Packershow Season 3 Episode 9 November 6, 2008
Posted by Ross - a.k.a. The Fat Man in : Packershow , trackback
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Sorry all, I wasn’t able to get the GBU segment done this week so its absent from the show. However here is a text synopsis of what I would have discussed:
Good:
Donald Driver
Michael Montgomery
Nick Collins
Bad:
Dropped Balls
OL in pass blocking
Dropped INTs (who gave Al Harris and Atari Bigby the stick of butter?)
Ugly:
Brady Poppinga (DOH!)
Nick Barnett
AJ Hawk
The D on the last two drives by the Titans
Aaron Rodgers two turnovers are unacceptable, especially when they were preventable. Rodgers has to do a better job of looking off the safety and he needs to get rid of that ball and not get happy feet in the pocket. The fumble was HUGE!
I should be really happy that we took the Titans to OT but I’m not because we should have won in regulation. Our LBs played atrocious football on Sunday, overpursuing and missing tackles. It was ugly.
All in all I think we had a great shot to get a win on the road here, instead we lost and end up in 2nd place in our division. The margin for error is getting tight and my prediction of 10-6 is starting to look optimistic. I really think 10-6 is still realistic but this team has to start playing more fundamentally sound and getting the little things done to win close games.
Hi Patrick
Thanks for that – thought-provoking, as ever!
You’ll be in trouble for not mentioning Justin Harrell
Chris
I didn’t mention Harrell on purpose…he wasn’t good enough to be in the good but it was good just to see him back. I was certainly surprised to hear Ross hammer on him in the show. While he wasn’t fantastic he certainly held his own in his first action back.
And you can say he was out of position on one run all you want but both the LBs got completely washed out of that play as well (as they have been all season)….If our run D is going to get back to where it was last year then we are going to have to see MUCH better play from both Hawk and Barnett.
Patrick ~
I agree with you that it was nice to see him on the field. I thought he played average but I have been excessively frustrated with the incorrect technique by our defensive lineman and our linebackers. Harrell was the obvious source of this frustration because he was WAY out of position on that run and didn’t control his gap…the linebackers were then out of position and so on. It wasn’t all Justin Harrell’s fault and for most of the game he did all right. I am left scratching my head as to why our line and LB’s are playing incorrect gap technique which is allowing 100’s of yards of rushing per game. I wish I knew if it was coaching or execution…
Sorry ~ I get a little frustrated about this…I will try to maintain more objectivity with Mr. Harrell…
I hear you Ross,
Until this team learns discipline (what happened between last year and this year) and learns to tackle below/at the waste and through the ball carrier we will continue to struggle.
The sad thing is we had a punt return TD and INT return TD, 3 INTs and yet in the end I have to put the D in the UGLY category because for the 3rd (or is it 4th) time this year they completely folded in crunch time when they HAD to get a stop. Thats really the difference from this year to last year.
Last year we had games our D, O or STs took turns struggling and the games were close but yet we still found a way to win. This years team just can’t close out the close games and find ways to win.
For all MM and TT’s talk about winning/being strong in the trenches this team is TERRIBLE right now in the trenches and its going to continue to struggle until they can turn that around.
Thanks both for expanding on your previous remarks. It is interesting to reflect that last year we won the close games, whilst this year … not so much! Maybe we were not as good as we seemed last year – and are not as bad as we sometimes seem this year?
We are still a young team, and with a developing QB these sorts of games will happen – painful and frustrating as they are. But, to take up Patrick’s point, we do appear to be struggling in the trenches, and if the OL and DL / run defense cave in, then everything else collapses around them.
We now need someone to step up at LB the way Tramon Williams has at CB. And again, we need consistently good play across all 4 quarters. A loss to the Bears this week, and the season is looking ugly!
Chris