Packers: 23 Bears: 10
By Aaron Nagler on Sep 14, 2012 with 73 Comments
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Clay Matthews, Tramon Williams, Charles Woodson |
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Jermichael Finley, James Jones, Jordy Nelson |
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D.J. Smith in coverage |
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Filed Under: Featured • Go Pack Go • Good Bad Ugly
Ugly isn’t Cutler? DJ Smith in coverage should be bad instead of Jordy, who still led the team in receiving and was the only guy getting open consistently, and Cutler should be the lone ugly guy. His performance last night was nothing short of catastrophically bad, from throwing away a close game to losing even more of the respect of his teammates.
i agree. cutler and the bares O-line should be in the ugly category.
Thirded, to a degree. DJ Smith is a coverage mismatch on both Kellen Davis (for height) and Forte (for awesome), but it’s hardly the man’s fault he’s not 6’4″ or as good as one of the league’s best receiving backs.
Bears offensive line can’t pass-protect – still. That was the true Ugly. I actually felt sorry for Jay Cutler last night; if he had a decent offensive line, he’d be a monster and they’d be really competitive.
Don’t ever feel sorry for Jay Cutler. Ever.
+1. Never ever.
“He’d be a monster…” No, he wouldn’t. He is what he is. He’s older than Rodgers and isn’t going to suddenly have a light bulb come on. It’s like Woodson said, at the end of the day, he’s still the “same old Jay.”
Yeah, for as good a stretch as he had last year before the injury, and all of that under Mike Martz and constant duress, what he did this past game shows that he hasn’t reached the level of maturity needed of a franchise QB, and, in his case, he probably is set in his ways.
I thought the refs were truly ugly once again.
Never saw so many obvious uncalled holding penalties in my life.
Can’t disagree with any of the good, but AJ Hawk be ballin’, yo.
So true.
I don’t know what AJ has been doing differently, but he looks more like the guy Packers fans thought they were getting, than the guy we’ve been stuck with for the last 7 years.
I had read a past coach of Hawk’s thought he was playing too heavy, and I have read that AJ cut weight this year. Could it really be that simple??
Weight and hair Oppster. Those are the only two logical explanations.
Perhaps he lost just enough weight from cutting the hair? :O If so imagine Clay with a buzz!!! (assuming his hair doesn’t give him his superhuman powers)
It doesn’t.
Why was DJ Smith in the bad? For not being able to cover Matt Forte and a phantom PI call on Kellen Davis?
Most LB’s in the league can’t cover Forte.
I’m so ridiculously happy with the D right now. Awesome.
The more I watch Finley the more I think this guy is as good as he will get. He is so up in his head that he screws himself up before the world can do anything to him. The best thing that could happen would be for him to stop caring so much. Stop trying to be the “best”. The Packers should de-emphasize him and then we he least expects it start giving him more.
He’s still really immature. People grow up.
He’s 25 and he’s in his 5th year as a pro. I was with that immaturity thing two years ago. It’s about worn out.
I’m with ya
was it early in the 2nd, when the pass to James Jones lost 5 yards?
that kind of stuff looks worse than his drops.
You mean looks bad for Finley, not Jones, right? Because that busted screen was all Finley. He completely whiffed on his block.
To be fair, Nelson did virtually the same on a Finley catch later in the game…and dropped two big passes.
People grow in different rates.
Actually, it’s his position coach’s job to put it in his head. Not an easy job, for sure, but it’s just too much talent.
If he was a cancer in the locker room then it would be a different issue but that’s not the case.
I do agree that he’s too inconsistent to be the center of the gameplan, and if he keeps making dumb mistakes Williams will take his job.
Nothing like competition to force someone to grow up.
What’s almost more concerning to me than the fumble, or even the drops, is that he was going against a gimpy Urlacher last night and still couldn’t really get open. For us to beat these cover-2 defenses that have been giving us fits, we need him to work the middle of the field. I would have thought that it would have been there for the taking last night. But really, I don’t know nothin about nothin.
worried about finley in week 2…. i guess things are back to ok in packer land……
Actually this is about week 20 of my concern around Finley. I just can’t get the 2009 AZ playoff game out of my head, where Finley completely dominated and the opposing defense simply had no answer for him. We all know he’s got it in him.
That’s the response I expected from Capers. Simplify and play to the strenghts. Lots of cover 2 man, and it worked beautifully.
Still very worried about the O. Rodgers played a very good game and still only 1 offensive TD. The OL has been really bad, the playcalling has completely neglected that fact but for a few drives, and the drops are killing it.
