+/- Packers Eagles

I think it’s fair to say Philly is one of the better teams they will face.  Hurts isn’t a slouch and Barkley shows he’s still got it.  

However, as good as the DL may be the LBs are awful at recognizing and reacting to run plays.  Walker might be athletic as all get out, but he has terrible instincts and after a few years now I’m not sure he will ever figure it out.   Wilson and McDuffie have no business being starters.  

I get that Cooper is a rookie but if he’s healthy I have to believe he gives you a lot more than two of those three guys.  

@RoyalWulff posted:

P.S. watching the Wisconsin/South Dakota game now. What’s South Dakota’s mascot I wonder? The pheasant?

University of South Dakota is the Coyotes.

South Dakota State University is the Jackrabbits.

I do not believe there is a college in South Dakota with a pheasant mascot.

PFF Rankings on defense:

Top 5 defense

1. LB Edgerrin Cooper: 85.9
2. S Xavier McKinney: 76.2
3. LB Eric Stokes: 66.7
4. CB Keisean Nixon: 65.4
5. DE Lukas Van Ness: 65.3

Cooper had a run stop, a batted pass and three total tackles on only 11 snaps. McKinney intercepted a pass, gave up only one completion into his primary coverage and made four tackles without a miss. Stokes had a missed tackle but ended up giving up only two catches into his coverage. Nixon had a sack of Jalen Hurts, a pass breakup and two stops, but he gave up four catches and missed two tackles. Van Ness had one hurry and one run stop over 19 snaps.

Bottom 5 defense

1. LB Isaiah McDuffie: 35.7
2. DL Kenny Clark: 39.4
3. DE Kingsley Enagbare: 41.3
4. DL Karl Brooks: 42.4
5. DL TJ Slaton: 42.7

McDuffie missed two tackles and gave up a touchdown pass from Jalen Hurts to Saquon Barkley. Clark had four hurries but earned terrible grades against the run. Enagbare didn’t have a pressure or a tackle over 30 total snaps. Brooks delivered a pressure and two stops but earned the team’s lowest run defense grade. Slaton had three assisted stops and a hurry but also received poor grades against the run.

Does not take a defensive genius to know that Cooper needs to replace McDuffie as soon as he is physically able to.

Don't know what the deal is with Enagbare getting far more snaps than LVN, but the idea of Enagbare has always surpassed his actual production. Hope the 2023 first round pick gets to see the field a bit more.

Great to see McKinney grade out highly and I guess we can somewhat attribute the poor grades for Clark, Slaton, and Brooks to Philly's very good offensive line, but man Kenny is being paid a lot of $ for a shitty performance like the one on Friday.

IF...

JA gets the 2nd pick

Nixon gets a pick 6

I suspect we'd be having a different conversation.

Game of inches, and Tolbert's hanky. The MFer sucks as an official.

@Boris posted:

Jalen Carter posts some of the awful DM’s he received after making the tackle on the play that unfortunately injured Jordan Love. pic.twitter.com/8e5hWMouh4

— Eagles Nation (@PHLEaglesNation) September 7, 2024

Some real winners there. I especially laugh at the "gal" with the heart emoji next to "her" name.

"No more self awareness than a dog licking its ass in public" comes to mind.

++ I originally thought this was a terrible game by GB, but there were some bright spots. The O scored a lot of points for having such a horrible overall performance. They could have easily scored 50 if they were operating on all cylinders; 414 yards of O should win games. Stokes looks like he will be okay and was very steady. The OL got better later, and that helped Jacobs. Coop in limited duty.

-- The D stunk it up. If a team scores 29 points, they should expect to win. Gary is so uneven; he'd make a great play and then disappear.  Love's performance was... worrisome. He looked like a rookie at times. I still think no matter what his outside demeanor, that inside he gets really tight, and the footwork was atrocious. The OL for 3+ quarters. Hafley didn't do as promised; it looked like the same old D we've always seen: rush four, cover, and hope.

As for Love's injury, I am torn. Carter was grabbing his leg, yes, but I didn't like the way Carter, at 300+ lbs rolled into Love's leg from the side to try to make the play. Yes, he's trying to bring a guy down, but to roll up on a guy's lower leg when they all know that's the easiest way to get injured? Tough to criticize it; hard to like it.

@H5 posted:

IF...

JA gets the 2nd pick

Nixon gets a pick 6

I suspect we'd be having a different conversation.

Game of inches, and Tolbert's hanky. The MFer sucks as an official.

This is the first time in this thread that I saw, that Nixon's gift wrapped pick 6 that he just did not catch was mentioned.  That alone would have put GB in the lead late in the game.  But not getting more out of the early red-zone trips hurt as well. 

I agree with virtually everything else said in this thread. 

@michiganjoe posted:

Piece in JSO this morning about the new defense looking remarkably like the old defense. Link (paywall)

In the end, the Packers had some of the same issues that date back to later in Dom Capers’ tenure as defensive coordinator, and through Mike Pettine and Joe Barry before Hafley: Their run defense was too often shaky, and a running quarterback gave them big problems.

