Packers Post Game Thoughts

[AZ54]

About halfway through the game I commented to my son how much white space Nagy had on his play sheet.  And he did have just a single sheet with plays on both sides.  In contrast McCarthy was walking around with at least 2 sheets, maybe 3, and they were full on both sides.   I expect that white space gets filled in more and more each week.  Obviously there's a difference in QBs but in the end what we saw was one team learning a new offense and another where their QB has been doing the same thing for 14 years.   

That defense threw a ton of looks at Trubisky and the offense.  I hate losing but it's great to get that on film for everyone and it will help over the next couple weeks.  Tru had happy feet (as he described it) a few times and added his own butt fumble in the process.  He also created a lot on his own and that communication with his new WRs about where to go when plays breakdown is a work in progress.  Overall I felt he stayed composed as he searched through his options but he's still on the ground floor of this offense looking up. 

Jordan Howard was fantastic.  The work he's done to improve his hands has payed off in a big way.  He looked natural receiving the ball even when it required him to quickly turn his hips after the catch.  A little bit better run blocking, and really a couple third down conversions and he's easily at 100 yds rushing.  As it was he finished with 15 carries for 82yds, 5 rec for 25yds.  

Tarik Cohen (Tyreek Cone according to the announcers) played well too but still looks like he's finding his way on all these different plays he has on his plate. 

Oline:  They were just average today.  Green Bay has a stout front but there were too many simple mistakes that need to be corrected. 

WRs:  We need a lot more from this group going forward.  Early on it was good as scheme got some guys open.  Later they weren't winning the 1on1 matchups.  Whether that was fatigue because they haven't played many snaps or something else, it needs to be better for Mitch to have a chance.  

TEs:  I expected more from Trey Burton.  If he wants to sell the pass interference call then he needs to run into the LB while going for the ball and not pull up.  

Dline:  Very good early on.   Looked tired later on.  Again, it seems lack of reps in game situations hurt but really Green Bay's starters had very few reps in the preseason too so no excuses.   Overall we were very stout against the run and Goldman and Hicks made some excellent plays.  I think that continues all season long.  Pass rush was good at times.  RRH looks better than Bullard although I have to go back and watch the game again.  Regardless I think we see RRH take over as the starter as the season goes along.   Does anyone know what holding is because the officials never threw the flag no matter how many shoulder pads were being pulled, arms fully around players waists.   

OLB:  Mack is absolutely worth the price we paid.  If he's in game shape we very likely win this one.  I'm not going to worry about that because we got him for the future and that is definitely going to make a difference in a lot of games.   Did anyone else notice him diving to stop Cobb at the goal line on that game winning TD pass?  Yes, he sprinted all way down the field on that play.  Floyd looked good too and showed more power on his bull rushes.  I can't wait to see him without the club because I think that really hinders much of what he wants to do with his hands on rushes.   Lynch might be ok as a run stopper but that's it.  

ILBs:  Kwiatkoski's days as a starter are numbered.  Hopefully close to 0.  We really needed Roquan's speed in this game,  Trevathan played well and I'm glad he returned from that nearly back-breaking hit.  

DBs:  Some good plays and not so good.  I don't know what his injury was but I feel it affected him after he returned.   Whatever it was we just couldn't or wouldn't cover the inside slants they kept running once Rodgers returned.  

Going into this I was hoping first and foremost not to have any serious injuries and it appears we did not.  I expected the offense would stumble a bit at times as we did but also thought we might see a few more big plays.  They just didn't materialize in the 2nd half.  Next up is Seattle on MNF.  

[Stinger226]

First of all after getting by the disappointment, we were playing ARod in GB, the outcome is usually very bad, this looked a little better.

I think the defense got fatigued in the second half and showed in a lack of pass rush and some blown coverage's

We were a Kyle Fuller dropped INT away from winning that game.MT had to much adrenaline at the end of the game and missed on several game ending plays..( he's not ready yet to take over a game) but the arrow is pointing up. 

