PeaveyFury

..... which is why I would expect him not to play all that much. His ability to make plays and be elusive with his legs is the main benefit he brings to the table. 6 Days after surgery, it's safe to expect that to hinder his game.

As others have said, if Alabama is behind us in this week's rankings, a win practically guarantees a spot. I'm not convinced that the rest are locks either. I think TCU or Miami could pull off wins that would make us in with a win, and potentially the 3. It's nice that we're the last game of the day on Saturday.

Sadly, it seems like he made the wrong decision on nearly every play today. Rushed, hold the ball, sack. Rushed, throw the ball, pick. Rushed, have time, roll out, get sacked holding the ball too long. Roll out, need to make a play, throw it, pick. Roll out, need to throw it because it's 4th down, throw it away or take the sack. I thought he took a step forward last week. This was a massive leap backwards. The Packers probably needed to win 3 games with Rodgers out to have a legit shot if he comes back with two to play. Last week was one, this week looked to be a possible win- at home, struggling offensive team with a below-500 record. Losing this one hurts a ton, especially when the defense actually played really well considering the crap field position they were constantly being put in.

Agreed. The rankings tonight basically ensure that the 4 spots would be SEC Champion, undefeated Wisconsin, ACC Champion, one-loss Oklahoma.

It's so puzzling... for him to push that as his narrative basically requires him to assume that we're all idiots.

Based on Fivethirtyeight's odds, as Louis said, we're rooting for Miami and Alabama to win out. Coupled with rooting for TCU to win out, we'd actually have the second highest odds of winning the championship, and would likely avoid Alabama in the first round of the playoff.

Crazy stuff. It had become at least moderately apparent that the baggage with Bennett was more than ancitipated.

I defended McCarthy in another thread, but this half is making me question that. Our game plan today seemed to rely on winning the coin toss, driving down the field on our scripted plays, and scoring first. That, of course, was promptly botched by our third string long snapper. Then, the offensive game plan reverts to the same plan that didn't work vs. New Orleans: mix largely ineffective short passes with a 3-yard run on 2nd down, then punt. Relying, then, on your horrendous defense to hold, which it won't, in the futile hope that you'll get the ball back and repeat the above while the other team basically makes the game out of reach at 14-0. Honestly, if that's the best gameplan we could come up with with two weeks (and an extra day!) to prepare, this isn't going to be pretty the rest of the way.

The other major point I'd make is that the difference between them and Capers is that the team HAS had success based on the job the other two have done. We've made two NFC Championships in the past 3 seasons, and they've made the playoffs every year since lord knows when. The problem with Capers is that the team's success has been IN SPITE of his defense, rather than because of it. The defenses have consistently been somewhere along a scale of terrible to really terrible. If the defenses the past 3-5 seasons had only been slightly above average, we'd have won a lot more.

That's the type of move that often fails. Different doesn't equal better in many, many cases. There are probably 25-27 teams in the league that would trade their coach for McCarthy straight up, as he's a top 5 guy in the league. Yeah, you could try something different and hope for an upgrade. Or it could end up way, way worse as it happens all the time. In the end, though, it IS all about winning, and if they don't make another run to a title, it will bring about the end of his tenure eventually. And honestly, for those still wanting Thompson gone, the guy is about to be 65 years old. The Packers clearly made both Wolf and Gutekunst some sort of promises to keep them around last year. It doesn't seem like a huge stretch to think that there's already a transition plan in place, with successors named behind closed doors. I would expect that to be announced and made formal soon.

Agreed 100%. One of McCarthy's major flaws is that he's far too loyal with 'his guys', and that probably leads to a lack of new ideas/innovation. What we're doing on defense isn't working, time to see if someone else has something else to try.

And I'd take this a step further to say that early season 'quality wins' often become problematic due to the massive problem that is flawed preseason rankings. FSU #3? Michigan a top 10 team? Hilarious. But at the time, Alabama lodged a win against a top 5 team.

