Gut Reactions: Week 11
By Aaron Nagler on Nov 18, 2012 with 62 Comments
- Tough win. Gut check win. Love it.
- We may have seen Mason Crosby’s last game as a Packer.
- I’m not surprised at how much Mike leaned on the running game today, but it makes sense. He did the same thing against the Giants in New York last year. The offensive line often struggles in Detroit even when at full strength, and with EDS at guard and Lang out at tackle,it’s smart to keep grinding. You saw when they went to a five man protection, they were overwhelmed more often than not.
- Randall Cobb is James Bond. I don’t know how this works. Just go with it.
- Nice game from Dezman Moses.
- How about Jermichael Finley? He looks to be healthy and ready to contribute.
- The secondary looks much better when playing man. I understand why Capers has to rotate his coverages, but they almost to-a-man look better when being asked to face up and take a single player.
- Morgan Burnett has ghost-like hands.
- Right Place Right Time Award goes to MD Jennings. One hell of a runback from the good doctor…
- Rodgers was patient today for the most part. The interception looked like a predetermined throw, the same kind he threw to Chase Blackburn against the Giants last year.
- Brad Jones can probably expect an envelope from the league – which is absurd.
- That TD to Finley is a play I use on Madden. Fake the screen one way, drag a receiver the other as the linebackers key on the back. Love it.
- You are not allowed to use that information if we ever play each other online.
- It doesn’t get any easier against the Giants next week, who haven’t been playing well. Of course, coming out of the bye week they may have figured some things out. I’m going to be at MetLife for the game as I’m sure most of our New York-based Packers fan brethren (and, um, sisteren?) will be. I’m sure there will be some kind of tailgate going on. Hope you can stop by.
Filed Under: Featured • Gut Reactions
Can someone tell me what happened to the quick slant, or even the occasional backside slant??
It’s in a vortex somewhere with decently performed screens. And the WCO generally.
I don’t get why they’re so bad at screens. True, Rodgers’ “touch” ball isn’t his forte, but everybody is putrid at doing it. And the linemen are supposed to be athletic…
Agree. The slant, crossing pattern, down the middle of the field (especially today). Feels like they are over-using Cobb. How did Jordy and Jones and the tight ends disappear today (nice catch and TD for Finley). I just don’t get the play calling. With 1:09 left in the first half and two timeouts they only run two plays and then miss two field goals. I just don’t get it and it’s frustrating to watch.
-FINLEY: Amazing things happen when you hang onto the ball.
-DBs: We need to be making those INTs. We got a couple, but there are many more that we leave on the field. That said, these young players are future stars.
-MOSES: Could be a future star.
-CROSBY: They’ve been messing with his head since Family Night. Making him kick all those 60 yarders. I don’t see him getting cut either.
-COBB: Does it all.
-STARKS: Thought he ran hard today, but it’s not reflected in his stats.
-DEFENSE: Without Woody, Clay, Bishhop, Smith or Perry, they still went out there today and got it done.
Agree all around with your points. I think Crosby is – for better or worse – our kicker for the duration of this season. However, Dustin Hopkins in the upcoming draft? Anyone?
+1000 on Starks. The dude just ran tough. There was one run in particular when he had to take on Nick Fairely 1-on-1 and he won the battle and got positive yardage out of it. It goes down as 1 yard on the stat sheet, but those are the kind of punishing runs that can wear out a defensive front.
Am I the only one who thought Moses had a pretty mediocre performance? Don’t get me wrong, for an undrafted rookie he looked very competent, but I didn’t see very much pressure coming from him at all on passing downs (which is his speciality).
I saw him getting pressure on 5 plays. 2 he was held on, another he forced Stafford to move forward, He had the sack and there was another play. that is what i saw.
That forced fumble was pretty ridiculous, not to mention that, if he doesn’t make that play, Stafford runs for about 20+ yards.
Any chance the Packers can draft a Guard from Idaho in the 4th round of next year’s draft to do the place kicking duties? Just a thought.
Jerry Kramer likes this.