I think if we had given Howard the ball more at the end of the game we would have won the contest. I think if MT had rolled out on those late pass plays he would have had a good option to run when no one was open. It may have turned out different.

We were a few individual plays away from winning that game. 

Mack besides Aaron Donald the best D player in the league. He walked out of a gym and put on a D onslaught in limited snaps. 

Smith will make tackles that Kwiat couldnt get to .

Nagy gets a C+ for play calling but I will say we have a legitimate NFL offense now.

I get drunk with Koolaid every week so I always think we should look like we did in the first half but the truth is, I just wanted us to look respectable playing in GB in our first game. I think we accomplished that. Lots to complain about  but now we have many things to look forward to.

Mack

Smith

Allen Rob

Howard

Cohen

RHH

Hicks

The defense is two weeks away from being dominate. (as Smith and Mack gain their football speed)

The offense has lots to look forward to.

 

[Mongo3451]

That was a hard game to swallow.for the 2nd half to turn out like it did, I'm a little concerned about Nagy. 

We are up 17-0 at half and get the ball to start the 3rd and have no creativity in the book.  You would think there would be some ancillary plays off of some of those exotic looks.  Nah.  Play action, rollouts, RPO?  Nah.  The center of the field was open all night, but almost everything was outside.  God forbid if Trubisky  throws something deep.  Lastly, Howard should have had 6-8 more carries.  If he gets those, we win

We let them off with a cheap win and I hate it.  This was on Nagy.  In his last two games that count.(last year in KC) He shit the bed.  Hope he learns fast.

[ChileBear]

Yep. We could have been much more aggressive in the second half. Was very disappointed in Sims--he has cement feet and couldn't get the extra inches on at least two receptions to give us a first down.

[Bill]

I left my heart beating on my desk when I went to bed last night.  It was still beating but broken this morning.  I saw two different Bears teams last night and the old one reared its ugly head in the 2nd half.  I can't look at all the good that happened yet,  maybe later in the week.  But my late father lived long enough to see them win in 85.  He used to scream and yell every year.  Throw the damn ball deep at least a few times every game.  I can't recall a deep pass.  And I mean a throw it over everybody pass attempt.  Isn't that what we got Gabriel and Miller for?  Or did I miss those bomb plays.  I have not felt this down from a loss since 86 or 87 when Steve McMichael came up a foot short of sacking Jay Schader of Washington.  I might have the game wrong or even the team but I still remember how I felt watching McMichael walk off the field.  That feeling came back last night.   

[Stinger226]

This was on Nagy.  In his last two games that count.(last year in KC) He shit the bed.  Hope he learns fast.

actually in the KC game a sideline reporter stated that Reid took over play calling in the second half of that game that was not on Nagy but this game was. 

[Maverick0984]

We can't be mad they didn't throw the ball deep AND mad that they didn't run the ball more.  That doesn't make sense.

I think they were trying to throw it deep but Trubisky couldn't handle it in the second half.  There were a lot of errant throws and him pulling the bull down to run it too early.  Definitely saw once or twice, guys 20-25 yards deep waving their hands as he's scrambling early and netting 1 yard.  The answer was run Jordan Howard more once Trubisky was struggling and let him figure out what spooked him during the week here.  That's it.

Hopefully, Trubisky figures it out, first game of the season plus with these guys, and all that.  

As frustrated as I was with the defense and Fuller's drop, it's Aaron Rodgers, if they spot you 17 points with a half to go, the offense needs to add more than 6.  I place this loss on Nagy and Trubisky, even with Fuller's dropped INT.  Maybe it's easier to blame them as they're the ones with very little experience who I hope will just use this as a teachable moment and get better from it.

[Stinger226]

This is nothing like our recent past, the losing is but this is a whole different offense that will not be fully functional until at least mid season if  not next year. The defense will be up to speed once Mack and Smith are up to speed, 2 more weeks for that. The offense will have good times and bad times, but the pieces are in place for a full arsenal of good. It is just going to take time. Nagy is learning so he will screw up to but he's not John Fox or Trestman. We're walking up the stairs, its one step at a time.

