That squib kick better have been a fucking mistake... if that was planned Slocum/McCarthy need to be hung and then fired... or vice versa... Why on earth would you do that with over 2 minutes left the way this defense was bringing the heat and making it hard for the Pats to really move the ball. I had no expectations for this game anyway but the coaches on this team are pissing me off to an extreme end. I am sorry for the rant, I don't usually curse but JESUS... So frustrating, I understand we have a had a ton of injuries and A Rod was out but I honestly think Flynn helped McCarthy here. He decided he couldnt make as many god awful decisions because he didnt trust Flynn as much as A Rod and it helped with estblishing a run game and not running crazy plays. I don't hate McCarthy but if his team, himself and his staff keep making these terrible decisions I won't be able to accept it. I hate coaching changes but we arent far away here, he did a great job of certain things tonight in having the team ready but it boiled down to the same old questionable calls and decisions that are getting insanely aggravating.

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The kick wasn't a problem just the coverage of it. They kicked it to a 310 lb lineman the worst that should have happened was they get the ball around the 35.

The defense playing well is what makes a squib kick more logical.
It takes some heat off the STs coverage unit (they don't have to tackle a regular returner) and puts more heat on the defense (field position is sacrificed).

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Um, you do realize that Pats KR Ben Tate has like a 26 yard kick return average for the season, right? In other words, he's a dangerous return man.

Add to it that our ST unit has seen an insane amount of turn over (besides Jarret Bush and Tom Crabtree, I cannot think of any player to play all the games on ST so far) and you'd think kicking it to a O-linemen would be a better way to handle kick return coverage.

For what it is worth, the execution on that return was terrible. From the replays I have seen, Jarret Bush pinched inside too early and lost his contain, Quinn Johnson had a downright stupid play where he blindly tried to tackle a pile the returner was never even in thereby eliminating at least two players (Bishop and Bush/Underwood) from recovering on the play, and Charlie Peprah took a bad angle and could never really recover.

It's not like the Packers were hit with something new. They just lacked execution. You could blame it on the coaches, but honestly if after 15 weeks in the regular season players cannot understand what it means to contain, take right angles, and not wildly lunge without looking then there is a deeper problem than just the coaching.

The decision to keep it away from Ben Tate was not a wrong one. The execution of our Special Teams coverage unit was the worst I have seen in quite a while.

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It did appear as though the Packers players didnt even know that OL had the ball with the abgle they were taking just the general feel of the play... I can't sit here and be a coaching apologist anymore (because that is the route I take 99% of the time) I always try to keep the faith but our staff is making it real hard, the problem was most definitely in the kick itself... Was tate really hurting us at all previously? Was it really necessary to go outside the box and even if fatty doesnt run 70 yards give us an automatic field position disadvantage against one of the best offenses in the league? I completely agree that our special teams unit players are incompetent and honeslty depleted due to injuries and the like but that kick should never have been called.

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When Moss was traded from the Pats, Brandon Tate was the WR that was touted to step up and replace Moss as the Pats' deep threat.

He holds the record for Kick and Punt return yards in NCAA history.

When Shields was matched up on him, you could see Tate could match Shields in the speed department.

Tate is a dangerous return man. He has proven that throughout this year. If given the choice between kicking it to him or to a O-linemen, I take the O-linemen each time. The kick itself from Crosby and the decision to actually kick away from Tate were not the problem.

The decision backfired because our Special Teams players had pathetic execution; the problem was that our Special Teams players could not bring the guy down because they made mistakes during covering of said kick.

Hard to blame the coaches for screw-ups by the players. I fail to see how McCarthy or Slocum should be fired because Bush lost contain, or Peprah took bad angles, or Quinn Johnson decided to act like an idiot.

Coaches stress angles, the concept of contain, etc.; it's not like the problem is that the coaches are unaware of simple terminology for the Special Teams. Yes the coaches might need to do a better job of coaching, but that does not mean they have not conveyed fundamentals to their players.

Frankly, you have to start the blame with the players; they should have gone out and executed. We've seen the idea of containing, of taking right angles and so on displayed properly by these players before - they are capable of doing these things. That they failed to do so should be blamed largely on the players. Frankly, our special teams - and I am talking about our core players here such as Bush, Johnson, and Peprah - need to play smarter and more fundamentally sound.

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Tate has a 26 yard average... He had 1 return for 20 yards against us before that... An average Crosby kickoff lands usually from 1 yard inside the goaline to the 5 yard like... Max AVERAGE return is then the 31 yard line. Point is, who cares what his average is, has he hurt us yet? What is even the point of squibbing, obviously you dont expect a lineman to return it 70 yards but you know that if you cick it to the 35 or 40 yard line the average field position for the other team is going to better than usual. With more than 2 minutes on the clock for Tom Brady regardless, just kick it deep and let the coverage unit do the basic thing they know, normal lane assignments and targets. Yes I blame the players because they suck at their jobs but there just isnt a need to squib.

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Did Tate burn us to that point? No, I don't think he had an opportunity to.

I'm utterly shocked by the sophomoric analysis and stupidity on these boards. Lets simplify what AADP just wrote.

Packers have awful ST coverage (for myriad reasons)

Choice A: Kick to talented return man
Choice B: Kick to fat slow offensive lineman

Debating whether or I should press a hot iron up against my face right now is a more thought provoking argument for me than whether or not Mke and co. made the right move by kicking to a guy with 5.2 40 yard dash speed.

Sorry I dont agree with going the route of a vagina and being scared of a godamn return man, completely losing faith in your coverage unit and giving a team at the very least the 35 yard line with more than 2 minutes on the clock is retarded...

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our return team just gave up an NFL record for the longest return to an offensive lineman...THE LONGEST IN NFL HISTORY...to an OFFENSIVE LINEMAN, and you have more confidence in that unit if we'd kick to their actual KR?

Who gives a shit, that's as fluky of a stat as they come, and it happened because we squibbed it... lol come on man

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