I have to admit I doubted all the "Raji will be better this year" kind of talk that was common in the off season.  From what I can tell, he is in good shape and has played very well so far.  They really shut down the inside running game today, and Raji even ran out and made a tackle on a screen.

James Jones....Nuff said.  

Plus, they didn't have Jordy Nelson to drop a 90 yd TD pass.  Putz.

Good

 

+ Nice to see MM without a playsheet glued to his upper lip...I think his decision to be HC and not play-call will be a huge plus for the Packers

+ Matthews moving around on D and being a force wherever he lines up.

+ Peppers still has some disruption left in his game.

+ James Jones, so glad he is back home.

+ Lacy and Starks: Dyno Duo

+ Rodgers, of course

+ Special Teams is noticeably improved

 

Bad

- Punt game is wimpy

- Crosby missed FG a bummer

- Heyward has missed some tackles in the first 4 games

 

Ugly

Colin Kap...Sheesh, was he looking bad or was he looking terrible?  Maybe horrible is even better.

 

 

I can't believe we held Carlos Hyde to 20 yds rushing. Hats off to our Packers' D! Says it all.

I've been on the Raji bandwagon since he was moved back to NT in 2014 but I really believe this could have been Raji from 2011 to 2013 if Capers had let him play his natural position, nose tackle.  You just don't see many 6'2" 330 lb 3-4 DE's for a reason.  Asking Raji to play out there would be like asking Sitton to play LT.  IMO, one of CApers biggest mistakes putting him out there and Pickett at DE.  Should have been the opposite that whole time.  

 

And I missed the game but sounds just like the box score would indicate.  Really great to see the defense step up and dominate like they did, especially against a guy that's burned them for years.  I usually don't take so much pleasure in the demise of players, but I'm loving seeing Kaepernick fail.  F*#k that arrogant a-hole.  

Fat man wants a paycheck, and he's back at his natural position. Really mystifying to look back on all those years of him playing DE.

- Missed my first game in many, many years owing to doing Freshman Family Weekend at my youngest's college (well, the first part is a minus)

 

+ Hope to see the replay tomorrow as I sprung for the one week free trial of NFL Game Pass

 

+ From BartMan's excellent post above:

Leading the NFC with fewest points allowed through 4 weeks

  Unpossible

 

great point.. I was a huge doubter, but he has turned it around.  That said, still wouldn't give him a multi year deal.  Too inconsistent over the years.

This is glorious. 

 

Link. 

I would love if a reporter would ask him if he knew his hat is on crooked.

 

 

The hat put the entire ensemble over the top. 

I kept staring at that kartouche.

The long levered guys played big on D today.

 

 

 

 

He's lost his confidence, he's done as a starter.  He was never the best passer, but he is so gun shy and doesn trust what he sees that he has the yips on short throws.

That Rodgers/Jones connection along the sideline defines them both.

 

Perfect.

After the first TD I think the Packers played very conservatively. That made sense  since they had trouble blocking, the Right Tackle spot currently is the problem. When is Bakhtiari  back, Barclay is not  currently getting the job done. 

SF offence also never challenge the Packers to aggressively put points on the board. SF offence is simply bad.

Few things I noticed rewatching the game:

 

Officiating was awful. We’ve had Terry McCauley’s crew a few times over the past couple seasons and he’s been terrible each time. I first noticed this crews awfulness vs the Bears in Week 2 last year. That game was extremely poorly officiated, as was this one. Both sides of the ball. That false start call on Kap in 1Q was total horse****. You can actually see McCauley overruling the line judge, shaking his head before making the call by himself. They missed a blatant facemask penalty on Raji and then again when Rodgers was being sacked. The spot on that James Jones catch in the 2Q was absolutely criminal. The entire drive right before the half was un-****ing-believable. At least 2 blatant PI calls and a bad spot on that throw to Cobb.

 

Rodgers seemed particularly frustrated in the first half. He was not playing poorly and I don’t think the offense as a whole was necessarily doing THAT bad but he just seemed ticked off. I just think the 49ers defense was giving Rodgers more trouble than he expected. They were blanketing the WR’s and his OL was not keeping him clean. He seemed especially frustrated on that last drive before half and I think a lot of that had to do with the officiating, which was again awful. Maybe he feels added pressure to perform when playing San Fran? Chip on his shoulder? I don’t know. He calmed down once the game got put away but he seemed very jittery and pissed off in the first half. But he had a nice game; he typically has vs the 49ers. Still, that win has to feel good for him.

