Postgame thoughts - Week 5 - Bears

[ReasonablySober]

So on Saturday night I watched my brother play against the number 2 ranked D-II team in the country. Mid-way through the 4th quarter my brother's team was up ten points and had looked like the better team the entire ball game. Then something happened.

My brother's team was moving the ball at mid-field with just over 6 minutes left. It was 2nd and 3. All they had to do was continue to use up every second of the clock that they could and methodically pick up first downs. They'd done it then entire game. Only they panicked. You could see it when they went with an empty backfield on 2nd and 3. Incomplete pass, then a penalty, then a punt. It took North Dakota two minutes to go on a 80 play drive, aided by a stupid 15 yard personal foul late hit on a play that would have made it 3rd and 11. Instead they had 1st and 10 and kept on rolling.

Next drive, with Minnesota State protecting a three point lead and about three minutes left, they still didn't run the ball. Not once. Hell, they were going four wide. Another punt. South Dakota scored in under 30 seconds to go up four points and the whole stadium was thinking, "this can't be happening". It's how the game ended. Six minutes left in the ball game, up 10 point on the #2 ranked team in the country, and Minnesota State did just about everything wrong. Ridiculous play calling, missed tackles, stupid penalties. Only one thing really stuck out: Minnesota state didn't know how to play with the lead in a close game. They panicked.

Last night it was like deja' vu. The Packers were making the exact same mistakes I saw my brother's team make the night before. Putrid play calling (three straight runs when Chicago had already started to stop it), dumb penalties (Barnett inexplicably grabbing the tiny Wolfe's facemask to get him down on a 3rd down), Williams catching the ball on the final kickoff instead of letting it go into the endzone for a touch back (he does this and we get a play to run before the two minute warning), McCarthy taking the timeout instead of letting Favre spike the ball.

The Packers choked. Like Michaels and Madden repeatedly said, they went conservative and played not to lose. By the time they decided to get back into moving the ball, it was too late. But even the play calling and clock management doesn't excuse some of the penalties, to say nothing of Favre's turnover.

Ugh.

Anyway, this is a tough loss to put in perspective. I don't think the better team won. But it was still a divisional rival and on national TV none the less. But if you're asking me whether I'd rather be a Packer fan or Seahawk fan, I'd rather be cheering for the Green and Gold.

The good:

Favre again looked good in my opinion. I think the playcalling in the second half lead to the sluggish offense, not players (at least for the most part). The offensive line played well. Was Favre sacked? I didn't count one. They also opened holes on the ground. They started to close in the second half, but they still looked light years better than they had all season.

I think Morency and Wynn did a nice job. The only time they were really bottled up was when Green Bay went into their 'prevent offense' in the third and fourth quarter and everyone in the stadium knew they were running.

I thought the front seven, with the exception of Poppinga, did a nice job. Pops looked out of position on few of Chicago's bigger gains, including the TD run. He also struggled in coverage.

The corners played a hell of a game. So did Bigby.

The bad:

Playcalling was the one that stuck out the most. Going conservative in the second took the crowd out of the game, kept the defense on the field to have to bail us out and didn't allow Favre and the WRs to ever get in a rhythm.

Jones with those two fumbles. One was inexcusable but I thought another was just a real nice play by Tillman. Still, if we score on either of those two possessions it's a different ball game. I hope this makes him a better player.

Favre played a good, solid game. I didn't even think his managing of the game at the end was poor; the called timeout was. But you saw the old Favre in the fourth quarter with the underhand bull and the toss right into the arms of Urlacher.

Collins has his worst game as a pro. Blew the swing pass to Peterson, blew the coverage on the TD to Clark, blew the long gain to Olsen.

Overall I can't be incredibly upset or down about this game. This one was sloppy but it's not like the Packers were manhandled. They stopped the run all night. They got to Griese for the most part. The running game was there until they ran out of gas in the fourth. Even the passing game worked until they went away from it.

This was just one of those games. I'd rather go through a loss like this than just get beaten up and down the field like we did against NY and NE last season. The Packers got into a close game with an experience team and choked. I'm hoping they learn from it.

[rilamann]

I think the fact we lost all pretty much boils down to the fact the offense F'd up.

And you can point to 3 obvious plays,the 2 Jones fumbles when we where in position to score and Favre's INT in the Bears redzone.

I think the 2 Jones fumbles where huge because if he holds on to the ball the game is probably over at halftime.

Turnovers are huge to begin with but anytime you have two turnovers that directly take points away from our offense and 1 that directly gives points to the offense its too much to overcome no matter how good your defense is.

