Game 1: Packers @ Vikings - Sunday, September 11th 3:25 CT

[CheezWizHed]

3 hours ago, homer said:

Love looked pretty good. Start him

Yeah, but not perfect... he had that one really short pass go incomplete...

[CheezWizHed]

3 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Called it.

Yeah, I'm here scatching my head because this has gone on for years.  Predates MLF with MM also.  The starters get little to no preseason game time and come out flat and looking like they don't have a clue.  A game or two in, they look good again and everyone is R-E-L-A-Xed.  

But why do other teams come out looking sharp while we look like we are cutting down the tallest tree in the forest with a herring?  I don't get it. 

11-5 rest of the way. 

[CheezWizHed]

3 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

This offensive line is garbage.

Still would've rather seen Tom at RT and Hansen on the bench. Tom did look good when he got in at LG. 

[SeaBass]

2 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Or maybe Gute should've had the foresight to see that losing Davante after his contract was up was a real possibility and drafted one of those wide receivers in the first round in that rich WR draft instead of using it on a backup quarterback.

I'll take irrelevant gripes from three seasons ago for 200 Alex.

[Fear The Chorizo]

But why do other teams come out looking sharp while we look like we are cutting down the tallest tree in the forest with a herring?  I don't get it. 

Much is made about this being tied to MLF and preseason preparation...I think it has much more to do with #12 and the preseason preparation he goes through each year at this stage in his career - plenty of NFL teams play their starters very little or not at all in the preseason.  I think there's something different with how Rodgers goes about his offseason and training camp that just doesn't help the roster gel on the offensive side of the ball.  Much is made about the young receivers and Watson's drop on the 1st play was crushing...but last year the Packers' O looked even worse against the Saints with both Adams and Lazard playing along with a healthier O-line.

2020 was really the one season I can remember recently where the Packers hit the ground running and were in sync offensively from jump on Week 1 - that was the COVID year with no fans and basically no training camp/preseason all over the league...plus it was the year Love got drafted and Rodgers suddenly looked like the player he was 5 years prior.

 

 

 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

11 hours ago, Sixtolezcano said:

9-8 no playoffs. Guetty not signing any FA receivers or OL is similar to Stearns not signing or trading for any batting help.

I sorta get the feeling this mirrors what your prediction is every year LOL

This is a playoff team. They looked like crap yesterday. If they start 0-3, then be worried. But a one-game hiccup where they looked like they were playing a pre-season game for three quarters? Nah.

[CheezWizHed]

7 hours ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Much is made about this being tied to MLF and preseason preparation...

Yes, I also mentioned this predates MLF to MM's era also.  I think Rodgers figures he is more ready than the actually is...  Just can't duplicated game speed decision making.

[SeaBass]

Yesterday was bad, no getting around it. However it was a road loss to a tough division rival that has an absolute monster of a WR. While Cousins takes some flack he's an above average QB that is capable of leading that team to a win against any team in the league.

The defense played better in the 2nd half, I'm not sure if that's due to the Vikings shifting to a more conservative strategy because of their lead or not but the Packers had their chances to get back into the game. The offense just wasn't able to find any consistency. Way too early to hit the panic button.

[homer]

Packers beat the Vikings on the road in the opener in 2020. Packers beat the Bears on the road in the opener in 2019. Packers beat the Bears at home in the opener in 2018.

 

There is some recency bias going on here.

[yourout]

11 minutes ago, homer said:

Packers beat the Vikings on the road in the opener in 2020. Packers beat the Bears on the road in the opener in 2019. Packers beat the Bears at home in the opener in 2018.

 

There is some recency bias going on here.

Look at the 1st halfs of those games.

[NBBrewFan]

I fully expected what happened yesterday to happen and I didn't even bother to watch the game.  Still think this is a 12/13 win team.  If the defense takes a step forward (I am not expecting top 3, but top 10) then they have the horses to make a run at a Super Bowl. I just wish there was a little bit of the desire of Brady/Belichick where they want to win every game/scrimmage/even the time outs.

[homer]

I feel like things improved when Tom came in.

[GAME05]

1 hour ago, NBBrewFan said:

If the defense takes a step forward (I am not expecting top 3, but top 10) then they have the horses to make a run at a Super Bowl.

Barring major injury losses I don't see any reason not to expect this defense to be a Top 3. We've got a shutdown corner opposite a second-year guy, good DL with a first-rounder to improve our usually-bad up-the-middle run defense, and another 1st round LB to improve that unit. Certainly we could pick out guys who could be better, but as a whole it's a great unit and any final result outside of the Top 3 I will conclude is sub-par coaching.

[PeaveyFury]

18 hours ago, CdrbrgMark said:

Possjble good game on NBC tonight, TB at Dallas.

No, no it was not.

[Fear The Chorizo]

3 hours ago, homer said:

Packers beat the Vikings on the road in the opener in 2020. Packers beat the Bears on the road in the opener in 2019. Packers beat the Bears at home in the opener in 2018.