 

I was very impressed with the way they came out after half time. 49ers had some momentum going in after Crosby missed that FG. Defense forced a punt and then the offense went right down and put up 6, thanks to an unbelievable catch by James Jones. That sequence was definitely the turning point of the game.

 

Carlos Hyde is stupid. Getting into Letroy Guion’s face. Dude outweighs you by like 100 lbs, bro. Go back to your huddle.

 

Clay Matthews is an absolute beast. He’s struggled with injuries the past couple of seasons, playing out of position last year seemed to limit him, but he’s looking like he’s back in his prime. Very fun to watch. He continually made nice plays vs the run and his sack on Kap was a thing of beauty.

 

I’m really liking our defense, especially the pass rush. Perry, Peppers, Elliot, Neal and Matthews all coming off of the edge is awesome. 7 sacks last week, 6 this week. They’ve finally combined consistent interior pressure with outside pressure and blitzes. It’s a thing of beauty. And once again, BJ Raji has a fire lit under his giant butt; playing like a man possessed. I think one of the biggest question marks for this team was the secondary and I think they’ve all been outstanding, especially considering they’re without Burnett. They have yet to face a real elite passer but I am encouraged by why I’ve seen.

 

I thought the offense ran the ball quite well. 160+ yards total rushing and Lacy was averaging about five yards a pop. While watching the game live I would have liked them to run it more but they actually ran it about 30 times, compared to about 35 passes. Pretty balanced offensively. Good job by the OL opening up holes.

 

Not Barclay’s finest game. He wasn’t give much (if any) help. You all watched it. That’s all I’m really going to say. I shutter to think about what his PFF grade will be

 

Another nice game by Damarious Randall. Got burned on that one play by Torrey Smith; he actually recovered quite well on the play, Smith just made a really nice catch. He made up for it by making an extremely nice play on the ball in the endzone on 3^rd and 5 on the same drive. Randall’s ball skills have been especially impressive; last a check he led the team in pass deflections.

 

 

This was a solid road win. I think ChilliJon hit the nail on the head all week, saying this game would be a scrappy, slug-it-out kind of game. Short week, going to the west coast. What I especially liked was that they showed they can win when their offensive doesn't put up 25+ points.

Even on his big night against the Packers in the playoffs, he barely completed 50% of his passes (16-31, those are Tim Tebow numbers, on a night where his team rushed for over 300 yards and had everything wide open for him). If he had been accurate that night, the 49ers would have scored 60, easily. The flaws were always visible, and I'm thrilled that his story has played out exactly along the lines of the worst-case-scenario I figured for him. It's a tired old script. Flashy running QB bursts onto the scene, has a ton of success, receives a mountain of praise/hype from the media, fails to improve his game as a pocket passer, and then burns out. He's done as a starter, at least in San Francisco. It's going to take one hell of a coach to rebuild him from the ground up, if it's even possible.

 

You can't Hyde from racism. 

 

 

It really is...

 

 

Man, what a great bit of play calling and scheming by Edgar Bennett, Tom Clements and Mike McCarthy. We saw a very balanced attack with 30 rushes by our RBs and 32 passing attempts by Rodgers. Really swung the balance in TOP. That is SO good for our defense. They were able to play high tempo and weren't gassed in the heat. Good to see Monty got a couple of carries from the backfield too.

 

Phenomenal play by Nick Perry. I'm so damn happy the guy is turning it around. He has already matched his season total of 3 sacks from last year, and is one off his career high of 4 sacks of two seasons ago. We are only 4 games in. He's on pace to well surpass his season high of 24 tackles, with 8 already. For some odd reason, Mike Daniels was absent from the stat sheet... I hope to see WAY more from him against STL. In spite of that, he obviously cleared the way for our LBs to do their work. They were very good yesterday. Palmer played well, and Ha Ha and Hyde did some nice work against both the pass and run. Randall is starting to come on. Maybe he gets a pick v. STL. He is playing pretty solid coverage for a rookie. Also saw a nice pop by Rollins. Q! Bringin' it!!!!! I love the way that kid tackles. Fearless.

