HiAndTight

Dillon had a couple of very nice catches tonight. One was a bad throw by Rodgers and he grabbed it off his shoestrings. A couple others were just nice hand-catches; he looked very natural there. He looked outstanding. If they don't bring back Jones...which I have no clue if they will or not, but if they don't, I do think they need to try and replace him. I think Dillon caught the ball well relative to his expectations. Williams catches the ball pretty well for a #2 back. Jones is an elite pass-catcher out of the backfield and can provide another look.

It was about 2 or 3 weeks ago that the secondary started to really tackle well. Not just not missing tackles, but coming up and hitting guys, guys really flying to the ball. This defense is still a bit flawed, but it's easily talented enough with this offense to beat anyone.

Not really. The Saints and Seahawks both winning could drop us all the way to #3. We should absolutely assume we need to beat the Bears next week. The Saints cannot finish ahead of the Packers. If they win and the Packers lose next weekend, the Packers hold the tiebreaker based in them beating the Saints back in September. The lowest the Packers can finish is #2. I think they can. If there is a 3-way tie, wouldn't the Saints have the edge? If GB, Seattle, and NO are all 12-4...I think we could fall to the 3rd seed. And I think the Saints would get the #1 seed based on Conf record(but I'm not sure on that).

I guess the NFC east isn't playing for a division championship that doesn't affect anyone else because they all suck? That seems like the go to Sunday night week 17 game in recent years. They wouldn't flex Bears/Packers because other games affect their scenarios, correct? It's kinda amazing that the Giants could get in after starting 1-7.

Guess you missed it. He lost the MVP last week...

Yeah, that'd be fun. We also took Lacy two spots ahead of Kelce. That didn't look quite as bad early on. I wonder if the Packers had Hill completely off the board though given his off-field issues in College.

50 more targets, 5 more catches and just ~25 more yards. Plus Tonyan is asked to do a lot more. And Crosby...c'mon. You have to give SOME consideration not kicking in GB. Perfect this year on FG attempts, hit a 57 yarder two weeks ago in a big spot, hit a 51 yarder in the cold this past week that would have been good from 55-60. But it's the Pro-Bowl. Let's see who makes the All Pro teams. Those are more important. I could see 3 maybe 4. Rodgers, Bahk, Adams and Alexander. Maybe Jenkins or Adams...but that's unlikely to me. I have been a staunch supporter of Crosby for years, defending him against the people who for some reason think he's been incredibly average his entire career, but I agree with the Koo selection. He's been lights out for Atlanta. I ought to know. He's my fantasy kicker. Well...his second game not in a dome and he shanks an easy chip shot with the game on the line. My man can't handle the elements!

Congrats to the Vikings who had the chance to draft Jefferson because either they were worse than the Packers last year or because their previous star receiver forced his way out of town, I can’t remember which. Of the 36 rookie starters, 17 were gone before the Packers picked. By the time Dillon, who you mentioned, was picked, 10 were left, almost exclusively safeties and interior offensive linemen. Who that was available when Dillon was picked would have increased the Packers’ chance of winning the Super Bowl this year even .1%? Maybe Chinn? Onwenu has been good, but would he have gotten more playing time than Runyan has? It turns out there weren’t that many win-now options available. I'd say Gibson, but I'm with you on this argument in general. It's really foolish to be talking about a draft class while they're almost all still on the team and they just haven't gotten a chance to play yet.

I didn't think they were getting 82 in. Is that the case now? No, it's still 72. Just habit.

When you replace your starting and backup PG and don't get much time...feels like there's gonna be an adjustment period.

Agreed. Boston's also a very good team with two elite wings. And despite the sloppy play, it took a late bank. They just didn't look comfortable. Jrue seemed a bit hesitant at times...but impressive when he wasn't. And while I'm not worried after 1 loss in which Boston had to bank in a 3 to take the lead, it wasn't a lot of fun watching the same offense this year. So little movement, Giannis trying to do a bit too much. I look forward to Jrue running the offense through Giannis a bit more in the post. I feel like Giannis could dominate down there and still find those open shooters. We'll see. 1 of 82 and there was a lot of turnover as you said.

I realize it's not the NFL...and that their QB does not in fact play defense. Thank you for your insight there... I think the fact that it was a 34-3 game before ND scored a Garbage time TD just last week and in their win, the best player in CFB and arguably the best QB prospect since Manning didn't play in the other game...would lead most people to believe there was a substantial talent gap there. Seems pretty obvious they beat ND both times if Lawrence plays both games. That the true Freshmen that started is the likely starter next year...I fail to see how that's relevant?

