So it seems the Patriots reacted to the prior day not just in terms of motivation but adaptation on both sides of the ball without expanding the playbook significantly, while we just turned up to do the same thing. Sounds like Bellicheck schooling LaFleur on how to learn from and teach and grow from practice to practice.

Saturday will be an interesting window on the coaching match up too.

[I don't know where Jordan was supposed to go with the ball. It seemed like NE had 14 players on the field, with 12 in the secondary. Bill Huber charted 14 pass breakups, 8 when Love was at QB. Huber noted Love went 14 for 31 for 98 yards. Paraphrasing Andy Herman]

So, that implicates the offensive scheme/plays that were selected, or the receivers. I can attest that Jordan Love had a lot of nice pockets, unlike Clifford, who got some consistent pressure, or McGough, who looked like he was in a sci-fi movie where people are hunting some poor sod who is running for his life.

Doubs might not run the right route, or realize that he is the hot read and adjust his route when there is a blitz, and he might drop 12% of his targets, but he consistently gets open, and has some YAC ability. He caught a few, and Watson still looks like a beast, though I haven't seen him become as much of a chain-mover with a varied route tree as I had hoped for. He looks mostly like a big play guy on verticals and crossers. Strangely, despite the inability to create separation Thursday, Wicks runs really great routes and routinely generates separation at the top of his stem. Fun to watch. He has to make this team. Heath seems to make plays with regularity. Dubose looks good. Melton is the fastest WR but I think he is less likely to produce than the other trio of WRs, Wicks, Dubose and Heath. Maybe Melton path to the 53 is as a Mike Wallace deep threat and contributor on STs. I think the talent on the back end of the WR room is excellent: Gute needs to find a way to keep Heath, Dubose, and Melton. I think Watson, Doubs, Reed, Toure and Wicks are absolute locks. Keep 6? Keep 7? I've no problem dumping Deguara and one of the safeties to make room. No one is going to poach our crappy fifth safety.

[Deguara can't get separation for the life of him. Pearson might be the better pure fullback. Paraphrasing Andy Herman.]

I have written that Musgrave can do everything Deguara can, and almost all of those things at a higher level. I can't think of anything Deguara does that Musgrave can't. I think Deguara will be relegated to the bench as a backup in case Musgrave needs a breather or misses time. Deguara is both redundant and can only get open if schemed open. My preference is to cut Deguara to keep a Dubose or Jonathan Ford. And no, don't put Pearson on the 53. He will slide onto the PS without any issue, and then can be elevated on game days. If he is worth a roster spot, things likely will loosen up. Deguara played 200 ST snaps last year and STs already lost Tyler Davis, who played a whopping 341. Shit, the coaches probably keep the crappy Deguara to help win in 2023 rather than stashing a promising talent at WR or RB for 2024 or more likely 2025, when this team can start to contend. Talent for the future is more important than the 2023 standings.

I didn't think GB matched NE's intensity early or ever.

BRAVO, TGR.

All of that is very well put. I couldn't help but think: "Run Forrest!" when you mentioned McGough. Yeah. Belichick definitely brought the blitz with the 1s, 2s and 3s. Non-stop.

Agree on all the rest. Deguara is both disappointing and perplexing. How much is he going to contribute, and is it worth keeping him, over say, using Emanuel Wilson as a FB/lead blocker in 2 back sets?

I don't see the value with Deguara with the way he's been performing per previous practice reports, and what we saw first hand on Thursday.

Is he lighting it up in Jet concepts behind the closed-practice doors? It's possible. I've NEVER seen Deguara as a solid lead blocker either, except for this very first preseason game (was it?) when he took out 2 or 3 players at once? Frankly, I cannot think of one other meaningful contribution from Deguara in his play to date.

Regardless, we should see more tonight. I'm looking forward to the test NE brings to this young Packers team, and if they are able to meet the challenge and pass it.

As much as I disliked the extraneous fighting that took place Thursday, it might have been more of a gift for these young players to get popped into a different reality before the games count in the ledger.

Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places...