Fear The Chorizo

Agreed - and I think that's a big part of why the offense seems so disjointed so far this season...it's like Rodgers forgot about the last two regular seasons of offensive production simply because Adams isn't in Green Bay anymore. That despite the fact the Packer offense played just fine in games without Adams the previous few seasons. One thing I really, really miss from the early McCarthy years on offense is how many different personnel groupings he'd send out during the course of a game, and have some really innovative playcalls from that to pick on a specific defender or area of the field they identified as a weak spot using different skill position players - it kept those Packer teams from being predictable, and also allowed a talented QB like Rodgers (who was still learning defenses) make plays on his own when things broke down/scramble drill. Rodgers isn't that guy anymore with a bit more limited mobility and a receiving corps that isn't nearly as experienced with what to do when a play breaks down. I think this Packers' offensive roster and MLF could do alot of the same things those 2009-2011 Packers teams did with varying personnel packages and having their personnel dictate what a defense can or can't do - but too much of the offense looks like Rodgers making changes at the line from predictable formations with receivers who aren't on the same page as #12 behind an O-line that just isn't playing well.

Maybe time to draft another QB in the 1st round to light another fire under him. I think I'd prefer giving the last 1st round QB they drafted, who's 3 years into the system, a shot at being the longterm answer before drafting another quarterback next year - that's all assuming this listless ship doesn't get turned around and everyone's pretty much on board with giving Rodgers a strong push towards walking into the sunset.

I can't fathom how the Packers only ran the ball 12 damn times yesterday in that game....Redskins spent most of the game in cover 2 with only 7 in the box and the Packers tried throwing 35 times into it and got killed in time of possession, wearing out their defense once again. I think Dillon is a bad fit in a system that that runs most of its plays out of the shotgun and has so much RPO built into it. He'd be better off in an I-formation, single back set, or even pistol set where it's more of a power running, downhill gameplan. Frankly the O-line and overall offensive personnel would probably be better to set up in more power formations with two TEs and two receivers - go run heavy and rely on play action to get receivers open. I'm guessing too much of this past offseason was spent trying to figure out personnel groupings to get both Dillon and Jones on the field together or be interchangeable parts of the offense instead of designing varied personnel groupings to compliment each back individually when they were on the field - and it's turned the running game into being an afterthought and the passing game into what looks like a D3 college spread scheme.

To me, the offensive woes have to start upfront with the line - if you can't block anyone consistently without penalties you can't run anything in the passing game worth a darn no matter who's running routes for you. Some of it is personnel and injury-related, however I think a big problem also lies with the coaching staff upheaval this past offseason that saw their OC and QB coaches leave to other teams, then saw the internal promotion of their Oline coach to OC. Stenavich was great in his role as Oline coach, but I'm sure he isn't as involved with that position group in the OC role. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of blame for MLF putting together shoddy gameplans and frankly being terrible this season at making in-game adjustments with playcalling and scheme....and Rodgers looks much like he did during the 2019 season when there was plenty of reason to draft a QB in the 1st round in 2020 (Hello Jordan). As for the defense, there's just no consistency and there are continued coverage gaffs that lead to big plays and 3rd down conversions that keep them on the field too damn long. They aren't a sieve, but they seem to shoot themselves in the foot far too much to become the strength of this roster that frankly needs them to be elite based on draft pick use and contracts. I think Quay is going to become a really good linebacker but he's a rookie - having Savage making bad coverage mistakes right behind him gives teams too many options in the middle of the field to make plays. Then, having soft zone coverage on too many plays based on the Barry scheme is going to let decent quarterbacks carve them up. Just alot going wrong and not really anything going right this season.

At least Hader will be well-rested for his arbitration hearing

Since returning Bakh really hasn't played well (not terrible but far from great), and he definitely isn't playing physical at the point of attack on running plays. Rust could definitely be an issue, hoping it's not ongoing issues with the knee after a few weeks of gameday stress on it.

The Padres had what was considered a crazy loaded farm system for the better part of the last decade, and it allowed them to bring in a ton of talent as they've also skyrocketed their payroll for this window to try and win a ring. They pretty much have to take this approach because they're in the same division as the Dodgers. Having the setup they have with the City of San Diego and surrounding development revenues around Petco and non-baseball events they host does make a significant difference in terms of consistent $'s coming in the door, too. People talk about San Diego being sandwiched in geographically because of Mexico and LA....I think they've embraced that geography and really do appeal to mexican fanbases who live in that area. That may not count in terms of TV advertising revenue/market size, but it definitely helps with marketability in that part of the country. I'd argue the Brewers are much more boxed in geographically in terms of market size - Chicago is due south and they really share 1/2 of their home state's area with the neighboring Twins once you get west of Wausau. I'm still fine with the Brewers trading Hader, even though I was long a proponent of taking things year to year with him and either trading him at next year's deadline if they weren't contending, or just letting him leave in FA after getting 6 awesome years of prime HOF-caliber production from his left arm as a Brewer. Had they not traded Hader, I don't think it would've moved the needle much at all in terms of their 2022 postseason chances...and I think the return they got for him was really good because I like both Ruiz and Gasser longterm. My only issue with the trade itself was if they simply included Lamet as salary relief for the Padres, they should have either balked at that or asked for another prospect in the minors.

