Weekly Observations

The Good

• Zac Tom - Locked down Hutchinson all day with limited help.  By far the best offensive lineman on team.  Been playing at prob bowl level in 2nd half of season.  Not a people mover, but turning into one of best pass blocking OT's in league.

The Bad

• Cornerbacks - Jamison Williams was a big problem.  Fastest player I've seen this year.  When Packers were in man, Lions had a mid-level crossing route dialed up.  Nixon has really good straight line speed.  Williams was able to pull away from him with ease.  Really forced Packers to play a ton of zone (72%).  Lions killed Packers with crossing routes and HB/WR screens.  Ran them all game.

Notes/Observations

Defense

• Man/Zone - 28%/72%

• This Wyatt injury has me very concerned.  Wyatt is a penetrating 3 tech who holds up against the run.  They do not have a replacement for him.  Brinson's minutes will go up substantially.  He will not hurt them, but also will not help them.  He actually holds up to doubles and the run quite well (hence he will not hurt them).  However, does not possess twitch like Wooden/Wyatt to get consistent penetration.  When Van Ness gets healthy I can assume he will be getting more interior line reps on passing downs.

• All three linebackers played well (Cooper/McDuffie/Hopper).  The interior lineman kept it very clean in front of them.  Hopper looked really good in run support; filled holes nicely multiple times.

• Packers brought a safety up in the box a lot.  They were not going to let Gibbs beat them.  Evan Williams is continuing to amaze me.  When he sniffs run, he closes in a hurry.

• Lions LG was terrible.  Everybody had their way with him.

• Packers were predictable as they could not play man.  After watching this game my opinion of Goff is higher.  He is really accurate and knows where to go with the football.  Packers zone was leaky.  

• Valentine missed 2 big tackles.  One led to the Williams touchdown right before the half.  Also missed a tackle in the Lions last posession that led to a 44 yard pass play (on crossing route).  These missed tackles were really costly and at bad moments.

• Parsons was doubled all game.  Lions were not going to let him wreck the game.  Still had 2.5 sacks.  This leads me to Rashan Gary.  Needs to be better.  Was a non-factor in the passing game.  Had 1-1's against the tackles and was not winning.

• Enagbare beat Sewell on a long arm to get a 1/2 sack.

Offense

• I really like LeFluer's scripted plays in first series.  First play was outside zone for 4 yards.  Next play was play action that mimicked the blocking of 1st play.  Sucked up linebackers and had Watson against man coverage (completion for 17 yards on comeback route).

• Seeing more 6 offensive line-up plays (Kinnard had 14 snaps).  Speaking of Kinnard he is massive.  Not great movement skills; also a waste bender.  I would be worried if he had to start a game at OT.

• Lions played a ton of man defense.  

• Due to man defense Watson's targets were up (10 targets).

• Wicks had his best game of year.  They moved him all over the place.  Was really an asset in slot vs man.

• I really struggle watching Doubs get any separation against man.  Malik Heath is very slow, especially in and out of breaks.

• Sean Rhyan played his best game of the year.  This was the best center play Packers had all season.  Was good in run and pass.  Power really showed up.

• I am intrigued with this new offensive line set-up.  This is the first game where the offensive line got good push.  Banks is really having a good 2nd half.  The wild card is Anthony Belton.  He is an absolute mess in pass pro.  Almost cost the Packers the game.  Allowed a quick pressure on their 4th down completion to seal the game.  But there is some potential in the running game.  Interior lineman were moving people.

• To me this was Jordan Love's best game of the season.  A lot of tight window throws under pressure.  

• The tight end position is not good.  I really do not like any of them in the running game.  They have been moving Musgrave around quite a bit.  Plays outside, slot, and in-line.  He is getting open.

• Watson's 51 yard touchdown came against cover 4.  Perfect play call against this defense.  Shallow routes drew safeties up and had Watson running a vertical route on outside.

• Run Plays In Order

1. Zone (4 yards)

2. Gap/Power (3 yards)

3. Zone (13 yards)

4. Gap/Power (1 yard)

5. Zone (4 yards)

6. Gap/Power (1 yard)

7. Gap/Power (29 yards)

8. Gap/Power (1 yard)

9. Zone (-2 yards)

10. Gap/Power (10 yards)

11. Zone (2 yards)

12. Zone (0 yards)

13. Gap/Power (3 yards)

14. Zone (14 yards)

15. Zone (6 yards)

16. Gap/Power (4 yards)

17. Gap/Power (2 yards)

18. Gap/Power (1 yard)

19. Zone (0 yards)

20. Gap/Power (5 yards)

21. Zone (3 yards)

22. Zone (4 yards)

The Good

• Carrington Valentine - His improvement is really good to see.  Interceptions are coming (although unsure of hands).  Getting really good at anticipating passes/routes in zone.  Can see his confidence grow every game.  Had some 1-1's against Jefferson and it was good.  In 4th quarter had him play LCB to follow Jefferson.  He has now put on a string of good games.  Looking like CB1.  (Note a close second was Emmanuel Wilson.  He was really good).

The Bad

• Offensive line (again) - My patience is over.  I am growing tired of this.  Teams continue to play 2/3 deep looks with soft boxes.  Cant run out of it.  Running the football should not be this hard.  In my opinion this will be their undoing.  More below.

Notes/Observations

Defense

• Man/Zone - 25%/75%

• Warren Brinson was holding up to double teams.  Had some pressures, but more opportunistic than him beating his man.  

• Devonte Wyatt had two sacks.  These were clean-up sacks more than him beating his man.

• Rashan Gary had a really good game.  Good against run, as usual.  Also should of had two sacks.  One of Wyatt's clean-up sacks was due to Gary causing the pressure.  Also hit McCarthy's arm on pressure that led to an interception.

• Packers cornerbacks can really tackle.

• As stated in past posts Evan Williams is all over the field.  Not just a good player anymore.  Really turning into a difference maker at safety.

• Unsure why Parsons never gets a holding call.  I feel like he gets held on every other play.  It never gets called.

• Karl Brooks has the best awareness of any defensive lineman on the team.  Recognizes things before others. 

• Hard to evaluate Kamal Hadden.  Once Nixon got hurt, Packers ran almost exclusively zone.  Also pressure was coming so fast corners did not have to hold up for long.  I saw Hadden play man twice.  First time was terrible as he got turned around very early in receivers route.  The second rep was good.  Was in press man.  Jambed the receiver and stuck with him.  He did have a pretty bad whiff on a tackling attempt.

• I thought McDuffie played well.  Due to his size he can get pushed around playing in the middle.  Defensive line kept him pretty clean.

• Once Packers got lead this game was pretty much over.  Defensive line really took advantage of this Vikings offensive line.  Pass rush was overwhelming.

• Christian Darrisaw was horrible.  Was abused by Parsons.  Got beat by others througout.  He just cant be healthy.  

• JJ McCarthy has a good arm and can move.  Outside of that, I was not impressed.  Most of his completions were on designed easy (1st read) throws.  Really locks on to receivers, then very quickly goes through his progressions.  If that 1st read is not there, you can pretty much bet the ball is going to be checked down.  Does not have ability to read a defense post snap.  The offensive line did not help as he was pressured alot.

Offense

• Emmanuel Wilson was great.  He gets to the line of scrimmage faster than Jacobs.  I have always liked his vision; this made up for inadequacies of offensive line.  His power is surprising me (Vikings do play with smaller guys on front).  Worries me in pass pro.  Hence why Chris Brooks getting so many snaps.

• Chris Brooks is amazing in pass pro.  Really helps out offensive line.  Just sensational in pass pro...yes, its that good.

• Tight end position is officially a mess after Kraft.  I will say Musgrage was getting open.  I feel like is lack of play strength shows up after the catch.  Fitzgerald is a reserve level tight end that does not block as good as needed.  He really does nothing well.  Whyle they are using in a bunch of different roles.  Not big, but willing blocker.  Like him best so far as H-Back.  Packers utilizing 6th offensive lineman more as this tight end group does not block good enough.  

• Vikings play a ton of zone.  Saw a lot of cover 3.

• Please stop running the read option with Love.  It's not fooling anyone.

• If Christian Watson can stay healthy he will get paid.  His speed is excptional.  Really puts stress on corner at top of route.  Starting to run a really good comeback route.  Really hard for corners to stop.  

• Offensive line was bad.  Zach Tom is terrific.  Not a power blocker, but also does not get beat in the run game.  Also, Aaron Banks is having a good 2nd half of season.  Starting to turn into an asset.  I do not see him missing blocks and solid in both run and pass.  Now for the rest of them.  Rasheed Walker is just too inconsistent.  He will win and look good in both run and pass.  The next play he will then get abused.  The lone sack was on Walker.  Sean Rhyan is really struggling at center....it is really bad.  The RG position was an absolute shit show.  On first series Morgan completely whiffs his assignment on a run play; run goes nowhere.  Next series he pulls and completely whiffs (does not even touch) the defender; run goes nowhere.  From 4th series Belton took over.  I believe they did as they wanted to run move gap/power against this smaller front (see run plays below - by 7th run they were going away from zone).  I do like working him in at RG (as I believe that will be where he plays in 2026).  He did not have a good game.  I felt every snap was a struggle.  I was intrigued when he came in as I thought I would see his power; unfortunately I did not see it.  I saw a lot of drive blocks; push was not there.  With regards to Morgan he is playing out of position.  Moves like a OT.  I still forsee him being the LT in 2026.  Bottom line, this mess has got to get fixed.  They cannot, and will not win a Super Bowl with this unit.

• Run Plays (in order - can see switch at run 7 to gap/power style runs)

1. Zone (0 yards)

2. Zone (4 yards)

3. Zone (4 yards)

4. Gap/Power - (1 yard TD)

5. Zone (0 yards)

6. Zone (8 yards)

7. Gap/Power (11 yards)

8. Gap/Power (8 yards)

9. Gap/Power (2 yards)

10. Zone (4 yards)

11. Zone (4 yards)

12. Gap/Power (2 yards)

13. Gap/Power (10 yards)

14. Gap/Power (0 yards)

15. Gap/Power (0 yards)

16. Gap/Power (3 yards)

17. Gap/Power (-1 yard)

18. Zone (4 yards)

19. Gap/Power (1 yard TD)

20. Zone (5 yards)

21. Zone (0 yards)

22. Gap/Power (3 yards)

23. Zone (-2 yards)

24. Gap/Power (12 yards)

25. Gap/Power (6 yards)

26. Gap/Power (8 yards)

27. Gap/Power (11 yards)

28. Gap/Power (3 yards)

29. Gap/Power (4 yards)

30. Zone (1 yard)

31. Gap/Power (0 yards)

32. Gap/Power (0 yards)

33. Zone (2 yards)

34. Gap/Power (10 yards)

35. Gap/Power (2 yards)

36. Gap/Power (4 yards)

The Good

• Aaron Banks - This was by far his best game of the year.  I do not recall him missing a block.  He has been trending upwards, until he went up against Jordan Davis.  This game got back on track and played well throughout.

The Bad

• Sean Rhyan - This was really bad.  Not ready for Dexter Lawrence.  He does not get beat by power at OG, but he sure does at OC.  On a goal line play he was pushed back so badly it took out Willis who was handing the ball off.  He was bad at the start, bad in the middle, and below average in 4th quarter.  The rest of the line is improving.  But this OC position is still a problem.

Notes/Observations

Defensive

• Man/Zone - 40%/60% (Note this is a bit misleading as much of man coverage was played late in the game).

• I wanted to put the interior defensive line in the "The Bad" section.  They continually lost the line of scrimmage.  Packers had to sell out vs the run.  LB's were crashing down early and Packers had to put many players in the box.  This was due to how badly they were getting beat up front.  Packers have penetrating lineman.  When they are not penetrating, there is a problem.

• I thought the linebackers played well.  It was a mess in front of them, and they did what they could with what they were given.  Defensive lineman were getting pushed into their laps (a lot) and they still made plays.  I thought Quay Walker played well.  His speed just always shows up on tape.  He is just a much different player than he was 2 years ago.  This would have been a game he would have really struggled in....just a shit show in front of him.

• Packers played a ton of cover 2/6 in first half.  Then played a ton of cover 3/6 in 2nd half.  Packers were more predictable as they had to over-commit to stop the run.  I think Hafley was afraid to play man due to the problems in run game.  Led to many predictable, easy throws for Winston.  When the Packers got the lead, Hafley started dialing up more man.

• I feel like the Packers just have a bunch of 3 tech defensive tackles.  The Giants run almost exclusively gap.  Packers were exposed.  Generally they like to put Wyatt in 3 tech and Wooden will play a little 1 tech, 2i, and 3 tech.  In this game Wooden could just not hold up.  They mixed in Stackhouse.  But Stackhouse is nothing more than a space eater.  Really does not fit this defense as he provides no push to create bubbles within the offensive line.  Warren Brinson should not be playing at this point in his career.

• Andrew Thomas is really good.  The battle between him and Parsons was fun to watch.  Felt like All Pro vs All Pro.  

• The two safeties (McKinney and Williams) are tailor made for this defense.  Their tackling is absolutely fantastic.  Needed it in this game.  Want to give a kudos to McKinney.  I know its corny, but this guy is a winner.  Some of his subtle reactions after plays are reassuring.

• Giants 1st drive in 3rd quarter went for 16 plays and took 9 minutes and 46 seconds.  Out of those 16 plays, 11 of them were run plays.  The Packers offense then went 3 and out.  This defense was tired in 4th quarter.

• Currently the Packers offensive only has 98 drives.  This is 30th in the league.  This defense is not giving up a ton of points.  But it really does not help out its offense.

• A few notes that I took on Kingsley Enagbare throughout 1st half of season.  He has been intriguing me all year.

  • Has lateral quickness with surprisingly good bend.

  • Hands and feet work really well together.  His moves really work.  Best move is swim.  (Saw a good club against Giants).

  • I feel like would be best as 3-4 Edge.  More space to use agility and bend.  Also, the ability to set an edge is more important for 3-4 Edge.

  • He cannot run.  So if playing a 3-4 he could only be used in zone sparingly.  Also, not explosive.  Will not wow you with athleticism.

Offensive

• Majority of run calls were gap.  When running zone, it was almost exclusively outside zone.

• Giants play a lot of man defense.

• Questioning why they run read option with Jordan Love.  When running it this season it never goes more than three yards.  At what point does the defense even care and just crash down their edge player when given this look.  In contrast, they ran read option with Malik Willis (obviously much faster) and it went for 16 yards.

• Jordan Morgan was very shaky on first drive.  Issue with execution and recognition.  Outside of first drive he played very well.

• I was excited to watch Abdual Carter and Brian Burns.  Came away disappointed.  Burns was locked up by Tom all game.  Watching Brian Burns makes me appreciate Jeff Hafley.  Not only is a he a liability in the run game due to his size, his effort is seriously lacking on too many plays.  I never see this stuff out of Packers defenders.  On a side note, Zach Tom is really good in pass pro.

• I still want to see more outside zone.  Offensive line is just better moving laterally than driving forward.  However, as game wore on the Packers were really starting to move the line of scrimmage forward.

• That Malik Willis pass was really good.  On both of Willis's passes the Packers rolled the pocket to the right.

• Chris Brooks is really good in pass pro.  I like it when the Packers ran 21 personal with him last year; I feel the same this year.  Albeit a very small sample size this year. 

• I like Wicks better in slot than on outside.

• Golden only had 17 snaps.  Outside of him and Watson, they really struggle to separate on the outside against man.

• FitzPatrick is not nearly the blocker that Kraft is.  Really appreciate Kraft; this is a substantial loss.

• Luke Musgrave's play strength is not good.

• Savion Williams in my opinion made the play of the game.  Without that third down catch I do not think the Packers win.  In college this guy would drop the easy ones and catch the hard ones.  Known for athleticism and ball skills.  He tracked that ball very early.

The Good

• Carrington Valentine - This game he played more off coverage compared to the previous game against te Panthers.  He has now strung 3 games together playing good football.  He is just doing a bunch of things well.  He missed a tackle against Barkley in the flat, but that is an anomimly as his tackling is much improved.  There are some limitations with his agility.  But he's had no problems against Tet McMillian and now AJ Brown.  Also, starting to see him jump routes while playing zone.  I do feel like there is some upside as a man cornerback due to his size/length.  I like him playing inside tech a bit more than outside tech.

The Bad

• Offensive line.  There were a couple guys that I could have put here, but it was hard for me to just pick one.  More on this topic below.

Notes/Observations

Defensive

• Man/Zone - 31%/69%

• The Packers main focus was to stop the run.  A lot of bodies were in the box.

• Rashan Gary's power has been a problem for OT's.  Lane Johnson is really good.  Gary could not bull rush him.

• The play of the interior defensive lineman (Wyatt/Wooden/Brooks/Stackhouse) was below average.  Too many times I saw them getting pushed back by the Eagles offensive line.  Packers made up for this by committing bodies to the line of scrimmage.

• Quay Walker had a bounce back game.  Did a much better job at picking through traffic and filling holes.  It was not always clean in front of him.  On the big Barkly pass play I believe he was at fault.  Packers were in man and Barkley had to be his responsibilty.  On next play the Eagles caught the Packers in cover 6.  Eagles ran a dig route to pull up one safety to run a post behind it.  They had the fastest guy on the field (Devonta Smith) running a post against a safety (Evan Williams).

• Speaking of Williams, he was absolutely outsanding in run support.  Packers do not hold Eagles to 10 points without his effort in run support.  This was one of my funnest watches of the year. 

• Parsons went wide too many times, especially early.  It was very easy for Hurts to step up and get out of the pocket.  Eagles OT pair by far the best I have seen all year.

• McDuffie is such a hustle player.  Just wish he was a little faster.

• Enagbare continues to have a bounce back year.  Last year there was just a ton of hand fighting at line of scrimmage.  He beat Lane Johnson on one set.  Not an overpowering athlete; also cannot run.  But the best word I have to describe him is crafty.  When Van Ness is back they will be four deep at edge.  

Offensive

Now for the bad stuff

• The Eagles have premier players at premier positions.  Two interior defenders (Carter and Davis) are outstanding players.  I did not know much about Davis, but he really popped this game.  His first step quickness/get-off for his size is flat out good.  Got on top of our offensive lineman quickly.  Most impressive player was Quinyon Mitchell.  I believe he is the best cover corner in the league.  His match-up vs Doubs was embarassingly bad for Doubs.  Doubs got no separation.  And when I say no separation.....I mean no separation on any play.  I almost put Doubs in my bad section; but offensive line didn't want to give that up.

• I do not like to watch Jon Fitzpatrick run.  Also, not overly impressed with his blocking.  On his best days I would categorize it as average.

• The one run play that worked was the outside zone pitch play.

• Watson's speed poses problems in man and zone.  They did not line him up in the true X position this game; I believe that was to get him away from Mitchell.  He was open alot this game.  

• Luke Musgrave ran a lot of shorter routes.  

• I want to see Savion Williams used in the backfield.  This is 1-cut runner with big-time explosion.  I want to see it out of the running back position.

• Eagles all game ran a lot of 2 deep coverages.  Also sprinkled in cover 3.  The Packers could not run them out of these looks.

• In first half I saw Love do a few things I have not seen out of him.....looking at rush, choppy feet.  The pass rush got to him.  Better in 2nd half.  If offensive line could have held on a bit longer on a few plays I do feel like the outcome would have been much different.  On the play he fumbled right before half, he had Watson with a ton of separation coming free on post route.  Should have been a touchdown.  Love read coverage and was starting to load, but pressure got to him.

• Last but not least....the offensive line

  • As said earlier Eagles interior lineman are really good.  They never committed 8 players inside the box (always 7 or less).  Even with bigger personal (extra OT, 1 TE, 1 RB) the Eagles only committed 7 to the box.  The Packers ran more gap style runs (especially as game wore on).  I believe this was due to movement skills of Eagles front.

  • On Love's 1st sack both offensive tackles were beat.

  • In 2nd half Packers started to bring in a 6th offensive lineman.  This gave Love more time.  First play of 2nd half they used this formation and Packers picked up a chunk pass play.

  • On run plays there was usually one lineman getting beat.

  • On a whole, the right side of the line is much better than the left side of the line.  Tom/Morgan combo got better as game went on.  Eagles were smelling trouble on left side.  In 4th quarter they started running under fronts where Carter/Davis were on weakside together.  They were attacking Banks/Walker pair.  Banks really struggled against Davis.  His get-off and quickness were causing him problems throughout.  Walker's 2nd half much better than his 1st half.

  • I actually like it when the Packers do not help Walker with a chip.  He seems for some reason to struggle with it.  Too many times the defender coming off the chip beats Walker.

  • Morgan had toughest task as he got a ton of 1-1's against Carter.  Carter is probably the most athletcially gifted interior DL in the league.  1st half have was shaky, but really thought got better as day went on.  The right side as a whole is just much better at pass pro.

  • I did not see enough push in gap/power scheme.  The line of scrimmage was stagnant throughout the game.

  • There is just a ton of little stuff I see.  For example, on one inside gap run play, Tom/Morgan are working in tandem.  Morgan takes on 3 tech and Tom is to chip him and get to the 2nd level.  Tom just puts a hand on 3 tech and moves to 2nd level.  Morgan then gets pushed back resulting in yet another cut Jacobs has to make behind the line of scrimmage.

  • Jenkins was actually playing solid in 1st half.  Rhyan had a rough 3rd quarter, but better in 4th quarter.

  • Throughout LeFluer's tenure they have always prioritized the run.  It has always been successful.  However, this year is different: 2020 - 4.8 YPC; 2021 - 4.3 YPC; 2022 - 4.6 YPC; 2023 - 4.3 YPC; 2024 - 4.8 YPC; 2025 - 4.0 YPC.

  • Below is the tracking of all run plays:

    • Gap/Power Runs:

      • 4 yard gain / 6 players in box

      • 1 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 5 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 6 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 4 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • -4 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 2 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 4 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 4 yard gain / 6 players in box

      • 3 yard gain / 6 players in box

      • 5 yard gain / 8 players in box

      • 6 yard gain / 7 players in box (touchdown)

    • Zone Runs:

      • 4 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 3 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 3 yard gain / 6 players in box

      • 11 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 3 yard gain / 6 players in box

      • 4 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 2 yard gain / 7 players in box

      • 3 yard gain / 6 players in box

      • 11 yard gain / 7 players in box

The Good

• Zac Tom - Last 2 games playing at pro bowl level.  His feet and recogntiion skills are amazing.

The Bad

• Quay Walker - This was by far his worst game of the year.  Run fits were terrible.  He was continually getting man handled by Panthers interior offensive line.  Tackling was also not good.  He did nothing well.

