The lack of easy routes like that one to Watson is I think the most important thing that is lacking in this offense. I know plays like this are not necessarily as easy as they look, because you have to set them up with other plays, but with the talent we have on offense, there has to be more of this stuff available. Maybe LaFleur and Love are running an offense that is more difficult than it needs to be. Too many throws into narrow windows and far downfield to receivers who are well-covered.

The Lions game clearly showed the Packers are still trailing Detroit in terms of effective personnel. It's also clear the many goofs are caused by young players not being coached the right way.

One NFL Live commentator said on paper the Packers won the game. More yards, etc. but the stupid plays like Love's interception killed them.

It's time for MLF and staff to step it up and make the players be accountable for poor play.

I hope the Packers can return the favor when they play in Detroit but it's looking more and more like the Lions year.

I am becoming more and more of a draft nerd every year. I am honestly wondering if “prone to pre-snap penalties/mental mistakes/assignment errors” will start getting attached to certain players.
Is that part of what the Wonderlic is supposed to shed light on?
OR
Is it POSSIBLY the increased complexity of the pro game that is causing some of these? For example, an O-lineman thinking too much about how the center’s line call just changed his assignment so he “absentmindedly” jumps offside?
Granted, I’m grasping at straws here.

"The bye comes at the perfect time for the Packers to reassess, regroup, re-energize, rehab, and find their true identity against the Bears two Sundays from now."

I think after last season many of us including myself thought the Packers were going to be an unstoppable WR unit. Watson has hardly been involved, Wicks drops FAR too many passes, an Doubs for whatever reason did what he did earlier in the year.

IMO we need to throw less passes to Wicks, more to Watson and Reed, and use Romeo Doubs more in the redzone where he can use his strong hands to grab passes.

For the love of God, when Josh Jacobs is running like he was Sunday against the Lions KEEP FEEDING HIM THE BALL! It wasn't just this past Sunday either. On days where the running game whether it's Jacobs or Jones the last few years, the Packers ALWAYS seem to get away from it. Drive #8 was a perfect example. 2nd and 1 and MLF calls 2 passes, a TO, and then gets stuffed on a 4th and 1. JUST UGH!!!!

The bye is coming at the perfect time. This team is beat up and IMO hasn't come close to playing it's best football of the season. IT IS TIME that starts happening.

The Packer receivers dropped 5 passes versus Detroit and the Detroit receivers dropped none. For the season the Packers are tied for second worst in the league with 23 dropped passes, Detroit is tied for second best in the league with four dropped passes. You read that right - the Packers dropped more passes versus Detroit than Detroit has dropped all season!

The Packers are sixth worst in the league in penalties so far this season with 66 accepted penalties against them. The are tied for 5th worst in the league in net penalty differential meaning their opponents only have had 55 penalties called against them or 11 less than the total called against the Packers.

This is not championship football. This team has talent, but it is undisciplined and losing important games because it is undisciplined. The coaching staff and players need to take a hard look in the mirror during this bye week.

Again, I'll reiterate that now I can look at it as a good thing they're going into the bye with a loss versus a win. The loss to the Lions only sucks for us fans. The loss accentuates the mistakes for the players and coaches to work and think about.

Al, if the 4-3 D only gave up 17 points to one of the best running and passing Os in the NFL. That speaks to the MLB and D-line doing a great job not just "ok". We can all nit-pick it to death, but what more can you really ask for? It was all the complimentary things with the penalties, O and special teams that lost the game. That is the best-case scenario because those are the things they have the most control over and can be fixed with practice and repetition.

That list of the drives was a horrifying example of losing football put in a nutshell.

Except for a rare knuckle ball now and then, I still think the most valuable player this season has been the punter. Wish Love would trust and use him more than do anything to avoid him.

The Packers are like a person owning a shiny new sports car with a standard transmission and the owner does not know how to shift the transmission. The owner has all the tools. He has the car and the ability to drive he just has to take that next step and learn how to shift. The Packers have the athletic ability, they have the right personnel, and they know what they are doing but they just have to bring it all together and fine tune it.

