Hope is alive after the Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-20 in overtime on Sunday. Slim playoff hopes and the potential return of Aaron Rodgers.
Smelly pirate hookers.
Hopefully, the Packers can dispatch the Cleveland Browns next week, get some help and we’ll see where we are. It would have been great if the Packers had beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then maybe they’d have a legitimate shot. Too much buffoonery at the end of that contest, though.
It almost repeated itself against Tampa Bay and wouldn’t that have been perfect?
Let’s get on with it.
The Brett Hundley Failure
I had mentioned that Hundley was garbage on Sunday. The Packers won despite his play. But let’s look at just how bad Hundley was. You don’t have to look any further than his receivers for that. Jordy Nelson had five catches for 17 yards, a 3.4 average. The Packers might as well just turn him into a running back at this point. Randall Cobb didn’t have a catch or a target. The Packers’ tight ends, as has been the case lately, combined for one catch and 11 yards. The one good thing Hundley did was run seven times for 66 yards. The Packers are a frickin’ read-option offense until Aaron Rodgers returns.
A Rare Showing From the Secondary
The Packers had no answer for Tampa Bay running back Peyton Barber, who piled up 143 total yards. However, they did have some answers to the Buccaneers passing game. Most of us were convinced the Packers would get torched by Mike Evans. The big receiver had just two catches for 33 yards. The other big gun, Desean Jackson was held to two for 24 yards. Look, we’re not going to pat the Packers’ secondary on the back too much. Their success was greatly aided by the team’s seven sacks. However, they did manage to slow the two main guys they had to slow to find success.
And A Spark In the Return Game
Other than quarterback play, the Packers were pretty solid everywhere else for a change. That includes special teams, where Trevor Davis finally looked like a viable kickoff returner. Davis provided a spark on kickoff returns, averaging 30.3 with a long of 33. You can see by those two numbers he was consistently good. This is the first time I can recall that happening. It’s also the first time in a while it looked like the Packers were threat to take one to the house.
A New Direction In the Middle
Blake Martinez has been a pretty consistent presence in the middle of the Packers’ defense, this season. Although I’d love to see more splash plays, he’s been solid all around. Jake Ryan, on the other hand, has seen his snap counts fluctuate wildly throughout the year. That’s changed over the past three weeks. He’s seen between 43 and 52 snaps. Ryan hasn’t been great, but he recorded 10 tackles and his first NFL sack on Sunday. It appears he’s pushed Joe Thomas out of the lineup and that’s where Joe Thomas belongs — out of the lineup.
Playing Not To Lose
“You play to win the game!” Unless you’re Mike McCarthy. Then sometimes you play not to lose. Fat Mike got awfully conservative at the end of this one. And I get it, your quarterback sucks and you don’t want him blowing the damn thing. It still bears mentioning. McCarthy played for the tying field goal with 6:02 left in the game. He turned it over to his defense with two minutes left and we’ve seen how that’s turned out lately. And then, surprisingly, the defense held. The Packers actually get the ball back with 44 seconds left and a shot to do something. Naturally, three and out on short pass (incomplete), short pass (loss of two), desperation heave. That’s the best you two clowns could muster there? It worked out in the end, but that being said, overtime hasn’t been kind to the Packers lately.
“The one good thing Hundley did was run seven times for 66 yards.”
RUN COLIN RUN!!
Why do the Packers always seem to have more problems with keeping their footing on their home turf than their opponent? The Bucs and the Saints made it look like they knew the Packers field conditions better than the Packers equipment personnel and players. Maybe I just spend more time watching the Packers skill players slip sliding away and ignore the opponent doing the same?
“Hope is alive after the Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers”
Hope for what?? To have a miracle happen just so this team can squeak into the playoffs and then get butt raped like they have the past seven years?
“Hopefully, the Packers can dispatch the Cleveland Browns next week”
If you have to hope your team can beat the Cleveland Browns, you have no business talking about playoffs.
“It would have been great if the Packers had beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then maybe they’d have a legitimate shot.”
Legitimate shot at what? Getting fucked in the playoffs again?