Notes/Observations

Offensive

• Panthers were not going to get beat deep.  Continually played cover 3.  Even saw Tampa 2 a few times.  Their goal was to keep everything in front of them and rally tackle.  This was the same game plan Packers used against Lions in week 1.  

• The offensive line was slightly better this week.  However, it was still not good enough.  Outside of Derrick Brown the Panthers defensive line is lacking any twitch or explosion.  The Packers also went up against a lot of light boxes.  So bottom line, this has to get better.  Packers are having the most success with outside zone.  If the run game does not improve this offensive will face problems moving the football.

• Elghton Jenkins and Sean Rhyan had rough games.  Rhyan did not look good at LG; just flat out getting beat by bad lineman.  Was adequate in 4th quarter.  Jenkins is just having recognition issues in pass pro.  For some reason he is not recognizing a 2i player (to his left) running on a slant call.  This has been a problem all year.  Also issue with free blitzers coming through A gap.

• I will call Josh Morgan's game adequate.  Had toughest matchup getting 1-1's the entire game against Derrick Brown.  On a whole, I will take it.  Two sets looked really bad getting beat by power.  

• Both OT's held up all game.  

• Love is really good at layering the ball in between defenders.  Does it as good as anyone.  Also better against the blitz.  Making quick, good decisions and delivering the ball accurately.  Bad decision on interception.  Panthers again in cover 3.  This was a play action pass where the Packers were in 7-man protection.  It was all designed for Love to have time to take hole shot on Watson's post route.  This ball should not have been thrown.

• I hated going for it on 4 & 8 in the 4th quarter.  On that play Josh Morgan got beat by Brown.  This threw off whole play.  Possibly had Doubs if no pressure; outside of Doubs nobody was open.

Defense

• Man/Zone - 44%/56%

• I was surprised to see how much inside/outside zone the Panthers ran.  Was expecting more gap style runs.  Ran out of a bunch of different sets/formations.

• Edgerrin Cooper did a good job at pressing the line of scrimmage on run plays.

• Way to many yards after contact for Rico Dowdle.  He was really good at side stepping penetrating players and picking holes.  Lucas Van Ness would have really helped in this type of game.

• Panthers gave a lot of attention to Parsons.  Giving Gary a ton of 1-1s.  OT's are really having issues with his power.  Ball is coming out too quick.  At some point the Packers need to start jumping these routes.  The Packers have shifted in the last couple weeks.  Less cover 3.  More cover 2.

• Bryce Young's arm is really bad.  Did a good job evading pressure and using legs to pick up 1st downs.  Very timely.  But I just could not get over how poor his arm is.  I just cant imagine in a cold or windy game, him trying to drive the ball down the field.  For a #1 pick it is very unsettling to see his size/arm limitations.

• On the long Dowdle run in last drive Evan Williams messed up.  Went out of his gap only to have Dowdle cut back for huge play.

• Wyatt not as explosive since coming back from injury.  He should have chewed up these interior lineman.

• Carrington Valentine looks better playing closer to line of scrimmage.  Went up against Tet McMillian and I thought he really held up.  This is nice to see.  I do question why we have not seen this earlier in his career.  Packers have been protecting him by only playing off ball, zone (lots of cover 3).  Interested to see how this plays out.

The Good

• Packers safeties.  McKinney, Williams, and Bullard have been really good all year.  I am trying to pick apart Williams game and he just does everything well.  He is not an explosive athlete.  But he is extremely versatile; can play deep safety and in the box.  One thing that does not get noticed enough, is that he is a really good tackler.  

The Bad

• Keision Nixon.  It was bad on TV and bad on All 22.  Packers played a lot of cover 1.  Playing cover 1 puts a ton of stress on outside cornerbacks as they have to hold up (he did not).  There was one run play in the 2nd half where he lost outside contain.  Nixon did nothing well.

Notes/Observations

Offensive

• Offensive line was ok.  Packers had success running outside zone.  There were alot of cutback lanes.  The lineman just look better on move than drive blocking.  Even when they doubled the interior three defenders there was little push.  Out of all of the good runs, only one of them utilized gap blocking.

  • Jordan Morgan had his best game of the year.   I did not see him get beat at all.

  • Sean Rhyan had worst game of the year.  Split time with Morgan.  He was terrible in pass pro, getting beat way too much.  If it were not for quick passing attack he would have been exposed.  He was the 2nd worst player on field for Packers.

  • So far I like Jenkins more at OG than OC.

  • TJ Watt got more single teams in this game than Micah Parsons has had all year.  Tom vs Watt, was good on good.  It was not always pretty, but Tom got the job done vs Watt.  This allowed Packers to get more eligible receivers in pass routes.

• Love was really good.  Gameplan was to get the ball out quick.  Was reading defenses well and ball was on target.  One thing to note is the Steelers played two defensive coverages pretty much all game (cover 1 and cover 3).  When in cover 3 there was a ton of room in underneath routes.  Every once in a while they would go to cover 2.  But I did not see another other coverages.  They show very little deception at snap and are very predictable in their looks.  Was a little puzzling how easy it was to determine their defense pre-snap.

• Savion Williams showed really good burst on his touchdown.  As said in earlier posts this guy is a 1-cut explosvie athlete.  I would like to see him lined up more in the backfield when Packers are having success with outside zone.

• Emmanuel Wilson is improving in pass pro.  Does not hold up like Jacobs.  Also, Wilson is a prototypical zone running back.  He has absolutely zero wiggle.  But the offensive line is just opening holes with zone.  Hence why we are seeing more and more of Wilson.

• On the Watson deep pass catch I at first thought Love got lucky as it should have been picked.  However, after watching I think Matthew Golden messed up.  Steelers in cover 1 and I believe Golden was suppose to run a deep dig to draw up safety.  Watson then had man coverage and was to run a post behind it.  Golden did draw up the safety.  But after running the dig he then cut upfield and brought the safety back into Watson's route.  Could have been a disaster if the safety would have judged the ball better.  Watson had a ton of separation on his post route.

Defense

• Man/Zone - 39%/61% (Was closer to even; last drive was predominately cover 2)

• I liked Rashan Gary's game.  Rodgers got the ball out quick, which helped keep the pass rush at bay.  Troy Fautanu had a high PFF grade, but on tape he really struggled with Gary's bull rush.  On the other side Braxton Jones played really well against Micah Parsons.  Parsons had success in 2nd half rushing A/B gaps.

• Packers really struggled against heavy two tight end sets.  Steelers ran outside zone out of this and ran it alot  One player that really struggled with this was Quay Walker.  Did not make plays and got pushed around by big tight ends.

• First game where Packers did not live in cover 3.  Packers played lots of cover 1 and cover 2.  They were not going to get beat with underneath routes.  In cover 1 Packers shaded deep safety to Metcalf side.  

• The competition helped Valentine's play.  This was the most physical he has ever played.  The Packers were pressing and playing mirror match out of cover 1.  Very different style than he has played throughout his career.  Was not perfect, but good enough.  I like the physicality he played with.  

• In 2nd half Packers committed an additional man in box.  Had to stop big sets from Steelers.

• I thought Aaron Rodgers played well.  Made a lot of quick, good, decisive throws.  

• Karl Brooks played best out of interior defenders.  Early start to season was rough.  But getting better every game.

• I was impressed with Jaylen Warren.  Really good 1-cut running back.  More explosive than I anticipated.

• Kingsley Enagbare continues to have a nice bounce back year.  He's got length and quickness.  However, he's had a couple plays this season showcasing some good bend around edge.

The Good

• Micah Parsons.  Still a bit blown away.  He's really good.

The Bad

• Warren Brinson/Nazir Stachouse.  Its early in their careers, but so far I am not impressed.  I have commented on Stachouse in past write-ups, but I was expecting a bit more out of Brinson.  He is a big body, I would just expect more power.  Also, he has the opposite of fast/explosive hands (really slow hand movement with no power).  Getting valuable experience with Wyatt out.

Notes/Observations

Offensive

• The Cardinals play very little man.  Primarily cover 2/3.  Packers now last 2 games have seen a ton of zone.

• On 1st drive the Packers went for it on 4th down and failed.  On that play the Cardinals were in cover 6.  Packers had Doubs in a post route with both safeties committed up on shallower routes.  Ball was overthown.  Love missed on that one, but on a whole he had very good ball placement throughout. 

• I like the way the interior three played on the offensive line.   Doing a better job at picking up stunts/blitzes.  Excelled in pass blocking.  Note the Cardinals do not possess great talent in their front four.

• Aaron Banks is so far what is as expected.  Average offensive lineman.  At times you really see his power in drive blocks.  Two knocks I have on him so far: 1) still not maintaining blocks long enough and 2) he lunges too much (guys get him off balance going forward).

• It really helps having Tom back.  Was consistent throughout.  Rasheed Walker is still getting beat too much.  He is struggling to anchor vs the bull rush.  It almost cost the Packers the game.  On 4 & 2 play in 4th quarter, Walker was bull rushed into Love's lap.  Was a tick away of being a disaster.  This is happening too much.

• Packers have been mixing gap and zone runs through first 7 games.  So far they have been better zone blockers.  There were a lot of cut back lanes open for running backs.

• Jacobs finally had some room to run.  As stated above he looked good in zone runs.  Lots of holes opening on back side.

Defense

• Zone/Man (65%/35%)

• Isiah McDuffie is having a solid season.  Not big, fast, or explosive, but is sound in run support.  He really contributed to creating piles and clogging up running lanes.

• Walker proved me wrong on the blitzes.  He probably should of had 3 of them.  On a 3rd play he had another 1-1 vs running back and almost got Brissett.

• I almost put Nate Hobbs in the bad.  He had two bad plays.  Both plays the Packers were in cover 1 and he was matched up against Harrison.  The first one he was playing inside tech (due to being in man).  Harrison got him out of his backpedal early, faked inside and completely turned Hobbs around.  I would expect Metcalf to be lined up on Hobbs side next week.

• The Packers demand a ton out of all of the defensive backs to contribute in the run game.  Their defensive front are disruptors and often do not have outside containment.  Defensive backs are often the force players pushing running backs back to linebackers.  The defensive backs must be physical and good tacklers.  This is why the coveted Hobbs (along with versatility).  WIth Hobbs the Packers want to play more man, as they cannot with Valentine.  Valentine is an off-ball cornerback, which limits the type of defenses the Packers can play.  The Packers need Hobbs to be better in cover 1.  Otherwise they will have to show more zone and cover 5 looks, thus being more predictable.

• On the 43 yard play before half the Packers were in quarters.  Nixon for some reason took a step up and it left a huge hole behind him.  Evan Williams was a step late in breaking up the play.

• Packers play a lot of quarters in the red zone.  On McBride's second touchdown there was a huge breakdown.  On this play the Packers were in quarters and for some reason Walker followed the seam route.  McBride went on a shallow crosser.  Cooper passed off McBride; I believe he thought Walker was going to be there.  Not sure why Walker would follow a seam route when the defense is in quarters.

• Colby Wooden continues to amaze me.  He is a really fun watch.  Good in run and pass.  Gives 100% on every play.  The Rashan Gary's strip/sack was first caused by Wooden's pressure up the middle.  He is turning into a player I see the Packers prioritizing.  He becomes a free agent after the 2026 season.  

• I worry that Hafley falls in love with cover 3 too much. 

• Barryn Sorrell was a non-factor all game.  There is a big drop off going from Van Ness to Sorrell.  

• The Packers blitzed alot in the 4th quarter.

The Good

• Matthew Golden's acceleration.  It is real good.  Getting a ton of separation out of his break.  Packers playing him on line of scrimmage a lot.  Teams so far are leaving a big cushion.  I am interested to see his release package against the press.

The Bad

• The number 0.  Another game the Packers produced no turnovers.  Pass rushers are too good to not figure this out.

Notes/Observations

Offensive

• As a group the offensive line had their best game of the season.  The Bengals do not have a lot of talent along line, outside of Hendrickson.  I thought the all interior lineman played well.  By far Jenkins best game of the season.

• Rasheed Walker looked overmatched on too many sets against Hendrickson.  Once Hendrickson left game, Walker looked much better.

• Run game was a lot better.  Mix of man and gap.  As game wore on I saw more gap runs, giving Jacobs some room to run.  Finally some push in the 2nd half in the run game!!!

• One thing to note is the Bengals run a lot of cover 2.  Cover 2 only puts 7 men in the box; which obviously made it easier to run.  In earlier games, teams consistently put 8 men in the box against the Packers.  I personally think the Bengals will be a one-off in this category.

• There has to be something with Sean Rhyan.  In 2024 he was consistently a solid player.  This year he has not been the problem.  There must be something more to the story here.

• Packers really stretched out zone with down field routes.  A ton of underneath space.

• Outside of one throw, Love was real good.  He is making up for lack of consistency along offensive line.  Accuracy has improved this year.  I like the fact that he is more aggressive with his legs.  

• Doubs looks really good in zone.  Could not get any separation against DJ Turner in man.  Note the Bengals almost exclusively play zone.  Doubs playing a lot of "X" receiver role.  One more week closer to Watson being back.  As I said last week I would like to see Doubs lined up against 2nd, 3rd, 4th best defensive back of opposing team.

• Packers using mis-direction and WR's runs to stretch the defensive horizontally.  Currently Jacobs does not have the speed to do this.  

Defense

• Zone/Man - (58% vs 42%).  

• The key to beating the Packers is to get the ball out quick.  If first read is not open, then a quck check down.  Packers needs to do a better job on hitch route.

• I thought Enagbare had some solid plays.  Has some length to hold edge.  On one play he used quickness to stop run.  Later in series he used a long arm to get pressure on Flacco (led to check down).  I struggle with Enagbare's overall athleticsm, but quietly having a nice season with his limited reps.

• The 17 play drive in the 3rd quarter really bugged me watching the game live.  I thought I was going to see a team sitting back in cover 3/4 looks.  I did not see that.  During series I saw the following:

  • Packers ran a series of coverages.  Saw cover 1, cover 3, cover 4, and cover 6.

  • Double blitzed the A gap (Cooper and Walker) twice.  Got beat on it both times.

  • Bengals had too much success in run game.

  • Lots of quick passes.  Flacco played well.  There were the usual check downs, but also alot of balls thrown on time with accuracy.

• On the Van Ness sack he used a dip and rip move to quickly beat the LT.  Continuing to develop more moves.

• It was really hard to evaluate the pass rush of the defensive line.  Again, so many quick passes.  Warren Brinson graded highly in PFF.  Not sure how they got to that grade as he was not winning enough.  Late in the game he put a spin move on the OG to create pressure on Flacco.  I am a little intrigued with skillset as he does move ok for size.

• Colby Wooden provided consistent disruption throughout.  The Packers though are really missing Wyatt.  There is a large drop off in Wyatt and their 3rd best interior defender.  If something happens to Wooden, the Packers are in trouble.  I do think they could overcome missing both Wooden and Wyatt.

• I thought Keison Nixon played well.  Coverage was sticky.  Throws were just better.  I wish he was more of a ballhawk.

• I do not like to comment on officials.  Just feels like low hanging fruit as it is a tough job.  But I am growing tired of watching Parsons getting held. 

The Good

• Lucas Van Ness.  This was his best game as a pro.  He is being moved around the line quite a bit.  Looked good inside and outside.  Bull-rushed Joel Bitonio in lap of Flacco that led to a Gary sack.  Also will drop back into coverage.   Starting to see moves outside of bull; has a good long arm and developing rip.  Also seen him use a chop for the first time.  He was a problem for all Browns lineman, especially in pass game.

The Bad

• Offensive Line.  It was embarrassingly bad.  More below.

Notes/Observations

Offensive

• Offensive line was a complete and utter shit show.  I could not pick out who was the worse as they were all falling over themselves to claim it:

  • Rasheed Walker - Probably my biggest disappointment.  They needed him to hold up as only him and Rhyan had experience at the positions they were playing.  Had no chance of holding up to Garrett one on one.  Was losing all day in both run and pass.

  • Aaron Banks - As said in past he has power.  Movement skills are fine for size.  I worry about his grip strength.  I checked his hand size and it is 10" (which is more than adequate).  He has not been maintaining blocks long enough and is susceptible to the spin move.

  • Elghton Jenkins - He was the worst lineman in the first two drives and was solely responsible for the punt (gave up the sack) and the field goal (immediate pressure lead to incompletion).  Struggles with defenders in 2i position and struggled throughout the game.  He was fine in the first game and worse in the 2nd game.  I am now questioning the move to center after the third game.  He was an above average guard that is really struggling through three games at center, which should be an easier position.  Not fully understanding why he is struggling this much as he skillset should translate to center.  Hoping time and some semblance of continuity with line will help.

  • Sean Rhyan - Was only consistent lineman early, then went downhill.  Got a few 1-1's against Graham and got abused.  As game went on he got worse.

  • Jordan Morgan - Don't know where to start as it was bad.  There was one play where the edge was properly chipped by TE and then Morgan completely whiffed.  This resulted in a pressure.  Was inconsistent to say the least at both RT and LG.  I am questioning him playing at RT as I have never saw him there.  In preseason he played alot of LT.  Then played LG and RG...now playing RT.  Seems a bit much.

  • Anthony Belton - Was not good, but also was not terrible.  He got help at RT.  In my opinion he played the best out of the lineman.  I would start him at RT against Dallas, assuming Tom is out.

• Packers had issues with blitzes and stunts.  This line did not work well together in picking up anything Schwartz threw at them.  I am a supporter a cross training, but there have been too many line configurations.  Too many to count through 3 games.

• There were a ton of pass plays where the defensive line was coming off the snap quicker than the offensive line.  Edges especially firing off line faster than tackles could get into their post set.  The interior of the line (which sets depth of pocket) were continually getting beat.  Love could not move up in the pocket.  This really put OT's in a tough spot.  I felt like the edges knew the snap count.

• On back end Browns play a lot of cover 1.  When they play zone it is disguised well.

• Tucker Kraft also had issues blocking.  Missed multiple blocks.  In one set he was ran over.

• I saw a lot of zone runs.  Goal was to attack edges of Browns defense as Packers were not good enough to go against Browns interior.  Saw more of Emmanuel Wilson as this fits this style of running.  Also a lot of mis-direction.

• With the Love interception the Browns were in what I am calling cover 1 (almost cover 0 for how late the safety rotated over).  Love read man and was expecting Wicks to beat his man off line (which he did).  The defensive back on Kraft had eyes in the backfield.  Peeled off Kraft and stepped in for the pick.  

• Love could not get past 2nd read.  I wanted them to take some deep shots.  However, line was so bad it was nearly impossible to run anything.  Too many throws with guys in his face and at his feet.

• It is hard to evaluate Jacobs as his first cut is always being made behind the line of scrimmage (due to necessity).

• The Browns up front have a lot of quality rushers.  One guy that kept flashing is Alex Wright.  He has length, power, and a really good get-off.  He was a problem.  He was a 3rd round pick in 2022, meaning he will be a free agent at end of season.  Interesting to see what he gets paid this offseason. 

Defense

• Ran zone and man evenly (man - 49% and zone - 51%).  Nate Hobbs snap count continues to go up (47 plays in this game).  Lots of cover 1 in the first three series.

• Bullard continues to play physical.  Will win against tight ends in run game.  

• Cleveland's offensive tackles were not good.  Joe Flacco was worse.  Would not get past 2nd read.  

• Quay Walker had an impressive first three games.  Doing everything well.   Playing up to the 1st round billing.  His price tag is going up with every game.  His best attribute is his speed.  Teams are having issues getting to edge of this defense; Walker and Cooper are big reason.

• Cooper presses the line of scrimmage as good as any linebacker.  He can be very susceptible to the play fake.  Will bite up many steps prior to realizing pass (note this is being very nit picky as I also love Cooper's game).  Explosion is rare.

• Enagbare is losing snaps but is much better than last year.  He showed quite a bit of bend beating the LT getting a pressure on Flacco.

• Karl Brooks is having an underwhelming start to year 3.  Not getting penetration.  Being overshadowed by most improved player (Colby Wooden).

• A lot of stunts were set up for Gary.

• Packers playing more man this season.  Hobbs is a big reason for it.  Hobbs is growing on me the more I watch him.  Very scheme versatile.  Looks good in the slot.  As billed he is very physical; really shows up in run game.

The Good

• Javon Bullard - He is a vision based, down-hill, attacking player.  He really excels in zone.  His man skills are below average.  I do not want him lined up in man against Anon St. Brown.  He had tackling issues against the Lions, not the Commanders.   He is a very physical player and not afraid to tackle.  Also has ability to play deep safety.

The Bad

• Jordan Morgan's run blocking.  Morgan was missing blocks and also not sustaining blocks long enough.   Both Lions and Commanders are loading the box to defend the run.  So there are a lot of bodies around the line of scrimmage.  Morgan just lost too many sets in run game.  He was fine in the pass game.

Notes/Observations

Offensive

• Commanders and Lions have played a lot of cover 1 man against the Packers.  This is similar to to how last season ended.  Teams are daring the Packers to beat it.  The addition of Matthew Golden is helping as he was open a lot.  By far he had the most separation of any of the receivers.  Love needs to hit him on those deep routes.  Wicks and Doubs do not scare defenders vertically.

• Savion Williams has a ton of straight-line speed.  Is a 1-cut runner in lieu of a guy with wiggle.  I would like to see him lined up in the backfield as a running back on outside zone plays.  

• The Jayden Reed  touchdown catch (that was called back) was tracked down very well.  Was a well placed ball and Reed made a great adjustment to it.

• I was pleasantly surprised with Anthony Belton at RT.  His power is outstanding and it shows up a lot.  His movement skills look average, especially compared to the guys on the left side of the line.  I do question him on 2nd level blocks.  Against the Commanders they run multiple fronts.  In a lot of cases it was big on big.  So his power matched anything thrown at him.  I like to see how he performs against speed.  As game went on he kept getting better.

• Sean Rhyan does not get beat by power, ever.

• In my opinion Elghton Jenkins had the best game out of offensive lineman.  This is an upgrade over last season.

• Tucker Kraft is good at everything.  It's hard to find bad plays from him.  With the effort he gives to blocking it was nice to see him get rewarded with over 100 yards receiving.

• The Malik Heath catch was obviously really good.  He had no separation against the defensive back.  Separation was from push off.

• Luke Musgrave needs to stay on feet.  On the deep out he caught for a big gain the Commanders were in cover 1.  There were communication issues in the Commanders backfield when Golden went into motion.  No one was on Musgrave putting the deep safety in a bad spot.  Musgrave put a juke on safety that completely turned him around.  Play should have been bigger if Musgrave does not go to his knees to catch the ball.

