Observations after week 1

[packerbackernva]

Offense (B-).... The passing game was strong and should only get better if we stay injury free. Side note there..James Jones was MIA in the game.
Lacy hurt us with the fumble but his hard running in the 4th quarter is something we`ve needed for a long time. It warmed my heart to think about the possibilities of having Lacy pound it out in cold weather games where we are leading and need to run clock.
O-Line.. Rodgers was given time to throw for the most part but for 3 quarters we were manhandled trying to generate holes for the running game. Bakhtiari gets a pass for being a rookie and going up against A. Smith for 4 qtrs. Josh Sitton was disappointing with 3 penalties that hurt us on drives.

Special Teams (C-) ..All of training camp McCarthy toyed with options as to wh0 would be our return man. Ross showed us once again that he IS NOT the guy. Made poor decisions and was hesitant at times. On the play where Ross was tackled at the 9 the SF defender came down the field untouched for the tackle, the guy should have been blocked.

Defense (C-)...Yes, we solved the read option for this game but in the process we exposed weakness in pass coverage in the middle of the field. SF loves to bunch their receivers and our zone coverage never found an answer for Bouldin. Note to Dom Capers.. good teams make adjustments when a scheme we are playing is going poorly. Lots of talk was spent in the off season as to whether this D could generate pass rush from someone other than Matthews, none of the other guys stepped forward against SF.
side note**.. Morgan Burnett and Casey Hayward were out with injuries and were dearly missed in the secondary.

Kicking(A-)..Masthay was fine on kickoffs and punting. Crosby never attempted a field goal and that might not be such a bad thing.

Coaching (C)... Harbaugh seems to always get the best of us. We game plan for the read option and the team was prepared for that. The problem was giving up 400+ yards to Kaepernick. You won`t win many games when you give up this many yards to the opposing qb.
I`ll give McCarthy credit for trying hard to generate a run game and for trying the no-huddle, but it is obvious his dream of a balanced attack is probably a pipe dream at best.

 

[Pushn40]

A couple of sidenotes to append to your assessment:

Turnovers - GB was minus 2, and they both lead to points - 10 to be exact. That right there could've been the difference.

Injuries - thank God there weren't any during the game (that I saw anyways.)

Boneheaded Penalties - you made reference to Sitton, which I agree really hurt a couple of drives. And Matthews, well, it was boneheaded, but he had 8 months of pent-up hate for Kaperbitch - the dude was a time bomb waiting to explode. He did, it hurt, he apologized, let's move on.

It sucks to lose, but GB shouldn't hang its head. There were some real bright spots yesterday too. In a tough game like that with two heavy weights, someone has to lose. Seems lately with the Niners, it's GB on the losing end. Tides' ebb and flow, and sooner or later it will be GB's turn.

I was a big fan of letting Capers go after last season. While I applaud their preparation for the read-option and their ability to stuff the run, I'm disappointed that GB still can't stop the big plays on third down and get off the freakin field. This is as much coaching as it is personnel, and it gets so tiring watching this year after year.

 

[Doctor Krieger]

#1 observation....we need Burnett back ASAP

 

[Pushn40]

#1 observation....we need Burnett back ASAP

Jennings and McMillan sucked up the joint pretty decent yesterday, but Kapersnatch had all day to throw laser-guided missiles so the blame can go all the way up to the dude sitting in the crows nest calling the defense!

 

[aronnov]

I thought the Packers played real well considering how the media built up S.F. I think the Packers are in good shape.

 

[alldaybaby55]

A couple of sidenotes to append to your assessment:

Turnovers - GB was minus 2, and they both lead to points - 10 to be exact. That right there could've been the difference.

Injuries - thank God there weren't any during the game (that I saw anyways.)

Boneheaded Penalties - you made reference to Sitton, which I agree really hurt a couple of drives. And Matthews, well, it was boneheaded, but he had 8 months of pent-up hate for Kaperbitch - the dude was a time bomb waiting to explode. He did, it hurt, he apologized, let's move on.

It sucks to lose, but GB shouldn't hang its head. There were some real bright spots yesterday too. In a tough game like that with two heavy weights, someone has to lose. Seems lately with the Niners, it's GB on the losing end. Tides' ebb and flow, and sooner or later it will be GB's turn.

I was a big fan of letting Capers go after last season. While I applaud their preparation for the read-option and their ability to stuff the run, I'm disappointed that GB still can't stop the big plays on third down and get off the freakin field. This is as much coaching as it is personnel, and it gets so tiring watching this year after year.

Your last point is key, I think. 3rd downs have been a major problem for us...on both sides of the ball. I don't have the stats, but it seems like we didn't convert a whole lot of third downs offensively, and we definitely can't get off the field defensively on third and long.