Slocum should be on the good. Yep. Mark this date folks. This is the day Slocum won us a game instead of costing us one.
And Matthews on roids rumors to start coming soon. But it wasn’t just him, true, the Bears OL is possibly the worst in the league, but I saw Perry flat out beat Carimi on the edge 3 times, and Raji played back to his end 2010 form.
BTW, thank you Cutler. Thank you.
You’re “very” worried about the offense?
After a dominating playoff and Super Bowl run followed by an equally dominating regular season, the team plays against three good/very good defenses (Giants, 49ers, Bears) and Rodgers fails to put up 3-4 TDs in these games, and you’re “very worried”?
Sounds to me that we’ve gotten a little too used to such high production. It’s OK if Rodgers doesn’t throw 45 TDs this year. I’d rather have a complete team victory than a one sided affair.
I know it’s still early, but doesn’t this squad remind you a little more of the 2010 team than last season’s team? Isn’t that a good thing?
Not to mention they played yesterday without their #1 WR and with a RB still learning the playbook. I’m not worried about the offense. At all.
I really am. Now there’s enough time to correct it, but I got really worried about the OL’s performance and the inability of McCarthy to cater the playcalling to this.
I don’t think comparing it to 2010 or to 2011 is any good, because it’s a very different team, quite frankly.
I still believe it has the potential to be better than both, but seeing McCarthy and Rodgers insist on working the mid-to-deep level of the field when the situation calls for more checkdown options, when they’ve shown the same tendencies throughout their tenure together is worrisome, at least to me.
But, yes, it has to do with their potential. And I do have faith it will be corrected, it just grinds my gears because it’s a repeated mistake that has costed them before.
Seeing Benson out there, though, warms my heart. He’s on a different level than anything we’ve had, and he’ll get even better with more familiarity with the scheme. And it was nice seeing McCarthy adjust to what Benson has been good at, instead of rushing out of the shotgun.
And seeing Cobb carrying the ball was nice too. Too bad he got hurt the same play, which I believed prevented him from being used more.
“Good” doesn’t really do Clay’s performance justice. I think we need a new category to truly capture that level of utter and complete dominance.
The Game Claymaker
“Simplify and play to the strengths.”
I expected that response after week 9 last season when Rivers touched them for 400 yards.
Except that last season Capers tried it.
Neither Tramon Williams (injuried) nor Sam Shields (terrible) could play press coverage.
The front 4 couldn’t get pressure by themselves.
It was a case of short blanket. Not anymore. 11 sacks in 2 games shows it’s at least not the same front 4.
Hawk had another fine game. I only saw one time where he missed a tackle, and that was when he had, suprisingly, sliced into the backfield and got to the ball carrier.
Raji looked great as well. He had a strong push multiple times.
And I’ll say this: our defense has/will thrive on athletic plays. Getting Shields/Walden back certainly gave our D a lift. And it was nice to see McMillian playing as well. He’s talented.
No props to DD, knew he would have an impact with Jennings out. Let me go on to say The Pack overall were a vast improvement in comparison to the Niners game. What a great Friday, GO PACK!!!
Id add our entire D Line to the good. I mean Daniels and Worthy both got their first sacks ever how awesome is that. Worthy fits percectly beside bj i love it!
I don’t think Rodgers trusts his O line right now, especially Newhouse, and you can see it in his play. I think this is why he’s just a little bit “off.”
And I think at least some portion of the O line should be in the “bad.”
After all the fakes I have seen the Bears run on the Packers in the last 30 years, MAN was that fake FG sweet. Up to that point in the game, it was the best executed play of the night.
The fake FG might be the most well-executed play I’ve seen the Packers put on film in the last decade….and I’m not exaggerating.
I was actually struck with awe at how picture-perfect it looked as it was unfolding in real-time before my eyes. I was speechless, it didn’t look real- it was like a ‘how-to’ training video or something.
Anyone else have that sensation?
The fake worked on me! I thought they’d botched the field goal attempt for a moment before I realized what they were really doing. Absolutely loved the shovel pass! What an awesome, perfectly executed play!
I think so…maybe I need to look at
it again…
http://aol.sportingnews.com/nf.....d=webmail6
…and again…
http://aol.sportingnews.com/nf.....d=webmail6
…and again…
http://aol.sportingnews.com/nf.....d=webmail6
Hell yes! At first I thought – shit, botched snap – it took a second for the gritty, gutty, awesomeness of that play to sink in. She was a BEAUT!
