"Last year 4 games against weak or crippled offenses was leapt on by many to excuse the continuity of Gary bit seemingly of all aspects of LaFleur."
What are you trying to say here?

Excellent post Coldworld! The Packers still have a long way to go in their journey of development. Progress has been made but at what rate will it continue from week to week?

The upcoming Chiefs game present the biggest challenge of the season. Following this week the Packers return to facing 5 teams which are similar to the Packers in their varying degrees of development or decline in the case of the Vikings. As I posted earlier the season the Packers 2023 schedule has been filled with teams still finding their way. The last 5 games will tell us how far the Packers have come on their journey.

OL should have been and still should be, left to right, Nijman, Jenkins, Tom, Rhyan, Walker. The receiving corps has improved but still has work to do. Due to the OL the run game has been mediocre for most of the season. Fortunately Love's shown good growth, particularly over the last 4 games.

Thanks to our pass rush the defense has held it together for most of the season but the run defense and overall tackling continue to be liabilities for the defense. The defense still has problems getting off the field on 3rd down.

We'll see if the Packers have improved enough to win over their last 5 games or if our opponents enable the Packers to victory by playing worse than the Packers as happened in the Packers win versus the Chargers.

One game at a time. For this week the Chiefs will provide an excellent measuring stick for where the Packers stand against one of the best teams in the league. Go Pack Go! Thanks, Since '61

"To add insult to injury, the next best, on minimal snaps was Rhyan."

I saw all his snaps at RG. I don't know how he isn't starting. I really don't get it.
The other thing I noticed when Rhyan was in there, Myers looked better.

I want to see Rhyan get a full game starting at RG. I want to see what kind of effect that has on Myers. They are not moving Tom anywhere this year. Maybe in the offseason they will make the move. But it won't be now unless they absolutely have to.

The OL is improving! Jenkins is Jenkins!
Myers has been praised, and has played
Perfectly during these wins.
If he reaches All-Pro status;
it will be judged against KC NT Jones.
RG has improved with competition.
Runyon has always played better on the Left.
And Tom is going to play good, wherever
He may end up.
Your only bitch is whats happened at LT.

D- Point to Goff all you want.
But Detroits D, as well as others lately,
couldn’t stop Love from improving.

On O - Jones is the run game.
The speed to strength must change.
Dillion still is too slow, and no threat.

We knew this year was going to be a Trial.
We are in contention because Nobody tanked.

Is it really Mlf grasping the that playing aggressively early and not conservatively is the best chance. You act like he’s some idiot or doesn’t know what he’s doing. Might it just be that the OL isn’t false starting and holding as much, which keeps this young team in reasonable down and distance where you can call a more aggressive game? There’s not a lot of aggressive play calling that works when you have 20 yards to go. In addition, it also helps to get ahead when the pass catchers are actually catching the ball and running mostly the right routes. Once again, if they don’t catch the ball and you are in 3rd and long, it’s hard to play aggressively. Mlf playing calling isn’t much different, you just seem to want to take him down any chance you can get by using a narrative that just isn’t true.

Also, you mentioned the 2nd half’s being good, maybe Mlf deserves a compliment in half time adjustments. Let’s keep in mind that with mostly rookies still learning as they go, the play calling needs to be a bit vanilla at times. Putting too much on these young players could ruin their confidence. Just another looking into some of us who feel he’s doing a very good job. IE: the youngest team in the playoff hunt.

Half the NFC is still in the playoff hunt. The cream is in the AFC. I frequently think about where this team would be if the Packers had a creative, aggressive, talent evaluator for a DC. A coach who knows the key strengths of his players and employs them differently against different opponents based on a unique Battle Plan.

If you were to make a list of the top 25 DC coordinators in the NFL, the Packers would not be represented in the tally.

Gosh, do you have a background coaching football? Do you sit in on the practice sessions? What is it that makes you think you know what the offensive line make-up should be as a fan that sees only games, knows nothing of the true injury issues that are plaguing starters throughout a 17 game season? Unless you know the actual responsibility of each line guy on each play or stunt, you can't really know for sure who is failing.

I don't think the Packers even draft for the run game, probably on either side of the ball. They seem to prefer having offensive line players that can pass protect, and do just enough in the run game to try to keep a defense honest. With a QB like Rodgers that made some sense, and they must be expecting Love to carry the offensive load as well, with minimal success in the run game. Though honestly, this would have all looked different with a healthy Aaron Jones for the season.

I agree there were a lot of encouraging moments. But those turnovers didn't come from the Lions fumbling of their own accord. That was the defense, forcing fumbles and hurrying Goff all day. All the negative naysayers here seem to think that was luck. No, that was the defense doing a good job. Why can't fans admit that?