MLF needs to put Love in a position to succeed. He should have run the ball more. The field was slick, it was windy and rainy, and he had a QB with a hurt groin. He should have tried to keep Love from trying to do too much by calling run plays and short pass plays. But I still stand behind my comments that Willis should have started due to the weather. That would have given them a QB that could scramble and run making it 11 on 11 not 11 on 10.

MLF is in his 6th season as an NFL HC and his team still makes mistakes that should be corrected during the preseason. Yes the Packers are a young team but how long are they going to use that as an excuse for their on going mistakes. good coaching gets their players past those mistakes especially 9 games into the season.

MLF is allegedly a brilliant play caller and yet Al's example of the 2nd and 1 followed by 2 incomplete passes a TO and stuffed on 4th and 1 belies his brilliance. Love needs to play better as well. If his injury is impacting his play then he shouldn't be playing and Willis should be in the game. Another area where MLF needs to step up.

Bottom lines is that MLF's offense just beat themselves against the Lions who played with numerous starters out with injuries on both sides of the ball. Hopefully the Packers regroup and reset during the bye week and get back on track for a playoff run during the 8 remaining games.

Best wishes to Preston Smith. He was a solid player for the Packers during his time in Green Bay. Thanks, Since '61

“In the name of fairness, I re-watched the entire game focusing specifically on Quay Walker. If I'm being honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be”

Good for you, too many just make comments and stand by them thru thick and thin. Posts on this and other sites are laden with them. As fans, we rarely see or know everything about the scheme on a play to be able to make good judgement calls. After an rewatch I find that rarely is the player or team as good or bad as it looks live. IMO, a person after watching again, and only if you concentrate on said player, is it fair to pass a judgement on his play. Many of fans also make these judgement posts with a 6-pack in them:}

"Call me crazy, nuts or totally polluted, but I don't think talent-wise, they are better than the Packers. I wasn't that impressed."
You aren't crazy. The Lions were more disciplined. That is it. Packers had plenty of opportunities in this one. Packers were without 3 starters in this one. Their starting center to me was the biggest loss. I know that Myers isn't well liked amongst GB fans, but this year he has been overall solid. And his snaps have been perfect. I think there were at least 3 bad snaps that killed the offense.

"Bad snaps aside, I think the OL configuration we saw against the Lions would eventually grow into it's best one. I'm not a Josh Myers hater, but having Jenkins' consistently fine blocking in the center of the line appeals to me."
I think this will be our OL next year. Jenkins will be a fine OC. He had bad snaps in this game. But he played a full game at C when it was a monsoon in parts of the game. He will be fine there.

"Quay Walker - He's a "good" NFL linebacker. Unfortunately, "good" is not good enough for a first round pick."
IMO Quay thinks to much. If you get him attacking he is much better. He has the skills its just putting it together.

'The very few times the Packers got some pressure on Goff, the result was him throwing an inaccurate pass or just grounding it. Unfortunately, as has been the case all season, there wasn't much pressure on the quarterback. And imagine that a back of the roster player like Mosby ends up getting the only sack of the day"
I wonder if there is a reason why they traded Smith. I wonder if they traded Smith because of Mosby and Cox performing well in practice. The Mosby sack, they claim it was because Sewell tripped. When I watched it, Sewell did trip. BUT what caused him to trip was of how hard Mosby jolted him backwards. I want to see more of Mosby. Something about him reminds me of Za'Darius.

"A big thank you to Preston Smith for being a fine Green Bay Packer, but the time had come and there was cap savings to be had:'
I appreciate everything that Smith has done for GB. I wish him well in Pittsburg. His play time has decreased as the season has went on. He doesn't fit particularly well in this defense. And they have some younger guys they want to get more playing time. They will now give Van Ness, Enagbare, Mosby a lot more playing time. Even Cox who has been a healthy scratch most of this year should get opportunities now.