Call me crazy but I think this was the critical win of the season.
Mike Neal must be praised kudos to him for Overcoming everything.
Props to Hayward.
Props to house.
Props to Starks.
Props to Cobb.
Props to arodge.
Props tO finley.
Props to brad jones.
Props to Matt stafford.
Yeah, if Stafford wasn’t wildly inaccurate half the time and/or his receivers didn’t drop the ball, that could have been a very different game.
I agree with your list except Brad Jones. He had a couple bad penalties to go with a couple nice plays.
A win is a win, and a nice reality check going into NYG.
Also, WTF is with Titus Young Sr and Mikel Leshoure Sr? How egotistical are you to acknowledge you named your son after you on the back of your jersey?
Well so much for Alex Green….
Who? Do you mean Ahman?
/kidding
To go into Detroit with second strings and did what we did we did damn good Aaron stop falling to your right when there is pressure on the right come on brother
How about some love for McCarthy’s movember stache?
I vote for that going in the ugly. But I suspect that Crosby gets that.
I loved it. It looked like he only grew it out for a few days. He used to sport a nice one back when he was QB coaching for the Pack.
http://blogimages.thescore.com.....carthy.jpg
Charles who?
Ugliest Packer win in a looong time. But what a crucial win. Bears with a tough one on Monday night with Campbell under center. From the Packers’ perspective, heading into NY 7-3 vs 6-4 is huge. If they’d gone in 6-4 and lost, all the sudden we’re 6-5 with momentum slipping.
Other thoughts…
James Starks ran tough today, but man oh man is he slow.
Good for Finley.
My favorite moment today was Greg Jennings fake punching Crosby late in the game after several critical misses. Great teammate, great attitude. Support each other no matter what. Love to see that. Way to go, 85.
Randall Cobb is going to be a legend in Green Bay.
This team is telegraphing many of its run plays. It needs to stop.
Lies. Ugliest win was @Seattle. So Ugly the NFL gave them a loss.
I really enjoyed when Joe Buck said Jennings was trying to get a Dougie Smile out of Crosby.
This represents the sole time I have enjoyed anything Joe Buck said.
/There’s the big Mason smile!
Lang and Dietrich-Smith were abysmal. Hope they get better the more they play. Saturday is abysmal. Hey ward,, House, and Moses are really playing well for 1st year players. Zombo looked very rusty. Starks ran hard and still averaged < 3 ypc. Hope to see a new Center in 13'.
And Sitton.
Newhouse with a + performance…the only one of the bunch.
Just remember – Bulaga had his worst game of the year last year in Detroit. It’s an incredibly tough place to play for a visiting tackle, esp for someone like Lang who is better suited to guard.
As for EDS – Fairley has been making everyone he faces look bad for the last month or so. That said, he looked slow and was just physically overmatched a bunch.
How’s Datko doing in practice? Any chance we might see him? Maybe worth a shot.
Not a chance, his arms are too short.
Fairley quietly way more dominant than his much-hyped linemate, Suh.
He just walked EDS back hard several times.
Loved the sweep with Cobb running it!
Can someone explain why Crabtree got a false start on that 58 yard field goal attempt?
I really can’t. Perhaps on FG attempts anybody but the kicker and holder can’t move pre-snap unless there is a complete shift. The only other reason I can think of is what Aikman and Buck thought in the booth – Crabtree was moving when Masthay waved his hand for the snap. But they were befuddled as well…
Pereira said on Twitter that motion has to be ‘smooth and continuous’ or something like that. Basically, Crabtree was penalized for moving too quickly/abruptly. Sounds crazy to me but whatever.
‘smooth and continuous’
That’s not subjective at all…
Does anyone really think a snap was ever planned?
Rule book calls for no “abrupt” motions.
I thought it was hilarious when Greg Jennings was hitting Crosby on the sidelines playing around.
Also thought it was great to see one of the first packers down to congratulate Cobb on his TD was Woodson
All the young guys in the secondary; all you can say is that TT knows how to pick em. The draftnicks have been obsessing for years about the Packers using a 1st rounder to replace Woodson. No need. The future is on the roster, and then some.
