Something we had a lot of problems with last year were drops.

Our receiving group was credited with 46 of them. 2nd came the Chiefs with 45. The closest team to that didn't even reach 40 drops.

So it's nearly as bad as our sack problem.

I was pretty sure that most of these would be on Donald Lee. Balls seemed to be bouncing out of his hands left and right, from what I could remember.

And although he did drop quite a few, he isn't the one who's getting this dubious honor bestowed on him.

I was unpleasantly surprised by who is.

Wide Receivers

James Jones - 9
Donald Driver - 8
Greg Jennings - 4
Jordy Nelson - 3
[img_r]http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slideshows/879/slideshow_87938/display_image.jpg[/img_r]
Tight Ends

Donald Lee - 6
Jermichael Finley - 4

Running Backs

Ryan Grant - 3
DeShawn Wynn - 3
Brandon Jackson - 2
Quinn Johnson (FB) - 2
Korey Hall (FB) - 1
Ahman Green - 1

Jones' numbers are pretty alarming. He made just 32 receptions on the year, yet, managed to drop 9 balls.

And that's without the wild card game in the mix, where he caught 3 passes, but dropped 1 more.

But what this really is is another showing of mental mistakes and lapses in concentration.

We've seen Jones play his rookie year. He made some nice catches and had pretty sure hands.

We've seen Lee play his best football in 2007, when he dropped only one ball, and had a more productive year last year when he dropped "just" four.

These Packers teams under McCarthy seem to be plagued with unnecessary penalties and mistakes. It ranges from false starts to missed assignments to, now, dropped balls.

Maybe it just comes with being one of the youngest teams in the league year in, year out. Maybe it's that Rodgers just can't give the offense that veteran leadership that it appears to need, yet. Or maybe it's McCarthy who can't lead and inspire the team.
Whatever it is, I'm hoping to see it fixed this year. When the Packers get running on all cylinders, the sky's the limit for this team.

[align=right]Detlev Dimmitry[/align]

http://www.profootballfocus.com [/i] [url=Pro_News/aid=140.html]full article[/url].

god. i almost forgot about that shit. last year was pretty incredible for bumbling follies, wasn't it?

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What's impossible to know from these raw numbers alone is what those passes looked like. Were they in Jones' hands and he simply couldn't haul them in? Were they over his shoulder and he had to lay out to grab them? Were they practically in the dirt and he simply couldn't keep his fingers underneath them? Were they relatively on target but he was blanketed with defenders? Without looking at footage of each pass, it's hard to make a judgment as to how much of these drops were the receivers' fault, how much of them were Rodgers' fault, and how much of it was bad luck. Just because some spotter in the booth tagged a drop on the receiver doesn't necessarily account for all the variables on the field.

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Of course, but if you get thrown at 60 times, catch 32 balls and drop 9, which is 1 less than the league leader, something's wrong.

I mean, 5 drops would've been too much for a guy who was thrown at as little as he was.

Again, the numbers look damning, but they don't necessarily tell the whole story. Maybe Rodgers doesn't have good chemistry with Jones and only throws to him as a last resort. In other words, maybe Jones doesn't come early in Rodgers' progression and only gets the ball when the play is breaking down, and therefore the throws to him tend to be wilder than throws to other receivers like Finley. I'd like to see footage of all these throws to Jones and see under what conditions he's thrown at and how good the throws are.

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Drops and penalties. Sigh. The cause of most of my drinking on Sundays.

I think McCarthy should send out vouchers for one free 12 pack of Miller High Life before the season starts.

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Good point nsd

This team has always been undisciplined under McCarthy. I would expect the drops/penalties to continue as long as he is the coach.

Weird, I don't see Mason Crosby on the list anywhere. He "dropped the ball" a few times last season.

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Jones was thrown to 60 times last season. That averages out to less than 4 times per game. NFL.com play-by-play lists exact times of each play, so it should be a rather trivial issue of fast-forwarding to each play and watching them.

I'm downloading the first game now and I'll report back on what I see. I'd like to make a montage of all the balls thrown to him. Anyone have recommendations for easy-to-use, free video editing software?

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I'd go with Windows Movie Maker, if you use Windows.

I could be wrong, but I remember more of the drops coming in the first half of the season. Then again, maybe it was easier to forget the drops when they were winning.

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BDota, behind my post was the thought that as the offensive line is shored up, the number of drops will decline. I should have made that more explicit.

However, I can't seem to open the file.



Kevin?

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The Bengals game works, but apparently these files are just highlights, so that isn't too helpful for this purpose.

James Jones does make a couple of nice catches in the Bengals game, though. 😉

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I thought Jones dropped alot of balls, but people told me it wasn't true and he had great hands. I remember watching against the Bears with Brett at qb and Jones dropping like 3 balls that game and fumbling 2 more. But like I said people swore on here he had great hands.

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Which is just maddening. I understand that some penalties will flow just from the rough and tough approach that McCarthy takes, but it's damn aggravating.

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Ouch. And here I was adamantly defending Jones earlier as our #3 WR.

Half a year more of the dropsies and he'll drop to #4.

The other thing is I remember Driver dropping a lot of catchable balls. He's usually very sure handed, but I think he was often focused on running after the catch too much in '09.

Hope this issue gets resolved in '10. Dropping 46 balls is unacceptable, as are our penalties, as is not going for the throat when our opponent is near death. Things to improve, MM.

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It was a fluke year. These were all easy catches, but everybody was dropping them.
They used to say it took a year for new WRs to get used to catching the ball from our old QB, just because of the way he threw, which was very hard. There could be an adjustment period because of that, but damn. This is AR12's second year. They've had plenty of time to get kopacetic.
I just put it down to flukeyness. Our WRs are too good to continue dropping that many.

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well said nerdmann, there were more than a handful of catches that seemed easy for their intended receivers.. I'm just hoping they focus a little more on this stuff in training as I believe the Pack is built on the foundations of our passing game. They have been running the ball way too much in my opinion. And the penalties! what is up with that?!

Several weeks ago I walked into the Fairbanks FedEX receiving center by the airport to pick up a package, it just so happened that all the delivery drivers were getting back at that same time. Turns out that one of the gals was from Kewaunee, or somewhere near there.. I asked her what she thought about Rodgers and she said she didn't, she said that she moved on to the vikes with Favre... needless to say, it was the most irritating conversation I have experienced so far this year. I don't understand how you can be a fair weather fan to your own kin!

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