I think that team lost three games that year, all by a TD or less, with two of them happening literally on the last play of the game. Insanity. That team was indeed good enough to win the whole thing in a playoff. I didn't remember the 3rd loss at the time, but it was that game vs Oregon where D'Anthony Thomas had those two back-breaking runs and we lost in a shootout to them. How about the year before when they were a top 5 team and lost to TCU because Tolzien had that three-quarters delivery like he was a loogy and their LB'er was able to bat down a ball that was headed to a wide-open Badger(I'm thinking it was Fumagalli, but can't recall for certain) on the 2 point in the last seconds of the game. That year they blew out a couple of ranked teams and beat OSU, the #1 team in the country. If only they could have put Wilson together with that dominant Defense led by JJ Watt...the two missed each other by just one year. Who knows, if Mertz turns out to be as good as we all think and hope he can be and we add some WR'er talent...a couple of Corners, we could be competitive at any point in the near future. Our OL should be elite, our LB'ers are seemingly always elite and especially the group they've got now. they're young, they're versatile and there are more on the way. I never thought I'd see Wisconsin BB in the NCAA finals and they nearly won one. As long as the FB team keeps putting itself in a position to be a top 10 team, never know when you might get that breakthrough year. They're on their way...stacking the best recruiting class I can recall in terms of rankings on top of the best QB prospect we've seen at UW in our lifetimes.[sarcasm]If only Taylor wasn't so selfish in taking the guaranteed millions in the NFL, he could be getting ready to come back next year![/sarcasm]

Would you rather see Jenkins back at Guard or would you rather see him playing Tackle? I'm not sure that his future shouldn't be either Center or RT. In fact, I don't really get why he hasn't gotten more chances to play tackle beyond being forced into action due to multiple injuries. You'd think it was because he didn't have the measurables to play there, but he does. He's got long arms, a big enough frame. RT is the biggest weakness right now in my opinion on offense, it's just Rodgersr has covered it up in large part by moving and LaFleur has done a great job of knowing when to put a guy like Lewis out there or just chip with a back to help out Wagner or Turner, but neither one is really that good. Plus of course, it's a lot easier to find solid guards than it is tackles. Right now we've got Turner, Patrick, Stepaniak is back and on the 54 man...suggesting they like him. It'd be nice to see him be able to solidify himself as a Pro-Bowl caliber player out there and not have to worry about arguably the 2nd and 3rd most important positions on offense after QB for the foreseeable future.

50 more targets, 5 more catches and just ~25 more yards. Plus Tonyan is asked to do a lot more. And Crosby...c'mon. You have to give SOME consideration not kicking in GB. Perfect this year on FG attempts, hit a 57 yarder two weeks ago in a big spot, hit a 51 yarder in the cold this past week that would have been good from 55-60. But it's the Pro-Bowl. Let's see who makes the All Pro teams. Those are more important. I could see 3 maybe 4. Rodgers, Bahk, Adams and Alexander. Maybe Jenkins or Adams...but that's unlikely to me. I have been a staunch supporter of Crosby for years, defending him against the people who for some reason think he's been incredibly average his entire career, but I agree with the Koo selection. He's been lights out for Atlanta. I ought to know. He's my fantasy kicker. I'm not arguing against Koo. He's been great...but he's also kicked almost every game he's played in a dome while Crosby has kicked in a dome. The one that wasn't was a nice 70 degree game vs Carolina. Crosby on the other hand has 5 games in a dome. I don't really think either are huge omissions by any means, but especially Crosby, he doesn't get the respect he deserves. And I've been with you about sticking with him during his slumps. I really don't remember many on here calling for him to be cut after that Detroit game. A few maybe after or during the 2012 season. But I still don't think people appreciate what a great kicker he is. I know how little people care about Skip Bayless, but he STILL brings up how lucky the Packers were to beat Dallas when Mason "Cross-bar" hit those two 50+ yarders, the 56 yarder he hit with just 1:33 left that could have cost the Packers the game. He misses that, Dallas has great field position, starting the drive at near mid-field. And then the 51 yarder that he hit twice because of the old "ice the kicker" schtick where he knocked the first one through on a late whistle and then drilled it again with no time left on the clock to put the Packers in the NFCCG. He's just been huge in the playoffs. 3 missed FG's, 54, 50, and 52 playing in some really poor weather and he's been perfect(I believe) on XP's and hit 26 FG's. Just feel like the guy deserves a bit more respect than he seems to get.

