This is all great stuff Al. I won hundred percent agree that 12s ego is a massive problem. And although I don’t know this for a fact I think it’s a big reason why Gute chose to draft who he did in the 2019 draft. Of course this was before the MVP year which made things much more difficult. But I still expect 12 to be gone in March and good riddance. Thankful for the good memories but time to move on.

Good catch on the field goal holding issues. I hadn’t noticed that. Also agreed about MLF and his lack of a good plan to handle all out pressure in that game. I expected to be better on Sunday.

I almost find myself hoping that 12 doesn’t play on Sunday and love gets another chance. I think it will be much better.

GPG

All valid points but not once did Love make one play that made us say “wow “ not once .

Regarding the level of energy on D, the confidence and speed I’m seeing will likely even increase as they have more successes. Hopefully it is sustainable for the entire year and as all pros return the chemistry is enhanced. Hope Z and Jaire can increase even improve this “special sauce” Barry seems to be cooking up.

“Wow” plays… from a QB in his first NFL game, with a OL playing like a sieve, a Head Coach who’s game plan made EVERYTHING more difficult, with some very poor play designs, and ZERO in-game adjustments…

Yeah, not going to get many “Wow” plays with what Love faced on Sunday.

Agree, Al, that Elgton probably had his worst game at LT on Sunday. I’d rather they use Yosh at LT until Bak is back.

Great Digs. But Love is a Robot. This team will never win when Rodgers goes.

Al - “Is that a polluted mindset?”

For you to ask these questions? Or for Rodgers’ attitude to be what you suggest?

No, and yes, respectively.

Good work Al. Your point about Rodgers is right on. Smartess guy in the room and let's you know it. Problem with smart guys and their egos is "it" is about them - not the team. Regardless of his pseudo medical beliefs, he has cost his team and stirred a needless political pot. Rodgers has become a distraction in his proclaimed "last dance" season. I can see why the organization drafted a QB (maybe not the right one) to avoid the eventual problems of guys bigger than the team.

The KC game was totally winable. KC kept trying to give us the keys but we made too many mistakes to take advantage of the offering. A couple of common issues keep popping up.

1. Matt Lafleur fails to react to his opponent's strategy. Offensive coaches failed to recognize a rookie QB and an aggressive defense. Poor game planning and poor play calling was a bigger factor in not winning this game.

2. Special Teams is a dumpster fire. I was going to say that ST under performance is not about talent - it is about coaching. Now I don't know - I just don't know

I think LaFleur again showed inexperience in terms of his pre game approach and his in game calling of personnel and plays.

Take the personalities (Love & Rodgers) out of it. There are certain things coaches do when a backup QB is forced to start, particularly when that player is debuting. As you say, one of them is to give him an outlet that he is familiar with; that he’s established some on field rapport with. Yet Taylor was not used at all.

To compound that, I saw nothing in the presumably scripted plays that seemed designed to get his QB settled that one would expect and formations throughout that seem to be the type requiring veteran experience based adjustments to render effective. This looked to me like a Rodgers game plan. Well Rodgers has 17 years of experience diagnosing. On top of that was the questionable at best use of the run game.

We also saw something I thought might come home to roost from training camp, this time for the second week, if somewhat reversed. Not playing starters mean backups have no familiarity with them, and that leads to miss understandings and failed plays. We saw that with Rodgers and receivers not being on the same page versus AZ, but it’s much worse when a new QB has never played with essentially his entire catching corps. That’s a failure of coaching and foresight.

As to STs, even the awful Zook did not have meltdowns do often in all facets of his teams. One presumes Drayton was actively involved in the long snapper decision and transition. He’s also the one who makes personnel choices. Rodgers has looked unreliable making decisions all season. After 8 games we’ve tried nothing but repeat and hope and seen nothing but the same from Rodgers. It took Drayton 5 weeks to figure out a standard coverage scheme in kicks. He still has not figured out blocking for them.