Defense

• Defense was in zone 75% of time.  First 11 plays were zone; soley cover 2/3.  Started mixing cover 1 in after that.  Hobbs equals more man; Bullard equals more zone.

• Parsons quickness is fun to watch.  Everything works off it.  Offensive lineman are continually oversetting against him.  Once this happens he crosses their face and it is over  There was one set where this happened against the rookie Josh Conerly; Parsons was not even touched by Conerly.

• In their standard 4-2-5 Hobbs and Nixon were on outside and Bullard in the slot.  In dime Valentine/Nixon on outside and Hobbs/Bullard on inside.  There were some obvious pass downs when Packers were in nickel; when this happens Valentine/Nixon on outside and Hobbs in slot.

• As stated above the Packers played a ton of zone.  This really helped against Daniel's running ability.  When they played cover 1 it was generally Cooper spying Daniels.  When the spied Daniels I saw Cooper was acting more as a delayed blitzer.  So in essence the spier was not sitting back waiting for Daniels to run.  The spier waited for the dust to clear and then attacked Daniels.

• I really liked Devante Wyatt for a 2nd straight game.  He is continually providing a lot of push up the middle.  I see Pro Bowl if he stays healthy.  Turning into a good all around player.

• I almost put Karl Brooks in bad category. Was a non-factor all game, especially against pass.

• There is pressure coming from a lot of places.  Even when the opposing quarterback has time, they are throwing the ball before they should.  There were a few times the Packers zone was getting stretched out and guys were coming free.  Ball was out before it could develop.

• There is a quote that Dick LeBeau uses (heard Ryan Clark say it)....big guys run and small guys tackle.  This quote really fits this defense.  The Packers defense backs really tackle.  Valentine got bigger in the off season and it is really paying off in run game.

• Valentine and Nixon were both sharp in coverage.  Valentine is always in off ball.  Nixon will play both press and off ball.

• Walker and Cooper's speed is making it very hard for anyone to get to the edge of this defense.  Also cornerbacks in underneath coverage are willing tackers.

• In 4th quarter the pass rush stalled some.  Guys looked like they were tiring.  

• Van Ness a non-factor in pass game.  Good against run.

• Packers are making a point at punching at the ball this season.  

• Barryn Sorrell played a few snaps at end of game.  He came in with a bunch of energy.  With very limited sample size I categorize him as a power player.  Primarily saw bull-rush.  

The Good

• Colby Wooden - Was not expecting this type of game from him.  In past he could only win with quickness; if he did not win with quickness he was beat.  Wooden was disruptive throughout.  Completely exposed interior offensive line of Lions.  Was continually winning against run and pass.  I am interested to see how he performs against quality lineman.  Tate Ratlege really struggled against him.

The Bad

• Jordan Love's pass to Alex Anzalone.  These 1-2 plays a game that are really off script have to stop.  On this particular play Detroit was in cover 1 (man) defensive.  Love was trying to get the ball to Golden on a double move down field.  The problem was that both the corner and deep safety were all over it.  It took too long for Love to come off this read.  When he threw the ball to his outlet in the flat he did not move his feet or his eyes towards the receiver.  This is a play where he should have stepped up in the pocket and possibly ran or extend the play.

Notes/Observations

Offensive

• The running backs in pass pro were really good.  Both Jacobs and Brooks diagnosed blitzers early and were the aggressors.  There was one play where Brooks was lined up offset of Tom.  He held defensive lineman in check for duration of play with Tom literally having nothing to do behind him.  

• The first two series for Darian Kinnard were really good.  I had to check his length (35" arms) as guys could not get into his chest.  He struggled more on third series.  Did not maintain a second level block.  Also Hutchinson beat him badly to the inside on a run play.

• Lions stopped the run by committing bodies.  Loaded boxes all day.  There #1 priority was to stop the run.  Packers ran a bunch of two/three tight end sets, which also led to the loaded boxes

• Packers ran quite of bit of gap style runs with some inside zone sprinkled in.  I saw one outside zone play all day.

• Each lineman had their ups and downs all game.  There was not one that really stood out as each of them took their turns getting beat.  For not playing much together the pass pro exchanges looked buttoned up.  

• Aaron Banks is somewhat as expected.  Moves good enough with some power.  My one knock on him so far is I would like to see him sustain blocks longer, especially in the run game.

• I hated the direct snap to Josh Jacobs in first half.  It was 3rd and short and the Packers own territory.  The Lions loaded up the box with a bunch of attacking linebackers.  Packers had lineman pulling and it just all took too long develop.  Play was dead from start.  On this play Sean Rhyan got beat badly which did not help.

• I said it last year, I really like Morgan's movement skills.  To me he is the most athletic linemen on team.

• Jenkins was not perfect, but looks the part as a center.  When he got beat, he would get beat to his right hand side.

Defense

• Defensive played zone 32 times and man 9 times.  Split is very close to were they were last year.  There was a ton of cover 3.  Next most was cover 2.  I also saw cover 1 and cover 6 once.  

• I do want to see how this year plays out with Wooden and Wyatt in the middle.  With both not being a true nose, how will this look against quality interior lineman.  There was some washouts on doubles.  Wyatt held up better than Wooden on doubles.  Both were absolutely terrific on passing downs creating big time issues all game.  

• The Lions interior line is as bad as expected.  All three really struggled.  Tate Ratledge was the worst.  Got beat a ton and also did not look good in space when asked to get to the 2nd level.  

• Hafley is really mixing up safeties.  Last year McKinney played up a ton.  This year McKinney and Williams are pretty much 50/50 with who is playing up vs deep safety.  Packers play a ton of cover 3 with both corners and one safety playing deep.  The other safety is playing up.  With safeties being interchangeable I can see this being a problem for offensives.  I even saw Bullard play deep safety on one play.

• I did not like Quay Walker's game, I loved it.  I have not seen him press and attack the line of scrimmage like this before.  His issue was too many stutter steps and not diagnosing plays in front of him....I saw none of that against Lions.  Speed really popped.  Also really good in coverage.  Still not sold with him as a blitzer.

• Nazir Stackhouse is an interesting watch.  He is not fast, agile, or explosive.  Also does not have length.  But he plays with a ton of leverage and power.  Very hard to move.  If Packers play against another gap scheme team, and they struggle against the run, I could see Stachouse be used more.

• There were some missed tackles, but not noticeable as there was so much help from others.  All 11 particiapated in tackling.  The worst tackler was Bullard.

• Van Ness was dropped into coverage a couple times.  Looked really good in run support.

• Enagbare played 21 snaps and made them count.  Last year played with very little explosion; a ton of reps that led to hand fighting at the line of scrimmage.  Against Lions he set a very good edge and was winning in pass pro.  Beat Sewell with a rip move (after being chipped).

•  Backside defensive ends really stayed home.

• I still do have concerns with Valentine.  Just not the quickness in and out of breaks.  Packers protect him by playing off ball; also playing a ton of cover 2/3 limits his responsibilities.  Nixon will press at times (Nixon pressed when playing cover 6); I did not see Valentine press at all.  

• The design on the Evan Williams pick was great.  Packers pre-snap were showing a quarters look.  Once ball was snapped they shifted to cover 3 with McKInney/Nixon/Valentine having deep thirds.  Goff did not have time post snap (from Parsons pressure) to see that they shifted to cover 3.

• The movement skills of Parsons is obviosuly really good.  After one game I do just put him in the speed category as the power does show up for size.  But the speed is what really puts lineman in compromised positions.  His get-off is very scary.  Will be fun to watch as he can beat a lineman multiple ways.

The Good

• Sean Rhyan had a solid game.  He was outstanding in run blocking.  Over the past couple of games he is playing his best football.

The Bad

• Oladipo is not a deep safety.  Does not have the movement skills.  Burst and change of direction are not good enough.  Looks like a special teamer, and that is it.  Was not tested at all due to Bear's game plan.  Williams and/or Anderson need to get healthy.

Notes/Observations

• Emmanuel Wilson does not have a ton of power (for size), agility or burst.  He makes up for it with really good vision and long speed (for size).

• I generally come away from games impressed with Jordan Love's vision.  This game was not one of them.  Love had options in each drive to hit a chunk play where a receiver was either open or about to come open.

• The Bears primarily play zone defense.  Wide receivers were getting open.

• Offensive line was much better in run blocking than pass protection.  The Packers tackles did not play well in pass protection.  Montez Sweat gave Tom problems.  Tom had trouble anchoring vs power.  Walker also had problems with Bears power rushers.

• Musgrave is up to 17 snaps.  He will never be the blocker Kraft is, but his willing.  He just moves differently than other tight ends with agility and speed running routes.  I would love to see him play more in the slot.

• Defensively the Packers played exclusively zone.

• Karl Brooks is developing a very good swim move.

• There are just too many plays where Enagbare is a non-factor.  Offensive lineman win a lot against him. 

• Hard game to evaluate defensively as all the Bears did was run quick outs and bubble screens.  Being that said, on the DJ Moore bubble screen for a touchdown, Javon Bullard took a very bad angle.

• I thought Valentine got better as the year progressed.  One issue is that he is not sticky enough on in-breaking routes.  Even when playing outside tech, receivers get way too much separation when making their breaks, especially crossers and posts.  Cornerback is priority number this offseason. 

• As the year went along I grew less confident in Eric Stokes.  If the Packers plan is to play this much zone, Stokes is not the guy.  If he is brought back it has to be for depth only.  

• The Packers have started blitzing Nixon off the edge the last couple of games.  He is really good at.  This is due to is straight line speed and also being a good and willing tackler.

• On the Bears punt return for a touchdown, the Bears had two blockers on the Packers outside gunner.  One for blocking and the 2nd blocker was just reading the punt returner.  When the punt returner pretended the punt was going to opposite side of the field, the 2nd blocker sprinted down his side of the field to catch the ball.  The Packers blockers were caught completely unaware of what was going on.

The Bad - Jayden Reed

• Was ineffective all game.  Byron Murphy had him locked up when playing man.  Very little separation.  Murphy looked much faster than him.

The Good - Edgerrin Cooper

• Made a ton of plays behind the line of scrimmage.  Does not get washed out of run plays when taking on lineman.

The Bad - Eric Stokes

• Stokes has speed and can play press man.  Outside of that I am not overally impressed with his game.  Is not sticky enough in man.  In zone plays with no anticipation.

Notes/Observations

• The Vikings blitz a lot.  On pass downs they sent the following:

  • 3 rushers - 3 times

  • 4 rushers - 10 times

  • 5 rushers - 16 times

  • 6 rushers - 3 times

• Vikings blitz scheme is pretty exotic.  The edges in their 4-3 are on the smaller side.  Allows them to either rush or drop back into coverage.  In first half the Packers offensive line really struggled with it; very hard to figure out where the blitz is coming from.  They blitzed alot throughout the entire game.

• When the Vikings rushed 6 guys, they played man behind it.

• In the first half Jonathan Greenard gave Rasheed Walker fits with speed.  Walker was more successful in the 2nd half.

• The Packers run game I felt was adequate.  Packers ran the ball for 104 yards of 24 carries (4.3 yards per rush).

• Out of the receivers, the best one was Doubs.  Only one who could get consistent separation.

• Tom was the best lineman.  I though Rhyan was 2nd best.  Walker and Myers were the worst of the bunch.  Whole unit was much better in 2nd half than 1st half.

• I am still waiting for the Packers to run more 20 personal.  Just works.

• In first half Love did not have many options as receivers were not getting open.  Even with that I will say again, he needs to be more accurate to all levels of the field.  His quick out passes seem to be rarely on target.

• On the first 9 passes for the Vikings, the Packers were in zone 5 times and man 4 times.  Then Zayne Anderson got hurt and it was musical chairs with the defensive backfield.  After the injury the Packers were in zone 27 times and man 5 times (2 of those on the Vikings game clinching drive in the 4th quarter).

• I have not been impressed with Colby Wooden all year.  When Wyatt got hurt it meant more time for Wooden.  He was not effective; he has not been effective all year.  Does not have the power to play in this style of defense.

• Wyatt was a tough block in both run and pass prior to getting hurt.

• Javon Bullard really struggled at safety.  I feel like Packers are putting too much on him in his rookie year....out of necessity.  The Jalen Nailer touchdown was mostly on him.  Packers were in zone, cover 1.  Bullard was the deep safety.  Bullard went over to help Stokes who had deep half responsible (did not need help).  Nailer ran a post with no one in the middle of the field.  Also got beat on a double move by Jefferson that resulted in a touchdown.

• Eric Wilson was bad in run support.  Gets washed out on too many run plays.

• The defensive backfield was a mess.  Darnold knew he was getting zone and continued to take advantage of it.  I thought Valentine played the best out of the defensive backs...but that is not saying much.

The Good - Blocking (Offensive line, tight ends, & WR's)

• The whole team blocked well

  • Offensive Line

    • Zac Tom was outstanding.  I did see him slip on one run play.  That may be the only negative play he had all game.

    • Rasheed Walker - In my opinion the best game of the year.  Locked down left side all game.  Was really good in pass coverage

    • Jenkins/Myers/Rhyan - All three were solid, but not great.  They each had moments of getting beat.  They are really asking Rhyan to get to the 2nd level more.

    • On a whole the offensive line is really in sync.  Teams are throwing blitz's and stunts at them, looks easy to pick up.

  • Tight Ends

    • I thought Jon Fitzpatrick blocked well throughout.  Lined up at H-back for one play.  I wish he was a bit faster.  Does not offer a lot in the pass game.  Only used in underneath routes and also will chip and release.  

  • Wide Receiver

    • Christian Watson is a willing and able blocker.  

The Bad - Pass game in 2nd half was defunct

• I was expecting to see a ton of separation from our receivers....I did not see that.  

• 3 batted balls.

• Love late on a couple balls.  Also accuracy in 2nd half again was not good enough for me.

The Good - Defensive line

• To start the Saints offensive line is absolutely terrible.  Trevor Penning was the worst player on the field.  

• Gary and Cox were extremely disruptive coming off the the edge against Penning.  Penning had no chance.

• Wyatt has put two good games together.  He is another week away from his past injury.  Was dominating throughout in both pass and rush.  This new scheme really fits is play style.  He had a great (not good) game.

Notes/Observations

• Packers really attacked the edges of this defense with end arounds.  Saints had no answer.

• Was not a fan of Love's 2nd half.  I will point out his decision making is improving.  Not making big mistake.  However, he had time to throw and he needed to be better.

• Packers are much better at scoring touchdowns in the red zone.  Primary reason is LeFleur is opting to run the ball vs pass the ball in this area.

• I like Emmanuel Wilson's vision.

• I like when Packers are in 20 personal.  They still have three receivers to stretch the field.  Also creates a ton of options with the 2 running back set....one back can flare out and become a receiver, can use Brooks as fullback, and can run with either running back.  I expect to see more of this personal going forward.

• Travis Glover is an interesting prospect.  At 6-5, 332 pounds he looks different than other Packers lineman.  He is just a big man with length.  In garbage time the Packers put him at RT.  He seemed to handle himself well with exception to one set on the goal line.  He actually jumped then lunged at the edge....was not a good look.

• The center class in this year's draft is really bad.  Gives me more reason to think Myers will be signed to an extension.

• I am always worried about opposing teams running screens against the Packers.  The Saints ran 3 screens for 12 yards, 0 yards, and 0 yards (incompletion).

• Packers were in man coverage 6 times (20% of passing snaps).  Not much man coverage in 2nd half due to score.

• Pretty obvious that Edgerrin Cooper is really good.  Knows how to take on blockers.  His straight line explosion is elite, which is causing issues for teams.  He is really blowing up a ton of plays.  He has also been really good at anticipating underneath throws in zone.

• I like Eric Wilson's game better than Isiah McDuffie.  They both lack size, but Wilson offers a ton more in pass coverage.

• Nixon looked good blitzing off edge.  He is a sure, physical tackler, which helps.  I expect to see them blitz Nixon more in the future.

• Colby Wooden got exposed on double teams.  Mosby and Wooden were the least effective out of the defensive lineman.

• Stokes looked good in man.  He was subbed out for early in the 2nd half, which was surprising....possibly injury?

• I would like to see Zayne Anderson back next year.  Looked good in run support and moves really well.

• The Saints offensive line was terrible.  Outside of the Texan's interior line, Trevor Penning was the worst lineman I have seen all year.  On a whole the entire line looked out-manned as pressure was coming from everywhere.  Below is a list of picks that Saints have invested in their offensive line.

  • RT - Trevor Penning - 19th pick

  • RG - Cesar Ruiz - 24th pick

  • C - Eric McCoy - 48th pick

  • LG - Lucas Patrick - free agent (undrafted)

  • LT - Tailese Fuaga - 14th pick

  • injured Ryan Ramczyk - 32nd pick

• State of the Saints:

  • 2024 - $60 million in dead money.

  • 2025 - Already over the cap by $63 million; $48 million in dead money and $17 million in void money.

  • 2026 - $50 million in void money

  • 2027 - $30 million in void money 

  • At which point is Mickey Loomis's job on the line.  He has been with the Saints since 2001.  This team financial is in ruin and their roster is not good.  Post Sean Payton this team has not been good.

The Good - Defensive Line

• This is pretty obvious.  Packers defensive line completely dominiated the Seahawks offensive line.  Pressure came from everywhere.  A few guys I want to point out:

  • Rashan Gary gets a A+ in run support.  Just outstanding at setting the edge all game.

  • First game I like out of Wyatt since his injury.  Provided really good pressure on pass plays and got a sack off a spin move (I have not seen him use this to date).  He has a really good swim move that he beats guys with.

  • TJ Slayton has been a solid run defender all year.  He is the one player outside of Clark who can play nose tackle.  On the first play of the game he beat a double to meet the ball carrier in the hole.  

The Bad - Jordan Love's 2nd half accuracy

• I am being nit picky here but I was not a fan of Love's accuracy in 2nd half.  He was not accurate to all levels of the field. 

The Good - Edgerrin Cooper

• Another obvious one.  Flashed on a ton of plays.  One thing to note is he was primarily at fault for the Charbontet outside run for a touchdown.  He cut inside an Smith-Njigba block allowing running back to get to outside.

Notes/Observations

• The right side of the offensive line has been good all year in pass protection.  

• LeFluer is really good a misdirection.  There are plays with a ton of movement causing issues for defensive to diagnose the play.

• Offensive line was not winning on run plays in the 2nd half.  Leonard Williams was quiet in the first half, but a problem to block in the second half.

• In the second half the Packers ran a lot of tight formations.  Running out of these tight formations was not good.

• Defense played the limited amount of screens well.  They reacted much better to them.

• I counted the defense in man coverage 6 times.  Generally they play almost exclusively zone.  Valentine and Stokes looked good in man.

• Evan Williams was late to react on a few plays made in front of him.

• Keison Nixon played slot all game.  Was outstanding in run support.  There was a wide receiver screen that he blew up; if he did not make the play, it would have gone for a good gain. 

• Seattle has cornerbacks that can really run.  I was surprised to see Devon Witherspoon is their slot cornerback

• I was really excited to watch Byron Murphy with the Seahawks.  He was a complete liability in the run game.  He got washed out of many run plays.

• Offensives are running a lot of 11 personal.  Packers and Seahawks both run a ton of it.  To combat this defenses play nickel with small, fast linebackers.  What this is doing is creating mismatches for running backs, especially big ones.  Are we getting to a point where NFL will start to again prioritize running backs?  

A look ahead to the 2025 draft.  Not considered a good draft.  Dane Brugler stated that only (2) guys would go in top 10 of last year's draft (Travis Hunter and possibly Will Johnson).  Below is the positional strength/weakness of 2025 draft:

• QB - Weak

• RB - Strong

• WR - Below Average to Weak

• TE - Average to Below Average

• OT - Below Average

• IOL - Below Average

• DL - Strong (in my opinion strength of draft)

• Edge - Above Average

• LB - Average

• CB - Average

• S - Average

The Good - Run Defense

• The Packers run defense is much improved  There is just nowhere to run.  The running back has to make a great play to get yardage.  Montgomery averaged 3.6 yards per carry (14 attempts) and Gibbs averaged 2.9 yards per carry (15 attempts).

The Bad - Run Game

• I give the blame to the offensive line.  There was just not a ton of movement or holes created for the running backs.  Way too many cuts behind the line of scrimmage.

The Good - Lucas Van Ness

• This was his best game of the season.  He is really good at stopping the run.  There was one play where he beat the double (LT/TE) and tackled the ball carrier.  His speed really shows up on backside runs.  A few times he fought through chips to apply pressure on Goff.

The Bad - Josh Myers

• Myers did not look good all game.  He was actually ran over on the 3rd play of the game.  I have not seen this type of play out of him yet this year.

Notes/Observations

• Stopping the screen game has been an issue all year.  Lions ran 4 screens, all of which went for nice gains. I expect to see teams continue to run screens against this style of defense.

• Got beat in man coverage a couple times early.  Packers then went almost exclusively to zone coverage after that.

• When Evan Williams went down, Zayne Anderson replaced him playing deep safety.  The Packers kept Bullard in the slot and Nixon on the outside.  Later in the game when Bullard went down the Packers did the following:

  • 4-3 - Nixon played outside and Stokes/Valentine split time on the opposite side.

  • Nickel - Nixon played slot and both Stokes and Valentine played outside.

• There was WAY too much room for Lions to run underneath routes.  Looked too easy for Goff.

• I was pleasantly surprised with Zayne Anderson's speed and agility.

• Mosby beat Penei Sewell badly on a run play.  I have seen Sewell get beat twice in two games, both times by Aaron Mosby.  At this point I do slightly like Mosby over Cox.  Both offer different skill sets.

• The Lions were 7 for 15 on third down and 4 for 5 on fourth down.  In comparison the Packers were 1 for 5 on third down (no fourth down attempts).

• The Lions sent a ton of pressure.  Below is a list of rushers the Lions sent on pass plays:

  • 4 rushers - 8 times (3 or which came on last series of game)

  • 5 rushers - 8 times

  • 6 rushers - 7 times

• On the Nixon interception the Packers were in zone and Nixon had flat responsibility.  On this play Nixon went rouge and jumped the slant.  Goff was anticipating a hole in the zone.

• With the amount of pressure the Lions applied I would have liked to see a screen, end around, or a QB option read sprinkled in.  Could have helped slow down their rushers.

• The Lions helped their LT a lot.  Tight end was consistently lining up on the left side offering help.

• Chris Brooks was much needed in this game with his blocking ability.  He is being used in two back sets where he is essentially a fullback.

• The amount of rushers the Lions were sending had a big effect on the run game.  Limited chances of Packers lineman getting to the 2nd level.

• In the first two series every lineman was beat at least once.