Disappointing effort from both the defense and offense. Subpar game from Love (nine points from three turnovers simply isn't good enough) and MLF is ultimately responsible for the multitude of mistakes committed by his players.

IOW, we do what we do.

I've said it numerous times, more the talent than the DC. And I believe that has been true since the late-Capers era.

@H5 posted:

IF...

JA gets the 2nd pick

Nixon gets a pick 6

I suspect we'd be having a different conversation.

Game of inches, and Tolbert's hanky. The MFer sucks as an official.

They have been known to drop quite a few potential INT's.

That's why they're DBs and not WRs.

@Fedya posted:

That's why they're DBs and not WRs.

So Christian Watson should be a DB then.

@H5 posted:

IF...

JA gets the 2nd pick

Nixon gets a pick 6

I suspect we'd be having a different conversation.

Game of inches, and Tolbert's hanky. The MFer sucks as an official.

Also 9 points off 3 turn overs, but Philly got 7 points off their one turn over.  If you get 3 TO's you should at least be able to put up 17 points if not 21.

Can we at least get a Lions loss over these dreadful 4 days, which began with the Chiefs winning, FU Brazil/NFLFU®, and the Vikings, Bears, and Cowboys winning today?

Postives:

Football is finally back

Reed played a good game

The running game got going and the OL started to get it together as the game went on

They put up 400+ yards and 29 points which in the NFL is really good

Negatives:

I keep telling myself I won't complain about the defense but I cannot help it.  What is it about the Packers defense when they start off really well and aggressive but as the game goes on they get softer?  It seems like they go in to this shell and start letting the offense come to them and dictate the game.  Been like this for years it seems.

Love getting hurt really sucks but it sounds like it may be the type of injury he may be able to come back quickly from.

Positives

1. A Packers safety made an impact play.

2. Jacobs is very good when he gets to the second level at running over guys and being difficult to bring down. He isn't going to make a lot of guys miss in the backfield or at the LOS though - he needs a head of steam.

3. Reed reminds me of a young Randall Cobb.

Negatives

1. The "new" defense didn't seem to do anything new. Maybe someone else has watched the All-22 and can comment on what was schematically new, but it sure seemed like the passive defense we've seen for years, except that Jaire was allowed to get burned in single coverage in single high safety instead of double high safety. There were no exotic coverages or aggressive blitz packages. Some of that was influenced by the main priority - which was to keep Hurts from running wild - which they did pretty well. However, and it's almost sacrilegious to say, but they might have had a better chance with a Barry scheme - sit back and wait for the other team to make mistakes - which Hurts was prone to do.

2. Jaire got toasted several times.

3. Gary had one sack on a busted play. Other than that, the two guys they drafted for pass rush (Gary and Van Ness) were invisible.

4. Walker still has poor instincts when he has to choose gaps to fill. When he can just run side to side, he's very good. But Hafley's scheme seemed to be asking him to do the same things Barry's scheme was.

5. The OL lacks a truly dominant player. They have several decent ones and are really weak at center. They can't do anything up the middle at all. Philly has a good DL, but Fletcher Cox is no longer out there.

@D J posted:

So Christian Watson should be a DB then.

Except that his biggest weakness is that he fails to make any effort to fight through traffic to play the ball in contested coverage.

He can outjump guys for jump balls, but he very rarely can play through contact for a ball that isn't well above his head.

He's like a tall version of Darnell Savage.

By the end of his career, Kenny Clark will likely end up top 10 in games played by a defensive player in Packers history. He will have made at least 110 million dollars. He's made three Pro Bowls and has some occasionally dominant games, but most of the time he's just there. He's much better than any of the other options they have, but frustratingly disappears for long stretches. We can't expect him to be Aaron Donald, but he just seems like he should be consistently better.

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

He's like a tall version of Darnell Savage.

I wish I hadn't read that.

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

Except that his biggest weakness is that he fails to make any effort to fight through traffic to play the ball in contested coverage.

He can outjump guys for jump balls, but he very rarely can play through contact for a ball that isn't well above his head.

He's like a tall version of Darnell Savage.

Or MVS with a better publicist and less feel.

The receivers as a whole are just kind of there. None of them would have started for the last GB Super Bowl team. None have proven consistently reliable in tough spots nor able to beat defenders one-on-one consistently. They’re also good enough to be schemed open but really don’t rise above the James Jones tier of receivers while not falling much below it, either.

@Herschel posted:

The receivers as a whole are just kind of there. None of them would have started for the last GB Super Bowl team. None have proven consistently reliable in tough spots nor able to beat defenders one-on-one consistently. They’re also good enough to be schemed open but really don’t rise above the James Jones tier of receivers while not falling much below it, either.

Jayden Reed is special, my man. I’d take him over an aging Donald Driver any day. Maybe over prime Driver.

