Win over Packers Does Have Meaning

[Noots]

I think there IS meaning that can be taken from this game. It was a meaningful game to GB, and it was still a day that saw the beloved sitting a bunch of hurt or out players and we still took it to them.

 

What meaning to take?

 

1. Lovie's defense is still best when its forcing turnovers, and that's an easy catch

 

2. Moose if finished. That ball hit him squarely in the hole of the top part of his 8 on his jersey.

 

3. Turner finally remembered what it means to dedicate the offense to running the ball 40 times. It wasn't pretty, but it was enough to get first downs, and to get the offensive line out of their funk. They weren't exactly stellar, but they played to a much higher level. Let's not forget, with a 40 mph wind, there wasn't much mystery about what we were gonna do, and we did it anyway. 3.1 ypc for the running game is a lot more palatable when you're limited to pretty much running all the time anyway.

 

4. The symbiotic relationship between offense, defense and special teams was never more present on Sunday, with the O holding the football and scoring, while the D was able to get on and off the field quickly and with that rest, they actually made plays, and the ST squad forced the issued by putting up points of their own, even without it being at the hands of Devin Hester.

 

5. Kyle Orton indeed deserved this longer look.

 

6. Alex Brown proved to us that he should still have been the starter

 

7. The Coaches need to reassess Alex Brown's situation as well as their defensive philosophy, as the increased ass girth that the new Toewiener guy provided arrived at exactly the same time that Urlacher's play suddenly went off the charts again. That big arse tackle's play has had a ripple effect on the rest of the defense.

 

8. All those guys out, and we still saw a win. That tells me a bunch about how this team SHOULD HAVE MADE THE PLAYOFFS this year. I put this on the coaches and JA more than the players.

 

9. GB has a smaller DL and we pounded them. It will be interesting to see if they can pull off the same against the Saints. I'm looking very closely at the play of our entire OL, and that includes the center, Olin Kreutz. I'm beginning to wonder if he no longer can get by on guile. Can somebody activate Beekman? I wanna know.

 

10. Jamar Williams played a bunch and made some impact plays at and behind the LOS. That's huge. Heck, even Hillenmeyer played well.

 

11. I dunno if McGowan is a starter for us next year, but he's making enough plays to deserve a shot and at the very least remain on our roster. He was given a pretty short leash this year, and there was a dipsy do that Peterson put on him in the hole in that first Viking game that was atrocious. All said, I think we're better with him in there than not. I dunno if I can say the same for Danieal Manning. Clueless play at safety is a recipe for jailbreaks/disaster.

[LT2_3]

I think there IS meaning that can be taken from this game. It was a meaningful game to GB, and it was still a day that saw the beloved sitting a bunch of hurt or out players and we still took it to them.

 

What meaning to take?

 

1. Lovie's defense is still best when its forcing turnovers, and that's an easy catch

 

2. Moose if finished. That ball hit him squarely in the hole of the top part of his 8 on his jersey.

 

3. Turner finally remembered what it means to dedicate the offense to running the ball 40 times. It wasn't pretty, but it was enough to get first downs, and to get the offensive line out of their funk. They weren't exactly stellar, but they played to a much higher level. Let's not forget, with a 40 mph wind, there wasn't much mystery about what we were gonna do, and we did it anyway. 3.1 ypc for the running game is a lot more palatable when you're limited to pretty much running all the time anyway.

 

4. The symbiotic relationship between offense, defense and special teams was never more present on Sunday, with the O holding the football and scoring, while the D was able to get on and off the field quickly and with that rest, they actually made plays, and the ST squad forced the issued by putting up points of their own, even without it being at the hands of Devin Hester.

 

5. Kyle Orton indeed deserved this longer look.

 

6. Alex Brown proved to us that he should still have been the starter

 

7. The Coaches need to reassess Alex Brown's situation as well as their defensive philosophy, as the increased ass girth that the new Toewiener guy provided arrived at exactly the same time that Urlacher's play suddenly went off the charts again. That big arse tackle's play has had a ripple effect on the rest of the defense.

 

8. All those guys out, and we still saw a win. That tells me a bunch about how this team SHOULD HAVE MADE THE PLAYOFFS this year. I put this on the coaches and JA more than the players.

 

9. GB has a smaller DL and we pounded them. It will be interesting to see if they can pull off the same against the Saints. I'm looking very closely at the play of our entire OL, and that includes the center, Olin Kreutz. I'm beginning to wonder if he no longer can get by on guile. Can somebody activate Beekman? I wanna know.

 

10. Jamar Williams played a bunch and made some impact plays at and behind the LOS. That's huge. Heck, even Hillenmeyer played well.