I also thought Woodson's fumble on that return was big from a momentum standpoint,that was a critical point in the game momentum wise and it swung from being in the Bears favor to Packers favor on the big return and then right back in the Bears favor 2 seconds later and we never got that momentum back.

I also think the conservative play calling was a result of the turnovers because MM is not a conservative coach at all.I just think the turnovers changed MM's approach.

I think the defense played one hell of a game when you consider the 4 turnovers by the offense and 1 by the special teams along with all the holding penalties and the fact the offense had only 1st down in the entire 2nd half not counting that final drive at the end.

The fact we still had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds despite all of those things was a testamnet to our defense.

Take away the 2 Jones fumbles we win in a blow out.

Or

Take away Favre's INT in the Bears redzone and the one mistake our defense made (Nick Collins) at the end to give up the TD and we hold the Bears to 16 points and win the game even you keep the other 4 turnovers and all the penalties.

[xTitan]

I thought Favre played great in the first half and poorly in the second half...the interception was one of the worst I have seen from him and he had chances to audible in the second half and he just did not do it, not sure if it was because of personnel or he just wanted the ground game to work that bad.....Favre was not the reson they lost nor was the poor play calling and bad clock management...it came down to 5 To's to 1....and the fact is I EXPECTED GB's defense to score this game....the so-called playmakers are making no plays and not sure if its the defensive talent or extremely bland scheme...

[Ayt]

FWIW DB, both Poppinga and Collins were to blame on the TD to Clark. Pop had man coverage and got completely sucked in and Collins obviously was supposed to have deep coverage but blew that as well.

[El Duderino]

he offensive line played well. Was Favre sacked? I didn't count one. They also opened holes on the ground. They started to close in the second half, but they still looked light years better than they had all season.

In the first half they played great,they were terrible in the second half IMO.Sure Favre wasn't getting sacked,but he's always been a master at avoiding sacks.He was pressured alot more though in the second half,they opened no holes in the running game in the second half,and they got two drive killing holding calls in the second half.

The Bears oline has been getting killed all season long and while they didn't do much in the running game,they stuffed our pass rush most of the game which was a huge key in why Griese wasn't forced into mistakes.

The first half though was as much a key in the loss.We had a chance to step on their throats and suck the life out of them.Those two fumbles by Jones and that bogus call on Williams that handed the Bears 4 points are the only reason the Bears still had a chance.We should have been up at least 17 points at halftime.

[paulpressey25]

I'm not happy we lost, but let's say that for some reason Favre tossed a TD with one second left, and we ran a two-point conversion and won......would anybody be feeling tons better? I suppose some might and I don't want to minimize what would have been a win, but regardless of the outcome, none of us would feel it was a convincing win, and all would feel our team still has a ton more work to do.

The amount of things that went wrong, were poorly executed or poorly officiated was amazing.....if you would have said that our WR would fumble away two scoring opportunities in the redzone, that our PR would fumble away a great runback, that our pro bowl LB would have a straight-on tackle angle and yet choose to use a flagrant facemask, that our special teams line would get called for an illegal formation, negating a FG but giving the Bears time for TD, that Favre would go braindead on the INT to Urlacher, that MM and the team wouldn't be prepared for a 2 minute drill, that the refs would screw us on the interpretation of the ball spot challenge and strip us of the timeout, even though we were correct on the spot being wrong, etc.....

It was an amazing list of things we screwed up last night or went wrong for us.

[rilamann]

It was an amazing list of things we screwed up last night or went wrong for us.

And what is even more amazing is that despite all of those things we still had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds.

And if the Packers would have cleaned up only half the mistakes they made they probably win by 10 or more.

The loss sucks but i'd feel a lot worse right now if the Packers had played a solid mistake free game and still lost.

Im not all that worried about this game or down on the team because they lost due to correctable mistakes and they are a young team.This game will be a great learning experiance for this team.

A game like yesterdays might make this team grow up a little bit and might actually make them a better team come December & January if they learn from it.

Obviously the big question is how the Packers bounce back from this game next week and with a coach like MM & a leader like Brett Favre I think they will bounce back strong vs the Redskins next week.

If we can win next week vs the Skins and get a split in the Broncos & Chiefs games we will be 6-2 halfway through the season with the tough part of our schedule behind us.

That will be pretty solid considering some people wernt sure when the season started if this team could win more than 6 or 7 games all season.

[paulpressey25]

If we can win next week vs the Skins and get a split in the Broncos & Chiefs games we will be 6-2 halfway through the season with the tough part of our schedule behind us

I'll take 6-2 right now......hands down.