The Badgers still have the opportunity to get wins against 3 ranked opponents when they play them, presumably starting with Iowa and Michigan the next two weeks. A 9-3 Northwestern team ends up looking like a solid win as well. The danger is that yesterday eliminated any possibility of a 'signature' win against a top 10 opponent. Whether the lack of that type of win is offset by other teams' 1 losses is yet to be determined. Our goal each week is still to root for each team in front of us to get a 2nd loss to eliminate them. I'm probably at the point where rooting for the winner of OSU-MSU to win out is the best case scenario for us, as there is at least the possibility that if that team wins the next three, they'll have a top ~15-ish ranking in the Big Ten Championship.

We pass OSU and PSU obviously but get passed up by Miami. Still behind TCU. Fivethirtyeight has us in the playoff with 96% probability if we win out. TCU and Oklahoma play each other, as do Miami and ND. That's a clean 6th by the end of the year regardless. Clemson didn't look great today either, and there is plenty of football left. Keep winning, and you'll be fine. Interestingly enough, despite all of the discussion about the playoff and Wisconsin vs. PSU vs. OSU, the games today have left Wisconsin as the Big Ten's only remaining hope to make the playoff.

They're both better teams. Frankly, there's probably a few more teams ranked lower that are better. But ad Brew said, win out and it won't matter. Undefeated Big 10 champ left out? I cant imagine. Don't be surprised if Penn State or Ohio State get in over the Badgers even if the Badgers win the Big Ten title game. There is a 0.00% chance that Ohio State makes the playoff over an undefeated Wisconsin team. For Wisconsin to be undefeated, they'd have to either beat OSU in the Big Ten championship, giving them their second loss and Wisconsin their signature win, or OSU would have to have lost their games to BOTH Michigan and MSU to not be there, giving them 3 losses on the season. It's simply impossible. Penn State making it vs. an undefeated Wisconsin is only slightly more possible. They're going to end up with a similar schedule problem, as their loss to OSU robbed them of nearly any opportunity to obtain a quality win since they won't be playing in the Big Ten championship barring the OSU collapse noted above. Their strongest win right now is at home vs. the same Michigan team that Wisconsin plays in 2.5 weeks. The ONLY scenario that could possibly play out in their favor would involve OSU losing to one of the two Michigan schools but still playing in the Big Ten championship, robbing Wisconsin of their only opportunity to grab a signature win. In that case, I still like our chances, because PSU would still lack a quality win, but they'd still have a loss vs. our 0 losses, and that loss would look worse if OSU then has 3 losses. Extremely unlikely that they look more attractive at that point, IMO. Still, we probably want to root hard for MSU to beat them this weekend to eliminate any possibility of them making the playoff, as this is really their last plausible loss of the season. Beyond that, as others have noted, there is enough football left to sort out the other 6 teams in front of us. The Big 12 teams may eliminate each other, and ND and Clemson have challenging games left. If this was the ranking after the regular season we'd be out of luck, but there is much left to sort itself out.

Other than starting experience (which does have SOME value), Kaepernick doesn't bring enough to the table that would be different than just going with Hundley, IMO. Romo seems like the type of QB who could be good enough to get you to the playoffs.

Fully on the Tony Romo train, assuming we can scrape together enough bodies to play the other positions as well. Stuff like Rodgers' injury is unavoidable, but my God, can we start re-evaluating our prevention/strength/conditioning/everything? I have never, ever seen a team with such massive problems like we've seen this year.

Honestly, it's tough to say. I haven't seen a Michalske in 7 years, so if one showed up tomorrow I wouldn't even have a reference point. The PSA authenticated Immortal Roll cards are usually in the $150 range.

"Real" vintage auto'd cards? Not really. Michalske often signed his 'Immortal Roll' cards later in life, though, which generally have PSA authentication. These show up on ebay. I'm really looking for card company-issued autos, though. Both have cut auto cards issued by Upper Deck, Donruss/Leaf, etc. that are guaranteed authentic by the card companies themselves. These are extraordinarily hard to find... I've seen one Michalske on ebay about 5-7 years ago, and 2-3 Johnny Bloods over the past 5 years. All told, there are maybe 50 Michalskes that fit this bill, and possibly less of McNally. I know it's a tough get, so I appreciate the insights!