• This is a game where Luke Musgrave's skill set would have helped.  I would have liked to see 12 personal where Kraft and Musgrave could offer protection and then release into a route.  Ben Sim’s lack of speed really showed up.

• Wide receivers did not get a ton of separation early.  As the game wore on there were receivers open all over the field.

• Kadeem Telfort subbed in for Sean Rhyan when he got hurt.  He wasn't great, but was also not terrible.  On two plays he got caught lunging, which lead to balance issues.

• On Watson's long reception to start the second half, he first beat the jamb of Carlton Davis.  Once the jamb was beat Davis had no chance at staying with him (with no over the top safety help).

The Good - Tucker Kraft

• I could bring him up every week but this week he was outstanding.  He consistently blocked the even front end; also blocked well in space where he completely blew up a safety.  There really is not a weakness to his game at this point.  If I am being picky, he does have a little build up speed.

The Bad - Kenny Clark

• This was the first time all season where I did not like Kenny Clark's game.  I saw him get washed on a double team.  Also did not show the explosion off the line.  Was not winning in single teams.  He did blow up a run play on a 3rd down play and also got a sack.  But was not consistent on every down.  I wonder if this was due to short rest.

The Good - Rashan Gary

• This was by far his best game.  He got a lot of single teams and took advantage of it.  The RT of the Dolphins really struggled against both his speed and quickness.  They moved him over to the right side for a play and also beat Armstead.  

The Bad - Carrington Valentine.

• This was really bad.  Coverage was bad all game against everyone.  When against Tyreek Hill it was an automatic completion.  Hill was getting 5 yards of separation on him.  Also struggled in run support.  Wiffed on Achane very badly.  He is now in 50/50 split with Stokes.  Interested to see how this plays out as he was the worst player on the field for the defense.

Notes/Observations

• It is now a rarity for Zac Tom to get beat.  Against the Bears and 49ers I did not see him get beat at all.  This past game he got beat once.  It was on a run play where Calais Campbell beat him on a swim move.

• Dontayvian Wicks has stepped into the Y WR position with Doubs being out.  If not for his hands this year, I actually like him more than Doubs.  He was open a ton throughout the game.  He gets much more separation than Doubs.  Has really good quickness in and out of breaks.  Very good at slant.  I saw him get about 3 yards of separation against Ramsey on a simple slant play.

• Love's deep ball accuracy has been much improved this year.

• Run defense was terrific.  Just not a lot of space for running backs to run.

• Two games in a row where Quay Walker looked good blitzing.   What he is doing is getting skinny through the line and bangs off an engaged offensive line.  This is freeing him through the line and is really effective.  Looked good blitzing multiple times.

• Since coming back from injury Devante Wyatt has been a non-factor.  Just not winning.

• Dolphins did a good job a creating holes in the middle of field.  McDaniels does a lot to control the linebackers creating this space.  Put this together with Tyreek Hill running slants and it is hard to cover.  I saw McDuffie fooled a bit too much in coverage.  More than once I saw him running to double a receiver leaving a void behind him.

The Good - Josh Jacobs

• This is pretty obvious.  Last week I thought he left some yards on the field.  This game I thought he was terrific.  The one thing I have been noticing is defenders never get to get a clean shot on him.  Does not have break away speed, but his change of direction and acceleration is top notch.  Fred Warner had him dead to rights in hole on one play.  Jacobs jump cut to the right and Warner completely whiffed on the paly.  Instead of a 2 yard gain, Packers got a 6 yard gain.

The Bad - Colby Wooden

• I have to pick something bad.  Out of the defensive lineman he was the worst.  Got some one on ones and was not winning.  Also got washed out of the play twice when double teamed.

The Good - Packers Run Defense

• Going into this game I was afraid of the 49ers attacking the Packers edges, similar to how the Bears attacked the Packers last game.  Packers defensive ends did a much better job of setting an edge.  Linebackers also did their job flowing to edge and giving 49ers running backs no room to run.  49ers ran the ball for 44 yards on 16 carries.  There was really no room to run.

Notes/Observations

• I thought I was going to see the offensive line completely dominate the 49ers defensive line.  I only partially saw that.

  • In the run game the Packers ran the ball 42 times for 169 yards.  There was not a ton of movement/push with the offensive line.  There were also not a ton of overall room/holes for the backs to run through.  I saw more of a great performance out of Jacobs getting way more than he should have.  Overall, I give most of the credit to the running backs over the offensive line for the rushing production.

  • In the pass game the offensive line handled the 49ers defensive line with ease.  All offensive lineman played well in pass pro as I really did not see anyone getting beat.  49ers offered very little in terms of pass rush.  Saw very little power/explosion out of the 49ers four down lineman.  Zac Tom had the hardest ask going up against Leonard Floyd; Floyd was a non-factor all game.  Two games in a row where Tom dominated the oppenents best down lineman in pass pro (Leonard Floyd and Montez Sweat).  Tom will be the #1 priority in getting locked up in the off season.  He will be going into his last year under contract in 2025.  I believe this contract will be bigger than what people anticipate.

  • In dog time at the end of the game the line was as follows from LT to RT: Rasheed Walker - Kadeem Telfort - Sean Rhyan - Thomas Glover- Andre Dillard.  I would like to point out that Andre Dillard look terrible in these limited snaps.  Has me a little worried if either Walker or Tom go down.

• Emmanuel Wilson showed good vision on his runs.  He as some speed.  But there is a bit of gathering when he changes direction.  

• Packers asking Chris Brooks to block a lot.  Seeing it on WR end arounds and in pass pro.  On one play he was asked to be the lead block for Jacobs in a 2 RB set.

• Love was just ok.  Again had a couple head scratching throws.  He had a very clean pocket throughout the game; really did not take advantage of it as there were plenty of recievers open.  Possibly if Watson caught the deep ball before half I would feel differently.

• I have been saying it the past two weeks but Christian Watson is causing teams problems.  Three games in a row where defensive backs just cannot stay with him.  I see him improving against jambs as well.  He as one thing to overcome...hands.  He has improved in this category but they still have an oven mit look to me when catching the ball.

• Defensive line was collectively really good against run and pass.  Guys were winning throughout the game.  I would like to point out TJ Slayton's game.  The 49ers doubled Clark almost on every play.  Slayton had a bunch of one on ones.  He continually got off blocks disrupting the 49ers plays.  

• George Kittle is really good.  The best blocking I have seen all year out of a tight end.  He will knock oppenents to the ground on run plays.

• Defense played almost exclusively zone, cover 1.  Back-end of defensive (LB/CB/S) played much closer to the line of scrimmage this game, taking away underneath routes and easy throws.

• My crush on Karl Brooks is growing.  I would like to point out that he recovered a fumble 25 yards down the field.

• Lastly I have to bring up the most controversial Packer, Quay Walker.  Walker was again good in pass coverage.  Is able to run with TE's and WR's down the seam.  The one thing I noticed is he was way more aggressive in taking on and going through blocks; this is something I have not seen out of him.  There is a hesistancy to his game regarding run plays between the tackles.  It also shows up when blitzing.   Against the 49ers there was none of that.  When taking on blocks he was the agressor...was not getting wiped out of running plays (some of which can be attributed the defensive line doing their job).  I have been very skeptical about using Walker as a blitzer, as it has been underwhelming.  Was much improved in that category and fighting through blocks with aggression in lieu of stutter stepping before them.

The Bad - Defensive

• Defensively the Packers did a horrendous job of protecting the flat and edges of the field.  The Bears continuously ran outside runs, zone reads, bubble screens, quick outs throughout game.  They were not going for huge chunk plays, but were consistently going for 5 to 10 yards.  Will be interested to see how Shanahan attacks the edges of this defense next week. 

• Bears were in very advantageous 3rd downs.  They converted 9 out of 16 of their 3rd downs and 3 out of 3 on 4th downs.  Bears ran 68 plays to Packers 43.

The Good - Offense

• Offensive averaged 8.5 per play.  

• Offensive line had their way with Bears defensive line.  I felt like all 5 lineman had solid games.  Tom matched up against Sweat all game and locked him down throughout; Sweat was really not a factor all game.  Walker had another nice game on the other side holding up the entire game (except for 2-point conversion whiff in 4th quarter).  Jacobs had good room to run; he left some yards out there.  This is 2nd game in a row where the offensive line provided adequate push throughout.

Notes/Observations

• Dontayvion Wicks only played 16 snaps.  

• The Bears ran a lot of 11 personal.  Tight ends and running backs got out into routes (not asked to block much).  Essentially having 5 receiving options created a lot of room in underneath/flat routes.  Williams got the ball out quick and on-time, negating any chance of pass rush.

• This is the first game where the Packers did not contain the quarterback.  Williams was allowed to get outside the pocket and run for good gains.

• On both Cox's sack and tackle for loss, he was not blocked.

• Nixon's first half was shaky.  Was caught on a rub route in man.  Also gambled in zone that led to a gigantic hole in the Packer's zone.  Both led to solid gains.

• Wyatt was a non-factor all game.

• Gary was more disruptive.  Good to see him get rewarded with a sack.

• I still continue to have no idea why the Packers are choosing to blitz Walker and drop Cooper into coverage as much as they do.  

• Packers did a terrible job at setting the edge on outside run plays.  Also issues with linebackers chasing down the ball carriers on outside runs.

• Swift's touchdown run was on Edgerrin Cooper.

• Watson is making some big catches.  His speed is really causing issues for teams (Lions also had no one that could stick with him).  If he continues to make these splash plays, it will only open things up for others.  There was a lot of options for Love to throw the ball to.

• Tucker Kraft and Ben Sims had no catches.  However their blocking was excellent throughout game.

The Bad - A lot

• 1 missed field (46 yards)

• 3 bad snaps that led to fumbles (thankfully all recovered)

• 5 drops (4 on 3rd down)

• 10 accepted penalties

• 1 out of 4 in redzone

• 1 pick six thown

• Yikers

The Good - Offensive Line

• The Lions defensive line is brutal with exception to one player, Alim McNeill.  Alim McNeill can pose big time problems with strength and explosiveness.  All other players were handled with ease throughout the game.  Packers were getting considerable push on multiple running plays.  First time all season where I felt Josh Jacobs really got room to run.

Notes/Observations

• Sean Rhyan's first drive was really bad.  He got beat 3 times.  He settled in after that.  I thought Morgan overall outplayed him; Morgan looked better against McNeill.  

• Detroit plays more man than most teams.  I still do wish the Packers receivers get more separation against man.  With that said, Detroit had issues with Watson's speed.  They really did not have anyone who could stay with him.  Watson still having issues tracking the ball; also his hand's scare me even though he is catching the ball.

• Of all players Arron Mosby completely beat Penai Sewell.  Got into his chest and pushed him down.  Mosby was not a factor on the rest of his plays.

• Mosby shared a 1/2 sack with Rashan Gary.  Throughout game Packers played a ton of zone.  On this particular play Packers switched it up and played man.  This took Goff of his original read.  With the outside pressure, Clark provided interior pressure.  This led to the sack.

• Love is taking a ton of snaps out of shotgun (due to injury)

• It was a good battle between Packers defensive line and Lions offensive line.  I thought defensive line did their job against arguably the best offensive line in football.  On passing downs Lions got ball out quick which mitigated pass rush.   On run plays there was not a ton of holes to run through.

• In 4-3 base the Packers played Nixon and Stokes on outside.  In nickel Nixon moved to slot and Stokes and Valentine were on the outside.

• I thought Valentine played his best game as a Packer.  In man he was really good.

• On Jahmyer Gibb's fourth and one touchdown run, Edgerrin Cooper was at fault.  Cooper crashed to the opposite side of the line and was swallowed up in a mess of players.  On Cooper's vacated side there was a big hole with no linebacker to fill it.

• With all of Goff's short passes it really took the Packer's safeties out of the game.

• Wyatt did not play well against the Jaguars in his first game back from injury.  He was better this game.  He was a tough block for the lineman he was going against.

• Wicks needs to catch the ball.  This is becoming too big of an issue.

• Brooks is taking over Wilson as the number two back.

• Packers are having issues in red zone scoring touchdowns.  LeFleur does a great job of scheming receivers open; he is not doing a good job of scheming receivers open in red zone.  

• Last but not least Jordan Love.  Just a few observations from last game.

  • There are 2 plays every game that are head scratching.  Both times this game they happened when he rolled right trying to extend the play.  One led to a pick six.  Second one was along side line where he tried to throw the ball very late; led to ball being popped up into the air and luckily fell to the ground.

  • He continues to have good pocket presence and finds the open receiver.

  • Accuracy much improved with the deep ball this year.

  • Can get too greedy and just not taking what the defensive gives you.  Has a tendancy to want to push the ball down the field too much.  The leads to taking too many forced throws.

  • Overall I feel his talent is special.  He is very calm in the pocket and keeping his eyes downfield.   I never see him get caught looking at the rush.  Arm is elastic and can make throws on multiple platforms.  Has has good (not great) speed for QB.  He will anticipate receivers getting open.  I think his best trait is his demeanor.  Never see him pointing the finger at his teammates.  I think time will tell if he just continues to be a good QB, vs a great QB.  His one big hiccup right now are those couple plays a game that he just cannot continue to make if the Packers are to win a Super Bowl.  I am going to leave you on this stat: 28, 15, 15, 23.  Those are Peyton Manning's interception totals over his first four years in the league.

The Good - Offensive line, especially Rasheed Walker

• Last week I felt that the Texans defensive line got the better of the Packers offensive line.  This week the Packers offensive line got the better of the Jaguars defensive line.  Rasheed Walker had his best game of the year.  I saw him get beat twice (once pretty badly) in pass protection; but on a whole he was sustaining blocks much longer.  

• Zac Tom played outstanding.  He was solid on every single snap I saw.  Best offensive lineman of group.

The Bad - Lucas Van Ness

• I keep waiting to see more out of Lucas Van Ness.  He really looks like the same exact player as last year.  He is strong with very heavy hands.  But at this point he is just a hustle type player who can stop the run.  Offers very little in terms of pass rush.  Only move he has at this point is a bull rush....and nothing else.

The Good - Jaire Alexander

• In man and zone he was good all game.  Was not tested much for good reason.

The Bad - Defensive line penetration

• They were better against the run this game (with exception to the 4th quarter).  However, they did not get the penetration they normally get.  No one stood out.   I thought Gary provided the most consistent push, but nothing to write home about.  They have Gary lining up in more positions along the line.  Even seen him standing up in the wide 9 position.  The Packers are trying a lot of things to get him going.

Notes/Observations

• Offense is missing someone who can attack the edges.  They tried one WR end around with Jayden Reed and it went nowhere.  Jacobs has not be good on outside zone run plays.  His agility is outstanding.  But he is not able to attack the edges.

• Doubs took a step up this year.  In man he just gets open a lot.  

• Still waiting for Packers to unleash Cooper.  They need him to blitz more.

• Brooks continues to get more snaps at running back.  He had 17 snaps to Wilson's 12.  So far he has been good in blitz pick-up.  Also looks natural catching the ball.

• On Love's interception the cornerback was playing outside technique.  He should not have thrown the ball as receiver was running an out route.

• On McKinney's pick, Kenny Clark walked two Jaguars defenders back into Lawrence's face.

• On Tucker Kraft's big catch and run it was Darnell Savage who missed the tackle.

• When Evan Williams left the game it really creates a bad dilemma for Packers.  Bullard goes back to safety (better in slot), Nixon goes to slot (better on outside), and Stokes comes in as the outside corner.  Essentially downgrading at three positions.  Then add Quay Walker being out, Lawrence really exposed the back half of the Packers defense.  Zone looked very holey in 2nd half, something I have not seen this year.

• Bullard had a rough 3rd quarter playing safety.  Started with a missed tackle.  Then got beat badly in man.  Then got beat on a post route for a touchdown.

• Kraft had another nice game blocking and receiving.  Jaguars have an even front.  Was holding up to end in single blocks.

• Jacksonville played more man than I've seen previous teams play.  I would like to have seen more separation from the receivers.  Doubs was the best of the bunch.

The Good - Karl Brooks

• TJ Slayton had his best game of the year.  I will point out the interior of Houston's line is the worst I've seen all year.  He consistently blew up plays getting penetration all game long.  He was doing it against single and double teams.

The Bad - Penetration in run game

• Offensive line run game is giving up too much penetration on run plays.  Far too often guys are getting beat or late to a block, leaving little room for the running backs.  Running backs were making their first cut is made behind the line of scrimmage.  Overall offensive line got outplayed by Houston defensive line.

The Good - Romeo Doubs

• He can just run slants.  Every slant I saw him run there is separation.

Notes/Observations

• When Tom left the game for a play it was Telfort that backed him up at RT (not Morgan).

• Love played a solid game throughout.  When he is blitzed he is at his best.  One knock throughout the season is interceptions.  I do have a concern regarding this. However, over the past 2 games he has not thrown that many bad balls.  This game he only threw 2 balls that had the possibility of getting picked, and they both were.  Breakdown on both interceptions:

  • 1st interception - Texans playing a zone where defensive backs were guarding 1st down line.  I feel like Love was thinking the outside corner was going to follow Doubs on the out; instead he jumped the inside receiver's route for a tipped ball that led to the interception.

  • 2nd interception - Houston was in man coverage with one safety covering deep middle.  Tom was beaten by Danielle Hunter causing Love to throw the ball drifting to his left; which then caused the over throw.  It was a bad decision and a worse throw.  No one on the field had much separation.

• I was not impressed with the offensive tackle play.  Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter are good players.  I was worried on every play that Anderson was lined up over Walker.  He was helped by Love getting the ball out quick.  Hunter and Anderson had a sack each.  Tom got beat more this game than the last 3 combined.

• Defensive line play across the board was outstanding.  There was penetration coming from everywhere.

• Texans offensive coordinator was out-coached.  Had too many plays where receivers were running routes that took time; something Stroud did not have much of.  They ran a couple screens and that was it.  Very few quick hit options when the Texans decided to pass. 

• Its nice watching safeties that tackle.  Both Williams and McKinney are willing and good tacklers.  Last year was the opposite.

• Jordan Morgan has had really up and down play since coming back from injury.  To me he is the most athletically gifted of the lineman.  Just a little too inconsistent.  Some of the strength issues starting to show up for me.  The more I watch him the more I see an offensive tackle.

• Houston really shut down the Packers outside runs.  LaFluer tried a couple WR sweeps and there was nothing there.  Once Lloyd gets healthy, I wonder if it will be his role to attack the edges.

• I feel like Karl Brooks is the only one who can diagnose a screen pass at this point.  

• Third game with Nixon on the outside.   All three games have been solid.  Looks better on ouside than in slot.  It was a little harder to evaluate Nixon on the outside due to Stroud having no time to throw.  

• Brooks was in the game on the last drive in lieu of Wilson or Jacobs.  I take that as the Packers must feel very confident with him in pass pro.

• Hafley threw the kitchen sink at the Texans.  Pressure was coming from everywhere via stunts, clear-outs, and blitzing from DB backfield

• CJ Stroud had 5 carries for 19 yards.  Quarterbacks cannot run against this defense.

• The interior of Houston's offensive line is a problem.  They lost the game for the Texans.

The Good - Offensive line pass blocking

• I feel like starting 5 all played their part in giving Love time.  Elghton Jenkins finally played more like a pro bowler.  Handled everything thrown is way with ease.  Also Zac Tom had a terrific pass blocking day.  I did not see him get beat once; he is top notch at play recognition.  I felt like Jordan Morgan was odd man out.  Did not hold up at point of attack; also was missing blocks when he was pulling.  

The Bad - Quay Walker in run recognition

• This is still a problem in the 4-3.  I really do not see much improvement over last year.  The more I watch him, the more I see him as the 3rd linebacker.  He just does not diagnose plays ran right at him.

The Good - Karl Brooks

• This guy is continuing to grow on me.  He was good as a rookie and now has taken a 2nd year jump.  He does have a developing swim move that he can win with.  Also holding up to double teams.

Notes/Observations

• The big one is Keasion Nixon has overtaken Eric Stokes as the outside cornerback.  Stokes is now the dime cornerback; Valentine pushed down to reserve.  I would like to point out that the Cardinals receivers are not good; but Nixon to me looks way more natural on the outside.  As stated over the past year, he does not have the wiggle to play slot corner.  

• Bullard is now exclusively playing slot.  Packers played a lot of zone where Bullard was spying Murray at times.  Looks way more natural in slot than Nixon.  

• I point out safety play every week.  The tandem of McKinney and Williams is going to be good.  Last week Williams played more in box; this week they gave him more opportunites playing back.  I thought he looked good in both roles.  He continues to impress.  

• Teams continue to run a screens at Packers with running backs.  This could be the counter punch to the aggressive front.

• Love played great.  Accuracy was solid all game, albeit a couple throws.  Decisions were solid all game.  

• Tucker Kraft had his first bad game blocking.  Missed blocks in space.  Also did not always hold up at point of attack.

• Run blocking was subpar.  There was not as much misdirection and movement up front with the lineman (as in the past couple games).  Lot of just zone blocks and letting the running back find the hole.  Jacobs had to work for everything he got.

• Packers are getting consistent pressure withouts blitzing.  I do realize the edges are not getting a ton of sacks, but they are doing a very good job at containing the QB in the pocket.

• Murray ran 7 times for 14 yards.  Last week against the 49ers he ran 7 times for 83 yards.

The Bad - Offensive line play in the first half

• Zac Tom had his worst half of the year.  Really struggled against the quickness of Byron Young.  Speed/Quickness of Rams gave offensive line fits entire first half.  In 2nd half Packers relied on shorter routes to get the ball out of Love's hand quicker.  Also, Packers should have been able to run the ball better against the smaller Ram's front.  The holes were really not there all game. 

The Good - Safety play (again)

• Played a ton of single high with McKinney playing middle deep.  He was always around the ball.  Evan Williams was solid all game, primarily played more up, as Rams were getting ball out quick.  He is not afraid to fill a hole along line of scrimmage.  Unsure of what he looks like as a deep safety as that was primarily McKinney's role.

The Bad - Jordan Love's 1st half

• Offensive was not good in the 1st half and Love was part of it.  Packers were setting up more deep routes, which meant Love had to hold onto the ball a little longer.  The line could not hold up, which really affected Love.  Both accuracy and decisions were subpar.  Some of inaccuracy was just getting the ball out due to long play design (and not enough time for plays to happen). I feel like the bomb to Reed in the 1st quarter was very lucky.  Threw into triple coverage when other options were open.  Also had a free play (12 men on defensive) and had a guy in the middle of the field with no one 25 yards around him; instead he throws it deep to nobody. 

The Good - Josh Jacobs in pass pro

• All season he has been really good.  Not only is he good at blocking he reads things very quickly.