 

11. I dunno if McGowan is a starter for us next year, but he's making enough plays to deserve a shot and at the very least remain on our roster. He was given a pretty short leash this year, and there was a dipsy do that Peterson put on him in the hole in that first Viking game that was atrocious. All said, I think we're better with him in there than not. I dunno if I can say the same for Danieal Manning. Clueless play at safety is a recipe for jailbreaks/disaster.

 

Noots! Glad to see you have had time to catch your breath.

 

Good thoughts. The only question I have is if we've had any questions answered by Orton. The knock I always held against him is his apparent inability to place the ball in a receivers arms consistently when throwing over 15 yards downfield.

[Connorbear]

Noots - great to hear from you.

 

Couple of responses:

 

"2. Moose if finished. That ball hit him squarely in the hole of the top part of his 8 on his jersey."

 

Agreed. Unfortunately if we do not resign Berrian it could mean we have to keep Moose 1 more yr.

 

"7. The Coaches need to reassess Alex Brown's situation as well as their defensive philosophy, as the increased ass girth that the new Toewiener guy provided arrived at exactly the same time that Urlacher's play suddenly went off the charts again. That big arse tackle's play has had a ripple effect on the rest of the defense."

 

Got to agree. Keeping the blockers off of Url and all of a sudden he looks fantastic. I am hoping the coaching staff shows some flexibility and adjusts the scheme to the talent.

 

"10. Jamar Williams played a bunch and made some impact plays at and behind the LOS. That's huge. Heck, even Hillenmeyer played well."

 

Lovie said he only played 16 snaps on defense with 5 tackles and 1 defended pass - pretty damn good. Sit Briggs this week and play Williams again.

 

"11. I dunno if McGowan is a starter for us next year, but he's making enough plays to deserve a shot and at the very least remain on our roster."

 

McGowan will definately be back as a back up and a special teams standout with the opportunity to start. Pretty good for an undrafted FA.

 

Peace

[Felix]

1. Lovie's defense is still best when its forcing turnovers, and that's an easy catch

Every defense is better when it forces turnovers, I don't think that this time is anything special in this instance.

 

2. Moose if finished. That ball hit him squarely in the hole of the top part of his 8 on his jersey.

Definitely, but our WR corp is going to be pretty shot next year if we lose both Berrian and Moose. I don't believe in Hester as a WR, and without a true number one WR, we could have issues. However, if G-Reg develops as expected, he could lessen that loss.

 

3. Turner finally remembered what it means to dedicate the offense to running the ball 40 times. It wasn't pretty, but it was enough to get first downs, and to get the offensive line out of their funk. They weren't exactly stellar, but they played to a much higher level. Let's not forget, with a 40 mph wind, there wasn't much mystery about what we were gonna do, and we did it anyway. 3.1 ypc for the running game is a lot more palatable when you're limited to pretty much running all the time anyway.

This is probably a side effect of having Orton start, and its probably a positive. At it's roots, this team wins on ball control and defense. When Orton starts, it seems like they feel more pressured to run the ball more, which controls more of the clock, etc. etc. I just wish they'd do this when Grossman was under center, because it would then utilize his ability to throw the deep ball when the defense isn't expecting it, making it even more dangerous.

 

5. Kyle Orton indeed deserved this longer look.

He's doing a good job not losing the games, but I still think that Grossman is a better option just based off of his throwing ability. Orton is nice because he understands his job, which is to not turn the ball over, but I don't think he's capable of being the same type of threat that Grossman is. (I'm sure that people won't like my thoughts on this point, but whatever)

 

8. All those guys out, and we still saw a win. That tells me a bunch about how this team SHOULD HAVE MADE THE PLAYOFFS this year. I put this on the coaches and JA more than the players.

One game isn't enough to convince me of that. Any team that misses the playoffs can say that as long as they had one good game during the year, and it just sounds weak to me.

 

Not going to comment on the rest because I didn't get to actually watch the game, so I can't actually say what I thought about McGowan or Williams. It would be nice if they could both step up, especially Williams with the Briggs situation. I can't say I'm too optimistic about McGowan though.

[AZ54]

Regarding the defense; it seems we've finally learned that it's ok to scheme and take away something from the other team. Against Minn we stacked the box, 8 and 9 guys in there to shutdown the run and it worked. Against GB we played a little closer to the LOS with our DBs to take away the quick slants, we also dropped guys into coverage (Alex Brown) to further confuse Favre's reads.

 

With Babich on the hotseat is he finally learning to adapt instead of just sitting back and running the same basic system?

 

Against Minn it was nice to have Vasher back but he was out against GB and still we played well on D. OTOH we didn't have Briggs against GB and we still played well. We're also using DTs that came off the street. So the improvement can't be assigned to just having a starter back on the field.