Divisional Round: Packers @ 49ers - Saturday, Jan 20th 7:15pm (Fox)

[Fear The Chorizo]

Bottom line is the defense played well but didn't make a couple game changing plays on the gimme INTs Purdy threw them....and then when it mattered most it felt like the Dline ran out of gas with the pass rush.

And, Love/the offense played terribly in the 4th quarter besides the big Jones run - some of it is conservative playcalling, but he was throwing behind receivers in the middle of the field and that last INT was a brutal decision.  Tough conditions to throw the ball in, no doubt - but the decisions just have to be better, too.

Yeah, kicker's gotta make 40 yard field goals and that sucks, too - but the Packers had multiple opportunities to go up two scores in both halves of football and couldn't find a way to make those plays against a team that wasn't just going to hand it to them.  young team playing on the road an all, and next season looks much more promising than it did back in October....but it also stings losing a game which they should have won.  This game felt a bit like a more tempered version of the NFC Championship game loss at Seattle - can't capitalize early and take a big lead, then offense whithers a bit when they could have salted the game away in the 4th quarter.

[GAME05]

Love will force it anywhere when he thinks he absolutely has to complete a pass. Nobody close to open and it was a prayer of a pass when one wasn't needed yet.  But ultimately this was 4th and 1, and too many field goals inside the 20.

[yourout]

2 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Love's last throw is very concerning to me. I'm going to try not to read into it all spring and summer but good grief was that stupid. You're at the 40 with 2 timeouts. 40 seconds is an eternity and you're down by 3, albeit your kicker is useless. 

That was a horrific throw and he was horrendous in the 2nd half. If that is what we're going to get on a game winning drive, yikes. 

That was arguably the worst throw of his career.

[Sixtolezcano]

5 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

They just played two of the Top 3 offenses in football and they gave up an inflated 32 points to the Cowboys (honestly a solid performance) and 24 to the 49ers….on the road. Heck his dudes should have caught two INTs today.

I don’t know…I get Barry has been the guy to blame for years…but this seems like an odd time to bang that drum.

Maybe the blame could be hung on another missed kick by Anders Carlson. I truly hope that the FO doesn’t continue to remain pig-headed and bring a couple of kickers into training camp and compete for the position next summer.

[jason21nl]

3 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Love's last throw is very concerning to me. I'm going to try not to read into it all spring and summer but good grief was that stupid. You're at the 40 with 2 timeouts. 40 seconds is an eternity and you're down by 3, albeit your kicker is useless. 

That was a horrific throw and he was horrendous in the 2nd half. If that is what we're going to get on a game winning drive, yikes. 

What pisses me off about it is he’s been in that same situation multiple times this year.  He should have learned from the previous times.  God I’m so pissed off at that throw.  

[adambr2]

I'm trying not to let it define him or read too much into it but Love absolutely choked in the 4th. I can't think of one good throw he made in the final quarter trying to put the game away. He was wildly missing on 3rd down check downs that were honestly big plays.

 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Just now, adambr2 said:

I'm trying not to let it define him or read too much into it but Love absolutely choked in the 4th. I can't think of one good throw he made in the final quarter trying to put the game away. He was wildly missing on 3rd down check downs that were honestly big plays.

 

He sucked.  Unfortunately for him, so did their guy but we didn't catch his mistakes so nobody will remember them. 

But Love was terrible. 

[HarveysWBs]

7 minutes ago, yourout said:

And for as good as he's been the last few games that fourth quarter will certainly not bringing back comparisons to Brady, 

Never know what a guy really is until you see the postseason pressure on them. Not a good first introduction.

[wOOgiE22]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

I'm trying not to let it define him or read too much into it but Love absolutely choked in the 4th. I can't think of one good throw he made in the final quarter trying to put the game away. He was wildly missing on 3rd down check downs that were honestly big plays.

 

Don’t know if the moment got too big for him and got tight. Hopefully he learns from this going forward. Time will tell, but I still think the future is bright for him. 

[jason21nl]

1 minute ago, HarveysWBs said:

Never know what a guy really is until you see the postseason pressure on them. Not a good first introduction.

He was solid until the pick on the tipped ball.  Then everything changed.   
 

I hated the play call after Jones long run.  I hate not taking points.  I hate losing to these guys.  I’m so damn sick of it.  

[HarveysWBs]

Best case scenario, it’s a blip, he gets better, and this fourth quarter performance knocked a few mil off his asking price…

[Sixtolezcano]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

I'm trying not to let it define him or read too much into it but Love absolutely choked in the 4th. I can't think of one good throw he made in the final quarter trying to put the game away. He was wildly missing on 3rd down check downs that were honestly big plays.

 

Love needed to check down and call short passes with TE or WR leaking out toward the sideline when he could see them sell out with an all out pass rush. I still think a LT is still the number 1 need in the draft.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I think Love will be a multiple time all pro but probably throw stupid passes like that forever and the Packers will keep doing this good but not championship thing that they do because, well, it is just what the Packers do. 

And I'm sure Anders will be sucking for them next season as well. 

