HarveysWBs

I was in the camp (and remain there, if but barely) that LaFleur is fine. He has been able to make something out of Love that is certainly cromulent, with the potential for better, and that’s great, considering how much we’re paying 12 and 69 to not contribute. He has a historically young offensive unit, that has gotten exactly one good game all year from its most experienced playmaker, and yet the young guys are growing—that’s all this year was about…for the offense. But LaFleur isn’t an offensive coordinator, he’s head coach. And his biggest issue has been managing his staff. Pettine, Drayton, and Barry have all been retained at least a year too long, and arguably more—or never should have been in the org to begin with. To his credit, he makes a point of doing right by his people. He doesn’t often trash anyone in public, or make impulsive personnel decisions. And I think this has been part of his success in building a solid culture in the locker room and staff room overall, at least from an outsider’s vantage point. But competency has to count here. He can lose credibility in the locker room by not holding Barry responsible for what is going on out there, and he has to be really careful now in how he handles this. I trust that he would have a more definite read on the team temperature than I, but if I was a defensive player, I’d have a lot of questions right now, and not just about how I was performing.

You could do worse than Tomlin, I think—and we do so routinely. I’m kinda hoping Rodgers just retires now and New York cleans house so we can sweep up Saleh on the rebound. It ain’t happening, for about thirty-five different reasons, but either of those things would be a nice break.

Better draft position, but we have to fire Barry

Oh I don’t know. They could hire Brandon Staley…

Nice throw and catch on a scramble drill. Good stuff

Can we take the money we’re paying Bisaccia to not improve our Special Teams and throw it at Leonhard? Carte blanche, whatever he wants.

This defense sucks. It’s an infuriating watch.

I know this can’t literally be his evaluation process, but I do wonder what he actually is looking at for defensive success. I mean, Robert Saleh is his best friend—he knows what good defense looks like.

And historically, quarterbacks tend to hit their stride in a LaFleur offense in year two, so I think there is considerable reason to hope for just this kind of a jump. A healthy Watson (I heard on the Journal-Sentinel podcast that he is spending large sums of money consulting medical experts about his hamstrings, and is developing a revamped offseason workout program to strengthen his back, which is apparently the root of the problem) and a reinforced offensive line would certainly help. I have more hope for offensive growth than I do for a change in defensive coordinator next year. I wish we had a new DC this year implementing a better system that would in turn be ready to start running at its peak next year with the improving offense, but as they say, the second-best time to plant a tree is today...

But I’m still feeling pretty good about running the table. After sleeping on this last game, I’m encouraged by Love’s improvement as the game progressed. He continues to hang tough and not just spiral into a puddle of absolute failure when things get weird, as even Rodgers tended to do. He’s not great, but he’s still got talent and a very good head on his shoulders. In the end, this team is stuck on the threshold of two realities. It would be better for their current players’ growth to keep winning, but better for their future rosters if they lose. A title is all but out of the question, and seems ridiculous even typing it out. Ultimately, at the end of the next four games, I think I want these things, in order of importance: 1) To feel good about Love’s trajectory as a franchise QB 2) Hope for new DC and a new left tackle 3) No major injuries, new or current 4)To feel good about LaFleur as a playcaller

The way the last few weeks have gone, I’m not sure beating the Lions and Chiefs means anything significant. I’m kind of at the point where I’m not sure anyone in the NFL is really a great team. 49ers are the exception, and they’re led by Cinderella at QB and Kyle “I choke one round later than LaFleur” Shanahan. I bet Dallas wins it this year.

Wouldn’t have mattered. Much bigger fish to fry in this one. Just about everybody on staff and under center had their worst night of the year.

No one is shocked.

That ain’t gonna be enough

The catch rules are still a Byzantine nightmare. Or a lawyer’s wet dream. Whatever your mood.

Great blitz beater play call, and perfect execution

What a break! He actually fumbled

Hey Barry: account for Barkley this drive.

Not a great throw, but wish Toure would have high-pointed that.

The Giants are acutely aware of exactly what they are. Their O-line is absolute trash in pass pro, and DeVito is kind of a spark plug running around. So they move the pocket and do a lot of bootlegs, rollouts, and designed runs. Nice plan. It would be cool if we had anticipated it.

Hope everybody is learning a lot tonight. Because “object lesson” is about all this game is worth.

Can we stop the stupid split screen? If I wanted to watch the Dolphins, I’d pay for crappy, over-priced ESPN, thanks.

And now Love is being outplayed by Tommy Cutlets. What a league.

Wink Martindale made Rodgers look pretty awful last year, too. Might have our number.

Ha, Love’s best ball of the night and Reed has no clue where it even is. This is just the mother of all letdown games.