Studs?? N duds Titans

[Team Ronny]

Stud: Preston, Watson, Cobb, our new kick returner.
Medium: Lazard, some good plays, then the boneheaded stop on his route which crushed our drive. Crosby.
Dudz: Very top dud is LaFleur's game plan. This is a bottom 5 pass defense, and we ran the ball what 50% against one of if not THE top run defense in the league. Running the ball that much crushed drives and kept our defense on the field. Watson is a star in the making and he gets only a few measly targets? Reportedly, Lafleur stayed late after Dallas to help prep for this game. What exactly was he planning? I hope he didn't get overtime. Why run at the strength of this defense, and then keep going when we see it's not working well? Unbelievable, and so ridiculously dumb.
Jaire - I think this is a year that will humble him. He's been owned by a few WR's now, not that I care much with the long reception at the end, but have some pride man.
Barry - Obviously needs to go, bu-bye. Thanks, collect your cheque and sayonara. He's taken a more talented defense on paper and did god knows what with it to make the product we see now. Vic Fangio better be on the next plane to

Barry is a Fangio wannabe, a terrible one at that!! I would like to see the real guy.

 

[milani]

It did. We were not able to key on the run and still stop the pass. 2 years ago we put up so many points that the Titans had to open up sooner and could not afford to play ball control. In the days of Adrian Pederson we tried to key on him but the Viking QB was never good enough to hurt us.

 

[Team Ronny]

Dud: How about a big F.U. to Todd Downing!! Have a few too many on the plane did ya? I bet Herbstreet never mumbles his name again!!!

 

[Cornelius Weems]

As I mentioned in another post, at this point wins don't mean a whole lot to me. I'd actually prefer they use the next 6 games to evaluate all the players on the current roster, that they feel will be there in 2023. That means let Love get a fair amount of work in. Pretty much go down the roster and start subbing next years roster in and see how they play. This will serve 2 main purposes. First, it gives those players a lot of reps and experiences that they might not otherwise see. Second, it gives Gute and his staff more information as to what to do in the offseason.

I don't need to see anymore of Sammy Watkins, he has lived up to the failed fourth overall pick in the 2014 draft, that most already knew that he was. Give #12 some time off. Bring up some PS guys and insert them in with vets. Basically, use the next 6 games like they used to use Preseason games. Start the starters for a Q or 2 and then mix in the rest of the players.

Truth

 

[OldSchool101]

Lazard has had his chance. I won't go as far as saying he is a bad receiver, but I don't think he can achieve a WR1-WR2 status at the NFL level. He's had plenty of opportunities this season and he's only proven time and time and time again he's a good WR3 if he remains healthy. That's not an insult as to make it that far in the NFL is pretty amazing.

I'm hoping we keep #33 for another year or two because he has been the face of this franchise as far as consistent weapons. He's one of the few guys that really deserves another small extension if he keeps it reasonable $

 

[JK64]

Pass defense was laughable.

It seemed like every third and long had a completed pass with our secondary out of position. Pathetic garbage.

 

[JK64]

Duds - The front office and coaching staff - The roster decisions both acquiring and releasing players has been very questionable. The coaching staff has not been good from play calling to constant mental mistakes that have cost this team big time, on both sides of the ball. This is a direct result of coaching. How you bring in a DC that did not have the successful track record as a DC to warrant the position Is beyond me. I didn’t like the hire at the time and like it even less now. I think ML gets lost at times during games, and I think he is soft. Ive said it for several weeks now, this entire team is a mess!

Agreed. Soft, stupid and the arrogant Gute. Losers.

 

[JK64]

Got to give a lot of credit to Tannehill. He was very accurate with his passing.

Some of those plays his receivers were wide open.

 

[rmontro]

On the plus side, I've got a free trial month of Prime Video this month, so I was able to watch the game.
On the negative side, well, that's self-explanatory.

 

[melvin dangerr]

Damn from the comments I’m sorry I missed the game..

 

[GreenNGold_81]

Wait...what?? You are aware you are incredibly wrong? Did you watch the game?

Yep, you're right. But look at the drives... I think his short passes just threw me off as well as the desperation passes at the end of the game.

1st drive: 2 runs, 1 pass. PUNT
2nd: 5 runs, 6 passes (all short near the LOS except for Cobb and Watson passes). Touchdown.
3rd: 2 runs up the middle for negligible gain, one attentional grounding pass. PUNT
4th: 3 short passes to Jones, nothing deep when down 8 and 32 seconds to go.

HALF.