"That penalty on Nixon was pretty weak, in my opinion. So he gave #29 on Detroit a little push and waved a finger in his face? Like that and worse doesn't happen every other play in a game? And since it was after the play, why was it called unnecessary roughness and not unsportsmanlike conduct? Polluted minds want to know."
Very Weak imo. I'm not saying that would have given them a TD. But who knows what would have happened had they not thrown that flag. They had tons of momentum and it was taken away from them. Felt like a non stop struggle after that.

"Finally, I'm here to say, FREE CHRISTIAN WATSON!"
I'm at the point of saying we need to get the ball into the hands of our play makers. There are imo 3 play makers on the offense. Watson, Reed, and Kraft. Watson and Reed are the explosive guys who can get chunk yards in a hurry. They have been some of the most consistent pass catchers on the team. Kraft is probably our best YAC guy. He makes people miss, he breaks tackles. He brings the energy when that happens.
Moving forward I want to see those 3 guys becoming the main 3 targeted players. If they throw the ball 30 times I want them to get 15-20 targets. After that Doubs. He is slightly behind the other guys. He is more of the possession, reliable catcher type. And after him Wicks and Melton.

Last year, we were looking at a Packers team that got humbled by Detroit at home, and they spiraled for a couple weeks after that. They can't afford to do that--obviously. Instead of a 2-win team, this is a 6-win Packers team with 8 games to play. If they play .500 ball the rest of the way, they're 10-7 and likely a playoff team. Here's the rub: the second half schedule is not kind and lacks patsies.

Rashan Gary is apparently still 'going through a transition'. He is only playing 36 snaps and asked to come out?
GB is 30th in Pass Rush and they are addressing the continued weakness by trading Preston Smith and increasing LVN's snap count? If they valued winning this year, they would have traded for a real DL-man. LVN is similar to Walker, an unfortunate first round pick whom the team is attempting to justify by keeping on the field too long. There is a long list of those types--we know who they are.

It's easier to mask the 'outrage' @ losing by pinning the loss on the that one play by Jordan Love and his 'terrible' receivers.

Somehow, I don't think Dan Campbell would be babysitting LVN , Gary and Walker because they were first round picks. I don't put the blame on MLF/Hafley for those 3. All 3 of them are harming the team-I'll throw in the part-time player, Alexander, into the mix.

Watch-he will have another 'injury' when he's slated to play Jefferson again.

Who will take Preston Smith's roster spot? Maybe not another DE. Brenton Cox has been a healthy scratch every week, so they can suit him up for games now, with no need for another DE unless there are injuries. Maybe CB Robert Rochelle will be promoted to the roster now, as he is out of practice squad elevations, yet they have kept him on the practice squad. CB is the position with the greatest need for more bodies.

Doesn’t Gary suffer from asthma? Maybe he was having an asthma attack.

Dear me, Jersey Al mentioned stuff I mentioned in the snap count article:

1. Not much disparity in talent btw the teams w Hutchison and Davenport out;
2. Walker/Morgan/Jenkins/Rhyan/Tom is GB's best OL;
3. The penalty on Nixon was ticky tacky. Bad call, really.

Ken Ingalls has an interesting way of presenting information when he agrees with a move the Packers made. m Yes, those numbers are technically accurate. But the cap savings for 2025, 2026, and 2027 (while sounding impressive) all would have occurred if the Packers had kept Preston for the rest of this season and simply cut him in February.

The truth is that the Packers save the $1.6M in base salary they would have paid Preston had they kept him plus $47K per game for weeks 10 through 18 in game active bonuses, roughly $423K. So, actual cap saving due to the trade are/will be $2.023M. All the rest of those highfalutin cap savings listed by Ken Ingalls are due to Preston not being on the team in 2025 and 2026, and all of those numbers would be the same with a release after the season.

The Packers decided that saving $2M and getting a 7th round pick was worth more than the value they thought they would get from Preston playing the remaining 8 games. I tend to agree, but the Packers are not better without Preston and it suggests to me that Gute thinks they are a year away.
Preston

Campbell dosed footballs with water in practice leading up to Packer game. He knew it would be cold and rainy and prepared his team for the inclement weather. What did LaFleur do? We don't know but I doubt it was that. Packers had 6 drops and Detroit 0. Matt needs to prepare his team for every game. That includes discipline for offsides, holding, and other penalties that have been killing their drives. Goff protects the ball and made short and accurate passes which you need in bad weather.

