Game 2: Pack at Falcons - 7:25 PM - NBC

[rilamann]

Think about spending the entire off season studying the falcons loss and doing all the changes in personal we did and then die the exact same way. I mean that's just impressive.

The Packers are that guy that took karate and still gets his ass kicked.

Atlanta overall has way to much speed and talent for our pedestrian defense, but it's exasperated even further playing in a dome.

If the Packers were to face the Falacons in the playoffs, the only chance they'd have is for the game to be played in the cold and slower track in Lambeau. In their dome, our defense looks like that lone white guy from some Eastern block country who ends up in the 100 or 200 meter dash and has the other nine runners just blowing right past him.

At least King showed something and hopefully Rollins and Randall are reduced to 4th-5th corner roles. Hell, try Hawkins, he can't be worse than Rollins who can't cover or tackle.

I agree we are no match for the Falcons in a dome due to how painfully slow our defense is.Between pretty much everyone in our secondary and between Blake Martinez and Jake Ryan being our starting inside linebackers we are pretty much ****.

At this point even at Lambeau I think we'd go 5-5 if we played them 10 times.

[thomchatt3rton]

This is totally anecdotal, but does anybody else feel like half the time when Rollins is getting burned it looks like the receiver made one move and he slips. Swear I saw it at least twice last night.

I recall seeing that happen A LOT w our DB but I didnt notice if it was Rollins in particular. I just know Ive seen a ton of replays showing that a DB got burned bcuz he slipped early in the route. So if youve noticed that its Rollins doing it alot, Id totally believe it.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

See I thought Rollins played ok. To me it was mostly Randall and Ha Ha that kept getting beat.

Really if Ha Ha doesn't play one of the worst games of his career the D would've looked insanely better imo.

Even in an ugly loss there's things to build on:

Even without Daniels we still had solid pressure all night

King looked great and should be probably be starting

Monty and Adams both fighting till the end making plays

Now on to the duds:

Randell looks to have lost all confidence. A bad spot to be in as a CB

Ha Ha played like absolutely crap and was largely responsible on alot of the big plays

The late game tackling was putrid but you can make the argument they were simply gassed.

Rodgers lost this game in two plays. If he doesn't gift wrap 14 points to Atlanta the entire complection of the game changes. (And don't give me "oh Allison hesitated". That was most likely a pick one way or another and should've been a back shoulder throw with the coverage being played)

Most expected this to be a L when the schedule came out. Take care of Cincy and the Bears at home and we're still in good shape.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using RealGM mobile app

I can't speak for uwmnick, but my comments were meant generally- not specific to last night at all. It's something I've noticed going back into last year.

[El Duderino]

Atlanta overall has way to much speed and talent for our pedestrian defense, but it's exasperated even further playing in a dome.

If the Packers were to face the Falacons in the playoffs, the only chance they'd have is for the game to be played in the cold and slower track in Lambeau. In their dome, our defense looks like that lone white guy from some Eastern block country who ends up in the 100 or 200 meter dash and has the other nine runners just blowing right past him.

At least King showed something and hopefully Rollins and Randall are reduced to 4th-5th corner roles. Hell, try Hawkins, he can't be worse than Rollins who can't cover or tackle.

I agree we are no match for the Falcons in a dome due to how painfully slow our defense is.Between pretty much everyone in our secondary and between Blake Martinez and Jake Ryan being our starting inside linebackers we are pretty much ****.

At this point even at Lambeau I think we'd go 5-5 if we played them 10 times.

Atlanta simply has a more talented roster overall outside of quarterback and now that Ryan has gotten better, there no longer is a huge gulf between him and Rodgers.

While i don't want to make excuses for all of the whiffs by Ted on defense over the last five years or so, Atlanta is going to drop a lot of points on most defenses who enter that dome of theirs. They have a solid OL, a top 5 QB, and an elite group of skill position players at RB and WR.

It's just demoralizing seeing guys like Randall and Rollins look like yet more high pick busts on defense and while Capers doesn't have a talented unit to work with, i'm wondering why he's earned such a long leash to keep his job running the defense? In all levels of football, some coordinators are able to get more out of the talent than they are handed. I don't see that from Capers. Maybe a replacement wouldn't be able to either, but i'd rather the team tried someone else vs sticking with the status quo. Can't see the harm.

