The Packers rolled out the red carpet for Aaron Rodger's in sloppy fashion. So sloppy in fact, that it looked as if the offense was trying to score in the wrong end zone. The first two drives of this game, while racking up plenty of possession time, lost more yards through penalties eventually resulting in a 1-and-33 situation. The next few plays reminded me of the reason we got rid of Mike Sherman; poor play-calling. I can't remember the last time I saw such conservative gameplan. For us Packer fans who have never witnessed a longer offseason it seemed as if were in store for a much longer regular season. Surprise, surprise, that was about to change.

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Grant was really sore by halftime. He'll get more carries later on, don't you worry!

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And even with all that, we STILL won!!!

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I am willing to forgive the O-line for all the penalties, because the pass protection was very good. I doubt very much that we will see that many penalties from the O-line in one game again this season. By the way, I don't think they are really all that young and inexperienced. Colledge, Spitz, and Moll are all in their third seasons now. They should be entering their primes. But Colledge and Moll have already been passed up by rookie Josh Sitton, who will most likely return to the lineup in a couple weeks, when his injury heals. Hopefully we can get Wells back in there very soon as well.

Clifton had three penalties and Tauscher had one, so the older guys had their share of screw-ups. And from what I've heard, Moll's penalty on the would-be Driver TD was not his fault. When the QB checks out of a running play at the line of scrimmage without telling anyone but the receiver, you run the risk of a lineman getting downfield.

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What was the deal with MM running down the clock 21 seconds on 3rd down to kick a fieldgoal?! Coulda taken another shot at the endzone and still had plenty of time to kick.

Not to mention the fact that the kick was missed 🤨 :mad:

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He did call the game a bit too conservative in spots. I hope he gets back some edge as the season goes on. If you have confidence in Rodgers, then do not EVER second guess yourself when making calls to try and put the game away. In the Vikings game, they made a gutsy call on 4th and 1 and it worked out for them big. It got them RIGHT back into the game. That is the kind of mentality we need to put into action.

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Here's the deal: If he had called a timeout right away, then ran the third down play, and it ended with a sack or a completion in bounds, there probably would not have been time to get the field goal unit onto the field (a spike is not an option on fourth down, of course).

If he had saved the timeout, they could've gotten the play off with maybe 20 seconds left, but because they were already in field goal range, the only useful play would be an end zone heave, which the Vikings would be expecting. This would have a very low chance of success, and they would have run the risk of an interception, or more likely, a sack or penalty (there had been plenty of those already) which would turn a short field goal into a long one.

So McCarthy went for the "sure" three points to turn it into a two-score game. But then Crosby inexplicably took a divot and missed it. Yes, McCarthy played it conservatively, but it was justified. If they had passed on third down, there would have been a much better chance of a bad outcome than a good one.

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You're right but it could have all been avoided if they hadn't thrown a 3 yard flat route in-bounds on 2nd down.

Yeah, that was Brandon Jackson failing to get out of bounds. I think there were two plays in a row where he caught short passes and failed to get out of bounds. But the first priority was to get into field goal range. I would've liked to have seen some more throws downfield, but maybe there just wasn't anybody else open.

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I agree 100%.
But i THINK it was because of the circumstances. Rodgers first game and all.
I think now that he has seen that Rodgers isn't going to choke, he will open things up again.

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