Notes/Observations

• Rams offensive line is terrible, but I thought our defensive line played solid all game.  The Rams gameplan was to get ball out quickly to cover up their inadequate line.  Packers had somebody pressuring Stafford on almost every play.  A few notes regarding the line:

  • Van Ness had his best game of year.  Rams LT could not hold up to Van Ness power.

  • Karl Brooks his having a nice season.

  • Preston Smith was pretty quiet all game.

  • Gary was beating the RT; ball just getting out too quick.

  • Colby Wooden was active and looked similar to last year.  Very good at beating you with quickness; still looks to lack power.

• Dontayvion Wicks had a tough game catching the ball again.  I would like to point out that he had a couple really good blocks.  Very active and willing blocker.

• Eric Wilson is making some very good cuts.  

• Nixon held up on outside.  I would like to point out he was on the same side as Allen Robinson.  Allen Robinson looks slow in everything he does at this point in his career.  

• Kyren Williams was impressive.  Has elite quickness and his vision is really good.  Packers defensive line was good; Williams was better.

• McVay was really playing with half a hand and made a game of this.  No outside weapons and a terrible offensive line.  He did it with misdirection, a good RB/QB, and quick passing.  

• Quay's sideline to sideline speed really shows up on stretch run plays.  Still struggles with plays right at him.

• Packers sprinkled in more man coverage this game; however still primarily playing zone.  

• On McKinney's interception Packers were in man.  Coverage across field field was good.  Colby Wooden cleared out an alley allowing Karl Brooks to apply pressure in Stafford's face.  Stafford had to make a very quick (poor) decision.

• Packers need to blitz Edgerrin Cooper more, Quay Walker less.  This would be playing to both of their strengths.

• Byron Young, an edge rusher with Rams, is an underrated player.  Had the biggest impact on the game in the 1st half.  Very good at rushing the passer; can be a liability in run support due to size.  As stated earlier, Tom really struggled against him.  Packers had to pivot and change gameplan; ball had to come out quicker.

The Bad - Defensive line play

• The entire defensive line was not good.  Only Kenny Clark and Karl Brooks were adequate.  The Vikings doubled Clark all game; I thought he held up well.  Brooks was only guy to get off Vikings blocks.  Rest of defensive line were out-manned by a very good Vikings offensive line.

The Good - Right side of offensive line, including Myers

• The right side is playing much better than left side.  Two games in a row were Elghton Jekins was just average and Walker has been underwhelming.  I am doing a 180 on Myers this year.  Again good on the move and held up to power this game.  All three (Myers/Rhyan/Tom) are playing very well together

The Bad - Love's decisions and accuracy

• His accuracy was worse than his decisions.  Way too many off target throws which made it tough on the receivers.  Also had 4 throws I counted as just head scratchers.

The Good - Safety play

• McKinney is such an upgrade over anything we've had in the past 10 years.  As I said in past posts, he just anticpates so well.

• I think by the end of this year we will see more Bullard in the slot and Evans playing back.  Bullard looks really good in run support and as a blitzer.

Notes/Observations

• Vikings really used Packers aggressive front against them.  3 first half screen plays went for good gains.  Out of all 3 screens only one guy read it properly (Wyatt - on only 1 screen).  Viking offensive lineman does a very good job at not selling out the screen.

• Our defensive edges were not good.  The VIkings' tackles completely outplayed them.  They were not winning at all.  At this point we were expecting more out of Gary.  I did not see a ton of chips/doubles against him.  He was just flat out not winning.

• Our run defense in the first half was terrible.  The Vikings really attacked our B and C gaps and there were gaping holes.  Packers did a better job in the second half.

• There was a Love interception that Musgrave tipped, then went off Doubs, then picked.  That ball was intended for Doubs.  My assumption is Musgrave had to run the incorrect route.  He ran a shallow curl and it should have been a shallow out.

• I think I am going to say this every week, Edgerrin Cooper is explosive.

• Romeo Doubs got open alot.

• Quay blitzed a couple times and got through the line twice (one resulted in sack).

• Minnesota has a lot of variety to their defensive fronts; play a ton of zone behind it.  The zone to me looked a bit holey.

• Both running backs (Jacobs and Wilson) played well.  Both hit holes and were good in pass blocking (Wilson had one big miss).

• I would like to continue to see Kraft used in the flat.  He has some speed and can break tackles.  A very low risk play that always seems to get a lot of yards.  

The Bad - WR separation

• Just not a ton of it for Packers receivers.

The Good - Devonte Wyatt

• Scheme is perfect.  Was unblockable in 1-1 situations.  He is showing more power this year as he is consistently providing interior push.  Also a hustle player who will run down ball carrier downfield.  Best game as a Packer.

• A few plays of his to note:

  • Completely abused Skronski on one play for sack.  Skronski looked overmatched physically with Wyatt's power.

  • On second sack he beat a double team.

The Bad - Rasheed Walker is inconsistent

• Walker continues to be inconsistent.  First half was plain bad.  Was not good at recognzing blitz pickups and got beat too much with quickness of 3-4 ends.  Second half was much better.

The Good - Myers/Rhyan/Tom

• Mid season form.  They handled every stunt/blitz that was thrown at them.  Did not see them getting beat.  They were all used in space quite a bit, especially Myers...who is making a ton of solid blocks in space.

Notes/Observations

• Edgerrin Cooper moves really well.  He is really explosive.  Size may limit exactly how they use him.  As a blitzer he could be pretty dynamic.

• Tennessee offensive tackles are really bad.

• I expected a bit more out of Gary.  Titans chipped him a lot but he should have beaten that RT more.  Was really overshadowed by rest of line.  Enagbare and Smith both got a chance at 1-1 at the RT and completely abused him.  

• Tucker Kraft is a mismatch blocking a 3-4 end.

• Another game with a ton of misdirection.  This is really creating issues for opposing defenses in stopping the run.

• On Jaire Alexander pick 6, he had no help behind him.  McKinney in box and Bullard was shading/helping other side.  I believe that is why Levis thew that ball.  Takes some conviction to make that read/pick.

• McDuffie had a solid game.  Anticipated well in the run game.

• Willis has been fairly accurate.  One deep ball and another short crosser (that should have been a bigger play) were two off thrown balls.  The rest of his throws were all good.  

• Quay Walker made a really good play on the 4th down stop on WIll Levis's run.  He diagnosed quickly and came from a long way to make the stop.  Still seeing the game through a straw though in the run game.

• Musgrave's blocking was not good.  Had a crack back block where he did not attempt to block the 3-4 end.  End pushed Musgrave into ball carrier for a big loss.  Was a bad look.  When asked to hold a block, he cannot.  Also did not run many routes due to game plan.

• McKinney anticipates well.  Sees it prior to ball being thrown.

• Packers played a ton of zone on defense.  Seen very little man.

• Enagbare had an outstanding game.  Had a ton of pressure.  Also diagnosed a screen really well in 2nd half when the rest of the line did not.

• Emmanuel WIlson is really decisive with his cuts.  Showed multiple times he has speed to get to edge.

• Not seeing missed tackles.  Many combo tackles.

The Bad - Linebackers in run support

• I only saw one actual good play in run support from LB group and that was Eric Wilson, who only played 8 snaps.  The rest of them way to slow to react.  Cooper who was good week 1, had a bad play where he lost outside contain that led to a big run from Jonathon Taylor.  Walker is a liability in run support but I will give him a pass this week; he was asked to spy RIchardson on every play.

The Good - Offensive lineman in space

• There was a ton of pulling lineman and misdirection.  Lineman were asked to move and really get to 2nd level,  Everyone of them looked good doing it.  This was probably Myers best game as a Packer.  He was moving on almost every snap; this suits him better than having to hold up to power (which he struggles at).  

The Good - Interior pass rush

• Richardson had a guy in his face a lot with no escape route (per design).  Richardson only had 37 yards on ground.  Want to point out both Clark and Wyatt, who both penetrated well.  

Notes/Observations

• Tom/Rhyan/Morgan really played off each other well.  Tons of combo blocks that were executed really well.

• Packers designed a bunch of 1-read plays for Willis.  Breakdown of throws for Willis were: (10) 1st read throws, (2) 2nd read throws, and (2) 3rd read throws.  Note all 3rd read throws were completions.  He was really not asked to do much.  Everything was deisnged for him.

• Lots of misdirection on offensive.  Guards pulling one way and ball carrier going the other way.  Created a ton of issues for Colts, especially their LB's

• Kraft still blocked well.  Looked better blocking against a 3-4 edge vs a 4-3 end...but still good.

• Anthony Richardson's accuracy was not good.  

• Jordan Morgan is going to be good.  Moves too well and is stronger than I thought he was going to be.

• Emmanuel Wilson was good at blitz pick-up.

• Musgrave's blocking is adequate....which is better than last year.  Packers do not ask him to take on ends like Kraft.  They ask him to cut block and take on 2nd level players.  They ask Kraft to take on 1st level players.

• Defensive played primarily zone with Quay as the spy.

• Defensive line ran a ton of stunts this game.  Seen a lot of them in the 3rd quarter.

• Valentine got more snaps this game.  I am not sure if that was due to Stokes play (which I thought was fine) or the fact that they ran a lot of zone this game.  Something to monitor.

The Bad - Rasheed Walker's first half.  

• Looked overmatched and was at least a step behind in picking up the blitzer.  2nd half was much better.

The Good - Ehlton Jenkins

• Was the best player on the field for Packers on both sides of the ball.

The Bad - Jordan Love's ball placement in 2nd half

• He missed way to many throws in the 2nd half.  Making really good reads and presssure did not bother him.  Ball placement was an issue on way too many throws.

The Good - Tucker Kraft's blocking

• Handled 3-4 edges with ease in both run and pass game.  Really developing into a complete tight end.  

Notes/Observations

• Jalen Hurts is very accurate.  Ball is always on money.  He took a ton of hits

• Scheme was to keep Hurts in pocket.  Ends stayed in gap and tried to squeeze Hurts down and then rely on interior push.  Only consistent interior push was Clark.  All others were mixed bag at best.

• Nakobe Dean is small, but a very fun watch.  Goes after ball carrier at 100 mph.

• Jordan Morgan's run blocking was better than expected.  Moves well and has more power than anticipated.  Struggled more in pass game than run game.

• Field was an absolute mess.  There was slipping with all defensive players all over field.  This happened at every level.  Wyatt slipped on every other play in 1st half.  

• Lots of penalties.  All seem warranted except big Jaire Alexander penalty in the 2nd half.

• Lot of 11 personal for Packers offensive.

• With a lot of 11 personal, meant very little Musgrave.  I only saw him block on 1 play.  

• Javon Bullard at fault for big touchdown to AJ Brown.  He had over the top coverage and allowed Brown to get by him (after Alexander was beat) and score on 1st posession of 2nd half.  Bullard also got caught in crossing route (Packers in man) that went for big gain.

• McDuffie looks slow when chasing after Saquan Barkley.

• I am still not sold on Nixon in slot.  I do not think he has enough wiggle.

• Red zone offensive was terrible.  On passing plays there was no one open....ever.

• Hafley really mixed up zone and man coverages.  Alexander followed Brown wherever he went.

• Edgerin Cooper's speed going downhill is evident.  Very quick and closes downhill in a hurry.  

• Josh Jacobs is really good in pass protection.

QB

Jordan Love had another really good game.  The Vikings played a ton of zone and Love picked it apart all game.  He was a little inaccurate to start.  However, after the 1st quarter he was pretty spot on all game.  

RB

LIke I have said in past posts Aaron Jones just makes a huge impact.  He is really decisive in his cuts and quick to to hole.  He finished the game with 20 carries for 120 yards (6 ypc).  Not much to be said about the other running backs.  Patrick Taylor's final line was 8 carriers for 30 yards (3.8 ypc); AJ Dillion's line was 7 carries for 27 yards (3.9 ypc).  I did not see Dillion or Taylor running routes as they were used for pass protection.

TE

Was by far Kraft's best game as a blocker.  I seen him block the Vikings edge players well all game.  Also, he looks really good with the ball in his hands; he has a good combo of athleticsm and speed for his size.

Packers ran a lot of 12 personal where both TE's (Sims and Kraft) were releasing into routes a lot.  I am dying to see Musgrave and Kraft in this personal now that the offensive is holding up so much better.

OL

This unit as a whole played really well.  VIkings brought a lot pressure and Packers did a good job passing guys off and picking up the blitzers.  VIkings stand up a lot of guys at the line, similar to Kansas City.

The Packers did not help their tackles much and they both held up all game long in the passing game.  I thought Walker and Toms were both winning consistently.  All three guards (Jenkins, Runyan, and Rhyan) also were adequate all game.  Picked up blitzes and were winning consistenly in their pass sets.

That brings us to Jon Ryan.  This was his worst game of the year.  Got beat by power all game long.  Early in the game the Vikings lined a DT right over him and he consistently was walked back to the quarterback.  It really helped that Love got the ball out quick. If is was not out quick he was getting knocked off his spot due to Ryan not holding up.  He just can not hold up to power when asked to single block.

DL/Edge

This unit as a whole played well.  The Packers played a bunch of nickel with only two down lineman.  I thought the interior players (Clark, Wyatt, and Slayton) were asked to take on a ton of double teams and held up.  I thought Wyatt and Slatyon both played well against the run and pass.

Preston Smith had a nice game as he beat one of the best lineman in football (Darrisaw) multiple times.  Rashan Gary was way too quiet for me.  He was getting chipped at times, however he had the easier of the matchup.  I did not see him beating the RT enough.

Enagbare had a really solid game.  He did not have a ton of snaps but was very effective.  Generally he wins with quickness.  However, there was one play where he walked the RT right back to the QB using his length and power.

Van Ness was completely ineffective vs Darrisaw.  In the past LT's have really struggled with Van Ness's strength; Darrisaw had no problem handling Van Ness.  Van Ness has put together a string of solid games....this was not one of them.

LB

As in previous posts our middle linebacker position is a problem.  The defensive line was doing their job as I felt they were controlling the line of scrimmage.  Our linebackers cannot read a running play or fill the necessary hole.  When asked to take on an offensive lineman or tight end there is a 100% chance Walker will get pushed back multiple yards.  He plays with no anticipation and has epically bad play strength.

DB

It helps playing against a 4th string QB, but the DB's had a better game.  The Packers again played a ton of zone, mixing in a "little" man.  The zone looked a lot better this week as I was just was not seeing these huge voids that I generally see.  It was evident that Hall did not have the ability to push the ball down the field.  Packers played a ton of cover 1 with Savage being the deep man and Owens playing a lot in the box.  I give this unit a solid B as the unit played alot better as whole this week.

QB

Very typical game for Love as looked similar to past games.  Overall he had a solid game.  Moved well in the pocket, went through progressions, and hit the open man.  I think it is now obvious is he going to be the Paker's QB of the future.  He will be good, it is just a matter of how good.  His biggest weakness at this point is accuracy, which he will need to overcome.

RB

Offense as a whole played very well.  A lot of that has to do with Jones.  Jones's final rushing line was 21 carries for 126 yards (6 ypc).  There were alot of cut back lanes open, and Jones took advantage of them.  He is the only running back on the roster that can stretch the field horizontally via the stretch zone run play.  Going into the offseason the Packers will need to add another running back who can also do this.

AJ Dillion has just not been effective running the ball this year.  He is a really good pass blocker and is average in pass catching.  However, he had 7 carries for 12 yards (1.7 ypc).  With players of at least 100 rush attempts he ranks 45 out of 48.

WR

The receiving group as a whole continues to get better.  The Panthers have a really good defensive and the Packer's receivers were getting open.  The Panthers seemed worried about the Packers speed at this position as they were really giving up a lot of space in underneath routes.  

The guy I want to point out is Malik Heath.  He is really good blocker.  I seen him seal of a linebacker very well.  I think this guy sticks beyond this year.

TE

Both tight ends played well.  Sims was used again more in the passing game (just no targets).  The Packers are choosing not to help their tackles which is allowing the tight ends going into routes.  I cant wait to see when Musgrave his healthy and they utilize both him and Kraft in the passing game at the same time.  Back to Sims, when asked to block I give him an A.  The Panthers play a 3-4 and he was asked to block the edge on multiple occasions, which he did very well.

OL

This group continues to get better.  The only lineman's tape I did not like was Runyan.  Was lined up against Derrick Brown a lot.  When not doubled Brown won too much.  When he got into Runyan's pads he would get walked back to the QB.

Myers and Tom were adequate.  I did see Jenkins get beat badly on a goal line run.  Got beat easily by a swim move...outside of that he was terrific.

Walker has back to back solid games.  They are no longer helping him with in-line tight ends and he is holding up.  I did see him get walked back to the QB where he got beat with power.  There were two plays where he blocked the wrong man.  On one play he took the outside guy and he should have clearly picked up the inside blitzer (outside blitzer was Patrick Taylor's responsiblity).  There was another play (run play) where Jenkins handed his man off to Walker.  Instead of taking Jenkin's man he tried to loop weirdly loop around Jenkins to get to the next defender.  The play would have gone for at least a 5 yards; instead it went for just a couple of yards.  In the past I stated that Walker is not our tackle of the future.  I hope to rescind that statement at the end of the season.  

Ryhan was not as impressive as the last game.  He's got alot of power to move guys, and there are several plays where he moved the defensive tackle; however he got beat a couple times with quickness.  He seems to get over his ski's a bit and quick defenders are able to capitilize via the swim move.  I seen Derrick Brown do this a couple times, which gets Ryhan easily off balance.  Also as a whole he is still much more effective than Runyan.

DL/Edge

The unit needed to be more disruptive.  The Panthers made a point at controlling Clark and doubled him on almost every play.  To me the Panther's tackles seemed weak and Gary should of had way more of an impact (did not see him get doubled or chipped alot).  His pressure was minimal.  Karl Brooks made a couple splash plays where he beat his man with quickness.  Outside of that, guys had their moments but no one really stood out.  As a whole I was expecting more.

LB

McDuffie played really well in run support.  Filled gaps and attacked the ball carrier.  At times he was picked on in the pass game when covering a tight end.

Quay Walker I thought played a little better.  The Packers blitzed him a few times.  He got home on the first play.  In most other cases it is just hand fighting at the line.  There is no chance of him going through a lineman.  Once he engages with a lineman/tight end there is a 0% chance of him getting off it.

DB

When watching the tape I do not feel it was as bad as the numbers.  It was just bad, not completely terrible.  Note though the Panthers have the worst receiving group in the league.  The Packers played alot of man; I would say they played man on roughly 50% of the plays.  The one guy I want to point out is Eric Stokes.  His coverage was tight all game.  He did give up a couple of receptions, however it took the perfect pass.

I am more conviced that Nixon is not a slot corner.  I am really questioning his lateral agility.  There is just too much separation when receivers change direction on him.  I question the Packers coaching staff in putting him in this position.  To me Darnell Savage's skill set fits a slot CB.

Safeties really struggled.  The Packers played a ton of cover 1.  Primarily Johnson was asked to play the deep safety as a catch-all at the back end.  They have this safety playing so deep he has little impact; especially at ever making a play on the ball.  At times they put Owens back there, which is a joke.  He does not have the speed to play this role.  Owens is fine being a box safety as he can "generally" stay with tight ends and is solid in run support.  I seen him one too many times playing the deep safety, which is asking for trouble.

QB

Love was just ok this game.  He does all the things you want in going through progressions and thowing it to the open man.  He also does very good job of aniticapting throws and just knows where to go with the football.  However, his ball placement and accuracy was poor.  Too many times, especially in the first half, he was not on target.  He was either missing receivers completely or not hitting guys in stride.  There was one play I want to point out that I really liked out of him.  In the first half the Packers were backed up on their own 5 yard line.  LeFluer called a pass play and the Buccaneers had a free rusher right up the middle.  Reed was running a deep route and did not have much seperation.  Love threw the ball with a man in face and it was on target 40 yards down the field.  Reed was able to draw pass interference on this play.  I thought this play showed the confidence LeFluer has in Love.

RB

It is evident how much this team needs Aaron Jones.  He just hits the holes so much quicker than the rest of Packer's running backs.  He also brings the ablity to stretch the field on stretch zone run plays, something we have not seen the past couple of weeks.  WIth Jones's age, next years it will be a necessity to get another running back who can fill this void. 

Not much to report on either Taylor or Drake as they were solely used for pass blocking.

WR
I really like the Packers passing scheme.  Love had a lot of options as receivers were getting open.  Wicks is really starting to elevate his game as he is open alot.  Also, he is really good with ball in his hands as he broke a ton of tackles and made alot of people miss.  He may end up being the best of the bunch.

TE

Kraft is really turning into a nice tight end.  Kraft used the majoirty of the time as the pass catcher.   The Packers had Sims run a lot more routes than in the past.  He is noticiably larger than Kraft.  In routes he is just ok.  To me he looks a little slow in and out of breaks and it takes him a little time to get up to top speed.

OL

Lets start with the bad.  Myers had a really bad game.  He had a few more 1-1's this game and he lost alot.  Vita Vea has a lot of power and Myers had no chance to hold up to it.  Center will be a priority next year.  

Lets get to the good.  This was Rasheed Walker's best game.  The Packers often line up a tight end on Walker's side to help with outside speed.  In most cases the in-line tight end was just releasing into his route, not being asked to chip much.  The Bucanners were a good matchup for Walker as he was continually matched up against a smaller edge rusher of the Bucs; the edge rusher could not beat him with power, which is Walker's weakness.  LeFluer's gameplan was all over this and the Packers were able to release another tight end into a route as opposed to help Walker.  I would like to see Walker build on this.

Through his first couple of games Rhyan's game tape was a mixed bag.  However, this was by far his best game.  So far I have been so-so on Rhyan.   In this game I came away flat out impressed.  It was nice to see a larger sample size as he got 29 snaps.  His power and hand strength are evident.  In the run game he was getting consistent push and moving all defenders he was faced-up against.  There was pass play where he got a 1-1 vs Vea.  Vea initially got into his chest with quickness.  Ryan had the lower body strength to re-achor and completely stop Vea.  No other lineman on the team could have done that.   Probably a better fit for power/gap scheme vs a zone.  He does lack some length and movement skills of our other lineman.  I did see him get beat once on a pass set.  He got beat with quickness and was caught lunging....this is something I have seen in past games as well.  Overall though I was blown away with what I was seeing as I was not expecting this.  I am really interested to see how he performs in his next game.

DL/Edge

The best word I can explain for this group is adequate.  Rashan Gary was by far the best of this unit causing havoc on a lot of plays.  Slayton had his best game in awhile.  All game he stood up really well against doubles and was also in the backfield on a couple plays.  Wyatt saw a lot more doubles than in the past.  Him and Clark were not as disruptive as I like to have seen.