 

http://prod.static.packers.clu...4-gamebook-49ers.pdf

Good post Bubbleboy.  I agree with everything you said. I think the biggest plus was this D, specifically the pass rushers, getting more confidence. Guys like Nick Perry and BJ Raji needed a boost to play to their potential, Raji finally looks comfortable again. Perry is showing why he was a 1st round pick and now that he's healthy I think he's getting some confidence.

We seemed to run the ball well at different times, but my biggest complaint was that they didn't work hard enough to get it going early. I know they wanted to attack SF through the air, but I think getting the running game going early would have helped slow down that pass rush. When they finally started getting Lacy going it was with those toss sweeps, something we didn't see early. I know they like the running plays where they have a run/pass option, but those aren't always conducive to Lacy's style...he's at his best when he has a full head of steam running in to the line, not running laterally on a handoff out of shotgun. JMO though. If that's be biggest complaint than we are in a good position!

Positives:  a W is a W on a long road trip after a couple of prime time games.

I am probably one of the most critical of the Packers D but they did a great job yesterday.  Sure it was against a not very good offense but this usually is the kind of game someone like Hyde gashes the defense. 

 

Negatives;  That we didn't beat them by 40

 

I personally think that Aaron's frustration yesterday could have been a "chip on his shoulder" about San Fran.  Even though things turned out better than he could probably have dreamed they would I still think he has a grudge against SF for not taking him.  I think he really wanted to beat them by 50. 

You would think it was a good halftime adjustment, but they had 15 rushes in the first half. Pretty even split. I think we just wore SF out in the 2nd half. We had 68 yds rushing 1st half, added almost 100 more in the 2nd half.

 

That FG would have been nice had Crosby not missed at the end of the half.

 

The real halftime adjustment came on D. We had NO sacks 1st half... Hyde was held to ZERO yds in the 2nd half, and Kaeperpunk was sacked 6 times. Love seeing that kind of adjustment at the half.

Cobb is dealing with pain. Said as much after the game. That shoulder isn't right. 

 

But there he was full throttle past James Jones looking to throw some blocks on Jones 36 yard catch/run on the last drive of the 1st half. 

 

Football player. 

Cobby wants a ring. You can see it.

nice pop by Rollins

you mean that one where he went low on Hyde(I think)?  adrian peterson's fans think those kind of tackles are attempts at injury and Rollins is a punk (Al Harris tackle of AP years ago). 

 

as for halftime adjustments, I said to my 10 y/o boy in the 1st quarter - "they're gonna wear 'em down today.  what's not working right now, you just watch."

As the game was going on, with the heat, I thought their D has got to be gassed... TOP was in our favor. In the fourth quarter you could see it in our running game... Niners had nothing left, thought they could've been demoralized by the stink from Kaep.... 

 

LOVE the way our defense is playing like a beast possessed. There's an energy out there in these four games that I never saw when Hawk and Jones and others now gone were out there.... We have a completely different personality on D, and I love the way CMIII is coming from anywhere and everywhere.

It really is special to see YATittle. Amazing transformation when you think about it. Our DL really didn't look like anything special in OTAs and TC, and we had a lot of new players coming into starting positions and nickel and dime packages.

 

Really impressive considering Morgan Burnett was out again. Ha Ha is really doing a nice job back there, and Hyde is holding his own pretty well.

 

This group has held 3 very good RBs in Lynch, Charles and Hyde to a very low number of yds. Right around 110 for all three combined. That's remarkable.

This is not the D we've seen in recent years. They're a proud group trying to make a statement every week, especially with so many of them in contract years. It's gonna be fun to watch.

Clay has always had an incredible motor. But he is taking it to another level this season. With the move inside last season you could see he was feeling his way a bit. Comfort level is way up now, the trust the coaching staff has in him is making his confidence soar, and he just seems unleashed. Instead of constantly butting heads with the opposing LT play after play as in the past, IMO it's obvious he's enjoying the variety of ways in which he is being used and that's acting like an afterburner to his play. Like MM said last week, they want Clay closing on the ballcarrier from wherever he's deployed and he's responded.

 

The fire that he and Daniels are playing with is contagious and rippling through the entire defense. Not unlike the testosterone boost that Eddie brought to the the offense.