I mentioned this is the other thread, but I wonder if Rodgers was “off” because his hand/arm were bothering him.
they should have fake the extra point too…why not…playing on house money!
What impressed me most on the fake field-goal was the blocking. If one Bear player was not squeezed off or ridden out of the play, it doesn’t work. Really nice lane for Crab’s to run through.
The BALLS! The BALLS to go for that. It wasn’t 4th and 2 we’re talking about, it was a 26-27 yard TD scamper or nothing. Just so awesomely BALLSY!
More impressive than Cedric Benson’s performance…
Is Mike McCarthy committing to the run game, or, more accurately, committing to a running back.
When is the last time you can recall MM putting the rock in a single RB’s hands twenty times in a game?
Under MM, Packers have roughly averaged a total of around 10-13 touches for any given back during the course of a game (This is not scientific data- just my off the cuff observation).
Here’s to MM feeding a guy the ball for 60 minutes. GO PACK.
Truth be told, no RB has actually merited more than that…
RS,
I would also say that it is often difficult for a RB to get enough of a feel for the game to average 4 YPC on only 10 attempts.
A lot of RBs need touches to get in sync and make plays happen.
Yes, but when the choice is to either take that time to try and start a running game or let Rodgers get in sync…
Great game.
The Defense stepped up immensely. The Running game showed life. Benson is such a good addition.
I am a bit concerned with the Offense as a whole though. Rodgers just isn’t hitting his receivers, like he did the 2 previous years. He doesn’t seem to trust his guys completey right now. Its early and i think he can correct that. But if this continues the offense won’t be as good as it has in the past.
To me the good is the entire defense and special teams anc coaching. The bad is Finley, Jones.
The ugly is the Bears Offense. for being such a ‘high powered’ offense they looked dreadfull.
On a side note. Why wasn’t Jeron McMillan playing against the 49ers. Is he not our 2nd best safety. He is always around the ball and should have had 2 interceptions. The more i see this kid play the more i like.
With you on McMillian. I don’t think the Dr. Will be seeing anymore playing time barring injury to Jeron.
I’d put Masthay in the “good” (probably have to remove Woodson from the trio) because not only did Masthay punt great, but he had a TD-saving tackle of Hester and executed the fake toss perfectly.
Jay Cutler: 28.24 passer rating
Tim Masthay: 158.3 passer rating
Can you say quarterback controversy?
What did Rodgers end up with? Guessing low 90′s?
85.28.
He played better than that IMO, but far from his 2011 form.
Some drops where catchable balls that had the right location, but last year he was putting in the basket every single time anywhere on the field.
Also, for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.nfl.com/videos/gree.....erceptions
Thank you sir!
Masthay, the newest system qb for the gbp!
Unless I’m thinking of a different play, I think that was Crosby who tackled Hester (Hester’s one decent return was on a kickoff).
Crosby.
Will Mac be our steal of the draft? Or will moses be our undrafted sensation??
Can’t it be both?
What about randall cobb in the good?! Cobb is seriously impressing me more and more as each game goes on. I feel like aaron can count on him to help him get the rhythm in the passing game going again..I’m super excited about how the coaches are using him this year
He started off hot (my fantasy team was happy) then totally disappeared in the second half. Not sure why.
It can n will be both..
This may be the worst “Ugly” Nagler has ever done.
Cutler > Rodgers…Bears O-Line sucks…or Cutler would have carved up the Pack…
How come your gay Jesus Rodgers never makes “the Ugly”?
He was truly ugly the other day…
You really are a weiner of a person 66. And unfortunately, as our resident troll, you are destined to be unhappy more often than not. You see, teams with franchise level QB’s win more than 60% of their games on average. And GB has certainly been higher than that since 1992.
Methinks that trend continues.
ps – have you visited the dongslinger on his lawn tractor in Mississippi yet? Maybe you should try sending him a pic of your exceptionally small junk? It might garner you an invite…
This is great guys. Instead of creating an article for it, do the comic relief as a post from a viewer. Brilliant!
JJ, you need to swing by more often. It makes me appreciate my life all the more. Give your mom a smooch for me big guy.
“Cutler > Rodgers”
Too easy.
The Bad should be Marshall Newhouse with his feet stuck in cement, also I like what I saw from McMillian and even Casey Hayward got some snaps….Nick Perry was a ghost once again(he is not a OLB), guy needs to play as a down lineman in the nickel with Worthy/Daniels.