[thomchatt3rton]

It is a capital offense. Yes.

You now have 3 full games of data (had 2 at the time) and plenty of other data from similar games to suggest that we would need to score on every single possession, mostly touchdowns, to win this game.

To go in thinking that you're going to play some sort of field position/clock game and win is mindnumingly stupid. I know NFL coaches don't go for it generally in those situations even though the odds suggest that they should but this is a different situation. You know the blueprint to win and pushing the Falcons back 30 yards at the expense of another chance for yourself to score is dumb.

If you saw that first drive that Atlanta had and thought we'd win the game with anything less than 40 points...well, I don't know what to tell you.

Atlanta was held under 40 but it was pretty clearly because they were sitting on a massive lead the entire 2nd half.

The optimal way to play last night is to never punt and if it fails and you're down 35-7, bench Rodgers and the like. It's the regular season. Trying to chip away with field goals against their 2 minute touchdown gashings is not going to give you any better luck.

Do you really think any good at all could come from a head coach disrespecting his entire defensive unit (and coaching staff) by unilaterally adopting a hard-line, no-punt policy like that?

Whether it's correct or not strategically is besides the point- any coach who did that would have waaaay worse problems long-term than a week 2 loss.

I think your thinking is a little...theoretical, to put it diplomatically. Like you're thinking about this like its a video game, not real life with actual human beings who work together in a work environment that requires mutual trust and respect, and whose long-term structural integrity isn't worth risking in this fashion.

I'm not even sure it's a sound strategy on paper. At least, its' not clear to me that it's significantly more sound than what we did. Hell, the way you talk, it almost seems like you yourself don't even think it was a viable way to win so much as you thought it'd be a slightly more attractive way to lose.

No disrespect, Kerb I just don't think your thinking clearly about this.

[crkone]

Read on Twitter

[M-C-G]

Read on Twitter

Felt about right

[Ron Swanson]

Yep, there wasn't really much that we could have done to win that game given the injuries, but McCarthy lobbing FG's and punting at midfield in the late 3rd quarter down by 3 scores was a pretty tactless philosophy that showed he wasn't entirely too interested in winning that game once we got down big.

[JimmyTheKid]

Yep, there wasn't really much that we could have done to win that game given the injuries, but McCarthy lobbing FG's and punting at midfield in the late 3rd quarter down by 3 scores was a pretty tactless philosophy that showed he wasn't entirely too interested in winning that game once we got down big.

We don't get blown out too often. But it seems every time we're down big early and playing catchup we run the play clock all the way down seemingly every play. Its infuriating. Then we dink and dunk our way to that first score. But we're still down two TD's and the defense has to force 3 and outs or the clock will simply run out. The offense never takes any shots (and Jeff Janis, a guy who has drawn some big PI flags, is scratching his balls at the end of the bench) Yes, I understand big plays are less likely to succeed due to the opponent's prevent defense. But to put our D in that kind of 3-and-out-or-go-home situation just doesn't make much sense. It might be better just to huddle up and get everyone on the same page instead of running no huddle and still taking the play clock all the way down. I know Rodgers has GOAT'd it with a few hailmary's, but in those comeback situations I wish the offense would be a little more aggressive early. If you throw a pick, fine. Whats the difference between losing by 15 and 30?

[UWNick]

I recall seeing that happen A LOT w our DB but I didnt notice if it was Rollins in particular. I just know Ive seen a ton of replays showing that a DB got burned bcuz he slipped early in the route. So if youve noticed that its Rollins doing it alot, Id totally believe it.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

See I thought Rollins played ok. To me it was mostly Randall and Ha Ha that kept getting beat.

Really if Ha Ha doesn't play one of the worst games of his career the D would've looked insanely better imo.

Even in an ugly loss there's things to build on:

Even without Daniels we still had solid pressure all night

King looked great and should be probably be starting

Monty and Adams both fighting till the end making plays

Now on to the duds:

Randell looks to have lost all confidence. A bad spot to be in as a CB

Ha Ha played like absolutely crap and was largely responsible on alot of the big plays

The late game tackling was putrid but you can make the argument they were simply gassed.