The two rookies Wooden and Brooks were ineffective all game.  Wooden was better than Brooks as his quickness was effective on a couple plays.  The Packers played a little more with 2 down lineman so there were not as many snaps to go around.

Van Ness was adequate.  They moved him to the left side a bit more.  He worked off a stunt with Wyatt in which he got his 3rd sack of the season.  Something to note as Gary only had 2 sacks his rookie season.

Preston Smith did absolutly nothing.  He was matched up against Wirfs and Wirf's beat him every time.  In Smith's defense nobody could really beat Wirfs.

LB

Ugh.  Played a little closer to the line of scrimmage which helped them against the run.  I am still wanting to see Walker not get pushed back 5 yards when taking on a block.  There was one play where a tight end pushed him completely out of the play.  There was also a pass play where he was lined up against a running back.  Walker was late to react to the running backs route and it went for a huge chunck play.  Campbell also struggled.  Put up more resistance against the run as he plays with more energy than Walker, but overall it is just not good enough in both run and pass.

DB

Ugh again.  I only saw them play man twice.  On the first man play the Packers got their only deflection of the game.  Valentine was lined up against Evans. Evans tried running a slant and Valentine stayed right on his hip to deflect the ball.  On the next play they played man again.  Mayfield was all over it and they had Evans on a 1-1 against Ballentine.  Ballentine did not have chance and had a blatent pass interence call at the top of the route.  After that play the Packers went back to zone and contiued to play zone the rest of the game.  I will say Mayfield played really well.  He never threw the ball in harms way and delivered the ball accurately and on-time.  For the majority of the game he was picking our zone to pieces as guys were open all over the field. 

In terms of our safeties they look slow and react even slower.  Yet another priority the Packers will have to upgrade in the offseason.

QB

Jordan Love had a bad first half.  His accuracy to all levels was poor.  He made a very poor decision throwing a deep ball to Wicks that resulted in an interception.  The Giants were in cover 1 and shading the safety to the left-hand side of the field (same side as Wicks).  Wicks ran a double-move but the safety was reading the play the entire way.  On this play Love never took his eyes off Wicks.  Was a very bad read and an easy pick for the safety.  He also made a poor decision in the 2nd half.  He was trying to get the ball into Doubs and an intermediate slant.  The Packers are lucky the ball was deflected or it would have been picked off by the linebacker.  Outside of those two throws I thought alot of decisions were good.  He went through his progressions and made good decisions.  In the 2nd half his accuracy improved and the Packers were able to move the ball.

RB

Same old story as the offensive line does not create many holes and got minimal to no push.  The Giants front four are pretty good and caused fits for the Packers o-line all game.  Dillion just is not the type of runner to create for himself.    He had 15 carries for 53 yards and the running game was pretty ineffective all game.  Again they have no speed to attack the edge with the guys on the roster; hence LeFleur running so many end arounds with receivers

WR

Throughout the game I thought the receivers did a good job of getting open.  In many cases Love did not have to go too far through his reads to find an open receiver.  There is a lot to like about this rookie class and I think it is obvious the Packers hit on both Reed and Wicks.  In LeFluer's press conference he made a statement on how quick Wick's feet are.  At the combine Wicks did not test that great in the 40 but his vertical and broad jumps were exceptional.  Both of these drills measure burst and short area quickness, which really show up on tape.

TE

The front four of the Giants is pretty good.  Because of this the Packers lined up Kraft in-line a lot more than the last game.  They used him to help out in pass sets blocking before releasing into his route.  In blocking he was below average and the Giants won more than he did.  Watching him run routes I have been impressed with him as he does get seperation.  Obviously not as fast as Musgrave, who was much more of mismatch vs a linebacker.  

OL

This unit was not good.  The 2nd half was better than the 1st half.  In run blocking they continually got zero push and created no holes.  Tom really struggled in pass sets vs Thibodeaux.  Tom needed help but the Packers cannot afford to help him because Walker needs help almost on every play.  I thought Meyers played solid in the first half but was beat too much in the 2nd half, especially in 1-1 situtions.  Runyan had a typical game...just gets beat too much for my liking.  Jenkins was solid all game, especially in pass blocking.  Walker played better this game, but still needs help.  Ryan only played 12 snaps.  He seems to have more power than I thought he would.  However, he tends to lose his balance at least once a game in limited snaps.

DL/Edge

The two guys that stood out were Wyatt and Slayton.  Both were disruptive throughout.  The Giants offensive line is not good, especially their interior.  Wyatt continues to improve.  I did see him hold up to a couple of doubles; there was a play were Slayton beat a double and was able to get into the offfensive backfield.  Clark has been playing so well and this game he did not show up.  Was not disruptive.  Got some 1-1's and just did not take advatage of them.  I thought all edge play was unsatisfactory.  They were just not causing enough disruption against a bad offensive line.  The Giants made an effort to chip and double Gary.  He was held in check for the entire game.  Preston Smith on other side was a non-factor.  Van Ness/Enagbare also did not win enough.  On the Saquan Barkley touchdown where he walked in, Van Ness was pancaked by the LT.  I have not seen this all year.

LB

Nothing again good about this group.  McDuffie is much better than Walker in the run game as he is much more decisive and will shoot a gap.  Campbell can stil run but he just is not making enough plays.  Coverage as a whole was not good as there were receivers open all game.

DB

I really do not know where to start.  The gampelan of the Giants was to have DeVito go through about 2 reads and then run.  Pakcers played a lot of zone and again it just does not look good as there are often open receivers.  The Packers were very concened with the Giants speed.  When the Giants were passing they ran alot of vertical routes.  This stretched out our zone and offered a ton of room for the QB to run; and the QB ran alot.  The Packers did nothing to adjust all game to this.  There was a ton of space in the flat and on intermediate routes.  Valentine offers at least 10 yards of cushion on every play.  There was one play where he gave 12 yards of cushion to the Giants tight end.  The Packers played a ton of zone all game; very minimal man.  They did play some cover 1.  Generally when they do this Savage is the deep safety.  However, there were times they had Owens be the deep safety.  He was playing so deep and bailed so early he would never be within 20 yards of a receiver.  When watching I really stuggled with how much respect the Packers were giving DeVito and the Giants vertical passing game....it was puzzling.

QB

Jordan Love was exceptional all game.  To me this was his best game of the year.  He is starting to anticipate pressure and the entire game he knew where to go with the football.  There was not one ball that had the possibility of getting picked off.  The only ball he threw that I did not like was a deep ball to Christian Watson in the 2nd half.  The Lions sent pressure and Love threw it off it his back foot.  The ball was way underthrown and if he threw a good ball it would have been a big gain, possibly touchdown. If Love continues to play like this the Packers will win a lot more games. 

RB

The running game as a whole is just not performing well enough.  They do not have a healthy running back that can attack the edge.  I like the fact that LeFluer is no longer trying to run Dillion outside the tackles as it will not work.  Dillion had 14 carries for 43 yards.  He had one carry for 17 yards; take that out of his stat line and he averaged 2 yards per carry.  Patrick Taylor did not fair any better as he had 3 carries for 11 yards.   The only way the Packers can attack the edges right now are with WR sweeps.  The offensive line does not get much push in the run game to give the running backs much space.

WR

This group did great.  I would first like to point out Mailik Heath who had 4 catches on 4 targets for 46 yards.  He is not the speediest of WR’s but has a big frame to get open.  On a slant route he had no separation but was able to use his body to shield of the defender to make the catch.  Also, in the run game he is really physical.  He blocks like a tight end.

Christian Watson had a good game, finally making a couple contested catches.  Something we have not seen.

Jaylen Reed is starting to emerge as the best weapon.  

TE

They really moved Tucker Kraft around.  In past with Luke Musgrave on the field Kraft almost always lined up in-line.  This game Kraft was moved around quite a bit.  He obviously does not have the speed of Musgrave but is more well rounded.  He had a much better day blocking.  On his touchdown catch he was first asked to hold off Hutchinson, which he did beautifully.  He first held him up and then ripped him forward and completely took Hutchinson out of the play.  He then released into a route and was wide open for a TD (Lions had no accountability for him in coverage on that play).  Watching this game it is easy to see his versatility as a catcher and blocker.

OL

In terms of pass blocking I feel like this was the best game of the year.  The Lions threw a lot at them in terms of stunts and moving Hutchinson around.  The Packers did a great job of picking up stunts and blitzers throughout the entire game.  They did a great job on Hutchinson all game.  

I thought this was Myers best game of the year.  Every game I see him getting beat too much for my liking.  He held up all game.

Sean Rhyan played two series (one in each half).  He provides a pretty good push in the run game.  His pass protection was so-so.  There was one set where the defender completely pushed him off balance.  If Myers was not there to help it would have been an easy sack.

I am still worried about LT.  I do not believe we have the 2024 LT on the roster.  Walker just does not hold up to power. 

In terms of run blocking they are not good.  There is little push or the generating of holes all year; this game is no different.

DL/Edge

This unit gets an A+.  If it was not for the defense front the Packers would have lost.  The Packers played 3 defensive lineman pretty much all game.  The 3 guys seen together a lot were Clark, Slayton, and Wyatt.  The Packers are starting to move Clark to 5/7 tech and he is creating a ton of havoc.  Each game he is getting better and more disruptive.  Moving him outside is getting him more 1-1’s and he is consistently too much for a single block.  He has been the funnest guy to watch over the past 2 weeks.

Gary also destroyed the game.  Consistently disruptive in both run and pass.  He was primarily lined up on the right hand side and the Lions simply could not block him.

Devonte Wyatt also played great.  He was disruptive, especially with quickness.  Continually making plays and beating his man.  One of better games I have seen out of him.

I have been hard on Preston Smith, but he also played well.  In one set against their best lineman (Sewell) he beat him easily and almost had a sack.

Enagbare also was making plays.  There is one play where the Lions tried to set-up a TE screen in the right flat.  It was essentially Enagbare and 3 lineman.  The play was set-up for a huge gain. Enagbare got past all 3 blockers to slow up the tight end to allow others to get there.  Was a very big un-noticed play. 

LB

Absolutely terrible.  Campbell is their best LB and it is evident when he is not playing.  Walker is still an enigma.  His speed and change of direction in space is top notch.  However, he plays with absolutely no power or awareness.  He is a tough watch in the run game. He cannot get off blocks and plays with zero anticipation.  He just looks clueless in the run game. The coaching staff throughout the year has given him ample opportunity to blitz and it just does not work.  When blitzing up the middle his lack of play strength is evident as he cannot get off a block.  I have seen him line up as the outside backer and it is the same story.  It is a lot of hand-fighting and he goes no-where.  At this point I am disappointed in the pick as he looks like a nickel linebacker who only excels in coverage.

Isaiah McDuffie is just an adequate back-up.  As stated in other posts he lacks size/athleticism to be a starter in this league.

DB

The LB’s were bad, the DB’s were worse.  In the first half they played zone and sprinkled in man.  I have been wanting them to play more man but it was evident they do not have players to play man, especially against the overall speed of the Lions.  The first time they played man, they ran a shallow crosser with Jameson Williams.  Valentine could not get through the traffic and Williams easily ran away from him to get a first down.

The Packers played a lot of zone and it was also terrible.  Guys were open all game.  If Goff was allowed time the Lions would not have been stopped. 

In the 2nd half they played a little more man than in the 1st half.  Was not impressed as guys could not stay with their man.

The only guy I thought played adequate was Jonathon Owens.  They played him near the line of scrimmage and is a solid tackler.  He does lack top end speed. There was one play were Gibbs got the edge and Ownes was trying to run him down.  It was evident how much faster Gibbs was than Owens as he ran away from him with ease.

I know there are a lot of new faces in the defensive backfield, but something is just not right here.  Guys in this system are getting worse.  Alexander was better in his first 3 years than he is now.  Stokes was better in year 1 than year 2.  Savage also did not progress at all.  

When I watch them play zone I continually feel like there are a bunch of holes.  Currently they are 31st with only 5 interceptions on the year.  I do not envision this changing as they are rarely close enough to a defender to get an interception. This team throughout the year just does not contest enough passes.  Anytime they run into an average or better QB it gets taken advantage of.

QB

Love is starting to put together some consecutively good games.  He was again decisive and ball was coming out quick and on-time.  Our offensive line was not good; but the Chargers secondary was worse.  Love had over 300 yards and found the open man all game.  Overall I really liked his game tape.  One issue is still deep ball accuracy.  In his one true deep ball throw, Watson had is guy on skates down left sideline on double move.  Love read it perfect but ball was way off target.

RB

Again there are no holes.  Really not a lot of oppourtunity for running backs to get free.    LeFluer did stick with it, but too many times at least one offensive lineman getting beat.  Jones went out early but was not too effective in his carries. Dillion had 14  carries for 29 yards.  Dillion is a solid back-up running back, but needs lineman to be better to be effective.

WR/TE

To begin, the Chargers defensive backfield is terrible.  They primarily played zone because they simply do not have personal to handle man.  The Packers attacked their man with out patterns.  They attacked their zone with everything else.  Guys were open all game.  Wicks was attacking the middle of the field and Love found him.  Musgrave got a lot of his catches in man.  All WR's really had their moment somewhere during the game.  

Tight ends really just need to block better.  It was not good.  Musgrave was terrible.  There was one play where Musgrave and Sims were asked to block Mack.  Mack simply swam Musgrave and pushed him away, then blew through Sims to tackle the running back for no gain.  I did not see one blocking set with Musgrave that I liked.  In previous games Kraft did not have alot of oppourtunities in the passing game; this game he did have some oppourtunites.  The recepetion down the right sideline he caught for 27 yards really showed off athletic side.  It will be interesting with Musgrave out for an extended period of time, how they will use Musgrave

OL

Hated the game tape.  Love got the ball out so early it really covered up some bad offensive line play.  The Packers did not help the tackles out as much allowing more WR's/TE's to run routes.  Outside of Tom/Jenkins I really do not know what the Packers have.  Every play I feel like someone is getting beat.  Nijman had a terrible game; they asked him to go up against Mack by himself a bunch of times and it was terrible.  Walker played better.   There were no noticable really bad plays from Walker; part of it was play design and ball coming out so quickly. 

Tom struggled a little bit in first half an had a much better 2nd half.  Jenkins is one of best in league.  Once he has hands on defensive lineman they just cannot disengage.

Runyan and Myers again putting in same category.  Just inconsistent due to them both being below average players.

On a side not LeFluer should get the game ball in my opinion.  They had a pefect gamplan.  I was worried with them not protecting lineman more, but it didn't matter.  Having the extra man running a route put more pressure on bad defensive backfield.  Packers took advantage of it all game.

DL/Edge

Kenny Clark had best game of season.  Seen more single blocks in this game than in any other game.  The Chargers interior lineman had their hands full as he really abused their center a lot.  Also guards on single blocks could not handle him either.

The rest of defensive line was not great.  They played a bunch of 2 down lineman with 4 LB's (similar to last game) so there was not a ton of oppourtunites for them.  Colby Wooden was only on the field for 5 snaps as his play style will not work in this format.  They did at time mix in a 3-4, but it was not too often

Edge players were not good.  Gary had a sack but it was somewhat created by Clark getting pressure up the middle.  Gary got some 1-1's and did not win nearly enough.  Preston Smith looks slow to me.  He has great length but really lacks burst.  Also, I thought he did not set the edge good enough.

They played Van Ness with his hand in the ground on a couple plays, which I have not seen alot this year.  Not a ton of oppourtunity with only being on the field for 12 plays.  At this point a much better run defender than pass rusher.  Out of the 12 plays he got one tackle on quickness where running back was runnning away from him.  Also made a really good play where the Chargers tried to stretch the Packers out to the right on a run play.  He had speed to get out to the edge and blow up play.

LB

Campbell's game tape a lot better than Walkers.  Campbell is just better in the run game.  Not a ton to report as they really did not flash or make a lot of plays.  They were covering the middle of the field and there seemed to be alot of space all over our zone (at every level).  Also, there was a play the Packers were in zone and Herbert made Walker look terrible and easily ran around him for a first down.

DB

We played a lot of zone and sprinkled in man.  We looked better in man overall, but that opened up some big plays downfield and with Herbert running.  Herbert took advantage of a leaky zone (again).  Herbert threw for 260 yards and ran for 73 yards (on limited pocessions).  In Berry's defense, he is not playing with a good defensive backfield.  As game wore on I seen more and more zone being played.  

Valentine had a so-so game.  Got beat a couple times but got bailed out by drops.  I do think he can play both man and zone.  When he decides to break on a ball it is noticibly more explosive than any other defender we have.

On a whole I thought the defensive played terrible.  Our offensive was on the field with long drives which thankfully kept this defensive off the field limiting the damage.   Even with limited drives the Packers defense gave up 394 yards.  Here is the breakdown of each drive for the Chargers:

• Downs (4 plays, 6 yards, 1:27 TOP) - TE dropped ball on 4th down with no one 15 yards around him.

• Field Goal (12 plays, 79 yards, 6:38 TOP) - Keenan Allen dropped ball on 3rd down that would have probably resulted in TD (at very least a 1st down).

• Touchdown (6 plays, 75 yards, 2:37 TOP).

• Punt (3 plays, 5 yards, 1:25 TOP).

• Field Goal (10 plays, 71 yards, 4:16 TOP) - Would have been TD but Keenan Allen lost ball in sun and dropped it.

• Punt (3 plays, 9 yards, 1:42 TOP).

• Fumble (5 plays, 72 yards, 2:20 TOP) - Had a 2nd a goal on 2 yard line, Eckeler slips getting hand off and fumbles.

• Touchdown (11 plays, 63 yards, 5:36 TOP).

• Punt (3 plays, -10 yards, 0:46 TOP) - Gary sacked Herbert on this drive.

• Downs (6 plays, 15 yards, 1:08) - Huge drop by Quinten Johnson that would have resulted in big play, possibly TD.

QB

I actually liked watching Love's tape better than watching him live.  Love was quick and decisive with his reads.  Ball came out quick and generally on-time.  Outside of Porter Jr I was not impressed with the backend of the Steelers defensive as there were a lot of open WR's.  The pick that he threw in the end zone to Watson was slighthly underthrown which caused a batted ball pick....which is a bit unlucky.  His 2nd pick came on the final play.  On that play both sides had identical play designs.  The inside WR cuts out giving room and hopefully seperation for the outside WR to cut in.  It was defended well on the side he through it to; on the side that he did not throw it to, it was not defended well and would have been a TD.  I want to bring up a play in the 2nd half that Love took a sack on.  He was about to throw a short in-breaking route and instead took the sack.  Pressure came very quickly.  If he would have thrown the ball it would have resulted in a pick. I like seeing this decision as I feel he still has too many issues when the defensive speeds him up.

RB

Offensivie line struggled against this front in the run game.  With a line that consists of Myers, Runyan, Walkder, and two rookie TE's, it is just not good enough in the run game.  There were just too many times Jones was getting met in the backfield and had nowhere to run.  Between Jones and DIllion they had 105 yards rushing; however, 40 of it came on one play.  Take that play out of it and they were 65 yards on 22 carries.

WR/TE

Steelers back-end is terrible.  They played both mix of man and zone.  Outside of Watson not being able to beat anyone, guys were open on a lot of plays.

 Craft had a solid game as a blocker which is leading to Degura losing even more snaps.  Another game that Craft was used sparingly in the passing game.   In general he is used in run support and pass coverage.  I also see him in man coverage being used to pick off DB's so WR's can come open.  Rarely he is seen in the reads Love is going through.  Musgrave was solid in the pass game.  When he gets lined up against a LB he will be open; also blowing by safeties of Steelers (as seen in the ball up the seam) where he had multiple steps on the safety in a hurry.

OL

Run game as a whole was pathetic.  

I thought Runyan and Myers played better overall.  Got beat some, but it was not nearly as bad.

Tom and Jenkins I am again putting in the same category.  Tom was on island against the best pass rusher in football and played well.  He really gets buy with his quickness.  So he is better suited for a guy like Watt in lieu of Hutchinson.

Walker was terrible.  Was lined up against #56 alot, and got beat alot.  If he does not get help his is a liability.  On the last series of the game he was not getting help and it was a trainwreck.  Gets beat by power every time and has no chance to re-anchor.  I would give Nijmam the nod because at this point because Walker cannot play LT.  This position has to get addressed in 2024 assumeing Biaktiari is not back.

DL/Edge

First off, I have no idea what Joe Berry is doing.  The Steelers played primarily in 3 WR and 1 TE sets. The Packers played with 2 down lineman pretty much exclusively all game.   This was asking a lot of our defensive line, which had to continually take on doubles.  Essentially the Packers were playing to Wyatt, Wooden, and Brooks weaknesses.  Only guy that could hold up is Clark.  The Steleers would simply pull guards/tackles and you have a semi-washed out line and a G/T then taking on our small/rangy linebackers.  Since there was no-one to muddy the water up front, our entire front 7 was in a position to fail.  This was because we were afraid of Kenny Pickett beating us.

On a side note I did not like Preston Smith's tape.  He is not beating his man enough for me.  His sacks our coming off the backs of others making the QB move in the pocket.  Also did a poor job of setting any sort of edge this game.

LB

Terrible.  Playing to weakness as explained in DL/Edge section.  Continually being asked to take on pulling G/T.  Just a complete fail of a gameplan.  Let it happen all game long.  We were bailed out as Steelers in 2nd half thought they needed to pass more...no idea why.

DB

Played a lot of man behind the crap that was happening up front.  Both corners (Ballentine and Valentine) had solid games in coverage.  I felt like they really stuck to their man.  The Steelers at times were trying to go after Ballentine and he was right with the WR.

The Packers would bring a safety up and play cover 1.  Issues is the Packers did not need a safety in the box....they needed another big body to take on another big body.  Instead they wanted a safety to take on a guard.

Deep safety never really challenged.  Kenny Pickett had a brutal game.  I came away very unimpressed with his performance.  There are way too many times he locks onto a WR and just waits for him to get open.  Also, he does not scan the field very well.  He generally only looks at one side of the field.  When he gets off the first read there is a frantic feel as he tries to go through his progressions.  Also his arm strength and accuracy are below average.  To me he looks like a career back-up.

QB

The Packers ran it a lot in the 1st half.  Outside of the last procession of the 1st half there were not many passes.  In those pass attempts Love was just ok.  He missed Watson on a deep ball that was really under thrown; also missed Jones on a swing pass that he must complete.  In the 2nd half he was much better.  The offensive line gave him time to go through his progressions and he did a good job at giving what the Rams gave him.  His intermediate throws were accurate and on-time.  I did not see many mis-reads as he went threw his progressions.  The one deep ball to Watson (that was caught) should have been thrown more towards the sideline as it looked like Watson was running a deep corner route.  The ball was thrown more towards the hash which brought the safety in play.  Also the ball should have been thrown with less air.  As a whole he had a very good game.  The strength of his is game is how well he moves in the pocket.  Because of this you do not forsee a ton of sacks, batted balls, or fumbles in his future.