I'm convinced that some fans have such negative filters over their eyes that it doesn't matter what happens in the games. They will only see what GB did wrong. And there is a clear lack of perspective if fans are holding this team to the standard of the best teams in the league. It was never about that this year. They were never going to compete with the top teams, given the youth and inexperience of the roster, and the sheer lack of talent at some positions, due to having no salary cap room to bring in better players.

But to beat the Division leaders, not at Lambeau, down 8 preferred starters and on a short week? There's nothing about mid-season that suggests GB would have won 2 games in a row 4 days apart. That shows the team hasn't given up and they still believe in the system, the HC, and the new QB.

A few weeks back, fans were saying Christian Watson was trash, and then he scores twice in 5 days and comes very close to hitting triple digits. Another site had an article about Romeo Doubs being the worse WR in the league via stats, but with his 7 TDs, he has more than twice the scores of any of the top WRs picked above him, like London, Wilson, Dotson, Burks.

Some folks just seem to need to point out what isn't working, every step of the way, particularly when anything positive or semi-positive is written about the team. All this article really said is that the team is evolving and improving, but it's been a roller coaster, and there are alot of question marks still.

It doesn't matter that we won because we had a poor defense.
It doesn't matter that we won, because of the turnovers.
It doesn't matter that we won because the line can't run block
It doesn't matter that we won because Ballentine gave up 170 yards
It doesn't matter that we won because DET is not playing well.
It doesn't matter than we won and are in contention; it's that our division is so bad.

Well, GB lost to some awful teams earlier this year (though to be fair, DEN doesn't look as bad now) but they beat the Lions, who had one of their best W-L records in decades. I think it does matter.

"Other than individual performances, maybe the best thing coming out of that would be LaFleur grasping the fact that playing aggressively early not conservatively is the best chance we have. Something the second halves all season have suggested. "

And God do I hope that continues. Coaching progress. We need to be up a couple of tds late for me to ever relax in a game.

Baby steps for sure. If we can build a foundation this season then we have succeeded. Lot of young guys and some medium talent learning to play together would be quite the achievement. Still need some O-Line, RB, D-line and safety talent to continue the rebuild.

A Primetime Game will bring out the best in Mahomes and Andy Reid will want to tune his team for the the big push. LaFleur will have to prove he can keep pace and stay aggressive.

The improvement in Love is fundamental to this team competing these last weeks. I am totally impressed with his poise and decision making. He is learning his WRs, the system and starting to play at NFL speed. I don't know how we could have asked for more.

You are also on point with the O-line. I am disappointed that Love had to start his career behind this cobbled group and with little run support. At least the line is young and by playing together we are seeing some cohesion starting to happen. Gotta hope that this keeps up.

Ha, ha

It's fun reading peoples' comments as they try to rationalize their hawt takes from a few weeks ago.

I wonder how many millions of dollars a year the author is paid to put out this drivel - still gets paid though, win - lose or tie !

IT's hard to say, isn't it? Every article is by far the worst article in the history of written communication. The facts are wrong, the observations ridiculous, the subjective judgments are baseless. Fire everybody!

We will not know just how good the Defense can be until Barry is gone.

The O is ascending while the D players are trying heroically to make Barry Ball complimentary. It has never been complimentary in almost 7 years trying.

Barry was brought in to play with a lead, not to dominate with 8 first round draft choices. With Rodgers the O was going to score at will and Barry's job was to maintain the lead.

Now, with a young developing O, his defenses will continue to get "ground pounded" with first down after first down while Joe hopes for a TO while continued loss of field position and giving up scores when it is most damaging. It is a defense that loses more games than it wins.

Always has been.

Nice article, but? But they have a long road to go?

That's the whole freaking point of this article. As the title suggests. Why point that out? Everytime there is a suggestion there was some improvement by this team, a number of folks have to point out that they are not where they need to be. Well, isn't that beyond obvious? That with the youngest roster in the league, a new QB named starter, injuries to most of the highest paid players on the team, and down 8 starters against DET?

Some players are NEVER going to match the standard set by the top players in the league. Not every player is blessed with the same talent level, so if that's the expectation, you might want to think about dialing that back a bit. GB has some talent, but nowhere near the talent of most of the top teams in the league. That's due to youth and years of drafting low-ish due to having a Hall of Fame QB. GB needs some top talent, a ton of mid-level players, good coaching to bring out the best, and some roster depth.

The number of first and second day draft picks next spring will help, but this team was never going to dominant this year, and probably not for a couple of seasons at least.

Holmgren always wanted the ball and ran his script down the field to Score First. Getting the ball in Qtr III doesn't help if you are down 2-3 scores.