[adambr2]

I also had zero faith in Anders connecting from 41. I was hoping to get 5 or 6 to justify going for it because that's how badly I didn't want to see an Anders Carlson FG attempt. 

[HarveysWBs]

3 minutes ago, jason21nl said:

He was solid until the pick on the tipped ball.  Then everything changed.   
 

I hated the play call after Jones long run.  I hate not taking points.  I hate losing to these guys.  I’m so damn sick of it.  

I’d quibble with calling him “solid”—he missed quite a few throws he can and should make before that.  And in a game this close, all of those are killers, not just the picks.

He was so unconscious going into this, I’m trying not to overreact here.  In a sense, he played well enough to win this game, but not nearly as well as he can and should play.

But I completely agree with your sentiment on losing this game, to that team. I’m done with that, and don’t want to see this movie anymore. They need to get this monkey off their back, and it’s starting to feel like they may never do it. I might not watch the next time we draw them in the postseason. It’s probably better for my health.

[HarryDoyle]

I'm not worried about Love being this guy his entire career. He was a first year starter and I'm confident he'll learn from this and MLF will coach him up as well.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Love sucked. It is what it is. He was fire for 9 weeks or whatever and then tonight he sucked.  It's a single game so it's silly to define it as this or that but sports are fickle and if he has a game like that next year those sentiments will grow louder.  

[ReverendBrewmeister]

11 minutes ago, HarveysWBs said:

Never know what a guy really is until you see the postseason pressure on them. Not a good first introduction.

True. Favre had a couple initial playoff seasons end in Divisional Round losses at Dallas before he and the team cleared that hurdle. Ended up ok for him; may very well do so for Love. If the flavor of playoff success followed by the nasty aftertaste of losing a game late makes him and the team hungry, the Packers should be in a good position going forward.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Defenses like San Fran give most offenses fits - they play sound zone with incredible linebackers and have plenty of pass rush with their d line.  The frustrating part is the Packers were probably one more big play away from beating a team considered a juggernaut on their home field and they spit the bit on multiple opportunities to make that play.  It's tough right now to remember how far they've progressed since around the  bronco game loss midseason.

 

MLF had a poor game calling plays inside the red zone tonight, too.  That TD on the fake bubble screen was sweet, but they couldn't do anything once they got inside the 15 and the field couldn't get stretched out.

[HarveysWBs]

4 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I think Love will be a multiple time all pro but probably throw stupid passes like that forever and the Packers will keep doing this good but not championship thing that they do because, well, it is just what the Packers do. 

And I'm sure Anders will be sucking for them next season as well. 

This is exactly my worst fear right now. All this good news means we soon get back to being exactly what we were for the last twenty years: an offensive-minded organization that can run up gaudy win totals in the regular season but forgets to account for the fact that we play in sloppy outdoor conditions in the postseason, especially with homefield advantage, and will never play complete performances against the top-flight opponents in January.

This is like something Dante would imagine for a circle of Hell, or the ancient Greeks to punish hubris. How much better is it really to be a Packers fan than a team that only makes the playoffs once in a while but doesn’t have to feel entitled or beat any expectations? How many times do we have to roll that cursed boulder up that blasted hill and get crushed by it right before the top?

[MrTPlush]

Jordan Love has got to hold some kind of record for game ending choke job INTs in a season. Nearly every time that dude had the ball in his hands and had to make things happen with his arm, he flat out reached to the bottom of the barrel to throw the worst pass imaginable. It’s like, 10 year old playing Madden type IQ.

That being said his decision making in general improved a lot as the season went on. I won’t lose it over a few drives where he reverted back to max stupidity and had throws only a giraffe with elastic arms could catch.

Is what it is. He got his year of development to get his feet wet. Time to find consistency, fend off the league figuring him out, and make better decisions at the end of games. Maybe he is the next Romo/Rivers/Predcott…time will tell. He does concern me a lot about never being able to be THAT guy…and instead just a solid pro bowl QB that can’t lead you anywhere

[yourout]

Now that they survived this game I fully expect the 49ers to easily walk past whoever they face next week.

Especially if they get debo back.

[yourout]

2 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

Jordan Love has got to hold some kind of record for game ending choke job INTs in a season. Nearly every time that dude had the ball in his hands and had to make things happen with his arm, he flat out reached to the bottom of the barrel to throw the worst pass imaginable. It’s like, 10 year old playing Madden type IQ.

That being said his decision making in general improved a lot as the season went on. I won’t lose it over a few drives where he reverted back to max stupidity and had throws only a giraffe with elastic arms could catch.

Is what it is. He got his year of development to get his feet wet. Time to find consistency, fend off the league figuring him out, and make better decisions at the end of games. Maybe he is the next Romo/Rivers/Predcott…time will tell. He does concern me a lot about never being able to be THAT guy…and instead just a solid pro bowl QB that can’t lead you anywhere

So you're saying he's the next Kirk cousins?

😁

[adambr2]

Funny how we went into this season turning the page....and the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. 

[Sixtolezcano]

What hurts is you just can’t let these opportunities pass. You just can’t count on getting to this point in the playoffs.Hopefully next year will end better, God knows were due for something positive happening in the playoffs.