[Maverick0984]

6 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

This is nothing like our recent past, the losing is but this is a whole different offense that will not be fully functional until at least mid season if  not next year. The defense will be up to speed once Mack and Smith are up to speed, 2 more weeks for that. The offense will have good times and bad times, but the pieces are in place for a full arsenal of good. It is just going to take time. Nagy is learning so he will screw up to but he's not John Fox or Trestman. We're walking up the stairs, its one step at a time.

You're right.

This morning would feel a lot different if it had been any other team at any other location.  Because of that, we should just cool off and remember that except for one time ('72) every team that has won a Superbowl had at least 1 loss.

[adam]

I don't think anyone would be complaining about a 1-pt loss on the road to GB if we didn't blow a 20 pt lead. Most were expecting us to lose this game and were literally one play away many times from winning. Fuller's drop, Sims not making it to the sticks (twice), blown coverages, missed tackles, Trubisky's accuracy all played a part. Fangio can't leave the DB's out there without overhead safety coverage on 3rd and 10 because the only thing we couldn't afford was a long TD (like Cobb's). 

We are clearly a work in progress and the first half has me optimistic. It just seemed like the team expended all their energy in the first half, especially the defense. The offense definitely got too cute, Leno lining up as a WR, ok. I was expecting more vertical plays, but it seemed like we were doing a bunch of things near the LOS, which eventually becomes easy to defend. I also don't know why we abandoned the run when it was averaging 5+ a carry.

Nagy needs to relook what he did just before the FG. We had a 3rd and 2, and he called a pass play, which was incomplete and stopped the clock. You have two downs with 2 yards to go. Run it down their throats and burn some clock. If you get the first down, its game over. You can still kick a FG 4 plays later and would leave GB with at most 15 seconds on the clock to go the distance. 

So right now I am angrily optimistic. We let one slip away, just like last year vs Atlanta. 

 

 

[madlithuanian]

2 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

That was a hard game to swallow.for the 2nd half to turn out like it did, I'm a little concerned about Nagy. 

We are up 17-0 at half and get the ball to start the 3rd and have no creativity in the book.  You would think there would be some ancillary plays off of some of those exotic looks.  Nah.  Play action, rollouts, RPO?  Nah.  The center of the field was open all night, but almost everything was outside.  God forbid if Trubisky  throws something deep.  Lastly, Howard should have had 6-8 more carries.  If he gets those, we win

We let them off with a cheap win and I hate it.  This was on Nagy.  In his last two games that count.(last year in KC) He shit the bed.  Hope he learns fast.

Spot on Mongo...

I really think everyone's day after takes here are pretty accurate.

My 3 big takeaways are...

1.  There was enough in the 1st half that can give us hope that when it's clicking, we could be really good to excellent.

2.  There was enough in the 2nd half that scares me.  Playcalling that resembled Fox's.  Not running Howard.  Tru looking like the moment was too big for him.  

3.  That D will be amazing.  Mack is the real deal and Roquan flashed enough to get me excited.  I think the D will hit on all cylinders by week 3, but the O...who knows?

[Mongo3451]

My final take on Nagy is this:  When you have a young emerging team up 20 on the road against your bitter rival...  Step on their damn throat!  They played the first half to win and played the 2nd half, not to lose.  Lead your team in a way that they are fearless...

[Stinger226]

I bought the NFL game pass this year because I will be spending a lot of time in Thailand so I can watch the games. I have been watching the tape of the game in a condense state and have a few observations.

I only have watched the first half several times not into the second half yet.

On the one play that we ended up kicking a FG, MT moved to the right in a passing situation. He turned and threw to Miller that didnt advanced, Cohen slid out to the right to the goal line and was wide open. It should have been a TD instead of settling for a FG.

Both OTs looked good in these drives. 

our DEs got held a lot on passing downs, particularly Floyd, they were bear hugging him almost every time. its amazing more holding penalties were not called.