Rodgers lost this game in two plays. If he doesn't gift wrap 14 points to Atlanta the entire complection of the game changes. (And don't give me "oh Allison hesitated". That was most likely a pick one way or another and should've been a back shoulder throw with the coverage being played)

Most expected this to be a L when the schedule came out. Take care of Cincy and the Bears at home and we're still in good shape.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using RealGM mobile app

I can't speak for uwmnick, but my comments were meant generally- not specific to last night at all. It's something I've noticed going back into last year.

Yeah, I wasn't even really talking about Rollins performance overall. I would agree that he seems to be the better player between the two. I just swear that I've seen him slip in multiple replays when he gets beat. Maybe it isn't Rollins every-time, but it definitely was Sunday night.

[Kerb Hohl]

It is a capital offense. Yes.

You now have 3 full games of data (had 2 at the time) and plenty of other data from similar games to suggest that we would need to score on every single possession, mostly touchdowns, to win this game.

To go in thinking that you're going to play some sort of field position/clock game and win is mindnumingly stupid. I know NFL coaches don't go for it generally in those situations even though the odds suggest that they should but this is a different situation. You know the blueprint to win and pushing the Falcons back 30 yards at the expense of another chance for yourself to score is dumb.

If you saw that first drive that Atlanta had and thought we'd win the game with anything less than 40 points...well, I don't know what to tell you.

Atlanta was held under 40 but it was pretty clearly because they were sitting on a massive lead the entire 2nd half.

The optimal way to play last night is to never punt and if it fails and you're down 35-7, bench Rodgers and the like. It's the regular season. Trying to chip away with field goals against their 2 minute touchdown gashings is not going to give you any better luck.

Do you really think any good at all could come from a head coach disrespecting his entire defensive unit (and coaching staff) by unilaterally adopting a hard-line, no-punt policy like that?

Whether it's correct or not strategically is besides the point- any coach who did that would have waaaay worse problems long-term than a week 2 loss.

I think your thinking is a little...theoretical, to put it diplomatically. Like you're thinking about this like its a video game, not real life with actual human beings who work together in a work environment that requires mutual trust and respect, and whose long-term structural integrity isn't worth risking in this fashion.

I'm not even sure it's a sound strategy on paper. At least, its' not clear to me that it's significantly more sound than what we did. Hell, the way you talk, it almost seems like you yourself don't even think it was a viable way to win so much as you thought it'd be a slightly more attractive way to lose.

No disrespect, Kerb I just don't think your thinking clearly about this.

Yeah, I had also considered the lack of respect for your own defense. Maybe that's enough to not do it. I do think in the playoffs that if we are @ Atlanta and the Falcons walk up and down the field once or twice to open the game, Vogel's day will be done. At that point you can't worry about that sort of thing. You need to try to win.

[Ron Swanson]

Amazingly enough, it was still a game at the 5:00 mark in the 4th quarter when we were only down 11. Then McCarthy inexcusably doesn't go for the onside kick. I'd love to know what the hell was going through his brain when he thought that one up.

[El Duderino]

Amazingly enough, it was still a game at the 5:00 mark in the 4th quarter when we were only down 11. Then McCarthy inexcusably doesn't go for the onside kick. I'd love to know what the hell was going through his brain when he thought that one up.

That was baffling. Two options

1. Onside kick

2. Pray for a three and out with an elite offense vs a below average defense, and we'd have to burn timeouts.

[rilamann]

Demoralizing defeat.

We won't beat the Falcons in ATL in the playoffs unless King and Jones progress, and Biegel and Adams come back from injury and contribute.

No we won't, and we also got reminded that this is still a poorly coached 6-10 team with a decent QB, but they have Aaron Rodgers.

[Mags FTW]

Amazingly enough, it was still a game at the 5:00 mark in the 4th quarter when we were only down 11. Then McCarthy inexcusably doesn't go for the onside kick. I'd love to know what the hell was going through his brain when he thought that one up.

FB dive with Kuhn