NFL Wildcard Game - Packers at Eagles - 1/12/25 - 3:30 - FOX

[ReginaldDwight]

Refs blew the fumble recovery on the opening kick and remained poor the whole game

Blew it but you can't fumble that ball. Nixon is a total bum on defense and not nearly explosive enough on KR in the new style to make it worth it. Dudes costing on like 5 good returns a few years back.

[RiotPunch]

Incredible showing from the defense. Did not expect that. Offense and special teams were POVERTY. So many disturbing question marks.

ST being a nightmare isn't surprising in the least.

Not at all. Bissacia has been a dumpster fire. Thank him for bringing Jacobs into the building and wish him well.

[Dennis Reynolds]

Like I always say about MLF.

MLF isn't a horrible coach overall, but he's a guy who will only take you so far.

But he is hilariously bad in big games consistently.

0-6 vs the Eagles, Lions and Vikings this season.

I never liked MLF but are you seriously blaming him for this loss? Love's highlight of the game was a prayer that was answered when the refs called PI on the Eagles.

The scary thing is that is his style of play, he just chucks it up even when the guy is wide open and then it's up to the refs, his receivers or defenders to bail him out which somehow happens more often than not.

Still can't believe Gute watched a guy who throws 3 should be picks a game and decided to make him the highest paid QB in the league until senile Jerry Jones got scammed by Dak's agent for the 2nd time in a row. He'd a be already out of the league had he been drafted by the Bears or the Jets.

[tski1972]

Refs blew the fumble recovery on the opening kick and remained poor the whole game

Blew it but you can't fumble that ball. Nixon is a total bum on defense and not nearly explosive enough on KR in the new style to make it worth it. Dudes costing on like 5 good returns a few years back.

Couldn’t agree more, I feel a lot are glossing over the fact the fumble occurred in the first place.

[MickeyDavis]

Refs blew the fumble recovery on the opening kick and remained poor the whole game

Blew it but you can't fumble that ball. Nixon is a total bum on defense and not nearly explosive enough on KR in the new style to make it worth it. Dudes costing on like 5 good returns a few years back.

Couldn’t agree more, I feel a lot are glossing over the fact the fumble occurred in the first place.

Not glossing over the fact. The fumble itself was talked about plenty. But compounding a mistake by the team with a mistake by the refs also needs to be talked about.

[Profound23]

Blew it but you can't fumble that ball. Nixon is a total bum on defense and not nearly explosive enough on KR in the new style to make it worth it. Dudes costing on like 5 good returns a few years back.

Couldn’t agree more, I feel a lot are glossing over the fact the fumble occurred in the first place.

Not glossing over the fact. The fumble itself was talked about plenty. But compounding a mistake by the team with a mistake by the refs also needs to be talked about.

Yep, refs missed a call to begin the game and another one to end the game...but we stunk and didn't do ourselves any favors.

[MickeyDavis]

Couldn’t agree more, I feel a lot are glossing over the fact the fumble occurred in the first place.

Not glossing over the fact. The fumble itself was talked about plenty. But compounding a mistake by the team with a mistake by the refs also needs to be talked about.

Yep, refs missed a call to begin the game and another one to end the game...but we stunk and didn't do ourselves any favors.

Definitely.

[Mags FTW]

20 1st half points combined in the 4 Viking and Lion games, and the playoff game vs. Philly.

[raysbookclub]

Incredible showing from the defense. Did not expect that. Offense and special teams were POVERTY. So many disturbing question marks.

ST being a nightmare isn't surprising in the least.

Not at all. Bissacia has been a dumpster fire. Thank him for bringing Jacobs into the building and wish him well.

ST has been terrible all year and last year too. Bisaccia pounded the table for Carlson, kept him into the playoffs, and he was a key part of our loss to SF last year with a blown 4th quarter lead. After bad ST all year, today his K misses a 35-yarder after his KR guy fumbles 5 seconds into the game and next kickoff his KR unit forces the offense to start at the 10 with a holding call.

Bisaccia must be an incredible locker room or coaches' office presence because his ST unit have been average at best and too often poor.

[MVP2110]

In reality, I'm taking the Eagles to win because they are awesome but I do think we might have a shot.