At some point it becomes obvious that a person is so out of their depth that they are damaging the team and getting less than the talent available. At that point get them out. Pay a retired ST coach to come back for the season and try and savage at least mediocrity. Put Cobb on punts to fair catch. Start to minimize risks. In addition to the 9 points directly attributable, STs left us in terrible starting positions. It was worse than just those points. And they did that in a game where we knew yards were likely to be hard to come by. In the end, Drayton is LaFleur’s responsibility.

LaFleur must grow, Mo must go!

Every game in which Drayton survives is an indictment. Taking responsibility is good only if it leads to addressing the failures. Sometimes that requires unpleasant and prompt action. The ST leadership is past the point where LaFleur must.

Good comments on the game as you always provide.
You could see the holds were bad on both blown FG attempts on TV. Two days ago I pointed out the rap on Bojo coming out of Buffalo was his inconsistent holds. And it isn’t just laces, it’s the angle and exact placement of the ball.
Rodgers has a massive ego, just like every other elite athlete…some more than others, and some have better PR folks. But if we are giving him credit for MM departure and LaFleurs arrival…that was a good thing. I think back to Jeff Saturday’s comments about moving from the Colts to GB. He said the Colts were a player led team and under McCarthy GB was not. He said players were not allowed to lead and hold each other accountable. He said it was not fun playing in GB. You can see the difference in the team under LaFleur.
As pointed out by another analysts, Rodgers has become one of the best at setting protections pre-snap. He is a major reason the O-line performs as well as it does on each play with him under center. It’s one of several reasons why he takes so long to snap the ball.
Barnes play at the goal line made my week. On TV he just appeared out of nowhere making a stop when a KC TD appeared inevitable. It was just pretty.
Again, thank you for your work. I always enjoy your view point.

For some time I have believed that LaFleur and the offensive coaching staff struggle with in-game adjustments. Usually their initial game plans are pretty good (plan for KC was not), but if the defense throws a creative wrinkle at them, they struggle to find answers. KC was a combination of a bad initial game plan coupled with poor in-game adjustments.

I have no background in football other than playing high school ball and being a lifelong fan and even I knew KC was going to blitz the daylights out of a rookie quarterback. How did MLF and company not know that was coming? Al said it very well - this looked like an Aaron Rodgers game plan, not a Jordan Love game plan. MLF is an outstanding HC, but every once and awhile he comes up with a real head scratcher......

Special teams cost the Packers this game. It could happen again this season as long as Drayton continues to be the special teams coach. It is time for LeFleur to make a tough decision and replace Drayton - a new guy could not be worse than what we have now. It is time!

" Has the belief in his own intelligence evolved into a huge ego issue?... Is that a polluted mindset?"

I'm hoping this was meant to be sarcasm because this take feels a little late to the party.

Order of blame for this loss: 1. Special Teams 2. Matt Lafleur 3. Offensive line. Jordan Love does not make my top 3.

Thats fair. While he maybe wasn't one of the top 3 reasons they lost, he was a contributing factor into why they didn't win. He simply didn't make enough plays to win.
Now the special teams you can say were the biggest factor for loss. They missed out on 6 points and cost us 3. So 9 point turn around.

Oh Snap -
I agree. All the snaps were right there. Sure maybe the ball didn't have its laces up. But it was right there to make it easy for Bojo to get down and turn. He wasn't able to do that. Bojo definitely was the culprit to bad holds. The one snap was slightly higher but nothing bad. Bojo just struggled catching it.
Hopefully with one game together they will get it clamped down.

Rodgers -
Perhaps he is to smart for his own good. As far as family issues, that is his personal business. Who knows what really is going on there. None of my business.
I think Rodgers covered for MM a lot on the field and he grew tired of bad play calling and whatnot. Enter LaFleur and its proved to be an upgrade.

Defense -
Barry deserves so much credit, especially after all the heat he and GB was taking this offseason for the hire. The defense has been such and improvement from the last couple of years. And that is without 2 of the best players on defense.

