  It wasn't a perfect game.  But this is not a team that we were ever going to steamroll.  

Oh believe me I’m happy with the win, and was pleasantly surprised by many aspects of it.

i think the frustration is that some of the negatives are just bad mistakes that should really be cleaned up, rather than the opponent being good. On the bright side, theoretically that’s stuff that should easily be improved, rather than the other team just taking it to us.

I think it’s easier to swallow the mistakes when we ended up winning, but I just hope the team takes fixing them seriously so it doesn’t bite us in January

[incognito_man]

7 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

I am kind of surprised at the negativity and disappointment with this win.  The Texans are a first place team, and at least coming in to the game, were the number 2 seed in the AFC.  We topped their average PPG, passing yards per game, held them to way below their average yards per game, and below their average points per game.  It wasn't a perfect game.  But this is not a team that we were ever going to steamroll.  

It was a halfway unimpressive win because we played so ugly in some regards and some elite football in others. We're not used to winning with ugly offense at times. That we can should be scary for the league. The offense is going to take off pretty soon I think. 

[incognito_man]

I honestly had no idea people were still debating whether or not Jordan Love is a top, elite QB in the NFL. 

I thought it was so obvious already.

[Lodestar]

Feels extra good winning a game we deserved to lose. And by that I just mean the turnovers. We outplayed them, especially on D, but you just don't expect to win with a -3 differential.

I wasn't in the game thread but what was the explanation on the "free kick out of bounds" placed at the 25?

[Billy86]

How many god damn times has that fourth quarter happened to us, where the game slowly, slowly slipped away and the opposition rolled down the field (after multiple stops previously), to eek out just enough to beat us at the death?

That is a huge, huge difference in the feeling of the Jordan Love era vs the (latter) Rodgers era: it never felt dead. The heads never dropped. 108 seconds was more than enough time, and they never doubted it once. The nerves around the fact is was always going to come down to the FG after how they have gone this season notwithstanding, we were the ones that felt inevitable for a change as we moved down the field, and after their individual issues so far this year it was nice to see Wicks and Doubs as the ones getting the catches to make that happen. 

Aaron Rodgers is the most talented QB there might have ever been (Mahomes certainly is at least pushing him there, though), but he is also a great example of how sheer talent isn't everything and mentality can make up for a lot of it and of how that permeates through a team. What we saw yesterday was yet another anti-Aaron Rodgers show for better and for worse, and my god is it fun to witness first hand! Jordan Love just doesn't seem to get frazzled, and given how much of a mess the first half of last season was we have seen him keep that cool for prolonged periods too.

Far from the prettiest, but a huge win on the year - and some ugly wins along the way can tell you a lot about a team beyond how badly they can bulldoze teams when everything is clicking.

[OneTwoSixFive]

The thing about interceptions is that you don't get plays over the middle of the field like the pass this week to Doubs and the TD to Kraft, without taking chances. You do get the good to go with the bad, let us not forget that.

I heard someone on youtube say (it might have been Andy Herman), that early in their career great QBs tend to make throws like Love makes (if they are capable of it), learning as they go what they can and cannot get away with. Some (like Rodgers) gravitate to avoiding the midfield and the conservative nature means you miss out on chances but have a crazy good TD/Int ratio. Others (like Favre) just put the ball up there and hope their guy gets it, meaning plenty of big plays and plenty of interceptions. Love is somewhere between the two.

I hope Love's decision making improves a little over time, but I still want to see those awesome throws that shred defenses.

Hafley sure deserved a game ball for his game plan this week. Making a good QB look bad is tough to do against a quality team, but he did a great job - Stroud was never comfortable and the game stats show it. 

Mixon was an eye opener at RB for me, a very good player for the Texans, good vision, finding gaps, pushing the pile, going through arm tackles, falling forward.

[Gopackgonerd]

It was really impressive we held Stroud under a 100 yards in this game. And man im so happy we are just sending pressure almost every third down. You can't make it easy for offenses in this league, Hafley gets that. It was also quite interesting we blitzed McKinney a lot more this game (or at least it seemed like it) seemed to be effective. I think Gary is also finally heating up, he just looks so much more active right now. 

The love interceptions are frustrating understandably, but you gotta love how he comes back from them. You can't make this such a habit though Love. It's honestly not even like some of these interceptions are 50/50 balls, a lot of the time its really bad decisions. Idk if he will shake that this year, but he's gotta know not to throw things when its not there. But whats good is his good play is outweighing the bad and thats how we're winning games.

 

No way you slice it beating Houston is huge and we're still keeping up with the division, that's all that  matters. If Love can just limit the forced throws in coverage, this team is a super bowl contender with how the defense is playing.

[Old Guy]

3 hours ago, Lodestar said:

Feels extra good winning a game we deserved to lose. And by that I just mean the turnovers. We outplayed them, especially on D, but you just don't expect to win with a -3 differential.

I wasn't in the game thread but what was the explanation on the "free kick out of bounds" placed at the 25?