I’d like to believe Crosby will get this worked out. At least he gives a $#it and you don’t hear his mouth running. Speaking of which, thanks for showing up today JerMike. You made some plays. Please make some more.
If EDS is really the center of the future, it would be nice to see some improvement by next week.
J-Mike probably should have been able to make a few more today – he was wide open a couple times and on the Fairley sack at the end of the 1st half that set up the first (first & second…) Crosby miss, Finley had gotten behind the LB covering him and was splitting the safeties. Aaron should have put the ball up aimed at the goal post, where it would have been a catch or uncatchable. But I agree – nice to see a wide array of guys step up and make plays!
TT has drafted astutely in the secondary – HAYward (spell his name correctly people), House, McMillian, Burnett – and his UDFA signings have been impressive as well – Shields, Williams, Jennings.
The o-line as a whole was shoddy this week – we’ll see if they wake up to play next week.
Pat Lee… Don’t forget Pat Lee.
One more thing…man oh man do I hate this Lions team. What a bunch of cheap shot losers. And it starts at the top with their loser coach.
Vandendouche is worthless other than being a jackbag.
I was very pleased with Aikman calling his attempted flop after trying to push EDS over the pile on that one play
I’d put him in Green and Gold in a heartbeat if we still ran a 4-3 base d.
In the thread this morning I said Dez needed to make plays. Um yeah…..calllled it! Happy to witness his first sack ever and it was against a division rival and even forced a fumble. Loved it! Go 54!
When Clay comes back, I hope to see Moses in the rotation ahead of Zombo and maybe ahead of Walden as a pass rusher. Really, really impressive game today.
Zombo is an edge setter, Moses is apples to oranges.
Moses ahead of Walden is not advisable. Eric Walden in the best pure pass rusher on the Packers who isn’t named Clay Matthews III.
And oh yeah. Hayward ur a freak! 5 in ten games..amazing plays rook!
Perhaps all Finley needed was some confidence….can you imagine this offense with Finley coming on and Jennings coming back? Scary…
Aaron, I’m curious about your Crosby comment. Doesn’t it seem very un-TT- and un-MM-like to cut him mid-season? Do you know something we don’t?
No inside info. And actually, McCarthy indicated in his post game presser that they are planning on going ahead with Crosby.
Really just a comment on my part about how bad his slump is.
(1) Aaron Rodgers. Shaking off a crappy game and just putting up a classic 4th Q game-winning drive. Eat it, Skippy.
(2) I love these young CBs. Green Bay is stacked at that position suddenly.
Yep and yep.
I’ve never had a more difficult time following a GREEN BAY PACKER game, seriously, never… Totes worth it!
NAGLER!
I am challenging you to one game of Madden. You choose the year, I’m covered back to 97 on PS systems. Lemme know.
GBP 4 LIFE
Yer yeller.
I’d crush anybody that wants to ball in madden! Traded AR in 2014 for a hyped up qb that seemed rg3ish. Get him on the field and……he’s a lefty..I hate playin with a lefty!
Best thing about this game is the defense looks much better than last year. They won this game. I thought Pickett played well again. Unsung hero. The secondary looks so much more athletic but would like to see Burnett makes the plays when they come his way.
Strange as this may sound, it appeared to me Crosby’s kicks looked better to me than more recent games. He just aimed poorly, but the ball flight wasn’t as knuckly as before.
Another unsung hero: the Ginger Wolverine. Great punt placement.
Cobb is so good the great performances are now the norm for him.
I expect ARod to look more to Finley. We’ll need a good game from him to beat the Giants.
Agree on the pickett comment i thought he had a good game. And it was hillarious to watch him run after stafford. And he even got some good push.
Yes. It is so good to know that the defense, even without Clay Matthews, can win a game.
I liked how Greg Jennings was trying to help Crosby by giving him some friendly jabs to take his mind off a historically bad day. Crosby looked down (understandably) and GJ picked him up before that last fg. That last fg was huge to ice the game.