Adams -
Have to think the lack of practice time and lack of reps with Love really had an impact.

Elgton Jenkins -
The whole OL struggled with blitz pickups. Perhaps the loss of Rodgers affected this making the reads and calls presnap.

Oof -
Missed opportunities. Special teams cost us 9 points. King dropped the interception that would have saved a FG.

The Classroom -
Lets be honest, LaFleur has grown a little used to having Rodgers as the QB. He is used to his QB being able to adjust things in game. I expect everyone to have learned something from this game.

Rams game -
I do wonder how many of those in game adjustments he didn't make because Love wasn't ready for them? Rodgers is a master of the offense. Love is still learning, and made his first start. I am wondering if LaFleur didn't feel comfortable making big changes in the game because of this.

Boom Boom Barnes -
Barnes had his best game as a pro. Watching him play like this really makes me question why they went and got Jaylon Smith to begin with. But perhaps that move helped motivate Barnes.

Try Malik -
I also thought he maybe would have been more comfortable going to Cobb and Rodgers some. In the Saints game he had some nice connections with them.

On Monday I was shocked at the amount of basting Jordan Love was getting from the Packers 'fans'. He had a rough first half, but the second half was better. Rodgers should have been basted the same way when the Packers were humiliated at New Orleans.

I wanted to draw this perspective: if the special teams hadn't failed Crosby in Kansas City and he made both of those field goals the score at the end of regulation would have been tied. This isn't pie-in-the-sky stuff, two field goals, score tied. Anything can happen in overtime. If Taylor got away from the punt--as instructed I'm sure--when no fair catch is made, again the score is different.

So Jordon Love wasn't as much of the problem Sunday as some bozo play on special teams.

If Love plays again this week(it's possible as Rodgers might not be in physical condition to play much) look for another dose of pressure. Lets hope Matt LF learned his lesson.

Leflore says that he didn't have a plan for the all out blitzing that KC did ?
Biggest crock of shit.
Any coach of any NFL defense would have prioritized a game plan that addresses all out blitzes.... first and foremost.... because that is what NFL defenses do to rookie quarterbacks.... they blitz them.
Love had a bad game, stop sugarcoating it. Not saying that he won't be an excellent quarterback or will be an excellent quarterback in the future. Talking about just this game, he was ineffective.

Hey Al. I think you're confusing narcissism for intelligence. Nothing about Rodgers two appearances on McAfee suggested intelligence.

Great points Al. Some of them I have thought of as well but many of them I did not. Thanks for your always good article.

I do question a couple of your points though.

Under the 'Rams Game' and 'The Classroom' you are betting that Lafleur will not make that same mistake again. I hope you are right but if you remember after the AZ game Lafleur apologized for how he handled the offense when they were down on the AZ one yard line in that he did not run it in. (Use AJ Dillon). There was at least one other game this year where he apologized for that same thing yet he failed in that area at least a second time. I really hope you are correct that he will not make that same mistake again but recent history tells us differently.

The other issue he needs to correct is his in game managing of the game. He or somebody on staff needs to sit back and look at what is happening in the game and what adjustments they should consider and discuss these at least at half time if not throughout the game.

More Great work Al. Is it me or does it seem that King is always in the middle of a major flip in the score before halftime?

Bojo has improved and stabilized punting. That was a great in-season adjustment. We need to fix the field goal unit ASAP. I suggest replacing Bojo with someone who can handle the ball better and get the ball down consistently. For many teams and many years, the backup QB was the right skillset. Maybe Jordan is the answer to fixing the field goal unit.

Regarding those I’ll-fated FG attempts:

I wish that we could post images on the site (but understand why). I rewatched the Coaches film replay and saw some really interesting formations for those I’ll-fated FG’s. Basically, as you’d expect, most of the O and D linemen were involved (minus KC, EJ and Patrick), with Deguara and Lancaster sealing the ends.