@ilcuqui posted:

Jayden Reed is special, my man. I’d take him over an aging Donald Driver any day. Maybe over prime Driver.

I'd take him over the 2010-12 version of Driver, but not over prime Driver.

Reed is a young Randall Cobb or a pre-injury Robert Brooks. Reed was projected as a 4th or 5th round pick that the Packers took in the 2nd round. He started at a MAC school because the Big 10 schools thought he'd struggle to adjust as the level of competition went up. He's just a guy with average NFL athleticism that plays better than his combine numbers.

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/...42-e96f-a871c08a1138

In many ways, Reed is the inverse of Watson. Reed is a guy that plays better than you'd think he should and maximizes average measurables while Watson is a guy that can't consistently tap into his tremendous athleticism.

@Herschel posted:

Or MVS with a better publicist and less feel.

The receivers as a whole are just kind of there. None of them would have started for the last GB Super Bowl team. None have proven consistently reliable in tough spots nor able to beat defenders one-on-one consistently. They’re also good enough to be schemed open but really don’t rise above the James Jones tier of receivers while not falling much below it, either.

Jesus Josaphat, all but Watson and Doubs have played one NFL season.

Well, it only took one season to figure out Clifford and Carlson were busts. 

Did I say they were finished products?

Where they are right now is firmly “meh”; neither great nor terrible. It’s not nothing, but it’s not really good enough, either. None of them scare opposition coordinators but they’re good enough to exploit cans.

Good defensin' here...

Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard communicating pre-snap on the motion could tell right way what the Eagles were doing. Bullard triggered downhill as soon as he saw Goedert's bubble. pic.twitter.com/VihsKXWsVi

— Rich (@richjmadrid) September 9, 2024

@Herschel posted:

Did I say they were finished products?

Where they are right now is firmly “meh”; neither great nor terrible. It’s not nothing, but it’s not really good enough, either. None of them scare opposition coordinators but they’re good enough to exploit cans.

Tell me how many rookie WR's set the world on fire last year, much less a bunch of them on the same team without a vet WR1 or 2 to take some heat away from them.  There have been other national analysts over the last offseason that had a higher opinion of the group than yours.

How many of the WRs that started on the last SB team would you have thought that of on their rookie year?  Off the top of my head, Jennings looked it, Jordy was inconsistent and had problems with drops, same as James Jones.  Wicks was easily comparable to the latter two last year.  Reed, not quite Jennings but not too far off.  Melton is in the bonus. 

Not sure why anyone was suprised at Jacobs's lack of burst or explosiveness.  That was never really his game - maybe had better acceleration a few years ago.  He can run through or over guys and peel off big runs if his blocking gets him to the second level but isn't a guy to squeeze through between the T's.  He looked the same Friday night.

@Chongo posted:

Good defensin' here...

Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard communicating pre-snap on the motion could tell right way what the Eagles were doing. Bullard triggered downhill as soon as he saw Goedert's bubble. pic.twitter.com/VihsKXWsVi

— Rich (@richjmadrid) September 9, 2024

So Goedert doesn't have good bubble?

It’s interesting how easy it is to look back on former players and forget how good some of them were.  

Robert Brooks had an incredible 1995 season and as has been the case with numerous GBP had a horrible injury and was never the same.  

Cobb’s 2014 season was almost as good as Brooks 1995 season.  He had a longer career but again at his peak he was exceptional.  

Reed has a long way to go to be compared to either guy.  

BTW, both Brooks and Cobb were track stars.  

As for Watson, he might play WR but he’s not a receiver.  He doesn’t run good routes, has questionable hands, and is terrible in close quarters fighting for the ball.  

@Herschel posted:

Some real winners there. I especially laugh at the "gal" with the heart emoji next to "her" name.

"No more self awareness than a dog licking its ass in public" comes to mind.

ya, those saint Philly fans...oh wait...

@Fedya posted:

So Goedert doesn't have good bubble?

Whatever the problem is, it's not supposed to be seen, evidently.

Dude what the fuck is this pic.twitter.com/679Lnhwxr5

— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) September 9, 2024

@Boris posted:

Dude what the fuck is this pic.twitter.com/679Lnhwxr5

— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) September 9, 2024

Meyers with the ol'le block

Myers did a great job of cutting Walker or Walker went to rong way, Jenkins is late getting off the ball and I have no idea what Musgrave was doing.

Walker did have a nice spin move!

I'm waiting for the next Mike Wahle podcast on the offensive play of the OL.

This game was basically won in the trenches.  Our O-line had all sorts of issues and Philly's did not.  Story of the game.

First quarter run game issues, with improvement after adjustments starting in the 2nd Quarter explained here:

https://www.packers.com/news/w...justment-week-1-2024

@Packiderm posted:

Meyers with the ol'le block

Looks more like Musgrave (?) got blown up, putting him in Jenkins' way, who was then in Myers' and Walker's way.