RB

I think at this point it is pretty obvious how valuable Jones is.  The Packers had 35 (non QB) rushing attempts.  Out of those Jones had 20.  His yards per carry were not great, but he was effective.  He his quick to diagnose cutbacks and rarely loses yardage.  Pretty much got everything he could.  Dillion had 9 carries, which I feel is a good number.  He just takes the yardage given to him. Wilson had a long run at the end of the game.  I thought I was going to see this great seal block on the outside.  Instead it was a LB jumping inside leaving the entire right side of the field open.  After no hole Wilson bounced it outside and there was no one there.

WR

Outside of the Wicks drop over the middle, I did no see any other drops.  The Rams defensive backs seem to lack talent.  There defensive as a whole, outside of Donald, is not very good.  There were not many plays were WR’s were not open.  Whether Rams were in zone or man there were people open.

TE

Musgrave was not targeted as much as in the past (only 4 targets).  He looked better in the blocking.  I feel like it had to do more with the quality of the opponent…but I will take it.  He just seemed to hold up better.  There are times when he offers very little resistance.

Craft was used in-line in all of his sets that I saw.  Pretty much just used as a blocker.  Degura is really losing snaps to Craft.  They are asking Craft to do a lot as I see him taking on LB’s, DB’s and DE’s.  Very limited in the pass game as he is generall ya late option.  Due to others being open he had no targets. 

OL

Best game in awhile.  On a whole they were adequate (not good) in the run game.  Outside of Donald the Rams really do not have talent.  I did not see a ton of quickness or strength in any of their frontline players.  Packers did a good job of doubling Donald or running away from him.  It seemed like when he shot a gap or beat a double, the play was going elsewhere….credit to LeFleur gameplan.  They were much better in pass protection than run protection.  Love had plenty of time to pick apart a not good defensive backfield.

Tom stoned his guy all game with no help.

Jenkins also did a solid job in both run and pass.

Nijman was terrible on the 1st drive of game.  There was a run play and pass play where he whiffed on both of them.  After that he settled down and played adequate.

Walker played much better in reserve.  The Rams did not blitz or run stunts on the left side often.  A big thank you to the Rams defensive coordinator is needed.  I think they were just worried about their DB’s.

I am putting Runyan and Myers in the same category as they were adequate.  Donald did beat our interior a fair share.  However, by play design this was neutralized.  I still worry with Myers as I see issues with both power and quickness on single blocks.

DL/Edge

I am putting these two in one category.  Rams were really trying to run the ball and they could not.  Our defensive front controlled a bad offensive line all game.  Rypien is a terrible QB.  Seemed more concerned with the lineman in front of him rather than WR’s downfield.  Accuracy, timing, and arm strength were not good. 

Guys were continually getting off blocks up front to really clog up any semblance of holes.  After the 1st two drives Green Bay made an effort to send their middle LB’s, which clogged holes even more.  Once the Packers knew that the Rams could not pass the game was pretty much over.  I felt like every player had moments were they were just playing well.

LB

I really like Campbell’s back to back week of tape.  He’s fast and almost always in position.  McDuffie had best game of season.  He was the one they generally started sending up gaps, and he took advantage of it.  Again, once the Rams were one dimensional it made it very easy for the linebackers.

When you see these two players line up next to each other it is startling when you see the size and length of Campbell, compared to short, squatty player like McDuffie.   

DB

Rypien was so bad this was a tough evaluation.  A better QB could have taken advantage of some of the coverage.  Rypien was not going through is progressions well.   There were some puzzling decisions….hes just not good. 

Hard not to bring up Valentine.  Was really sitting on the underneath coverage and broke on balls quickly.  Also really good at forcing ball carries inside.  Really was attacking in the run game.

Jonathon Ownes was pretty much a LB.  Packers played a lot of 3-4, cover 1.  Owens was playing up at the LB level while Johnson played deep.  Ownes really excelled in this role as he is a committed tacker.  I thought he was a poor athlete, but he is actually adequate. 

Not sure on Johnson as he was never tested.  He was the deep safety, but Rypien did not have the ability to throw the ball downfield.  He had a pick, but it was more of a Ha Ha Clinton Dix type of pick (right spot, right time).  The play was made by Alexander baiting the QB and breaking on the deep ball.  Stafford probably has arm strength to fit it in there.

Jordan Love

Early in the game the Packers tried to attack the Vikings with short passes.  This did not go well as the Vikings were sitting in cover 1.  All game, with exception to the end of the 4th quarter, the Vikings played a cover 1 zone defense.  I only counted man once and that was late in the 4th.  When the Packers started to run more routes downfield it really opened up the WR’s.  There were holes all over this zone.  Love did a terrible job anticipating windows.  This was the worst coverage I have seen this year in an opposing defense.  His accuracy was poor to all levels.  Love’s accuracy, to go along with drops, was an issue.  His accuracy when the WR runs a straight vertical route is really bad.  When there is some horizontal movement in the route he is generally better.  This was the first game in awhile that I feel like the pass protection was at least adequate.  So I was expecting him to be better and he was not.  There were WR’s open quite often and he either did not anticipate it or did not trust it.  Once the Packers went more vertical in routes the underneath stuff was open consistently.  Was a missed opportunity not to capitalize on it.  I seen too many times were Love is looking at the read and the WR/TE is either open, or comes open, and he does not deliver the ball.  It was night and day what Cousins did to the Packers zone and what Love was doing to the Vikings zone.  I feel like after the 1st quarter there was just too many opportunities that went missed.  Going back to the underneath routes, there were times TE’s and RB’s were not accounted for once the Vikings defense was stretched out.

RB

Not a lot to report here.  The offensive line was adequate, but not great.  The Packers only ran the ball 13 times with RB’s, primarily to do with getting down early.  Jones only got 7 carries.  This is just not enough no matter the circumstances as he is really effective.  Even when the blocking isn’t the greatest he is able to make solid games.  Both RB’s were coming open in underneath routes and it was not utilized.

WR

Way too many drops.  I am waiting to see someone make a play for Love and it is just not happening.  Too many times Love is forcing the ball to Doubs when others are open.  Doubs is not the type of WR that is going to win on a continual basis, and they are treating him as he is.  Doubs stat line was 4 catches for 18 yards on 9 targets. 

TE

Same with RB’s, the underneath stuff was open as the LB’s were bailing due to vertical routes.  I watched Musgrave on a couple blocking plays and he actually held up.  There was one play were he had a delayed route.  He held up the end beautifully for a second and then released into is route.  On the this route he was uncovered, but the ball did not find him.

OL

Outside of Walker they were adequate.  Walker was taken out for 2 series in the 4th after being beaten often.  I watched him on a play where the TE gave a nice chip and he still was beaten to the outside.  Also did not really like Myers game.  When he gets a 1-1 block he just gets beat too many times.  Got beat by a swim move on back to back plays.  Also will get beat on power with the inability to re-anchor.  All in all they gave Love more time than in the past few games.  Run game there is not a lot to report as we did not have a lot of carries.  It is pretty easy to see that Jones hits and see holes better than Dillion.  When Jones is in there it makes the line look a lot better.  

DL

As a whole I thought they played well.  Brooks and Slayton both had solid games in both run and pass.  I really liked Wyatt in pass plays.  Used quickness and also developing a swim move that is quick and hard for the opposing line to stop.  There were a few plays he was in the backfield in run and pass.  I did see him get washed out on a double team on a outside stretch run play.  Taking on doubles is not a strength to his game.

The only thing I can say is Clark can handle a double much better than any other player.  Outside of that his game was not good enough.  Again, I feel like the Packers are playing him too many snaps as he just wears down, especially with the defense on the field this long.  There were times when his initial move did not work and he gave up on the play.  I think keeping him fresh with less snaps is the only option.  He did record a sack, but it was on the play that Cousins tore his achilles.

Also, defensive line ran more stunts than I have seen in previous games.  Most of the time it was ineffective; also seen them running into each other at times.

Edge

Teams are just getting the ball out so quickly it is hard to really get pass rush going.  Against the run the whole defense just played a lot better.  Gary was disruptive.  He really made a sack on one play where he went through 2 offensive lineman.  Instead Smith got the sack after he got chipped then just had to take on RB.  Gary was there first and really made the play. 

At this time Van Ness is being used in run support.  Gary and Smith get more opportunities against the pass.  Tackles are really having issues with his strength.  If this guy develops, him and Gary are going to be a very tough tandem.

LB

Both LB’s were also fine.  It is much better with Walker and Campbell vs Walker and McDuffie.  Campbell’s length and athleticism is apparent after watching McDuffie the past few weeks.  I really like how Campbell played.  Really anticipated the run well.  Defensive line in combo with the LB’s did a very good job with stopping the run. 

DB

Not good.  This zone has been leaky and a good QB really took advantage of it.  Cousins had a QBR of 91.9, which is obviously really good.  There has been holes in the zone and the Packers just went up against a good QB.  O’Connell ran a lot of 3 wide and did some really creative things out of bunch formations to get their WR’s free, especially Addison.  When the Packers played man it was actually worse than zone.

This was one of Alexander’s worse games of career.  He was not good in man or zone.  Addison beat him often.  In zone too much freelance between him and Douglas.  On one zone play Alexander had the flat responsibility, but instead ran deep on a WR deep route (which was already covered by the safety as that was the safety’s responsibility).  The WR caught the ball in the flat on a chunk play.

On a man play, Douglas thought we were in zone.  He passed a WR off (who was his responsibility) on a crossing route.  The WR was wide open over the middle and it went for huge 32 yard chunk play.

Was a very bad night for the defensive backs.

QB

Love is really tough to evaluate due to the play around him.  LeFleur was trying to get the ground game working and set up quick throws to start the game, and it really did not work.  There are some big issues with the offensive line and WR’s.  Some of his accuracy throws are due to misreads with his WR’s.  I feel that his short and intermediate ball accuracy is adequate, but his deep ball accuracy is still an issue.  Very few times he has to operate in a clean pocket.  I believe he is really trying to run LeFleur’s offense and go through reads, but it is still an issue getting to the 3rd read.  There are some reads that he is missing, but there was not a lot of separation from the WR’s.  Also, there is way too much miscommunication between Love and WR’s.

RB

I thought all (3) RB’s played fine.  Again, offensive line is not creating a lot of holes and running backs take what is given.  I do not see a lot of yards being left on the table.  

WR

This was not good.   I did not see a lot of separation from anyone.  

I do want to point out Christian Watson.  His game was terrible.  There was a 3rd down play where Love threw the ball to the right sideline and nobody was there; we had two WR’s standing next to each other.  Watson was clearly suppose to run an out, instead he ran a curl. 

On the play that Watson got hurt late in the game, Denver was playing zone.  I believe Love thought he was going to sit down in the gap.  Instead Watson ran through the hole and it looked like it was thrown behind him.  However, I believe it was on Watson.  The other issue is if he got to his next read on that play (as Love was working left to right) Jayden Reed was coming wide open on a post route.

With regards to Doubs, there was a play that was thrown in the end zone to Doubs on the left hand side.  The ball was thrown deep and out of bounds.  It looks like a terrible throw.  However, as Love threw it Doubs slowed down for back shoulder; Love thought he was going to keep going.  Issue here is the play was set up beautifully for a screen.  Had Jones with 3 offensive lineman and only 1 defender.  I am pretty sure he scores.

This miscommunication happens way too much.

OL

Terrible.  Tom and Myers were adequate.  Runyan was not good in 1st half, much better in 2nd.

Jenkins was no good.  He leaned over to punch the defender early in the game.  The defender swiped him away easily and was in the backfield causing havoc. 

There is also way too much confusion on left hand side.  Teams are blitzing/stunting them and causing issues.  There was a play where Jenkins was blocking his man, then came off his man to pick up a blister.  There was nobody there to pick up Jenkins man (should not have passed him off) and had a free run at Love.

TE

Not a lot to report. 

Degura is a 3rd round pick with 7th round talent.  Use Craft for blocking, where he does need to improve.  Musgrave went out in 1st half.

DL

Defensive line as a whole played well.  I felt overall they did a good job at controlling the line of scrimmage.  Slayton had a few pressure plays and looked solid throughout the game.  I seen Wooden hold up on a double team.  Clark was just adequate.  Holds up on doubles.  Really does not cause near enough havoc for a 20 million a year player….more like a 10 million a year player.

Edge

The Broncos RT is very bad.  Gary had him on skates quite a bit. Denver got the ball out quickly to avoid rush.  Van Ness holds up in run.  There is some definite power in his game that causes issues for tackles.  Just needs to develop.

Enagbare had a really nice 1st half.  He was subbing with Gary.  Whoever was against that RT was winning.

Preston Smith was a non-factor.  Honestly, hardly even noticed him.

LB

Terrible.  Walker was a complete liability in run support.  This part of his game is not developing.

McDuffie is also a liability.  He length, size, strength, and twitch are any issue.  Also was picked on during the running game.  There was a time when he met Williams in the hole and was driven back about 5 yards.

DB

On a whole, without Jaire I really like how they played.  The holes in the zone were better this week.  They really did pick on Valentine.  Denver made it a point to go at him with experienced WR’s.  It was not terrible on his part, but far from adequate for a NFL CB.

QB

Was another poor performance by Love.  The first 3 games he was poised, calm in the pocket, and making good decisions.  To me it looks like the game is going to fast for him.  The offense line was not good, but it was also not terrible.  He looks to be going through his reads very fast (pass rush again speeding him up) and not making the best of decisions.  The first 2 interceptions are on him.  Raiders played a lot of zone that emphasized taking away the middle of the field.  The first interception was a predetermined read where he threw it into triple coverage.  The second interception was on an intermediate cross where Peters played outside technique with clear safety help.  Not sure what Love was reading there.  I will say his first half was much better than his second half.

RB

Offense line played a little better in the running game.  There were some holes available.  Dillion played fine just taking what the defense was giving him.  Had a lot of 12 personal and played smash mouth football.  Seen a lot of overloaded sides where we had 2 TE’s on one side.  

Patrick Taylor had one carry.  They were in a pistol and he tried to run it behind the left side where there was nothing.  On the right side there was a gaping hole…I kind of wonder what would have happened if Aaron Jones got that carry.

TE

Sims, Degura, and Craft used pretty much solely for blocking.  LeFluer was going to give his line help this game….and he did.  Musgrave held up a “little” better blocking.  Again, he just moves different at the size.  He is fun to watch as I believe if a LB is lined up against him he will win 100% of time.  Just too fluid and fast to stay with.

WR

Raiders focused on stopping throws over middle of field.  I do believe this was reason for Doubs lack of production.  There was a ton of room in the flat.  I wish they would have gone there more.  The TE in the flat I think would have been open on every play.  They did do it some (1 completion to Degura, 1 to completion to Sims, and at least 2 completions to Musgrave). 

One player I do want to point out is Watson.  Too me he looks like a beefed up Scantling.  There was a deep ball that hit him in the hands.  He beat his man. But when the ball was in the air he slowed down to track it.  It was a beautifully thrown ball.  He should have continued to run at his speed and it should have been caught.  I think his issue is just tracking the ball…which he does poorly.  He was late to react to the under thrown ball in the end zone that resulted in a pick to end the game as well.

OL

When I watched the game live I thought they were terrible.  When I watched the All22 I thought they were just below average.  The right side between Myers and Runyan are not getting it done.  Myers in single blocks is not impressive and will get beat.  That goal line series where the Packers had to kick a short field goal  was based on interior line getting blown up.  One guy went through a double of Myers and Runyan.

They ran behind Jenkins on every play.  I did not see a run to the right hand side.  Crosby really does not have much gap assignement.  Plays a lot of wide technique.  I would like to see them try to run at him because he will jump inside and outside leaving holes.

Even the end around to Watson was to the left hand side.  Play was doomed from start.  Raiders literally had 10 guys along line of scrimmage.  Someone was going to shoot a gap or beat a block.  Would have been a win to get back to line of scrimmage.

DL

Dline played fine.  They were not blowing up as many plays I would have thought, but defiantly held their own….showed up in run game.  I really like Brooks, but they put him over the nose on a few plays again.  One play he got the double and was completely washed out.  Wyatt does pop some where he gets pressure up the middle.  Also holding his own better in the run game from last year.  I just wish he would provide a little more pass rush.

Kenny Clark should be an All Pro.  He just takes plays off.  In the first series again he is probably the best player on the field.  He is just way too much for any interior lineman to handle.  As the game wears on you just lose him.  He does not get moved, even when doubled.  However, he is way too talented not to be making more of an impact, especially against the Raider’s offense line.  There was a goal line play where the Raiders scored.  Clark was singled and he stood his guard up with ease.  It looked like he was not even trying and doing it on his heels…..when watching I asked why does he not just blow the entire play up.

Edge

Garropolo got the ball out quickly, which really minimized our pass rush.  Gary’s gap assignment was a little poor at times.  However, when he gets the edge, he is too strong and athletic.  He will get to the QB.  Really can turn a corner.

I do want to point out Van Ness.  He is popping more.  He was used only on right-hand side against Miller (their best lineman).  His strength and length are evident.  He got under the pads on Miller and walked him right back to the QB and Miller could not re-anchor due to Van Ness’s strength.  Would have been a sack, however ball came out too quick.  He does also hold up in run.  However, the one WR end around that went for a big play was on him.  He crashed in chasing the fake to right leaving the left hand side completely open.

LB

Was going to be Quay Walker’s best game.  They played him differently than I saw before.  Had him way closer to line and just him go.  Shot gap on first play.  Shot gap a couple plays later too.  I still like to see more of pass rush out of him.  Does not get through blocking interior offense lineman.

The more I watch McDuffie the more I see a sold back-up  Not the biggest and I do worry about him in coverage.  He is not overly fast and just not that fluid of an athlete.  But he is assignment sure.  Packers were well coached in short crossers this game as they made these LB’s take it away.  Short crossers are an emphasis on McDaniels offense and I felt the Packers did a good job at taking it away.

DB

First half more man than usual.  Second half played more zone.  Played a lot more cover one again.  Berry seems to be getting away from Cover 2/5.  Cover 1 also helped stopping short crossers.  I still am not overly sold on their zone play at times.  When they get stretched out it just looks leaky to me.  Garropolo got the ball out quickly which did minimize our pass rush.  However, when he had to get to his 3rd read our pass rush could get there.  I just wish they could get QB’s off their early reads more consistently.

QB

I was going to give Jordan Love a pass as the O-line was really terrible.  But Jordan Love was not good.  The first half he really did not get any time to get to behond his first read.  So he was really forcing it to his first read hoping the WR would win.  First time I see him not trusting his eyes.  There were times when his first read was open, he was looking right at the WR, and then would not throw it.  His intermediate throw accuracy was also poor.  He needed to play very well to overcome the play around him, and he played poorly.  2nd half was better.  But Lions went more two deep and allowed things to happen in front of them.  Allowed Love to have some time to go through progressions and get the ball out.  The play around him was not good, but Love did little to help

RB

There are just no holes.  Dillion was not going to work.  He only had 5 carries and was used primarily has a receiving option and pass coverage.  Aaron Jones was barely in there.  His explosiveness is needed for this offensive.  Only guy on roster that can run outside.

TE

Musgrave went out early.  Also, he is doing a terrible job at pass protection.  Simply not good enough.  Pretty much just a pass catcher at this point.

Craft got some play when Musgrave went out.  Not a lot to report.  Lined up mostly in-line.  I think he got one target.  Also did not block a lot as the Packers were in pass mode in 2nd half.

OL

This was brutal.  Everyone played terrible.  Tom had his worst game as a pro.  Hutchinson moved around, but primarily lined up over Tom.  He got beat a lot.  The speed/power combo was too much.  Hutchinson would get off the ball and simply push Tom back.  You could see Tom fighting to re-anchor but simply did not have the strength. 

Guards were terrible.  Runyan continually got beat.  He struggled with quickness of Lions front.  

Newman is terrible.  Packers really need Jenkins back.  There was a time when Huthinson got a 1-1 on him and ran him back to Dillion.  As soon as Dillion got the ball Hutchinson was on him.  Worst play I’ve seen on a lineman this year.  To make matters worse the Lions ran a stunt behind Hutchinson on that play.  The other Lions defender would have also had a free run to Dillion 

Myers wasn’t completely terrible as the Lions made a point to attack the guards.

Walker “may” have been the best one.  Him and Newman were having issues passing guys off.  The Packers line was not ready for this game.

This to me is all on LeFleur and offense staff.  Hutchinson was ruining game and the Packer's tackles were not holding up and they definitely needed help.  I saw one chip on him all game.  Needed to slow Hutchinson down somehow.

WR

This was so hard to evaluate as the entire 1st half Love had no time to get past 1st read.  Spent more time evaluating offense line play.  It was nice to see Watson active.  But was a non-factor due to no time to throw downfield.

Doubs was a primary option in a lot of plays….would like to see him win a tick more.

DL

I thought this was going to absolutely terrible.  I was just just bad wathing the All22.

Had big time issues with Clark.  On first play of game he showed hustle and chased down a RB on opposite side of his line.  After that, he showed nothing.  No burst off line and no penetration.  Lions did an outstanding job on him.  They were doubling him and cut blocking him, which really nullified any impact he could have.  Didn’t like effort.

Watching the game live I was frustrated with Wyatt, but he was not terrible.  He lost ground in run but did not get washed out of plays.  Shows some penetration on pass plays.

Colby Wooden relies solely on quickness.  If he can't beat the lineman with a quick move he is a non-factor.  Really an issue in run.

Slayton is the one guy that continues to show effort all game.  Again a little surprising as that was his knock coming out.  Really turning into a well rounded nose.  There was a play where he blew up 2 Lions defenders 3 yards in the backfield and made it easy for linebacker (no LB to seen though).

Karl Brooks continues to grow on me.  Has great hands.

Edge

Outside of Gary I did not see our guys beating their man.  Lions lined up a lot in 12 personal.  They also ran it a lot.  Goff got ball out quickly.  Made any pass rush a non-factor.  Did not really matter if you beat your man as ball was out on 1st or 2nd read continually.

LB

I really do not know where to start as both McDuffie and Walker were both were absolutely terrible in run.  It was not the cleanest in front of them so they had issues.

Walker is an enigma.  In open space he is fun to watch.  If it is right in front of his face he can close and do it quickly anywhere on the field.  However, I was getting sick of him 1) either picking the wrong hole and 2) have no concept of what the Lions were doing.  I feel like this is more of a player issue at this point vs a coaching issue.  Guy just does not react well if it is not obvious.