Maybe a bit of a longshot, but I know there are collectors here that are just as interested in football/Packer items as they are baseball/Brewers stuff! I'm looking for Mike Michalske or Johnny Blood McNally signed (non-index) cards, which have eluded me many times over. If you would happen to have something, and would be interested in discussing a sale or trade, please shoot me a PM and I'd love to talk. Thanks!

Agreed with homer. There are a couple of odd takes here- other than the very start of TT's tenure, our interior lineman have been completely replacable in multiple instances. I can't think of a time since the initial failure to replace Wahle and Rivera that center or either guard position was of concern at all. And one of TT's greatest strengths has been finding linemen in the draft. Yes, there have been some high-profile misses like Sherrod, but his knack of finding all-pro caliber linemen in the middle rounds, and to consistently field a well above-average group of starting offensive linemen has been one of the major reasons for the team's sustained success. The issues have arisen due to depth, and that's a valid and fair criticism. When we've had issues, it's been because our third or fourth tackle hasn't been able to stand in competently when LT or RT have been banged up like last year or 2015. Multiple starter injuries have been devastating. This year is just crazy, though. I don't know a team in the league that wouldn't be struggling if they were also starting their 6th and 7th-string OTs at the same time. Honestly, last night's performance by the line is somewhat remarkable in that light.

Watch that replay again... he's waving at the referee who is running toward the play to try and convince him not to throw the flag. He makes no motion to the sideline or to Adams. He didn't even raise his arms to try a tackle, he apparently thought he'd be able to tackle him with the crown of his helmet. Adams' progress was stopped, and he was in a vulnerable position. I think the NFL to see it this way as well, and I think a suspension will be levied. It's exactly the type of hit the NFL is trying to eliminate. When Packers cornerback Davon House saw the replay on a reporter's phone after the game, he said: "Oh god, that's disgusting. That's illegal. I didn't see it like that [before]. Oh my goodness. That's dirty. I didn't see it like that. Yeah, that's dirty. I don't think we have any guys like that that would do anything malicious like that, but that is a dirty hit." http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20855226/davante-adams-green-bay-packers-taken-hospital-helmet-helmet-hit Right guard Jahri Evans maybe had the clearest view on the field. Trevathan’s runway started behind him. He darted around Evans, toward the pile...In that respect, he could’ve went in without his head, without his helmet. But he saw a target, and I truly believe he hit what he wanted to hit.” http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2017/09/29/bears-lb-danny-trevathan-defends-devastating-hit-packers-wr-davante-adams/714605001/

Not really. The ref should have blew the whistle 3-5 seconds before the hit as forward progress was stopped. Unfortunately the bit came as Adams was going down. If he wouldn't have been going down that hit is fine. You are basically talking about a second here if the hit happens 1 sec earlier it doesn't look as bad. Couldn't disagree more, honestly. Watching the replay, he comes in and doesn't even raise his arms to attempt a tackle, he tries to tackle him with the crown of his helmet. The hit was basically with the intention of hurting the guy. And then he celebrated it. I'll echo the disappointing game called by the refs. Glad the game was out of hand, but the 'tipped' punt call was horrendous and would have been a massive game-changer if it had been close.

Both starting tackles have been listed as doubtful. I'd imagine another rought night for Aaron sack-wise. You just hope that this doesn't get the franchise QB hurt. I really can't believe that signing a (still) FA like Greco and sliding Taylor out wouldn't be better than throwing a guy off the Cardinals practice squad in on 2 days practice with the team.

Not directly involved in the Watt discussion but relevant to the draft as a whole this year: Josh Jones was all over the field today, and has the look of an always around the ball defender that makes big plays.