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First off, Thanks Murph.

Second, at the end of the year MLF needs to, and I think he will, hand him his walking papers.   Hopefully the Murph won't be a stubborn dick this time. 

"The last time the Cubs won the World Series was 1908. The last time they were in one was 1945.  Hey, any team can have a bad century."- Tom Trebelhorn

Last edited by BrainDed
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The only things that have kept the special teams from being a complete and utter disaster are Crosby and Scott.  It's actually kind of amazing the Pack is 7-2 with special teams coverage and returns units as poor as they are.  Basically, Crosby and Scott have saved that unit from being completely awful, but they're still pretty awful despite the strong performance of both those guys.

PackLandVA posted:

STs haven’t been good, but I think 9 games into a guy’s first season is too soon to fire a guy. I think LaFleur would be making a mistake in doing so. 

I'm not seeing anyone calling for his firing in mid season, but after 16 games, plus (hopefully) some playoff games as well, MLF should have a good sense of what Mennenga is capable, or not capable of.  It's an adequate sample size. 

It would be nice if one of the players on special teams would actually block someone. I think they know how to block it's just that they DON'T block. 

It's absolutely amazing opposing payers just run right past them and the Packers don't even touch them most times. 

And on returns the returners are so intent on running to the side the play is called for that they miss any hole that might accidentally occur because they need to run to the same place that the cover team knows they will run to. 

I am not sure that the problem is coaching. I think it's the fact that the Packers don't use many starters of special teams for fear of them getting hurt. I watched NE last night and their STs are full of starters. I cannot name one Packers starter who plays STs for GB other than a lineman on FG team. 

 

YooperPackfan posted:

Pettine is a concern as well...just saying

You have NFI what you're talking about....and this thread is about the ST's coach. 

Unless Meningitis turns it around vs. Carolina & continues improving, he has to go. It's literally shocking to me as to how teams just ignore the 33% of the game that's Special Teams. Makes zero sense

YooperPackfan posted:

Pettine is a concern as well...just saying

While I think Pettine has earned more time and leeway as he’s done some good things, there are major concerns with this defense. Giving up a bazillion yards and a handful of explosive plays weekly will result in a very quick playoff exit. That just won’t work against good teams. 

Last edited by 13X

This is the first KO return from last week.   Chargers intentionally land it around the 5.   Look at this beautiful scheme by Uncle Fester.  4 blockers on the side of the field that the ball is returned on vs 5 defenders.   6 blockers vs 4 defenders on the non play side. 

I don't claim to be a special teams guru, but I don't think this one has a high success probability.   

Screen capture.

Gif of it playing out. 

https://i.imgur.com/RqCWyw6.gifv

 

Looks like they had a middle return called but failed to adjust.   Guy at 2nd level of left side immediately sprints to the middle and takes himself out of the play. 

Again, I don't know shit, but you would think he would adjust or the returner would try to take the ball to the middle then.   

I don't know what's supposed to be happening, but it looks ugly. 

BrainDed posted:

Looks like they had a middle return called but failed to adjust.   Guy at 2nd level of left side immediately sprints to the middle and takes himself out of the play. 

Again, I don't know shit, but you would think he would adjust or the returner would try to take the ball to the middle then.   

I don't know what's supposed to be happening, but it looks ugly. 

Yup

After doing a bit of research, but to my untrained eye, there seems to be two things going on. 1. The blockers engage so early that tacklers slide off and are free to go to the ball. KOs have to be timed so that the runner hits the blocking line just as or after blocks are made, or in this case, the blockers should be hitting guys around the 20. The GB blockers were starting to engage between the 25-30 but the returner is still a long way from there. You can't wipe a guy out by going low, so tacklers just slide off and have an easy run to the returner. 2. There's no line set up. No gap discipline, no recognition of what they need to do. It's like they were told "just find a guy to hit." Ugly, and it's been ugly all year. Ugly coaching.

Packers finish 26th in Gosselin's ST Rankings

Highlights: Improved from 32nd in 2018 to 26th, Crosby in the top 5 in FG % and we were one of the least penalized units, so there's that. Not to beat a dead horse, but DARREN RIZZI'S ST UNIT FINISHED 1ST IN THE LEAGUE BUT APPARENTLY WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY FOR HIM! Don't know if that was a LaFleur issue or a Murphy issue, but that was a complete fucking failure of a non-move. 

Last edited by Grave Digger

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