The ball is placed 25 yards from the spot of the kick. They kicked from the 50 due to the personal foul. 

[Jaire_Island]

Arod was a different problem. He dont take the chances when he has to even on 3rd or 4th downs.

Love is different, he is taking the chances on 1st down which is not at all a winning football. If he is taking chances on 3rd/4th downs when game was on the line, that’s fine.

He needs to learn to live for another down. If he figures out that, watch outt..

[Rainmaker90]

This team is so dangerous. If we're winning games like this where we're trying to give it away, yikes. When we play clean games, I like our chances vs anyone. 

[Old Guy]

11 minutes ago, Rainmaker90 said:

This team is so dangerous. If we're winning games like this where we're trying to give it away, yikes. When we play clean games, I like our chances vs anyone. 

Our nemesis (49ers) seems to be down this year too. I like our chances of getting out of the conference tbh. 

[Mazrimiv]

10 hours ago, Packerraymond said:

We absolutely can't continue the turnover rate, 100% fair. I have more problems with the first pick because he's fooled by the defense. Second pick is a good decision, just needs a better throw.

Yeah, that 2nd INT could have been a nice gain for GB.  Just an off target throw.

Edited yesterday at 12:48 PM by Mazrimiv

[vegas492]

11 hours ago, DannyB said:

He 100% doesn’t have the pure arm strength of the top end guys, which is what I mean by bazooka. Now, top end arm strength can certainly be overrated and it isn’t an automatic ticket to greatness. Jay Cutler had one of the best pure arms ever and he mostly kinda stunk. But you need that arm strength if you’re gonna consistently be throwing it off your back foot or off platform like Love seems so wildly enamored by.

Love is best served when he can set his feet, get the power from his legs and drive the ball. That’s when the ball sizzles. That TD to Kraft today is probably one of the best throws I’ve seen him make, and sure enough he set his feet and drove the ball.

This isn’t meant as some massive knock. Brady, Montana, Manning. None of those guys had elite, apex level straight up arm strength. I think of Jordan commits to improving his footwork and throwing mechanics, we’d really see greatness

Yah, no.  And I'm not being a homer.

Love has the pure arm strength, and he does have finesse.  He has multiple arm levels, too.

When Love rears back and just fires it, it looks a lot like Favre.  But those throws are few and far between.  You see it most often on those outs.  You know, the ones where when it's first thrown, you think it is a pick 6 going the other way, but the ball gets there so fast that it's in the WR's hands in a blink of an eye.

When he needs to thread something in there, he looks like Rodgers with a wrist flick and the ball gets there fast.

The issue I see with him is aiming or feathering the ball.  Like he's trying too hard.  That is when his passes tend to float.

But really, when looking at his arm and what it can do?  It's elite.  As a defense, you have to defend the entire field against him and that arm.

[Mazrimiv]

4 minutes ago, vegas492 said:

The issue I see with him is aiming or feathering the ball.  Like he's trying too hard.  That is when his passes tend to float.

But really, when looking at his arm and what it can do?  It's elite.  As a defense, you have to defend the entire field against him and that arm.

Yeah, that's what I see as well.  Too many balls where it seems like he's aiming rather than just stepping in and throwing.

[vegas492]

Things I thought I saw......

Gameball goes to Haffley and the defense.  I remember when we needed to trade for Crosby or Garret to get a rush.  LOL!  When the down/distance/score is in our favor, Haff has more than enough pressure looks.  Had Romo gushing all game long.  Gary finally looked like Gary.

It probably won't happen this year, but next year Enagbare has to be EDGE2.  Maybe even this year.  He's playing his way into a second contract.

Run D really took a hit (backwards) when Quay left the game.  

I watched Duff enough, to me, he was a minus against both the run and pass.

I watched Wilson enough, to me, he was a minus against the run and a double plus against the pass.

Love seeing JA all fired up.  This defense feeds off of that energy.

I've been critical of Nixon, but that guy came to PLAY!  He may be better as a boundary corner than he is a slot corner.

Offense.

Man, we ran pretty well.  We passed okay.  The two INT's really hurt the flow for the offense.  Doubs did the dirty work against Stingley.  Thought they really keyed on Reed and held him in check.  If it were me, I may simply flip Reed and Watson in the offense for a game and see how they key on that jet stuff and crossers.  Because it was obvious to me that Reed drew a lot of attention yesterday.

O Line.  I couldn't see a whole lot this game.  I thought Walker struggled some.  I also thought that they slanted and stunted into our run game kindda easily.  Like maybe we need to self scout and get some different looks going.

Specials.

Whelan was the player of the game.  Amazing to me how the announcers didn't pick up on the poor snap, yet excellent hold on the GW field goal.  Kudos to McManus for nailing it, twice.  Whelan's punts kept us in it.

Which brings me to this.  I'm sure it has happened before, but I can't recall a team lost the turnover battle 3-0 and still won.  We gifted them some very short fields and still kept the game close.