The Lions ran up the C gap I would say 90% of the time.  It was obvious they were going to run behind Sewell.  The Lions would continually run the C gap on the right side (no matter if that was strong or weak side).  I feel like the Packers were so worried about containing the edges it left gaping holes with no LB to fill.  Plus the Lions were really good at getting on edges of players to create gaps.

DB’s

Got burnt on (2) man plays early and stuck to zone predominately after that.  The zone was really leaky.  Goff found holes quickly and on-time.  Really looked easy for him.  There were some definite spacing issues as I saw defenders over-occupying areas and leaving voids.  I feel like Lions could have utilized the RB in the receiving game even more because accountabilty for the RB out of the backfield was lacking.  After a bounce back game last week, Savage simply cannot tackle.  Packers are putting him in a role to have some freedom and I just do not feel like he is the guy.  Not a Berry fault, I feel like player fault….interested to see how the rest of his seasong goes.  The Packers played a lot more cover 1 than cover 2/5.  Was surprised.  Didn’t help in the run game.  Also didn’t help the pass game.

The tape was just as messy as the game.  The Lions have better players.  There offense game plan wasn't anything special.  In fact they had run plays that looked identical (just to opposite sides).  Exposed us running primarily through C gap; we were just not going to stop the run.

QB

Love played well again.  Pocket presence is still really good.  You see him go through reads with ease.  Timing is also good, throwing it before WR’s come open.  He did become a little to over-reliant on Doubs this game, trusting he would come open.  This lead to too many incompletions as Doubs was not always beating his man.  His lone interception came on a play where safety had over-top help and Love made a poor decision and tried to force it to Doubs.  Was a bad pass and a worse decision.  He also had a bad read trying to go deep to Toure, who was triple covered (everyone else was open)

RB

This was kind of ugly.  The O-line is not doing a good job in the run game.  Guys are shooting gaps and they are getting no push to create any gaps for RB’s.  Need a special runner to be able to create.  These last 2 weeks tell us the kind of running back AJ Dillion is.  He needs it cleaner in front of him to get yards as he is not going to do it with wiggle or power.  

Emmaunel Wilson they used to attack the edge.  I do question his power for a running back of this size. 

Patrick Wilson had limited carries, but I was impressed with his receiving ability.  Catches with hands and looks natural. 

The Saints do a really good job of clogging things up and their LB’s really now how to plug holes.

WR/TE

Saints do not move their CB’s around.  So Lattimore was on Wicks.  Packers then attacked other cornerbacks.  They were relying on Doubs to win more….and he did not.  Also went to Jayden Reed more…who had a nice game, but just needs to hold onto the ball.

I feel like Musgrave will be a tight end you can throw to on every play.  Can get separation with ease.  Beginning to think that he will be special, not just good.  Mixed bag in blocking.  I did see him hold up on one play against an end.

Still miscommunication issues in pass routes.  There were a couple times I believe Love was right, and WR’s/RB’s wrong.  Had the Patrick Taylor one.  But also a bad one in the end zone with Reed/Wicks (Wicks at fault).

OL

Very impressed in pass game, very un-impresseed in run game.  Really no push or holes in run game to speak of.  Pass game was the opposite.  I watched Rasheed Walker a lot.  And he pretty much stoned Granderson all game.  Only play I see him get beat was on a stunt (confused him and Runyan).  This was the play that Love seen it right away and rolled out of it, then ran for about 20 yards down the left sideline. 

DL

Berry mixed these guys up a lot.  I seen Clark playing a wide 9, then also Brooks playing 0-tech.  He played these guys all over in different fronts.  I believe this caused confusion for Saints.  On a whole there was not a lot of penetration.  However, Packers did a better job holding their own, especially in run game.  Did not see guys getting washed out of plays like against the Falcons.

Brooks is growing on me.

Wooden is loosing snaps.

Slayton had a solid game

Was not really impressed with Wyatt for 2nd staight week.  Really nothing to speak of in pass game.  A time or two he did get some penetration, but it was not consistent.

Edge

Gary wrecked the game.  A guy to keep an eye on is Preston Smith.  His snap count was low and again not impressive.  He really struggled against Jake Matthews last game.  Really no impact this game.  The only play I seen him make a play on was on a run play late.  He seems to be losing snaps to Hollins/Enagbare.  Not sure if this is a matchup thing or a trend.

In the first 2 games they asked their edge players to pinch the pocket more.  In this game they asked their edges to go more upfield.  I think this is the primary reason for being better in the run game.

Not a lot to report on with Van Ness.  Limited plays.  He made one nice stop on a run….nothing much in rushing the passer.

LB

I like the game that McDuffie put together.  Doesn’t look overly fast or big, but way more instinctive on getting to the RB.  With Campbell out it will be interesting to see if the Lions try to attack him in the pass game, because I was impressed with his run support.

Also, the DL played better against the run which made it a lot cleaner for Walker/McDuffie

DB

These guys did a tremendous job.  Douglas looks like a #1 CB.  The WR’s really had to make plays for their catches.  Coverage was tight all game.  Darnell Savage played a lot better.  In the last game he was in position to make plays and did not.  This game he was in position to make plays and did.  The one thing I noticed is he was actually using his arms to tackle.

During the Falcons game I felt like we got outplayed for most of it.  I felt like this game we really outplayed the Saints.  Our offense was moving the ball on every series, but a lot of offense penalties made it difficult to sustain drives.  The Packers were helped that Carr got hurt because Winston is not good.  Had issues with accuracy and timing with WR’s.  Pretty much felt like the opposite of Love. 

On a whole though it was tough for the Saints to move the ball.  The Packers were getting oppourtunites but kept shooting themselves in the foot.

QB

Came away more impressed with the tape on Jordan Love.  Making quick decisions that are almost always correct.  Broadcast pointed out a deep crosser where Doubs was wide open and instead threw it to Wicks.  On that play they had two deep crossers set up and he picked the wrong one.  One issue I had was with last series of game.  Atlanta gave him a completely different look from rest of game.  Really confused him.  Good learning experience.

RB

Giving AJ Dillon a pass.  The O-line did not do a good job creating holes.  When he did break through to the 2nd level many guys were there to gang tackle him.  There were 2 times the box was heavy and Love should have checked out of it.  Also too many times there was penetration and Dillon had nowhere to go.  Atlanta running backs had much better holes to run through.  Obviously the Packers had nobody to attack the edge and Atlanta new that.  We tried Dillon…didn’t work.  LeFleur tried Wilson a little later and it was worse.

WR/TE

Romeo Doubs looks really smooth in and out of breaks.  Really got a Greg Jennings feel when I was watching.

Musgrave is as advertised.  Gets open a lot.  There was a play in 2nd half that Love forced one downfield and Musgrave was wide open in front of him (also a lot of space in front of Musgrave).  I think they need to utilize him more in short/intermediate slants over the middle when they put a LB on him.

OL

Run blocking was very poor.  Love got the ball out so quick it was hard to assess pass blocking.  They seemed to hold up much better in pass blocking though.  One play I would like to point out is on a run play where Tom/Musgrave were combo a blocking defensive end.  Tom cam off the block to pick up a blitzer (got enough of blitzer not to create a negative play).  Once Tom came off blocking the end, Musgrave could not hold up at all.  Really showed awareness and quickness of Tom, but really showed poor blocking ability of Musgrave.

DL

Not good.  Kenny Clark was amazing in 1st half; just a guy in the 2nd half.  Wyatt had a few flashes in pass game, but did not hold up in run game.  Times he got pushed back and would completely get washed in double teams.  Wooden was terrible…seemed to get really exposed in run.  Slayton played fine.  He seemed to be giving good effort late in the game, which was a nock on him coming out.  The one guy that popped was Karl Brooks.  Stood up in run and got penetration on pass plays.  Really good hands. O-lineman have a tough time locking him down….something I cannot say about the rest of the D-line. 

In all this was a different line in 1st half vs 2nd half.  You could tell they got tired.  This created a bigger issue for LB’s.

As a whole the D-line is defintatley more quick than strong.  I do think they are going to be trouble all year for QB’s.  I also think their quickness is causing trouble for teams trying to run QB sneaks.

Edge

The most impressive guy on field was Jake Matthews.  Generally Preston Smith and Hollins rotated on that side (but not always).  I actually stopped watching it in pass plays because I knew they were not going to get pressure.  After watching this it really shows how important Biaktiari is.  Smith and Hollins pretty much non-factors.  Part of it I believe is that they were completely outclassed by a really good tackle.  Falcons ran at other side continually with outside zone read/off tackle plays.  Packers could not stop it.  The only guy that held up better than others was Van Ness…but he barely played.  I am assuming due to elbow.  Enagbare was a complete non-factor.  Gary did provide some pressure but could not get to Ridder.

LB

This was a mixed bag.  Lots of downfield tackling/combo tackling based on what was happening in front of them.  There were a few plays I was really wondering what Campbell was doing.  There was one play that he just ran himself out of the play.

Quay Walker brings 100% effort all every play.  I think he was getting frustrated at end of game.  In 2nd half guys in front of him did not do a good enough job.

DB

Falcons attacked short/intermediate routes.  I did not look at a bunch of guys here as I tried to focus more on front 7.  Falcon did stretch out our zone pretty well that created a lot of opportunities underneath.  The one guy I do want to point out is Darnell Savage.  By the end of the game I was completely frustrated with him.  He continually missed plays, especially when asked to come up in run support.  I think Berry was playing these guys way too far back though, especially when the Falcons simply were not going deep.  Runs and short/intermediate throws.  Would have like Berry commit more guys up.

Going back to Savage there was a run play where Brooks walked the guard back and made the RB get pushed up wide and back.  Savage actually shot outside and had the RB dead to rights for about a 3 yard loss.  He missed the tackle (very common) and the RB ends up netting about a 1 yard gain.  Savage celebrates like he made a play.  At time Packers needed that 3 yard loss to take the Falcons out of the run.

Quick notes

• LaFluers game plan was solid.  Did not let Falcons get to Love with quicker throws.

• I think Ridder sticks.  Really good in the pocket at alluding tackles.  When we got penetration he was really good at getting around at and looking downfield  and also running.

• I think to help run game we need to see more Van Ness, put Ford in box (in lieu of Savage), possibly activate Jonathon Ford, less snaps for Clark to keep him more fresh.

QB

Love’s game was really good.  His tape was even better.  There are really no knocks on him.  There was a play he bailed out of the pocket and scrambled to soon; if he would have hung in there he would have had Tucker Kraft screaming over the middle of the field on deep cross with no safety help.  Also missed Kraft on a route down the sideline in the 2nd half.  After that it was terrific.  Great in and out of the pocket and making really good reads.  He just has not been putting the ball into harms way.  The play where he floated it up to Doubs on a big 4th down play was truly incredible.  KC was playing 2 deep shell blitzing 6 guys.  Watson took the deep safety out of the play leaving Doubs lined up against a linebacker.  It took incredible anticipation to throw the ball when he did.  Only defender that could have made a play on the ball was other deep safety; but he had too much ground to cover.  Really an amazing play.  Love gets a A as I thought this was his best game.

RB

The Packers ran a lot of misdirection, especially in the first half.  This caused a lot of confusion with the KC defense and the entire game they did not know what was coming at them.  They ran Dillion on a lot of counter plays where he could pick his gap in between the tackles.  LeFluer has abandoned the stretch run plays as it just does not work with the Packer's running backs.  With these counters the entire line will shift one way and Dillion will just pick his hole.  Was effective all game.  This was really set-up nicely, especially early in the game, giving the ball to WR’s on mis-direction runs.  This design really opened up the run game.  Dillion had 73 yards on 18 carries. Taylor also had a big run at end of 2nd quarter for 24 yards (albeit a play he needs to get out of bounds on).

WR

Chiefs played a lot of zone and Packer WR’s were getting open.  Love was reading the field well and rarely had to progress past his 3rd read.  Only drop I saw was Malik Heath on a contested pass.  I am liking Wicks on tape has he does have a little burst to go along with his size.  At this point he is probably the worst blocker among the receiving group.  Chiefs also had issues with Watson’s speed on intermediate routes as they really did not have anybody in their zone that could stick with him.

TE

Lined up Kraft all over the field, similar to last week.  I think this guy will develop into a really good TE.  He whiffed on a block early that caused a defender to get our RB.  But after that I thought his blocking was adequate.  Sims is playing the Kraft role (pre-Musgrave injury) and was also adequate.  With his size alone he offers more than Degura, who has lost all of his playing time at this point.

OL

Offensive line played above average as whole.  The KC defensive stands up a lot of men along of the line of scrimmage and it is hard to tell who is blitzing and who is dropping into coverage.  The communication is just getting better as a whole along and they picked up rushers well.  KC got their pressure with Chris Jones.  The two best opposing players tape I have seen this year are Jake Matthews with the Falcons and Aiden Hutchinson with the Lions.  Jones was better than Hutchinson, and on par with Matthews.  When he got a 1-1 he would win every time.  All lineman got a chance (with exception to Walker) and he beat all of them.  In the one set it was Jenkins vs Jones, Jones won.  Outside of Jones the Chiefs really do not have anybody that offers much of a pass rush.  

Runyan was just ok.  He was asked to go up against Jones a lot and got a lot of help.  When asked to go 1-1, there was only one set where he “somewhat” held up. 

This was Myers best game of the year.   Again, this defense causes a lot of confusion with how they stand a lot of men up at the line, and Myers did a good job at helping the right people.  I did not see him getting beat (just once against Jones).

The left side of the line has gotten better all year.  The Packers often times give help with lining up the TE alongside Walker.  But both Walker and Jenkins help up throughout the course of the game.

DL/Edge

The KC line is really good and the Packers defensive line/edge gave them fits all game.  The plan was for the edges to stay in their gap and then allow penetration up the middle.  This plan worked all game.  They never gave Mahomes time to settle and go through his reads.  

Devonte Wyatt had a great game in his pass sets.  He was disruptive and really used his quick hands and feet to get into the backfield.  He has been improving all year.  Would like to see him add a little more strength. 

Moving Clark to play primarily 5 tech has really changed how this line functions.  He just gets in position for 1-1’s and wins a lot. 

Slayton has been more quiet due to what he is being asked to do.  Plays exclusively nose and is doubled a lot.  In my opinion he does an adequate job.  Not nearly as good as Clark in the nose, but the tradeoff is to great putting Clark in the 5 tech.

Edges were asked to contain Mahomes so they were a little more quiet.  The interior guys did there job moving Mahomes off the spot.  The more I watch Van Ness the more you see the upside.  At stated in past posts he is putting his hand in the ground and is excelling (had a sack this game).  Also, early in the season he would not stay home and be susceptible to losing outside contain on misdirection….not happening anymore.  To me he looks like a complete player (good against run and pass) with an awfully high ceiling.

LB

Again not good.  The defensive line was just ok against the run, not great.  For the most part the defensive line held their gap and a half.  The KC offensive line is good and will get push.  When that happens it will be at least a 5 yard play.  They just do not have the LB personal to stop the run.  

Walker tried blitzing twice.  Again just hand-fighting at the line of scrimmage as he unable to get off a block.  The play where Pacheco ran down to the goal line and carried half of the GB defensive with it was Walker’s fault.  That was his hole.  When the line was being dragged he was in position to push the pile back.  Instead he just simply got out of the way. 

DB

The coverage was better than last week, but still not good.  Reid had some good design on how to attack the Packer’s zone.  There were times where receivers would drag Packer defenders out of the middle of the field and the Packers would have 3 guys in one space.  This left a huge void in the middle of the field where a receiver was wide open.  Kelce had a couple wide open receptions here.  The middle of the field was open all game.

The Packers played a lot of zone.  Against Mahomes and how he creates, it really forces the defense to play zone.

In the first 3 quarters I only saw man 3 times.  However, in the 4th quarter Berry switched it up and I saw more man.  On the Nixon interception series the Packers played man twice in a row.  KC was running two WR’s on one side; a slant being run by the outside receiver and a wheel route with the inside receiver.  I think Mahomes thought the Packers were going to be in zone and would pass off the WR’s giving room for the wheel route.  But Nixon anticipated what was going on and beat the WR the spot.  Pretty much the play of the game.

One play I want to bring up is the Valentine play on the last drive where there was obvious pass interference.  When watching the game live I could not believe the Packers did not have a deep safety to that side of the field.... but the Packers did have a safety over the top.  The Packers were in nickel playing two deep safeties.  For some reason Savage decided to bust to the opposite side of the field to help on a deep corner route (a side where Owens already had deep help on).  I have no idea what Savage was thinking as it almost cost the Packers the game.  Really a bad play. 

As a whole the defensive did not fare that well.  Opponents are just sustaining too many long drives against them.  I feel the offensive is bailing the defensive out by staying on the field with long drives themselves.  With that said, the defensive came up in the 4th quarter with big stops.

Chiefs drives….

1st drive – Field goal - 13 plays, 60 yards, 7:13 time of possession.

2nd drive – Field goal – 14 plays, 59 yards, 8:20 time of possession

3rd drive – Touchdown – 9 plays, 75 yards, 5:21 time of possession

4th drive - Touchdown – 11 plays, 66 yads, 5:32 time of possession.

5th drive – Punt – 3 plays, 2 yards, 0:55 time of possession.

6th drive – Interception – 2 plays, 26 yards, 0:49 time of possession.

7th drive – Downs – 10 plays, 37 yards, 1:09 time of possession.

QB

Love was obviously really good.  There were a few ball placement issues in the 1st quarter.  After that is accuracy was really good to all areas of the field.  The Bears played exclusively zone and Love picked them apart all game.

RB

Aaron Jones played 54 out of the 60 offensive snaps.  He ran the ball 22 times for 111 yards (5 ypc).  Also had 5 receptions for 30 yards.  Even when there is little semblance of a hole he manages to get positive yards.  It is pretty obvious at this point the Packers need to address this position in the offseason and add another running back with speed.

WR

As said above the Bears played pretty much just zone and LeFluer had these guys schemed open all game.  The Bears held up little resistance to the passing game as the soft spots were often found.  I think going forward Wicks and Reed will be zone breakers as there speed and wiggle are tough to defend.  

I do want to point out the hands of the Packers receivers. Early on Love was not putting it right on the numbers and these receivers were continually coming down with the ball.  Also, their ability and want to block is really good.  Every game I watch there is a Malik Heath block that is remarkable.   He's got length and really good play strength for a wide receiver.  

TE

Tucker got 54 snaps and played a really good game.  His run blocking was superb.  Was asked to take the the 4-3 end multiple times and is really holding up in the run game.

The Packers mixed in Musgrave, Degura, and Sims in their two tight end sets.  Not alot to report as they were used primarily in run blocking.  Was not all that happy with how Sims held up.  I thought his run blocking was below average.  When I watched Musgrave block, he was not asked to take on anyone on 1-1.  He was primarily used as a combo blocker in the run game; in the pass game he was not targeted.  Note that he only had 9 snaps. 

I am really high on Musgrave as he has an extremely high ceiling in the pass game.  But watching the progression of Kraft's blocking ability has me questioning who I like better in 2024.  I really like the versatility in Kraft's game.

OL

This group was ok in the 1st half and and really good in the 2nd half.  In the 1st half the Bears were getting some wins against our offensive line.  In the 2nd half I felt like their defensive line got tired and there was a little give-up in their game.  Our offensive line really took over the game and got good push against their front 4.

The Bears in the 1st half were using a bull rush move every time on Walker and he really struggled against it.  He was fortunate that Love got the ball out quickly as he was getting pushed back and could not re-anchor.  In the 2nd half he held up much better.

I though Josh Myers played alot better.  The Bears were not lining anybody directly over him and he was not asked to take on a lineman 1-1 much.  When he was in a 1-1 situation he was winning.

Jon Runyan also had a nice game.  He was not getting beat and I seen some push in the run game.  

Tom and Jenkins I will continue to put in the same category as they are a model of consistency all season.  They are by far are best lineman.

Sean Rhyan again was dominant in his 29 snaps.  His power against the Bears was overwhelming.  There was one play where he held a Bears defense lineman with his right arm and then moved to the 2nd level and held up a Bears linebacker with his left arm.  He is the one guy on this Packers front that just moves the guy in front of him.  In the pass game I liked all his sets as he did not give up any ground.  With him you do give up a little mobility for that power, but I think his talent is getting to a point where the Packers should not be taking him off the field.  

DL/Edge

The Bears offensive line is terrible.  I did feel like their 1st round pick Darnell Wright played solid.  They did give him help at times, but he held up really well to Rashan Gary.  The Packer's interior guys (all of them) were just way too good for the Bears interior lineman to handle.  Karl Brooks had a monster game and was pretty much unblockable.  They had him run a few stunts and he was taking out mutliple guys.  The Bears LT is beyond bad.  Preston Smith beat him all day.  Also, Van Ness beat him easily with power to record a sack.  

LB

This group had the best game of the season.  I finally saw a 1st round game out of Quay Walker.  The Bears are a really good matchup as he has the speed to run down Fields.  I also seen him shoot gaps in the run; something that I have not seen all year.

DB

One of their better performances of the year.  Berry did a good job of mixing up man and zone.  Was maybe the first time all year they were not predictable.  At times I was sure they were going to be in man, and they instead dropped back in zone.  This really confused Fields.  Alexander had a solid game.  He was sticky in coverage and played well in run support.  The Bears do not have a lot of talent on this side of the ball.  As stated above the Bear's offensive line was terrible; their receivers/tight ends get little separation.  I felt the back-end was way more cohesive as there was not a ton of gaps in coverage.

Justin Fields

This is a really hard evualtion.  The talent around him is terrible.  A few things that I was impressed with.... The line was not holding up but he did continue to look downfield and go through reads.  I did not see his eyes go down and stare at the pass rush.  He is an accurate passer.  When he did throw the ball (only 16 times) it was accurate.  Also, he does have a good arm as there is plenty of zip on his ball.  For the negatives....first there seems to be a little wind-up in his delivery.  It just takes a little too long for him to deliver the ball.  Even though he does look downfield he opts to run way more than pass.  He seems to get way to confused with coverages.  When the Packers were in zone he was much more comfortable throwing the ball.  When the Packers played man he seemed to panick and just opt to run instead of diagnosing what was going on.  My biggest negative is he just does not trust his reads.  His inability to let it zip is a big red flag.  Way too many times he ops to run in lieu of pulling the trigger.  As stated earlier he goes through his reads but is just way to indecisive in making the "correct" read and throwing the ball.  I do feel like if he had better personal around him he would be better.  But....I have major concerns over his lack of decision making.