Fear The Chorizo

The aspect of how atrocious special teams played today isn't just about the missed FG and muffed punts - many of the Packers' offensive drives started from inside their own 10 due to a combination of poor punt fielding but also nonexistent punt blocking by the coverage units to even give the Packers offense a chance to not be backed up. There were plenty of drives that stalled out after picking up 3-4 first downs that would've at least wound up in FG range if they were starting between the 20-30 yd line and not their own 5-10. Whether any FG's would've been made is up for a different discussion, unfortunately. There are hardly ever in-season coaching staff changes unless the head coach gets canned...but my lord after today's performance I don't see how you can't think about bringing in an entirely new special teams staff - that unit is bad enough to actually cost the Packers a playoff game where both their offense and defense plays well enough to win.

This whole Sunday pretty much proved the point that the teams with only 1 loss have no cakewalk to 14 win seasons. Sure seems like a year where the Packers could've used their bye about now and not still ~4 weeks from now. Injuries are all over the place right now and it's tough sorting out if this team is ever going to be close enough to full strength to deem it "healthy".

Maybe your expectations for backup QBs is too high? Heck, look across the field and Mahomes is an int away from having a worse stat line. What’s his excuse? To be fair, my expectation for a 1st round qb who's been preparing for 3 years is at least fairly high. Then next year we will see if Love's performance matches your expectations. This is his 2nd year and he didn't get a training camp his rookie season to gain any experience due to covid in 2020.

Love played better in his 1st start in his career than Rodgers played in his 1st start this season.

That's part of learning on the fly as an NFL starter....that defensive game plan doesn't work against him with more experience. It would also help having a healthy line to give any qb enough time to go through progressions. Love didn't play well enough to win, but he also didn't cause them to lose - thats on special teams.

When in doubt, go at King...

They are sending the house every play now

Need a random big play for a score...sick of driving 60 yards and then fizzle at the 35

Honestly, just don't even put anyone back there and as soon as the punt is off, all 11 guys need to run off the field to avoid a flag. that would honestly be better at this point

For as meh as Love has looked in his first NFL start (on the road in a stadium that is tough to win at no matter who you are), green bay would actually have the lead in this game if not for more putrid special teams.

Yeah, that dude is a s.t.u.d.

In retrospect, I really do wonder how much of the offseason 'I might retire' stuff was ACTUALLY related to this. I think you're onto something with this thought

I like the shirt....still hate that Rodgers is trying to retroactively justify his comments about this issue from a few months ago instead of owning that deceptive approach and apologizing for it, though... As an aside, whether some COVID-vaxxed people will admit it or not (myself included), I think part of the public shaming against people who are steadfast in their decision not to get vaccinated with at least the initial rendition of these vaccines comes from angst/fear of what longterm effects (even minor/trivial) may be an issue for COVID-vaccinated people and that some may wind up feeling like they made the wrong choice themselves - particularly now that it's pretty apparent these vaccines don't prevent viral transmission longterm, and people who have been vaxxed have to now weigh when/if they need to get booster shots when the push to try and administer them from health officials seems to be tied more to COVID's ~6 month seasonal peaks and valleys across various geographies than a more scientific approach of pushing widespread antibody testing for people to actually determine whether they should get another shot ASAP or wait awhile longer. It took multiple rollouts and several versions of the polio vaccine for it to be widely accepted by the general public over a much longer time period than the current ~8 months these vaccines have been widely available to most people, so this process isn't unique to COVID. In part due to that angst, it seems like whenever someone in the public arena opts to go against the grain of the established narrative, they are faced with undue scrutiny and villified for their personal choices by some people for the wrong reasons. I disagree with a good chunk of Rodgers' reasoning in that podcast yesterday - but I didn't hear anywhere where he was bashing people who did opt to get vaccinated.

How does he know that he's allergic to something that he's never had? Did he participate in some mRNA vaccine clinical? That's something I wondered as well. There are several ingredients used in the mRNA vaccines that are added to help the mRNA portion more readily gain entry into cells - various lipids along with salts and sucrose. Given the fact actual anaphalactic shock from a severe allergic reaction to these vaccines is roughly a couple instances for every 2-5 million individuals, I'd be willing to bet Rodgers saying he's allergic to something falls more in line with his likely beliefs of digestive issues/intolerance with something like sucrose because sugar can cause bloating. Stating you are allergic to some vaccine ingredients to me is probably about as misleading as saying you're immunized for COVID back in August despite not actually being vaccinated...

Gotta love the fact they just extended his contract into 2028, I believe....aside from 1 season where everything broke their way and they had an unbelievably soft schedule, he has done nothing to make their program markedly better than a big ten also ran. Badgers pansted and exposed them that year in MN, too.

Rodgers was by no means 100% right in whatever that rambling podcast was....but he also wasn't 100% wrong, either. Anyone expecting a guy who throws a football as a livelihood, no matter how enlightened or complicated he and/or anyone else thinks he is, to provide perfect clarity on the best way for everyone to navigate through a pandemic and come away in complete agreement probably needs to take a breath. I will say, the thing I thought was the nuttiest part of that interview was Rodgers referencing MLK's position on how to object to morally unjust rules in trying to draw comparisons to NFL COVID protocols. Pretty certain the rules MLK had in mind were a bit more unjust than making you take a daily COVID test, ARod... My problem remains with how he chose to sidestep this issue with a cryptic and intentionally misleading answer to that August presser question knowing it was the best way to avoid public scrutiny - and then all parties involved willfully abetting the perception he was vaccinated until they couldn't hide behind what a positive test meant for an unvaxxed player compared to a vaxxed one in terms of league protocols and how soon the reigning league MVP would be eligible to get back on a football field.