I'm hoping we don't just pound the ball with Jacobs. The Eagles have the best run defense in the NFL, it'll be hard with no Watson but if we're going to have success on offense it'll have to be through the air imo. They are poor at tackling so maybe if we can get Kraft involved he could do some work

I'm actually fairly optimistic our defense won't get run over. Our biggest weakness is teams passing over the middle of the field which is something Philadelphia does very little of. We're actually pretty good at covering the boundaries and on run defense. I'm sure guys like Saquon, AJ Brown, & Devonta will get theirs but I'm fairly confident we can atleast limit them.

If we pull this off it'll probably be something like 20-17 where we can win the turnover battle and maybe get lucky with Elliott missing a kick or two(which is certainly possible)

I tried to warn you all. I feel this ended up being pretty spot on. The offense struggling today was extremely predictable, without Watson we had nobody who could take the top off the defense allowing their pass defense to really condense the field, & going up against the #1 run defense in the NFL was always going to lead to a struggling run game. I get today was frustrating but I'm not sure what MLF or Love were supposed to do when they couldn't run the ball, WRs couldn't create separation, and the OL was getting lit up all game.

And even with all that we had a shot, we needed the breaks to go our way and they didn't. Nixon fumbling(or the refs screwing it up), McManus missing a chip shot, losing a bunch of key guys, etc.

Love wasn't great today but still finished the season as a top 10 QB by most advanced metrics and there are some warranted criticisms of MLFs time management & 4th down decision making throughout the season, but his team never quit on him and I don't really hold today's offensive performance against him.

I'm in the minority probably, but overreacting to this loss would be a mistake. This Packers team is still growing and will finally be out of the dead cap nightmare we've been in in recent years. Next year is the year the Superbowl window truly opens imo

[RiotPunch]

ST being a nightmare isn't surprising in the least.

Not at all. Bissacia has been a dumpster fire. Thank him for bringing Jacobs into the building and wish him well.

ST has been terrible all year and last year too. Bisaccia pounded the table for Carlson, kept him into the playoffs, and he was a key part of our loss to SF last year with a blown 4th quarter lead. After bad ST all year, today his K misses a 35-yarder after his KR guy fumbles 5 seconds into the game and next kickoff his KR unit forces the offense to start at the 10 with a holding call.

Bisaccia must be an incredible locker room or coaches' office presence because his ST unit have been average at best and too often poor.

He's made a career out of being the ultimate rah-rah guy. His players absolutely love him. But he's a terrible actual coach.

[raysbookclub]

In reality, I'm taking the Eagles to win because they are awesome but I do think we might have a shot.

I'm hoping we don't just pound the ball with Jacobs. The Eagles have the best run defense in the NFL, it'll be hard with no Watson but if we're going to have success on offense it'll have to be through the air imo. They are poor at tackling so maybe if we can get Kraft involved he could do some work

I'm actually fairly optimistic our defense won't get run over. Our biggest weakness is teams passing over the middle of the field which is something Philadelphia does very little of. We're actually pretty good at covering the boundaries and on run defense. I'm sure guys like Saquon, AJ Brown, & Devonta will get theirs but I'm fairly confident we can atleast limit them.

If we pull this off it'll probably be something like 20-17 where we can win the turnover battle and maybe get lucky with Elliott missing a kick or two(which is certainly possible)

I tried to warn you all. I feel this ended up being pretty spot on. The offense struggling today was extremely predictable, without Watson we had nobody who could take the top off the defense allowing their pass defense to really condense the field, & going up against the #1 run defense in the NFL was always going to lead to a struggling run game. I get today was frustrating but I'm not sure what MLF or Love were supposed to do when they couldn't run the ball, WRs couldn't create separation, and the OL was getting lit up all game.

And even with all that we had a shot, we needed the breaks to go our way and they didn't. Nixon fumbling(or the refs screwing it up), McManus missing a chip shot, losing a bunch of key guys, etc.

Love wasn't great today but still finished the season as a top 10 QB by most advanced metrics and there are some warranted criticisms of MLFs time management & 4th down decision making throughout the season, but his team never quit on him and I don't really hold today's offensive performance against him.

I'm in the minority probably, but overreacting to this loss would be a mistake. This Packers team is still growing and will finally be out of the dead cap nightmare we've been in in recent years. Next year is the year the Superbowl window truly opens imo

thanks for this post, you're talking me down off the ledge with Love.

[msiris]

Like I always say about MLF.