That's a lot of draft capital for a guy with a contract that carries a decent cap hit for the 49ers the next 3 seasons who hasn't been able to get through half a season healthy since 2019 - boom or bust sort of move, especially considering the fact Jimmy G is still their quarterback and the 49ers have to find cap space to resign Bosa pretty soon.

It is when factoring what type of house you get. A $300K mortgage at 3% would be roughly a monthly $1,250 loan payment for a 30 yr fixed. That's where that rate was about 1 year ago. Now with that rate much closer to 7%, the same $300K mortgage on a 30 yr fixed basis would cost someone about $2,000 a month. To get the same monthly mortgage payment with a 7% loan vs 3%, the same buyer needs to find a home $190K less in value to move into, which for most housing markets is an entirely different type of property in terms of location/size/etc. You can't really refinance until rates get back down to a level that makes sense to do so....and also when your home value gives you enough equity to justify a refi - assuming home values decline and it takes a significant amount of time for mortgage rates to actually drop, new mortgage holders may be stuck with a much pricier loan alot longer than what makes any sort of financial sense.

If you're looking to downsize, or move from a market with higher real estate values to one with lower, and if you've got a significant amount of equity in the place you already own, it's not a bad time to sell and make a move. Now is a terrible time for 1st time homebuyers and people looking to upsize their home in the same area due to a growing family and for people with minimal equity who would need a new mortgage.

And then Ruiz managed to hit 0.329 with an almost 0.900 OPS in Nashville in roughly 40 games after being traded to the Brewers, and some of Frelick's stats for 2022 came in high A to start the season. Frelick is the better prospect at this point in their careers, to be sure....but Ruiz is no slouch, either and I think is getting unfairly diminished as part of a trade that sent Hader packing.

Ruiz was said to have very low exit velocity. Like 84MPH? Maybe up to 86? Now I dunno if that includes balls he put in to play off bunts and he bunted a lot to eschew the EV. Yes, bunted balls factor into overall exit velocity, so that skews Ruiz's #'s heavily in that regard. For fun, let's look at two players' 2022 minor league stats between AA-AAA levels of competition: Player A: 22.5 yrs old CF PA 562 BA .331 HR 11 OBP 0.403 SLG 0.480 SB 24 K 63 BB 52 Player B: 23.5 yrs old CF/2B PA 541 BA .332 HR 16 OBP 0.447 SLG 0.526 SB 85 K94 BB66 One of them is Frelick, an unquestioned top-line prospect who most all of us are clamoring to to open up next season as a starting OF in Milwaukee. The other is Ruiz, who apparently is an afterthought despite having a better statistical season than Frelick at a very similar age. Ruiz + Gasser is the value returned in the Hader trade....not Rogers/Lamet. Rogers was acquired as a 1 season bullpen placeholder to fill a roster spot and Lamet must've been added to offset salaries. The MLB portion of the Hader trade sucked from the Brewers' perspective but wasn't the reason they missed the playoffs this year - the prospects they got back from the Padres are much more valuable to the organization than what 1.5 years of Hader would have been, which is why that trade happened. If there was a way to root for Hader to succeed on this postseason run while also rooting against the Padres I would....the Padres knocked off the Dodgers so there's at least that, and they did so without their PED-laden SS, but they've obviously gone all-in to make a run and it's just impossible for me to root for a team with Machado on its roster.

Yeah, at this point I think Jenkins needs to get back at LG to try and solidify some part of the line, then start shuffling personnel on the right side until something works better than being awful. In general, the line is doing a terrible job at picking up stunts in pass protection- and that's not just on the line interior...I saw multiple plays where both Jenkins and Bakh blocked their guy down towards the middle but then didn't disengage and bounce out to pick up a stunt going back out around them. That may be rust/poor technique but I also wonder if they don't have the lateral strength back in their knees yet to to make that type of movement very well.