Not able to listen to all of it....but from what I've been able to listen to it sure sounds to me like he should've used a solid 10 minutes of his August presser to cover his COVID position publicly instead of using the entire time to play GM in front of the microphone - or he could've simply stated "it's none of your business" and dealt with the same gross public backlash other unvaxxed players and people now deal with on a daily basis. Had he done that I personally would have much more respect for where he's coming from right now. Instead, back in August when asked about as directly as the media could ask him, Rodgers chose to be clever and confusing about it and the NFL/Packers let him. If he was as certain and convicted in his COVID stance and choices he's made after apparently talking with his medical team then as he is now, there would've been no point to button up and not lay out everything publicly back in August - just like he did with all the commentary during that presser about GM personnel decisions and lack of his input. The Joe Rogan stuff probably has more to do with podcast advertising than anything....that name drop was in reference to following the same treatments Rogan did after he got COVID and he's apparently feeling pretty good. It's not like Rodgers' reason for opting not to get a vaccine was because Joe Rogan told him not to - he stated he was allergic to an ingredient found in both mRNA vaccines and he had hesitancy with getting the J&J because it was pulled for part of the spring when he apparently was deciding what to do. Take that for what it's worth, which at this point isn't much in my book. It actually takes me back to Braun's spring training presser after his 1st PED suspension was overturned, which in hindsight was full of crap and came off as venting from a proud and confident personality lashing out after his rep got sullied due to his own decisions/actions.

OBJ would be going contract hunting this offseason - would be tough finding both a contender for this season that also has lots of cap space to give him a big contract. Because of that, if he plays the rest of this year it will be on a team with a legit shot at a ring. If I'm a GM I have a very hard time giving OBJ a huge deal for a cool catch he made like 10 years ago, too. Bringing a motivated version of him in for league minimum while the Browns pay out the rest of his current contract as a signing bonus to let him walk is a no risk-high reward move, IMO. Doubtful the Packers get a chance to make that move due to their waiver position, but you never know...

Yeah you're right....although OBJ probably can still heavily influence where he goes by telling teams where he simply won't play the rest of this season. My guess is he winds up a Raider or Saint

Looking like OBJ is going to get released by the Browns... Since this year's team is already a soap opera, why not pick him up? Reminds me a bit of the scenario with the 1996 Packers signing Rison around this point of the season, although part of that was alot of receiver injuries.

To me it's not at all about him testing positive for COVID and being unvaccinated - it has everything to do with him parsing words/misleading whether he was vaccinated months ago at that presser, and then him appearing in public settings in a way that vaccinated players would for the past few months per Packers/NFL COVID protocols when they all knew he wasn't vaxxed. It's yet another example of the "rules for thee, not for me" crap that's been going on for close to two years that continues to prove all of this is largely a farce when it comes right down to it due to selective enforcement. There are thousands of people currently losing their jobs because of a personal medical decision, and then you have Rodgers trying to be clever with how he answers questions with the intent of avoiding public scrutiny for his own medical decision despite the NFL having a viable option for him to continue playing while being unvaccinated. Allen Lazard and other unvaccinated Packers have had press availabilities via Zoom, not in-person pressers. Lazard also missed last week's game because he was deemed a close contact to Adams (who was vaxxed and still got COVID) - Lazard didn't ever have COVID, but he was unvaccinated so the protocol required him stay away from team activities for 5 days. Guessing there was probably decent reason to consider Rodgers a close contact to Adams last week as well and there damn well would've been a reason to consider him a close contact to Benkert early this week - but ARod didn't get removed from team activities until he actually tested positive yesterday morning. That sure seems to be a different set of rules for players of different stature who are intentionally being misleading publicly, and that's what should piss everyone off.

I thought this was initially a dugout water cooler sponsorship deal being announced...

how the hell could he have even had enough road to get up to 156 mph well within city limits? I think speed limit is like 45 on this part of road, not like it's open freeway without intersections every couple blocks... So tragic for the victim's family, particularly knowing she was burned alive while being trapped in her car after the crash.

Also - keeping my fingers crossed that Love slips through this healthy...otherwise is there the chance this game at KC winds up getting moved due to a lack of available quarterbacks to play? I can't recall the specific language in the NFL COVID policy for this year, but I think there's also something about a team forfeiting a game that can't be played/readily rescheduled if its COVID outbreak is due to unvaccinated players/personnel or the team not following league protocols, right?

Possible, sure....but if that was actually the case it's still dumb on his part because that vaccine wasn't one of the 3 options the NFL was good with and he knowingly opted to take something different. I'll just be done with guessing/interpreting any of this until MLF has to deal with questions the next few days and at some point, Rodgers has to get back in front of a microphone....alot of people contributed to making this a much bigger mess publicly than it needed to be, and they need to wear that part of it.