Apart from the questionable delivery for Crosby, both of these guys missed their assignments both times (I.e. at least 1 rushers blew past them both times). This has to be affecting Crosby who now actually seems to no longer trust the protection and is rushing his kicks (I saw no complete follow throughs again on these failed kicks).

In countenance, the Packers rushers placed little pressure on the edge defenders and gave their kicker ample time to complete the shot.

Clearly teams are now targeting the kicks. Is it time to re-think the edge protection - Deguara and Lancaster are clearly no match for rushing DB’s and frequently don’t even get to make contact to push them wide.

Crosby’s been in the league too long to have this much inconsistency.

What I saw from love was not impressive, I also saw Lafleur take the blame for not putting him in a position to succeed but still not impressive. The reality is Lafleur didn’t have a choice but to take the blame. He knew the shitstorm would be coming for love and as a coach tried to mitigate as much as possible by taking the blame. Sure looked to me, especially early, that love was changing from run to pass at the line. Just my take, but I’m sure the Rodgers haters love saviors will call me crazy.

Great work Al. I completely agree with your top 3 reasons for the loss to KC. However. Love could have helped himself out with some better throws and better decision making. Agree that the missed FGs were not the LS fault.

Rodgers too smart for his own good. Maybe, but he hasn't been very smart on his Covid issue. First he lied about his vaccination status which was a simple yes or no questions. His response of "Yeah, I have been immunized", has proven to be an effort of deception on his part. His latest comment about being allergic isn't supported by either the research, the doctors or the results of the vaccine. there were some allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine during the trial period but that was addressed before the vaccine was approved. This is all clearly and carefully document by the Journal of the American Medical Association and by the New England Journal of Medicine. I live in a community that is about 5 miles from our local hospital and several of the doctors who work there are my neighbors. None of them have known of any allergies to the vaccine. Neither have my immediate family members, who are also doctors. It looks like he either made that up or was advised to say it. And if he does have an allergy to the vaccine why not state that at the time he was asked about it back in August. Also if you suspect that your are allergic to a Covid-19 vaccine you can ask doctor which vaccine will be safe for you? His allergy claim doesn't make sense, especially since he claimed to research the topic.

Maybe the reality is that as he is getting older he is suffering symptoms from having had at least 3 concussions during his career and it is beginning to affect his judgement. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about that. Favre was about the same age when his judgement began to go off the rails. I would not rule it out. It has happened to numerous players over the years.

Defense - allowing a little under 18 PPG since the Saints game. When was the last time we could say that?. Kudos to Barry and to the players.

Jenkins - I'm not sure why the Packers did not stay with Nijman at LT and move Jenkins back to LG when he returned from his injury. I think that move would have solidified our OL until Bak returns.

Agree that the score should have been 7-6 at the half. We could have won the game 13-6 since we shut out the Chiefs in the 2nd half. But we must continue to allow our STs to suck and cost us games. Why MLF???

The rest is all good. GPG! Thanks, Since '61

Thanks Al. I thought Jordan Love played okay against KC. The analyst's film review hit the nail on the head. Blitz pass protection led a sure win to a hard to swallow defeat. Line play has got to improve, particularly at right guard.

Great article, Al. Best part is link at end. Excellent breakdown of pass protection issues v. Chiefs. It's one thing to talk about problems. This clearly demonstrates them. Should be mandatory viewing for serious fans --- and Coaches! Got to get this fixed whoever is under center.
The Szotman

Love did not look great, and even not good, but you can't make a judgement on just one game. If we all did that, we would have definitely have the Pack at 0-17 after the first game. Give the guy a break. I watched Justin Fields his first game against Cleveland, and the difference between him then and Monday night is night and day. Going from college/practice/pre-season to live action, would be like you or I going from playing golf on the local muni course and then teeing it up on a U.S. Open layout. The increased degree of difficulty is exponential.