5th: 7 short passes, one long pass to Lazard. One end around to Watson for 3 yards. 5 rushes. Field goal.
6th: Two deep passes (Lazard and Cobb). One short pass. 2 rushes for minimal yardage. Touchdown. Two-point conversion succeeds after pass to Jones.
7th: Two deep passes, incomplete. One rush for minimal yardage, PUNT.
8th: Two deep passes, incomplete one short pass to Cobb. One rush. PUNT.
9th: Two short passes, one deep. One rush. Turnover on downs.
10th: 7 short passes, one deep, one rush on 4th and 1. Turnover on downs.

By my count (and I'm probably off a bit because I'm angry) 25 short passes, 11 deep. 5.8 yards on average. 19 rushes (avg 2.9 y/c). Stats and depth of target from ESPN.

I'd assume the short passes are at or near the line of scrimmage or within about 5-7 yards. So our GENIUS offensive guru coach and HOF QB decide to throw into the teeth of this defense instead of attacking a poor secondary with deeper throws. Maybe we have a different ballgame if they threw deep (>10 yards) half a dozen or so more times. Make it make sense. Tannehill scorched our vaunted secondary with 333 yards throwing and 12.3 avg.

I expected to see the Packers take advantage of this matchup by throwing deeper and exposing their weaknesses. But nope. This team doesn't take advantage of matchup opportunities and lost as a result.

Mopey Rodgers doesn't help, what was he doing sitting on the sideline not keeping his thumb moving? Just sitting there all depressed, like fire up the team for goodness sakes.

 

[swhitset]

Wait...what?? You are aware you are incredibly wrong? Did you watch the game?

This is exactly why it’s pointless to argue with a lot of people in here. They are living in a different reality.

 

[fix8ed]

I'm not sure it's worth much talking about individual players for this game. I think our players are average NFL quality at a lot of positions, a little worse at some, a little better at others. With average coaching the team would be one game on either side of .500. But the coaching on both sides of the ball has been far below average. Hard to say which is worse. The defensive side particularly frustrates me because we've spent a lot of draft capital there. I don't think the players are as bad as they play. Which is down to coaching/scheme. Biggest beef for me: they play pretty well on first and second down. Then we're in a 3rd and 6 . . . and the defense gives a 7 yard cushion. We're in 3rd and 9 . . . and the defense gives a 10 yard cushion. We're in 3rd and 12 . . . and the defense gives a 13 yard cushion. Over and over, every single game. At least it looks that way to me.

I didn't like the Barry hire -- what track record of exceptional performance did he have? And I still don't like it.

That said, if the offense makes a habit of three and out, the defense is going to wear down. And our offensive scheme varies between predictable, boring, predictable, low-percentage and predictable. With an extra helping of low percentage. In my amateur opinion it is not a clever scheme in any dimension. Those long sideways passes for 2 yards. The intermediate sideline throws into tiny windows. The failure to open even the slightest hole for the backs. How much is on Rodgers versus MLF I don't know, but the scheme does not, has not and will not work in today's NFL.

Specifically on Rodgers, he made a couple of perfect throws . . . and then several that were way off the mark. I'm guessing the thumb is a factor. He also passed up chances to scramble for 8-10 yards and heaved it downfield in low percentage situations a couple of times.

Plenty of blame to go around, but at this stage of the season I would say Barry is not a good defensive coach and should be replaced. MLF needs a better offensive coordinator. Rodgers needs to get his thumb healed and make better decisions. These are all the conditions to have a shot at turning it around next year. This year is over.

The thumb is hurt and was further aggravated on Sunday. You could see them re-wrapping it. Four days later he's back on the field. Did the wobbly passes remind you of anything? How about Russell Wilson after he hurt his? He couldn't control the football and his throws were offline or under thrown. My opinion is that by the 4th quarter, Rodgers couldn't get a correct grip on the football, and it showed. Needless to say, all this was ignored by the talking heads of tv and the high school stringers who whose scribblings are an ode to the ridiculous. And yeah, Rodgers needs to make better decisions on and OFF the field. Joe Barry, on the other hand, should be shown the door.

 

[pacmaniac]

It seemed like every third and long had a completed pass with our secondary out of position. Pathetic garbage.

We are back to the Capers days.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Personnel on the team - this team has seen a massive talent drain on offense and defense over the last 3 years and Gute is going to have to absolutely crush the draft this season to field a decent team

The defense features a lot of talented players. Unfortunately it seems Barry has no idea how to use them to field a good unit.

Who is our receiver coach anyway?

Jason Vrable is the receivers coach. With him having held that position since 2020 I'm not sure he's the one to blame as he has had success the past two years. Unfortunately he has been dealt a terrible hand by Gutekunst for this year.

This has been going on the entire year, not only this contest. Much of the time you've got to quit forcing it downfield (especially in a game that's cold and windy) and take what's given to you.