And as you probably remember, even in the Super Bowl team years, those teams had games like last night. The 1996 team lost one like that in the Dome to the Vikings where they lead in the 4th but couldn't put the Vikings away.......the 1997 team had that game in Detroit where they dominated the Lions statistically if I remember correctly but lost as well.

Stuff like last night happens, even to dominant teams (and I don't consider the 2007 Packers a dominant team.....we are a year away still)

[DMBucks22]

Still feeling down? How about a pick me up?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yQxEvv4_8Mk

Enjoi

[Simulack]

Dallas is losing to Buffalo right now. If they go on to lose is it going to be

a) This mitigates the sting of the Bears loss because the Cowboys (a team everyone thought to be significantly superior to the Packers) lost to an even worse team than the Bears...

or

b) Damn, if not for a combination of boneheaded mistakes, poor officiating and bad luck we would be 5-0 with the best record in the NFC...

I'm not sure myself.

[DMBucks22]

^^^^^ there goes that theory. Dallas should of lost this game tonight. I still dont know how they won it.

[El Duderino]

Dallas is losing to Buffalo right now. If they go on to lose is it going to be

Dallas won after six turnovers

One thing happened at the end of that game which i'll never understand,yet it happens quite a bit at the end of the half or end of games.

Dallas is at the Buffalo 44 yard line with 7 seconds left in the game and no timeouts.They need at least 5-7 yards to attempt a game winning FG and have to catch a pass on the sideline/get out of bounds.If they catch a pass anywhere in bounds,no chance to get back and spike the ball.

So Dallas runs a quick sideline square out that gains 7 yards and the Buffalo DB is nowhere near the WR to keep him in bounds.How does this happen?Why the hell is the DB playing so far off and not protecting the sideline when anyone with a pea sized brain knows Dallas will be trying to run a quick out to the sidelines?Why isn't the DB right up on the WR and giving the WR the inside given any catch inside will end the game?

[paulpressey25]

Anyone upset with Mike McCarthy after watching Dick Jauron last night? It can always be worse......

[ReasonablySober]

Dallas is losing to Buffalo right now. If they go on to lose is it going to be

Dallas won after six turnovers

One thing happened at the end of that game which i'll never understand,yet it happens quite a bit at the end of the half or end of games.

Dallas is at the Buffalo 44 yard line with 7 seconds left in the game and no timeouts.They need at least 5-7 yards to attempt a game winning FG and have to catch a pass on the sideline/get out of bounds.If they catch a pass anywhere in bounds,no chance to get back and spike the ball.

So Dallas runs a quick sideline square out that gains 7 yards and the Buffalo DB is nowhere near the WR to keep him in bounds.How does this happen?Why the hell is the DB playing so far off and not protecting the sideline when anyone with a pea sized brain knows Dallas will be trying to run a quick out to the sidelines?Why isn't the DB right up on the WR and giving the WR the inside given any catch inside will end the game?

Yea, I was watching the game with my dad and we were thinking the same thing. On three consecutive plays the CBs were playing 11 yards off and the safeties were playing a good 15-18 yards off. They were giving Dallas the quick outs. It's exactly what Dallas needed and Buffalo gave it to them on a silver platter.

[El Duderino]

-= original quote snipped =-



Yea, I was watching the game with my dad and we were thinking the same thing. On three consecutive plays the CBs were playing 11 yards off and the safeties were playing a good 15-18 yards off. They were giving Dallas the quick outs. It's exactly what Dallas needed and Buffalo gave it to them on a silver platter.

Seriously,how does this stuff happen so often?

I'm watching the game and hate the Cowboys,so i'm saying to myself,man up the Dallas receivers and take away the sidelines at all cost.It seemed blatantly obvious to me that Dallas was going to try to throw a quick out to the sideline to get 5-8 yards.They had no other real option with 7 seconds left.

So if anything,why the hell wouldn't Buffalo take a timeout and call their defense over and make sure all their DB's knew exactly what the situation is?Just rush three guys,drop eight since Dallas had to throw quick and make sure all those in coverage besides the safeties were to protect the sideline?Instead they play soft zone.

These coaches are paid over a million dollars and i'm just a guy watching on TV.How could i see exactly what was coming and what should be done,but life long football men had their DB's giving a soft cushion so the WR could catch an easy 7 yard out and get out of bounds in field goal range?

This kind of stuff happens alot and it baffles me to no end,i just don't get it.Or in the LSU-Florida game where the Florida coach sat on his timeouts with LSU at the Florida one yard line.What the hell was he waiting for?It was such a nobrainer to call a TO,how could a 4 million dollar a year coach let 30 seconds waste away when 90% of average joes watching knew he should call one right away?