Kwiat took a lot of bad angles to the RBs and was out of position when in coverage. He is a backup, PERIOD

You can tell the club on Floyds had is bothering him a lot, you can't control your rushes when you only put one hand on a OT to make your second moves.

Hicks is a beast was double teams consistently.

[Stinger226]

Another note, RR-H can play. Had several pressures plus the sack.

Need to mention Mack is all world. I can't wait until he is playing 90% of the plays.

[Bears4Ever_34]

I hate saying this, but if Aaron Rodgers never got hurt and stayed on the field the entire game, I'm not sure any of those turnovers Mack forced would have ever happened. His strip sack and pick 6 occurred with Kizer on the field, and if you put Rodgers in that situation, the fumble possession probably ends in a TD for GB (they were in redzone territory if I recall) and the pick 6 would never happen, because Aaron Rodgers never throws pick 6's. That's a massive 14 point swing working in GB's favor. Instead of 23-24, the game could have been more like 16-31.

Boy, this is going to be a rough week... Bears NEED a win against Seattle. With the Mack trade, this is definitely a playoffs or bust season. We all know the %'s of teams making the playoffs after starting 0-2 are not good, and whether it's realistic or not to expect everything to gel this quickly, that is our reality. You pay all those picks for Trubisky and Mack, you lose the luxury of patience, in my opinion. 

[jason]

What I know is this: That's a game we should have won.

The Bears could have fixed a lot of things and solved their problems, but there is one problem that really bugged me. How in the world were the Bears collapsing the pocket every play in the first half, but suddenly they couldn't create pressure in the second half? I submit that a helluva lot more holding was going on, and not being called. On the TD the packers had to score 17, the RT 100% held and wasn't called. Later there was a play where Rogers rolled out and Mack had just beaten his man...but the guy reached out and grabbed a shoulder pad that yanked Mack back, as well as dislodge his jersey from the shoulder pad. Just enough of a hold, it had a material effect, and should have been called.

Glass half full here, but I loathe Green Bay and laughed when Rogers went down.

[Connorbear]

3 hours ago, adam said:

Nagy needs to relook what he did just before the FG. We had a 3rd and 2, and he called a pass play, which was incomplete and stopped the clock. You have two downs with 2 yards to go. Run it down their throats and burn some clock. If you get the first down, its game over. You can still kick a FG 4 plays later and would leave GB with at most 15 seconds on the clock to go the distance. 

 

 

Exactly.  We have Howard.  Run the damn ball.  5 more carries for Howard in this game and we win. 

Peace

[Connorbear]

Nagy's biggest take away should be - You do not give Aaron Rodgers the opportunity to beat you because, most of the time, he will!

Peace

[Alaskan Grizzly]

So I'm wondering now if Nagy is re-thinking his strategy of not playing the starters for the last few preseason games?  Yes, I get the injury concerns BUT you shouldn't have to worry as much about them if you game plan accordingly.  It looked to me, like others have commented, both the offense AND defense petered out in the second half.  How else can you explain having a quarterback come out, after getting knocked out of the game and noticeably limping when he returned, and put three TD's on a team?  I mean yes he is Aaron Rodgers but ... 

Similar to Stinger, I've only so far been able to see most of the first half of the game and for all intents and purposes I liked what I saw.  A few minor things I picked up. 

Trubisky has a tendency to throw off his back foot, similar to what Cutler would do.  In fact one time he threw the ball and not only did he throw as he was falling back but immediately as he was throwing the ball turned his back on the receiver (ala Grossman).  I think the intended receiver was Sims along the sideline.  The defender missed the potential interception and the ball ended up bouncing off of Sims chest (don't think he expected it was going to make it to him).  Nevertheless, this type play from Trubisky needs to go away. He had a lot more confident and sure passes that I don't think this will be a problem. 

Loved to see Robinson make the catches in the first half.  He looked great and reminded me a lot of BM who was great not only at getting contested throws but also reaching up and grabbing them out of the air. 