I'll second the idea of getting Watson the ball with shorter throws in open space; this is where he is at his best and potentially dangerous if he can turn the corner. The Packers, though, have seemingly used him either as a possession receiver or a deep ball threat most of the time. While you do see improvement in these areas, Watson still at times does not complete long routes or pulls up short; and as Leroy Butler pointed out in his analysis, this also sometimes loses the opportunity for DPI call.

This remains a 're-build year'-no trade for Preston is the giveaway.

Thanks to Preston for being a character guy and representing the Packers well. Now it’s time for LVN to finally get going and start making a difference. GPG.

All I can say I guess it's been a strange month, Who would ever possibly imagine in that weather that the Packers would be the 3 stooges and the Lions playing error-free ball, and who thought Love would throw yet another out of nowhere giveaway , or whatever the hell that was throw. And with Brady announcing it. It was just painful. Thanks for the therapy session Al

And of course a penalty right after the first kickoff.

I agree with you in everything. But there is one detail, at least againt Arizona we didn't need to overcome anything. It was the most solid game this season. Not spectacular, but pretty clean.

The pass to Watson. Yes, totally agree. We seem to have problem to get 5-10 yard catches. We try them relatively rarely. I know there must be some long, risky tries (big risk, big upside), but we see too many 30 yd 50/50 hero balls to the sidelines. Many interceptions come from exactly this. Some say it's feast or famine. In my opinion it's not a good way to utilize our talent. Look at Lions. Nothing flashy, but step after step dong their job. Keep defenses honest. If you find a blown coverage, big mismatch, go big.

Ohhh if it was that simple... I'd be a HC somewhere :P

I’m with you RC—-I feel we are as good or better than the Lions—we match up very well with them.
I firmly believe that last year during the playoffs, the Lions preferred to play the 9’rs rather than the Packers.

They should have traded AJ Dillon, too. He's worthless. Vic Ketchman was right: Dillon is an average back who averages 2-3 yards per carry.

"Call me crazy, nuts or totally polluted, but I don't think talent-wise, they are better than the Packers. I wasn't that impressed."

Al, you are not crazy, the Lions without Hutchinson are only markedly better than the Packers at one position - the most important position of all - QUARTERBACK!

The Packers were right there with the Lions, down just 10-3 and Jordan's boneheaded play - same type of plays I watch him do in college and last year and this year - completely shifted the momentum and deflated the Packers and inflated the Lions.

In a physical game with so much adrenaline flowing the QB - who touches the ball more than any other player, at least 50% of game snaps - is most apt to inflate or deflate the team with his play.

Lafleur 13-3, 13-3, 13-4, and 3-1 with Rodgers - and devoid of Davante and MVS - and all rookie receivers until Rodgers broke his thumb.

Lafleur 3-0 with Willis, I am giving Malik the Jacksonville win.

Lafleur - 9-8 with Jordan last year.

Lafleur - 3-3 with Jordan this year.

Draw your own conclusions.

Is it Lafleur or Gute?

You've got to look at the results and be realistic. Gutey gets credit for being a whiz in the NFL draft, but the results prove otherwise, just look at the proof. LVN, Quay walker, Christian Watson, Jordan love, etc, etc. When was the last time he made an early pick that had an immediate impact, bet you can't name one. I just cringe when he makes a first round pick, and everyone says "who the hell is that?". And don't even get me started on MLF, what a pushover, how long has he been saying "we've got to do better" and the next week it's the same old crap all over again. Face it packer fans, you're stuck with mediocrity, but look at the teams profit every year. Who are the real suckers here.

I want to add Slaton jumping offside on the Lions first drive cost them 4 points. Instead of a FG the Lions took it in for a TD. Should have been a win without all the miscues.