MLF isn't a horrible coach overall, but he's a guy who will only take you so far.

But he is hilariously bad in big games consistently.

0-6 vs the Eagles, Lions and Vikings this season.

I never liked MLF but are you seriously blaming him for this loss? Love's highlight of the game was a prayer that was answered when the refs called PI on the Eagles.

The scary thing is that is his style of play, he just chucks it up even when the guy is wide open and then it's up to the refs, his receivers or defenders to bail him out which somehow happens more often than not.

Still can't believe Gute watched a guy who throws 3 should be picks a game and decided to make him the highest paid QB in the league until senile Jerry Jones got scammed by Dak's agent for the 2nd time in a row. He'd a be already out of the league had he been drafted by the Bears or the Jets.

So on the 2nd last drive down 9 the Pack ate up over minutes on 3 plays. That's not on the coach?

[msiris]

Love is not worth 55 mill.

[Matches Malone]

I think it's still too early to say Love isn't worth his contract. He got paid starting QB market value. Progression isn't always a straight up trajectory. There's always NFL players that have "second year slumps". Teams figured some things about Love in his second year starting and now it's time for him to take another offseason to get better and put the pressure back the other way. Josh Allen was up and down his first few years before settling in, and I think we at least owe it to see if Love can bounce back before we kick him out the door.

[paulpressey25]

Watched a prime Favre game on YouTube last night (SF 1996). The biggest difference with he and Love is that Favre had zip on his balls. My biggest long term concern with Love is that so many of his throws hang too long and give the defender time to adjust.

Obviously no, we shouldn’t have given him the big contract. The problem is he’s a bit like the situation with Tim Thomas with the Bucks was. We all would have liked another year of proving it before it was extension time. Not many great options in the modern game.

[dbrodz7]

I think it's still too early to say Love isn't worth his contract. He got paid starting QB market value. Progression isn't always a straight up trajectory. There's always NFL players that have "second year slumps". Teams figured some things about Love in his second year starting and now it's time for him to take another offseason to get better and put the pressure back the other way. Josh Allen was up and down his first few years before settling in, and I think we at least owe it to see if Love can bounce back before we kick him out the door.

I also think everyone is glossing over the fact that he was probably playing injured most or all of the season. A ligament in his knee popped in slow motion week 1 then he had a major groin injury. This was after skipping important work in the offseason. I just feel like he had defenses adjust and he couldn’t get in a rhythm with health and sophomore slump. Will be interesting to see if we get a report about how bad his knee injury actually was. I don’t think he completely forgot how to play quarterback in one offseason. If he wasn’t playing injured toward the end of the season, I think the injured affected his mechanics and he got sloppy. But we will see if he’s just an average qb or a good one next season.

[MoMM]

Terrible game, but luck didn't help either. Lost Jenkins, lost 3 WRs (counting Watson) and so on.
Hard to do anything against the best D in the game. Next season we will do better with cap space to fill the gaps, some improvements from our young players and hopefully some useful draftees.

[Matches Malone]

Watched a prime Favre game on YouTube last night (SF 1996). The biggest difference with he and Love is that Favre had zip on his balls. My biggest long term concern with Love is that so many of his throws hang too long and give the defender time to adjust.

Obviously no, we shouldn’t have given him the big contract. The problem is he’s a bit like the situation with Tim Thomas with the Bucks was. We all would have liked another year of proving it before it was extension time. Not many great options in the modern game.

There's plenty of balls that Love has thrown with zip. Will he break a WR finger like Favre? No, but he does have some pretty awesome throws on his resume. His issues continue to remain at the base level and syncing up his hips and footwork. If the feet aren't set, he throws ducks.

What I find perplexing about the Love discourse, is while he didn't play great today, and he's had some stinkers this year, overall, he was solid this season. 5th in QBR and 9th in EPA/play isn't anything to be ashamed of. We're used to greatness at QB that anything less just feels like a major fall from grace, when reality is, it's not as bad as it seems.

[paulpressey25]

There's plenty of balls that Love has thrown with zip. Will he break a WR finger like Favre? No, but he does have some pretty awesome throws on his resume. His issues continue to remain at the base level and sinking up his hips and footwork. If the feet aren't set, he throws ducks.

He doesn’t need to throw rocket balls like Favre. But he needs more on those longer throws.

We’ll have to see how he progresses in season three.