Rob Demovsky ESPN Staff Writer 

From ESPN Stats & Info: The 13 sacks by the Packers' defense in the last two games combined are tied for their most in a two-game span since sacks became an official stat in 1982; and it's the first time they have ever had at least six sacks in consecutive games.

I think getting Julius Peppers last season is a very big factor in all of this. You could see how that affected Raji last year in TC prior to his biceps injury. He looked great then, and I'm sure now, he feels it is time to bring home another Lombardi Trophy. There is a mission there for these guys to accomplish, and they all are playing some very inspired football. Randall Cobb wants a ring too. The urgency to their play is very apparent, both sides of the ball.

 

I agree with you cuqui, Matthews is digging this. Big time. Great to see.

I think the thing that is frustrating Rodgers is the "secondary" patterns. When  he's buying time, he expects to find an open man at some point. He has eaten the ball more this year than last year, and I think the biggest reason is the guy missing is the guy who was best at the secondary routes- Jordy. Jones doesn't have the speed, and teams are paying a lot of attention to Cobb. That means that Monty, Rodgers, Janis, Abbredaris, and when he comes back Adams- they have to learn this craft. They have to get better at this, because it's a staple of this team's passing game.

 

Love the way they contained Kap in the second half. Ends did a great job not getting walled off by trying to get around the tackles. As the pressure came, Kap has little space to go. He was totally rattled in that game- short-hopping 10 yard throws... that's what pressure does to you. This team is dialing up pressure in every conceivable way, now. It's wonderful.

 

OL has some soul searching to do. Clean it up quickly. Same goes for the team in Madison, btw...

I really think the OL woes are related more than anything to the short week and long travel. Big fatigue, and SF had something to prove. Considering all of that, they did OK. I believe we will see a different group on Sunday, far better.

 

Add to that, Bakhtiari has been playing with the bum knee, and he's played through the injury. Pretty good stuff.

 

They all have a tall order come Sunday against STL. Hope they play well. I think they will. This one is going to be a real statement game for the Packers and their OL.

 

STL had 7 sacks against SEA, 4 v. WAS, 5 v. PIT and 4 v. AZ. They are also one of the top rated defenses against the run. We are going to have to blow them off the ****ing ball! I'd like to see a GIANT dose of GB pounding the run. Take it to them boys!

 

Matthews did play at another gear seemingly all game yesterday. It also appears that he has embraced the ILB snaps when he was previously not so enamored with playing there. Saw more than a couple of times where he was shooting a gap between C/G or G/T and attacking Kaepernick. He does that to Foles next week and he'll have a multi-sack game.

 

Really liked that thekept the D aggressive all game. Might have been because the O needed the pick-me-up, or maybe he is getting comfortable with the personnel in the schemes he wants to run.

 

 

 

 

 

Good job Rookie...

 

Comeback kid: Rookie cornerback Damarious Randall has taken a couple of lumps the past two weeks, but on Sunday he bounced back from a big one and helped make a difference in the outcome.

 

Wide receiver Torrey Smith got ahead of Randall with a double move down the right sideline and was a step ahead of him when he hauled in a 47-yard pass from quarterback Colin Kaepernick that went to the Packers 20-yard line with 5 minutes, 49 seconds left in the game.

 

Two plays later, facing a third and 5 at the 15, Kaepernick went back to Smith into the right corner of the end zone. This time, Randall ran step for step with Smith and made a leaping breakup that saved a touchdown.

 

On the fourth-down play, linebacker Mike Neal sacked Kaepernick.

 

"That's how competitive he is," safety Chris Banjo said of Randall. "He'll let you know how competitive he is. It's fun to watch. You have to withstand a lot to be a cornerback and a lot of it is how you respond to it."

Randall is taking his lumps and is learning how it feels to be burned. That's good because if he's as competitive as they say then he's going to work hard to make sure that doesn't happen again. He has the physical tools clearly, and seemingly the mental make up, now he just needs to get experience/savvy and he will be a fine CB.

The other thing about the sacks, I'd be interested to see the final breakdown of the sack stats as to who gets blamed. There were a couple times where I thought Rodgers stepped in to the sack or scrambled the wrong way. Definitely  a couple of those holding calls were on him...he scrambled right past the OLB who would got him had an OL not held. The OL just got burned a few times though, not putting it all on Rodgers. He needs to help them out though.