Like everyone else has pointed out, Mack looked like he is worth all the money and draft picks they gave up. And to think, this was after he sat out nearly all of preseason.  His very presence on the field made everyone else (at least the front seven) a heck of a lot better. Our defense is going to be special sooner than later...especially once we get all the pieces figured out and they all get more conditioning.  (Side note:  A concern going into the end of this year is if the D once again ends up being in the top 5, how many more times will Vic not get chosen to be an HC somewhere?).

I get a lot of the folks being upset with the result from last night.  And I'm usually one of the first to nay say some of the choices made by players and coaches, especially if they are what I see as contrarian. But I still believe in Nagy's ability. And I definitely believe in VIc's ability.  I don't see a downward trend at all, in fact if it had not been for the lucky star that Rogers appears to have been born under, last night's game probably would've turned out a lot different.    

[adam]

I do agree that the holding was crazy. They literally allowed GB's O-Line to hold on every play in the entire 4th quarter where there were blatant holds.

Also, we really got shafted on that one spot in the first half, somehow all of GB's spots took forward progress into account, but not ours. They marked Howard a half of a yard short and he clearly passed the marker. I was actually surprised Nagy didn't challenge that.

Lastly, we had a ton of momentum as we moved the ball down the field and then with GB on their heels, we had to burn timeouts. That can't happen, we need to be able to operate in a 2-min no-huddle offense and keep the defenders on the field.

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

1 hour ago, jason said:

What I know is this: That's a game we should have won.

The Bears could have fixed a lot of things and solved their problems, but there is one problem that really bugged me. How in the world were the Bears collapsing the pocket every play in the first half, but suddenly they couldn't create pressure in the second half? I submit that a helluva lot more holding was going on, and not being called. On the TD the packers had to score 17, the RT 100% held and wasn't called. Later there was a play where Rogers rolled out and Mack had just beaten his man...but the guy reached out and grabbed a shoulder pad that yanked Mack back, as well as dislodge his jersey from the shoulder pad. Just enough of a hold, it had a material effect, and should have been called.

Glass half full here, but I loathe Green Bay and laughed when Rogers went down.

The answer to your main question is two items, imo. One, the Bears were flat out gassed and that was a combo of it being 1st game of the season (you can't replace full game repetition via practice) combined with the TOP battle (Packers kept Bears D on the field a lot in the 2nd half...with only exception being the two field goal drives the Bears had).  Additionally, the Packers adjusted and threw a lot more quick passes. 

Bears needed to do more and I think in the future their D will be there. Offensively, I expect them to have struggles early in the season and just hope we see flashes (which we saw at times) and as the season goes more consistency and overall explosiveness.  

[Uncle Buck]

Mike McCarthy gets the benefit of every call like I’ve never seen before. I’m still stoked about this team and the look of terror and fear on Rodgers’ face in the first half was priceless. He was scared. 

[DrunkBomber]

There were a few things in this game that stood out to me.

First, as everyone noticed, Mack may be even a bigger difference maker than we would have hopes.  Even on plays he didn't record a stat, his impact was all over the field.  Roquan's sack was because of Mack, a bunch of hurried throws because of Mack pushing the OL into the backfield and last his hustle on the long Cobb touchdown.  Didn't really see anything at all I could complain about with him.

Roquan looks fast and can cover a lot of ground sideline to sideline.  We need him on the field more and he should help in pretty much every facet of our defense over Nick K.

Hicks is still an absolute monster.

Honestly didn't know anything about Robertson-Harris before the game, but he looked explosive coming off the line.  If he can continue to play like that we may have another strong core piece for the defense.

Callahan's tackling really impressed me.  He seems to be able to really help with the run game.

For offense, besides the first drive I wasn't impressed.  The second half was a disaster and Mitch looked in way over his head.  He went a decent stretch where he didn't even run through his progressions and just took off running every passing play.  Then in the 4th when he threw a few deep balls they were terribly thrown.  We need to see a lot of improvements out of him.

 

It was at Green Bay in primetime, so not the end of the world, but I think allowing the comeback to happen the way it did proves Nagy has a lot of work to do with figuring out how to call games.