Positives for me: The run defense. I like having Pickett back at nose...he doesn't have to move laterally as much as he would have to as a DE. I thought Hawk and Jones played pretty well as well. Discipline on the edges (for the most part) and rock solid up the middle. That's a damn good start against one of the better lines in the game.

Also, I think Lacy showed a little explosiveness at times. He looked dangerous on that screen pass and was hitting holes with authority in the 4th quarter.

The pass protection was better, for the most part as well. Someone mentioned giving Bakhtiari a pass because he was a rookie...I thought he played pretty well. The first sack he gave up was on a failed cut block, which if you think about it, was probably supposed to be a quick slant or something to that side, and Rodgers never pulled the trigger, so it's tough to get huffy about that. The other sack by Smith was when Bakh rode him out and around, but Rodgers couldn't step up because of the pressure from the middle . I thought the 3rd holding call on Sitton was ticky-tacky at best, but I thought the first 2 were legit.

Negatives have been covered...pass rush light (which may have been by design to keep from over-pursuing on the read-o stuff), bad secondary play, bad ran game until the 4th quarter, Jeremy Ross. I also don't get McCarthy's line of thinking when he accepted the penalty right before the personal-fowl screw-up.

I'm not worried about this team...it was a very solid, resilient effort against a very good team. We're gonna be fine.

 

[Tainthappening]

Positives for me: The run defense. I like having Pickett back at nose...he doesn't have to move laterally as much as he would have to as a DE. I thought Hawk and Jones played pretty well as well. Discipline on the edges (for the most part) and rock solid up the middle. That's a damn good start against one of the better lines in the game.

Also, I think Lacy showed a little explosiveness at times. He looked dangerous on that screen pass and was hitting holes with authority in the 4th quarter.

The pass protection was better, for the most part as well. Someone mentioned giving Bakhtiari a pass because he was a rookie...I thought he played pretty well. The first sack he gave up was on a failed cut block, which if you think about it, was probably supposed to be a quick slant or something to that side, and Rodgers never pulled the trigger, so it's tough to get huffy about that. The other sack by Smith was when Bakh rode him out and around, but Rodgers couldn't step up because of the pressure from the middle . I thought the 3rd holding call on Sitton was ticky-tacky at best, but I thought the first 2 were legit.

Negatives have been covered...pass rush light (which may have been by design to keep from over-pursuing on the read-o stuff), bad secondary play, bad ran game until the 4th quarter, Jeremy Ross. I also don't get McCarthy's line of thinking when he accepted the penalty right before the personal-fowl screw-up.

I'm not worried about this team...it was a very solid, resilient effort against a very good team. We're gonna be fine.

Actually agree with most everything... only item is I did not mind McCarthy accepting penalty. He could have tried to make statement with declining and if defense could have held on 4th and inches (I think SF would have gone for it.. think very slight chance we hold them).. but hindsight it was the right decision if Clay does not hit Kaepernick out of bounds as it would have been 4th and 2.

So I do not understand all the scrutiny of the decision.. actually was the right decision.

 

[Jedster]

I love CM3's enthusiasm and talent.....but he needs to pay more attention to what he is doing, and know when it is too much......it can hurt, more than help in some situations. He also needs to tone down the verbal rhetoric.....let you play speak for itself.

 

[Stevein2012]

I love CM3's enthusiasm and talent.....but he needs to pay more attention to what he is doing, and know when it is too much......it can hurt, more than help in some situations. He also needs to tone down the verbal rhetoric.....let you play speak for itself.

I'm pretty sure that's his only penalty like that in his career. It's not like he's out there doing dumb shit every week. Clay is fine how he is.

 

[packfancjh]

He's only been fined twice. Most of his infractions are minor penalties and he's had I think 4 roughing the passer calls that's it.

 

[Jedster]

I'm pretty sure that's his only penalty like that in his career. It's not like he's out there doing dumb shit every week. Clay is fine how he is.

I agree to a certain extent......but like everything else in life, there are limits. No, he hasn't been a problem and yes he should get a pass on this one.....but what he did was boneheaded, period, no excuse for it.....and it should strongly discouraged by the coaching staff. These things can determine the outcome of games in some cases....no matter how good you are, or how much you are being paid. We are better than that.

 

[Papalou]

Im not close to concerned yet. We ve got a lot of ball ahead of us and a reasonable schedule.

Pack for Champs Go Pack Go

 

[MajorPackersFan]

We went toe-to-toe with maybe the best team in the NFC/NFL, and even held the lead in the 4th quarter. This team still has a lot of work to do, no doubt, but in my mind they are a playoff-caliber team that will have something to play for in January. That's all that really matters this early in the season.