#Can’tWait #PlayoffTownUSA #KeepTheStreakAlive #MMTTMMDC4Life
Had this same discussion with a co-worker today. Back into the playoffs and then what? Shitty defense isn’t gonna stop anyone during crunch time. McNugget and company are playing Whack-A-Mole. Couldn’t figure out the 49ers for a couple years, then struggled with the Seahawks for a couple years, and are currently owned by Atlanta. You could arguably add the Lions, Vikings and Panthers to the list as well. These assholes are PRAYING for a repeat of 2010. What a waste.
Don’t you love when people say “Well the Packers have a lot of injuries, but they also had a lot of injuries in 2010. That means they’re gonna win the Super Bowl!”
Yes. I also love it when people say “you aren’t a real Packer fan because you are critical” of the current clown show in charge. Which warrants the response “Don’t you want the Packers to be successful and winning Superbowls? I mean that’s what the McNugget promised, multiple championships.” They mistake being critical for not caring about the Packers.
You’re not a real Packers fan
Sometimes you have to wonder about these new user names. Especially in light of the fact the lonely boy hasn’t been posting.
I’m not saying they are him, he may very well be in jail again, idk.
I’m just sayin.
Yeah, I don’t know if that guy was being sarcastic or not, but anyone using Donald Trump anything is trying too hard to be edgy and cool. To which I will respond “Go fuck yourself.”
#FakePackerFanIsFake
My five thoughts:
1. Can someone send McCarthy some game film of his own team to show him that JORDY NELSON IS NOT FAST ANYMORE!!!!! Please stop sending him on deep patterns when the DB are always running stride for stride with him. He is only a successful WR in 2017 because he has incredible chemistry with #12 and they live on back shoulder throws and their on-field/off-field bromance.
2. Can we please stop running those stupid WR quick throws or figure out how to get them to work for more than 1 yd? It would cause me to do a lot less yelling at the TV
3. On the flip side, why is every team able to run the RB/WR screen effectively against the GB Def? Have they ever worked on stopping this in practice, because it looks like it catches them by surprise every time.
4. For all the crap the corpse of TT catches on this site, it seems like he found a couple of good backs to platoon in the 2017 draft. I still think he needed to draft playmaker in the front seven (see “TJ Watt”), but he may have bumbled his way into a running game.
5. It seems pretty obvious the Def is basically the same as its been for the last 3 years – good enough to hang around and make a play while the best QB in the league is bailing them out, but will eventually get exposed. The playoffs seem like a long shot at this point, so my current fantasy is to sneaking in riding a 5-game winning streak and beat the Vikings in their own house!!!!! This definitely isn’t a Super Bowl team, but the next best thing to the Super Bowl is to see Minnesota’s dream season get crushed in front of their own fans – GO PACK GO!!!
That’s what I was thinking. There’s no way the Packers are winning the Super Bowl, but if they can sneak in and knock the Vikings out of the playoffs at least I can have a good laugh.
We. We can all have a good laugh. Plus listen to Paul Allen have another fit during a broadcast. Which is a bonus.
Someone please tell me under what scenario are the queens not going to the playoffs.
Just keeping it real.
I thought they already clinched a playoff berth? I took his meaning as getting in with them, beating them and knocking them out that way, like the Packers did to Da Bears in 2010.
Liked this article, spot on on a bunch of things but especially your last point about “Playing not to lose.” That’s the story of them in every game, every year, Rodgers or no Rodgers. And we’ve seen how well it works, we get smoked most of the time when we play good teams because of it. Their passing game consists almost exclusively of flat passes and screen passes. The defense may as well take everyone out of the middle of the field when we pass (unless it’s a broken play scramble) because we’re never throwing there. Never any crossing routes, pick plays, and heaven forbid ever throwing a deep dig or post route. It’s such an elementary offense I can’t talk about it anymore. But, back to your point of “playing not to lose”, I’ll bet the house that we dial up one of the most conservative game plans ever for Cleveland this week. If we score 1st, we will try to hold on for dear life the rest of the game and run out the clock. Watch it this weekend, you will see. I actually think we lose this week…..and if that happens can we please finally fire the fat moron McCarthy?
Nice ^^^^
^^^^ Couldn’t agree more, even with Rodgers, it really seems like the most bland passing offense ever imagined. And its been the same for several years!! The whole league knows GB’s slow receivers can’t bust man to man coverage, or they have all 3 of their pass routes memorized. They should just run the scramble drill every play, it seems to be the only way they can get open most of the time.