The Titans didn't offer a whole lot on short throws or runs though. The Packers gained an average of only 3.72 yards on 39 attempts of throws under 10 yards or rushing attempts.

Quay Walker, Rasul Douglas (great instincts) Preston Smith and Krys Barnes all came to play

Douglas made a great play on the interception but other than that was beaten in coverage on several throws as well.

Line: Having Bak and EnG back is "nice" but certainly they have not provided the impact expected; both remain in recovery and thus they are limited, penalties result along with marginal blocking . The other OL have played marginal to Fair at best throughout the year, up and down, on and off.

The offensive line has been improved in pass protection over the past few games as it seems Bakhtiari and Jenkins are getting healthy.

Defense: Line has played solid, LB up and down but generally OK, back of the Defense, especially yesterday they had NO CLUE what they were supposed to do.

I don't agree the defensive line has been solid this season.

Questions are: what do you do to fix the problem with little $ flexibility and what do you take in draft to fill major holes?

The Packers could create enough cap space to make moves next offseason if they want to.

Got to give a lot of credit to Tannehill. He was very accurate with his passing.

I would have been able to complete some of those throws considering how open hos receivers were.

I'm hoping we keep #33 for another year or two because he has been the face of this franchise as far as consistent weapons. He's one of the few guys that really deserves another small extension if he keeps it reasonable $

Just for the record, Jones is under contract for another two seasons after this one. The Packers will need to restructure his deal to hold on to him as there's no point of having him count $20 million towards the cap in 2023.

By my count (and I'm probably off a bit because I'm angry) 25 short passes, 11 deep. 5.8 yards on average. 19 rushes (avg 2.9 y/c). Stats and depth of target from ESPN.

I'd assume the short passes are at or near the line of scrimmage or within about 5-7 yards. So our GENIUS offensive guru coach and HOF QB decide to throw into the teeth of this defense instead of attacking a poor secondary with deeper throws. Maybe we have a different ballgame if they threw deep (>10 yards) half a dozen or so more times. Make it make sense. Tannehill scorched our vaunted secondary with 333 yards throwing and 12.3 avg.

I expected to see the Packers take advantage of this matchup by throwing deeper and exposing their weaknesses. But nope. This team doesn't take advantage of matchup opportunities and lost as a result.

Rodgers threw for more than 10 yards in the air on a higher percentage against the Titans (17 of 37, 45.9%) compared to the rest of the season (98 of 310, 31.6%).

Aside of the two touchdown passes to Watson they didn't have more success doing it though.

 

[PikeBadger]

The defense features a lot of talented players. Unfortunately it seems Barry has no idea how to use them to field a good unit.



Jason Vrable is the receivers coach. With him having held that position since 2020 I'm not sure he's the one to blame as he has had success the past two years. Unfortunately he has been dealt a terrible hand by Gutekunst for this year.



The Titans didn't offer a whole lot on short throws or runs though. The Packers gained an average of only 3.72 yards on 39 attempts of throws under 10 yards or rushing attempts.



Douglas made a great play on the interception but other than that was beaten in coverage on several throws as well.




The offensive line has been improved in pass protection over the past few games as it seems Bakhtiari and Jenkins are getting healthy.



I don't agree the defensive line has been solid this season.



The Packers could create enough cap space to make moves next offseason if they want to.



I would have been able to complete some of those throws considering how open hos receivers were.



Just for the record, Jones is under contract for another two seasons after this one. The Packers will need to restructure his deal to hold on to him as there's no point of having him count $20 million towards the cap in 2023.



Rodgers threw for more than 10 yards in the air on a higher percentage against the Titans (17 of 37, 45.9%) compared to the rest of the season (98 of 310, 31.6%).

Aside of the two touchdown passes to Watson they didn't have more success doing it though.

Yeah, I'm sure you could with NFL defensive linemen bearing down you, And you could also hit 90% of your field goals and kick through the end zone every time on a 25 degree night.

 

[Half Empty]

Yeah, I'm sure you could with NFL defensive linemen bearing down you, And you could also hit 90% of your field goals and kick through the end zone every time on a 25 degree night.

Pretty sure I couldn't, but, then again, nobody is paying me many millions to do so.

 

[gopkrs]

Jason Vrable is the receivers coach. With him having held that position since 2020 I'm not sure he's the one to blame as he has had success the past two years. Unfortunately he has been dealt a terrible hand by Gutekunst for this year.