 

There is some recency bias going on here.

in 2020, nobody played any preseason games and there was barely any training camp, so there wasn't any advantage/disadvantage across the league for how different teams ran their camps or prepped for the regular season.  Also, no fans in the stands made it incredibly easy for a veteran QB to make play adjustments at the line and dictate offensive tempo - and the start of 2020 probably was the best Packers' Oline in recent years, with both a healthy Bakh and Jenkins.  That has very much so been the outlier for week 1 offensive performances by the Packers.

That 2018 game against the Bears, the Packers came out awful and were lucky Rodgers didn't get his season ended with a knee injury in the 1st half.  The Bears wound up being a pretty good team in 2018, but were exposed as posers in 2019 - GB won that week 1 game at Chicago but it was a defensive struggle and the offense really didn't do anything noteable.  I think Amos actually sealed the win with a pick in the endzone towards the end of the game.  Packers won a hard-fought 2017 week 1 game at home against Seattle, but didn't score until the 2nd half.  Packers barely won 2016 week 1 in Jax, won while playing decently in Chi in 2015 against a bad Bears team, and got smoked on the road at Seattle to open 2014. 

It's just 1 week - and the Packers have proven to bounce back over the years after rough early season starts....however it's been a trend that the Packers get off to uneven, slow starts in September.

[homer]

So they usually win the opener, just by not as many points as they should have?  I'd be curious to know how they stack up against the rest of the league in terms of "starting slow". Case in point: Buffalo lost to Pittsburgh in the opener last year. Buccaneers lost their opener in 2020. The Bengals won in OT in week 1 and lost to the Bears in week 2 last year. 

If you want to make the argument that they save their best players early so they have them late, or you want to say that week 1 in the league is usually a little sloppy that's one thing (or two things), but it's another to say the coach doesn't have them "ready to play".

[homer]

Anyway, back to the game itself...what the heck was Amos doing on this play?

 

[GAME05]

Wow, both deep WRs were wide open on that play. Not just Amos, but both safeties needed to step up about five yards to meet the receiver once they got past the LBs clearly playing zone. Instead they dropped back five yards for seemingly no reason. They were both good for absolutely nothing on that play.

[Fear The Chorizo]

but it's another to say the coach doesn't have them "ready to play".

I didn't say that - I think it is a combination of the organization's approach to the preseason and moreso #12's approach to the offseason/preseason.  With the exception of the 2020 season, the Packers have consistently been a poor offensive team over the 1st month of games, and I think that's more on #12 taking a few weeks to get up to speed with what he has to work with on offense in game situations than what the staff does in training camp or frankly in game planning. For better or worse, this is how the Packers ease into a regular season with a veteran QB and evolving offensive roster that has had a significant amount of turnover on the line and at various skill positions - we as fans just need to temper the expectations of getting off to a fast/expected start.

defensively, the Packers made a bunch of errors that led to huge plays setting up or directly leading to the Vikings scoring - but there were also flashes of the talent on that side of the ball...those type of errors are going to happen to most teams early in the season.  The game wasn't competitive yesterday because the Packers' offense spent 2.5 quarters watching its signal caller yelling at everyone on the sideline like an old man ticked people were on his grass, and couldn't provide enough big plays of their own to make it interesting.  I do think the game would've unfolded much differently had Watson just caught that first deep pass - even if he tripped on his own feet and didn't score.  That just deflated the whole sideline and set things up for another zombie-like week 1.

[Sixtolezcano]

13 hours ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

I sorta get the feeling this mirrors what your prediction is every year LOL

This is a playoff team. They looked like crap yesterday. If they start 0-3, then be worried. But a one-game hiccup where they looked like they were playing a pre-season game for three quarters? Nah.

I don’t think so dude. I had them at 12-5 last year and a loss in the NFC championship game. You must have me confused with someone else.That’s OK. 
 

i base my prediction on Bak not returning to Pro-Bowl form and Jenkins taking several games to come back along with a post- ACL slower recovery. TheirWR situation doesn’t look good and finally age ( and his frustration with young WR) catching up with Aaron.

Defensively, with Walker and Wyatt acclimating to NFL speed they should be better…but not top 10 with Joe Berry as the DC.

 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

10 hours ago, Sixtolezcano said:

I don’t think so dude. I had them at 12-5 last year and a loss in the NFC championship game. You must have me confused with someone else.That’s OK. 
 

i base my prediction on Bak not returning to Pro-Bowl form and Jenkins taking several games to come back along with a post- ACL slower recovery. TheirWR situation doesn’t look good and finally age ( and his frustration with young WR) catching up with Aaron.

Defensively, with Walker and Wyatt acclimating to NFL speed they should be better…but not top 10 with Joe Berry as the DC.

 

That just seems like an extremely pessimistic look at the team. They didn't have Bahk all season, and Jenkins missed a good chunk of the the year, and they were fine, so anything they add this year is a bonus. Also, this team hasn't missed a beat offensively when Adams has been hurt in the past. Yes, father time is undefeated, and it will eventually get Rodgers, but I didn't see anything on Sunday that indicated his physical skills were deteriorating. 

But its the NFL. Of course they could falter. But IMO, unless they have some sort of catastrophic injury issue, they are still the team to beat in the North. The Vikings have talent, but very rarely do new coaches come in and set the world on fire. And Kirk Cousins is still Kirk Cousins. The Bears and Lions, despite looking somewhat competitive in Week 1, I likely once again dumpster fires.