50 more targets, 5 more catches and just ~25 more yards. Plus Tonyan is asked to do a lot more. And Crosby...c'mon. You have to give SOME consideration not kicking in GB. Perfect this year on FG attempts, hit a 57 yarder two weeks ago in a big spot, hit a 51 yarder in the cold this past week that would have been good from 55-60. But it's the Pro-Bowl. Let's see who makes the All Pro teams. Those are more important. I could see 3 maybe 4. Rodgers, Bahk, Adams and Alexander. Maybe Jenkins or Adams...but that's unlikely to me.

That's the guy that surprised me. Seems like it takes OL a few years to get recognization unless they're tackles. This guy hasn't even been able to establish himself at one position and he's already making it. Just an absolute HR in the 2nd round last year.

Yes it matters to me. I think it matters to most fans. You root for a player, you like to see that player recognized. We're also in the midst of a run in which we've had a back to back MVP in one sport, nearly had one in another sport if not for an injury, and Rodgers himself has won a couple in the last decade(plus Braun). It doesn't take the sting out of losing in the post-season, but it's definitely something I care about. The people talking about the Pro-Bowl in this thread...if that matters to you, presumably, the MVP would. None of us are on the Packers...which I'm sure comes as a surprise, but we live vicariously through this team in a way. It's OUR team, WE play the Titans this week...so I want OUR best player and arguably the best player in franchise history to be recognized for his greatness. Also...gonna make it a little tougher to move on from #12 after next season if he's just one year removed from winning an MVP, but if we do, even if he struggles next year, you can point to the fact that he was the MVP just last year threw for nearly 50 TD's, and 4 picks. It's cool. It's not the main event, but it is cool.

This is almost funny. Amazing how they were reporting that the Hawks would be signing Bogdan for..."something like" 4 years and 72 million the second the Bucks deal fell apart(but before they were able to talk to him). Whatever though. If this deal had gone through and we'd gotten Bogdan, would the NBA have voided it? I understand they didn't with Kawhi, but they found out about the supposed middle man after they signed him and some time had passed. In this case, they speculated immediately. Anyway, I'm fine with the off-season. Not perfect, but they added a much better PG and a couple of really nice pieces. They really can't afford any more screw up's if they're going to win though. Like getting rid of Christian Wood for Pau Gasol or not understanding how the cap works or...whatever it may be.

Generally I would tend to agree but I can think of a few Badger teams I would like to have seen what they could have done. The Wilson led team that lost on two Hail Marry's to MSU and OSU(I think) comes to mind.

By "sub-division" do you mean group of 5? The group of 5 teams are part of the FBS sub-division and the mythical playoff is supposedly representative of the whole sub-division. There's such a large gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson that the two teams went 1-1 against each other this season. They just got trounced and we all know they won a close game earlier in the season when they were without the consensus top pick and once in a decade type QB prospect. I don't disagree about the playoff, but if you really want it to be more competitive, the best chance would just be adding more SEC teams. ND opens as an almost 3 TD dog to Alabama and I expect Alabama to cover. As others have been saying, the only real way to fix the playoffs is to find a way to distribute the talent more evenly. The problem is, I can't imagine any way you can do that in CFB. Limit where kids can go to College? It just doesn't seem feasible.

Agreed. I do want to see Rodgers win it, but if Mahomes throwing 4 TD's to beat the Saints tomorrow wins it for him, I'll take that and the Packers getting the top seed over Rodgers winning it. He wasn't missing throws, he didn't make mistakes. We played a young defense that looks really good and the Packers just weren't clicking. But after we got up 21-3, everything we did was pretty vanilla. We need to put teams away, but acting like this game was a loss is confusing to me. We're still the top team in the NFC heading into a big game vs the Titans.

You certainly speak for me. An 8 point win vs a talented young team that's not very good feels a helluva lot better than getting beaten badly. This game shouldn't have been this close, but this is the same team that lost on a last-second FG to KC. Wins matter quite a bit more than style points in the NFL.

No...he didn't.

No...Preston was not covering anyone effectively. Kirksey is better in coverage...which is a very low bar. Smith was pretty much just dropping on zone blitzes for the most part, though he did occasionally find himself in man with a back or a TE running downfield.