McAdoo knows us; knows our TE game inside out; but Mike is his daddy and schooled him in their first meeting in October. McCarthy took what McAdoo knew and used it against him.
No staff does better than Mike’s staff after a bye. And GB crushed NY after the bye even with Doppelganger Wigglesworth at QB. This means GB has had 3 weeks to prepare for NY and NY has only had 2 for GB. Also, from 3 weeks ago, it was very predictable that if we made POs we’d be a #4 seed and NYG would be #5. Surely, the staff did some work on NY and maybe even devoted a little practice time to prepare for NY because the last 3 weeks GB played division opponents, who the staff and team know well and needed less time to prepare for them.
In Oct. Nelson had 3 huge drops, one bounced off hands for an INT at the 5-that’s not happenin’ again. The OL was dominant, no sacks and 5 pressures and now Taylor [3 pressures] is better and NY’s #1 and #3 DEs are not playing. Spagnola only blitzed 10% in 1st game; if he tries more Rodgers will make him pay. Of the NYPD, DRC was hobbled in 1st game, this one Jenkins is hobbled, advantage GB. Cobb had a big game in Oct., but Apple only played a handful of snaps, now he’s better, he’ll be outside and DRC will cover Cobb in slot, Cobb if healthy would be a nice match-up v. DRC. Hall is their 4th cover guy, so in 3WR set whether it’s Monty out of backfield or Cook/Rodgers in slot Hall can be torched every play. Also, I see some 4 WR with Allison and Adams outside; Nelson, Cobb in slot, whoever Hall covers is auto-open. Oh and Collins cant cover in slot either. And love to see some more wheel routes with Allison out of the slot on the 4 WR set. All in all coverage don’t matter, because there is no defense against the perfect pass. There’s no wind, so Rodgers will be just about perfect with the protection he’s gonna get.
Also in 1st game we played effectively TightEnd-less. We didn’t have Cook and R.Rodgers played like Doppleganger Wigglesworth Jr., he really sucked, it was his worst game ever. So, it is like we got 2 TEs we didn’t have in Oct.
In Oct. we ran at will against them 27-132, and Rip, Michael and Monty are better than Lacy [11 carries] and Starks [12]. Plus NY has lost some rotational DL depth.
The up-tempo is a weapon as powerful as bringing in Jerry Rice and Don Hutson off the bench. Mike saved it for 1st drive in 2nd half in Detroit. Anytime we decide to use it is almost a certainty we will score! But, the depleted D prevents Mike from running it 24/7.
Vegas has Schum to be inactive at 4 to 1, smart $$ says we’re just not gonna need him.
In Oct. our D played its best game. It’s like when you ditched school returned home and dad was there tapping the switch in his hand and you’re wondering who does he know. Mike is McAdoo’s daddy, he knows what Ben’s gonna do before Ben does and Mike has tuned in Capers. In Oct. we controlled the run and now our DL is better as Lowry, Clark and Ringo are better [Pennell didn’t play in Oct. either]. Ryan, Thomas and Martinez are not as healthy; but this should be offset because of the experience these youngsters gained over last 12 games. Yes, Perkins is better, but our front 7 will contain him.
NY’s best OT is Marshall Newhouse; nuff said; though they’re decent inside. Daniels will get his push inside and Perry, Peppers and CM3 are going into playoff mode. Peppers will be letting the team know, he wants his damn ring.
In Oct. Hyde, Rollins, Gunter, Burnett and Dix played 100% of the snaps. We played dime for 15 plays and DB-6 was Brice. Brice is a lot better than he was in week 5. The GBPD is missing Rollins. Randall, who didn’t play, replaces Rollins, but this is a solid downgrade as Randall is hobbled and doesn’t play well in the cold. But, we could play with 6 Herb Waters and it won’t matter because Eli can’t throw in the cold. We played a lot of 2 deep in 1st game; Elisha’s [that’s actually his name] gonna see more of that. This minimizes the affect of bad under CB play. If Randall cant go or is bad. In the nickel GB has a choice: move Hyde to edge, Burnett to slot and Brice to safety; or bring Hawkins in on the edge. I like the idea of Hawkins, he’s fast enough to be aggressively on OBJ with Brice over the top; but this will only work w/ OBJ to NY right because GB’s not moving Gunter. If OBJ goes left and he’s bracketed, that will leave Hawkins mostly man on Cruz. So I’m guessing GB goes with Hyde outside. Then they bracket OBJ, and whichever of Hyde and Gunter not covering OBJ can both handle Cruz, then Burnett can easily cover Sheppard.
In Oct. Hyde was all pro, he was Charles Woodson. He was great at blanketing Sheppard in slot 7Trg-2-14 and he would run blitz with Thomas or Dix picking up Sheppard. NY will try to catch GB on this switch on Sunday. So let’s hope Randall can hold up so Hyde can stay in slot.
The TE got away twice in Oct. once because Martinez bit on play action and 2nd one was a miscommunication between Ryan and Thomas, which would have been a long TD, but for Elisha sucking. NY will work to try to exploit this on Sunday.
They know Elisha wont be accurate on longer throws, so another area I expect NY to show some unscouted looks is with passes to Perkins out of backfield. Our ILBs are going to have to be vigilant.
Ed Hochuli’s crew is reffing. GB is 0-5 in playoffs with Hochuli reffing; but he was reffing in Oct. game.
The Weather Gods are kind! Temp during game 10-12; winds during game: 7-9mph.
This is perfect weather!!!! Nawlins/Mississippi boy Elisha is definitely worse on games 21-40 degrees, 7 passer rating points lower on average per this
article of 1-31-14. But, under 32, he is really bad.
Manning said a few years ago that he liked the idea of a cold weather superbowl. No QB wants cold, so the only QB saying this is one terrified of the cold. Here’s from what I can tell all Eli’s games under 32 deg. That’s a 51.2 passer rating. His best game, was against Favre.
1-20-08 @GB...........-1 deg, 12mph.........21-40-251-0-0-72
12-27-15 @ Minn......12 deg, 8mph.........15-29-234-1-3-50.7
12-26-04 @ Cinn......24 deg., 3mph.........19-37-201-0-1-56.2
12-26-10 @ GB .........25 deg, 5mph.........17-33-301-2-4-63.6
12-18-11 v. Wash.....29 deg, 9mph..........23-40-257-0-3-45.5
12-4-05 v. Dallas.....30 deg, 7mph..........12-31-152-0-2-27.9