Really curious why Jones was barely part of the game today - even passing or screens. Couple times Jones looked a bit shook up on the sidelines, and he did get popped a few times early on in the game....but then there were also a few series where the offense ran onto the field with Jones, only to have Dillon run on and sub him out before a play even got ran - it was pretty weird, especially when it was obvious the line couldn't pass protect to save their life.

draped on him because he pulled himself back into position using Lazard's jersey, otherwise he was burned

when they prevent catches, then yes those penalties called properly do help a bit

I've seen Bakhtiari standing by himself and playing with his elbow guard 5 yards in the backfield at the end of plays more than him blocking this game. This offensive line is a joke right now - Jets have some players upfront but what was supposed to be a strength of this Packer team is anything but.

With that thumb I kind of think Love would be a better option, tbh

special teams block party

That's a crazy good throw and catch...would be nice to not have to make insanely good plays to just move the chains every now and then

Also, line up and run the damn ball

the right side of the Packers O line is a trainwreck...get Jenkins back at left guard, move Runyan to right guard and get someone else to play RT

We may just be looking at things a bit differently because there's value in renewables where appropriate, they're just not going to be able to replace fossil fuels on a macro/global scale unless the focus is on personal vehicles only. Get EV use of personal vehicles in the US up to 50% and it would still not be close to the total amount of energy required for overall transportation and construction energy needs for this country alone - planes, ships, freight (truck and rail), and all sorts of heavy equipment still need diesel/jet fuel/oil/etc. I saw Pepsi ordered a bunch of EV trucks that it will be able to use between its distribution centers equipped with charging stations that will be able to have make routine trips back and forth - those trucks are now a couple thousand pounds over highway limits when fully loaded because of the battery weight but they're allowed to do so because they're EVs. Scale that up to a majority of semi trucks and then road construction needs to be dramatically re-engineered. Concrete and asphalt pavement happen to require a ton of fossil fuels for building materials or energy to recycle/construct. Solar power in northern climates require alot more O&M than people realize, particularly for utility-scale developments - plus solar intensity is diminished 6 months of the year because of the sun being on the wrong side of the equator, requiring larger panel arrays to generate the same amount of energy than if it was constructed further to the south. Also, snow and ice cover can both prevent panels from generating energy and damage them. There needs to be a ton of regulatory pressure on how to manage solar panel waste so it's actually recycled instead of landfilled or incinerated if there's actually a significant environmental benefit. Mining and manufacturing of the panel aren't eco-friendly and generate their own toxic waste streams that need to be dealt with. Once panel arrays are constructed and generating electricity, they're pretty benign and very eco-friendly until they stop working. Solar panels don't last forever, and frankly haven't been used long enough on a utility scale for their waste streams to become a concern, but that's right around the corner. Right now just throwing the voltaic cells in a landfill or waste a ton of energy incinerating them after stripping the aluminum frame and electrical wiring off it is the preferred method because it's a ton cheaper than trying to separate and reuse those materials in new panel manufacturing. Not reusing that voltaic cell material means more of it is needed from mining when making new cells. https://cen.acs.org/environment/recycling/Solar-panels-face-recycling-challenge-photovoltaic-waste/100/i18#:~:text=PV panels contain toxic materials,these resources are mostly wasted.

First you have to make alternative energy to be the cheaper option and convenient. And those two reasons are why renewables/green energy will always play second fiddle. They key is finding and developing something that can replace fossil fuels on a global scale, not just be a niche market in fully developed and wealthy countries who've farmed out much of their heavy manufacturing and mining needs overseas. I can see an alternative to fossil fuels that will become both cheaper and more convenient with further innovation in nuclear energy in the next century if it is allowed to happen. Hydrogen, as a fuel source, is one of those holy grail options if its industrial production can happen without using fossil fuels. Currently, most industrialized hydrogen production uses natural gas as an electrolysis fuel source and it's not a very efficient process. However, hydrogen could readily be made using the heat generated within nuclear reactors and the use of various catalysts to break down methane into hydrogen gas and solid carbon (solid carbon being a much more desireable and environmentally friendly by-product than CO2 or CO).

Otherwise, I don't know what to say. The political dilemma is that we need massive CO2 emissions reductions while not making people feel like the quality of life has been disrupted. So EVs it is. Until the two most populous countries feel like wanting to play the green energy game it frankly doesn't matter much. China currently has roughly 1,100 coal plants operating with more coming online, and India has 285 with many more in the works. US currently has about 240 plants and declining, at the moment. Huge populations and demand for energy are big factors for all that fossil fuel generating capacity, to be sure....but in the case of China so is the fact it's solidly the manufacturing capital of the world, and that includes most of the components used to actually generate green energy like solar panels, wind turbine components, batteries, etc. Transportation does indeed create CO2 emissions, and there are ways to at least keep that total amount constant across an increasing population by constantly improving ICE emissions and getting more EVs and other options on the road - but heavy manufacturing and construction industries lean on fossil fuel energy and will continue to do so longterm. I think a solid alternative may be to pursue increased nuclear generating capacity for manufacturing hubs.