I see receivers running routes that end up having one guy deep blanketed and all the rest in the same general area. Nobody seems to know how to break off a route when they are completely covered. Nobody seems to look for the holes on field. Players on 3rd down constantly stop for a reception in front of the 1st down mark. The object on those plays is not to be able to go for it on 4th down. And the past had DaVante as the security blanket and so we did not worry about these things and did not pay attention. I don't know anything about Vrable but I don't see things that are impressive. Doesn't he have input into routes they run? He certainly has responsibility in how they run the routes.

 

[milani]

I see receivers running routes that end up having one guy deep blanketed and all the rest in the same general area. Nobody seems to know how to break off a route when they are completely covered. Nobody seems to look for the holes on field. Players on 3rd down constantly stop for a reception in front of the 1st down mark. The object on those plays is not to be able to go for it on 4th down. And the past had DaVante as the security blanket and so we did not worry about these things and did not pay attention. I don't know anything about Vrable but I don't see things that are impressive. Doesn't he have input into routes they run? He certainly has responsibility in how they run the routes.

Despite the departures of Adams, EQ, and Scantling we had a bad preseason and training camp. The staff did not get this team prepared to play this season. They went in riding the laurels of the past. A lesson learned for Gute, MLF, and Murphy. Why is it that the headlines in the summer of 67 said that Lombardi was running through camp like a raving tyrant? Because he knew staying at the top took a lot more than just riding the wave. And he faced a serious loss of players before and during that season just as this team has.

 

[GreenNGold_81]

Rodgers threw for more than 10 yards in the air on a higher percentage against the Titans (17 of 37, 45.9%) compared to the rest of the season (98 of 310, 31.6%).

Aside of the two touchdown passes to Watson they didn't have more success doing it though.

Aside from the plays that help us win the game, they didn't have success... k.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Yeah, I'm sure you could with NFL defensive linemen bearing down you, And you could also hit 90% of your field goals and kick through the end zone every time on a 25 degree night.

You need to loosen up a bit. It should have been pretty obvious I wasn't serious about it. Just wanted to point out that Tannehill had open receivers to throw to all game long.

I see receivers running routes that end up having one guy deep blanketed and all the rest in the same general area. Nobody seems to know how to break off a route when they are completely covered. Nobody seems to look for the holes on field. Players on 3rd down constantly stop for a reception in front of the 1st down mark. The object on those plays is not to be able to go for it on 4th down. And the past had DaVante as the security blanket and so we did not worry about these things and did not pay attention. I don't know anything about Vrable but I don't see things that are impressive. Doesn't he have input into routes they run? He certainly has responsibility in how they run the routes.

Honestly I don't know how much Vrable is to blame for the receivers shortcomings this season either. Just wanted to point out that he had done a decent job the first two seasons as their position coach.

Aside from the plays that help us win the game, they didn't have success... k.

My point was that Rodgers didn't complete a higher percentage of passes nor did he throw for more yards per attempt on throws 10 yards down the field against the Titans than he did against the rest of the opponents this season.

 

[milani]

You need to loosen up a bit. It should have been pretty obvious I wasn't serious about it. Just wanted to point out that Tannehill had open receivers to throw to all game long.



Honestly I don't know how much Vrable is to blame for the receivers shortcomings this season either. Just wanted to point out that he had done a decent job the first two seasons as their position coach.



My point was that Rodgers didn't complete a higher percentage of passes nor did he throw for more yards per attempt on throws 10 yards down the field against the Titans than he did against the rest of the opponents this season.

Tannehill indeed did have wide open receivers. So wide open that even his bad throws were caught. And it was not like we had to cover Jefferson, Julio Jones, or Tony Gonzalez. Our guys were not ready for this one and did not execute. Neither did our coaching staff. But on the Titan side it was quite the opposite.

 

[Mondio]

Such a change from last year. Last year, passes had to be on to be completed and when they were, they were tackled immediately for the most part. This year, we're back to what we've seen so often. Guys running wide open, nobody around, and pretty much at will for the offense. 3rd and 2 or 3rd and 22, you can almost count on us leaving someone running wide open somewhere. Just protect a bit and find them.

 

[MadCat]

Such a change from last year. Last year, passes had to be on to be completed and when they were, they were tackled immediately for the most part. This year, we're back to what we've seen so often. Guys running wide open, nobody around, and pretty much at will for the offense. 3rd and 2 or 3rd and 22, you can almost count on us leaving someone running wide open somewhere. Just protect a bit and find them.

The bad offensive play is not all that surprising. This, on the other hand, is the biggest disappointment on the season. Despite all the investment and all the hype, the results are falling pretty short.

 

[PackerDNA]

Although coaching and the front office have their part in this debacle, I believe we all overestimated the true talent and ability of this defense. The talent "on paper" and "potential "do not match the performance and results on the field.