MLF is horrible on challenges. That was a stupid one last night. Time management was awful, did not hurt them last night but timeouts are so precious. In the second half they should NEVER be used if the play clock is winding down. NEVER take the penalty NO MATTER WHAT!

Game: Doubs looked like Sterling Sharpe 2.0 powering into the end zone on his first TD. His second TD was breathtaking. Despite all that, Doubs does not look happy. Maybe that’s just how he always looks, but it is concerning to me.

Lame: MLF looked like he went to the Mike McCarthy School of Clock Mismanagement.

No Good, Bad, and Ugly this week (Nagler's slacking I guess) so here are mine:
The Good --- Rushing offensive in first half. OL getting good push. Jacobs racked up over 70 yards & a TD.
The Bad --- Rushing offense in 2nd half. No push. Jacobs stoned most of the time. Outta gas or Seahawk adjustments?
The Ugly --- As Jonathan said above, clock management at end of half. Got 3. Coulda/shoulda had 7. C'mon, Coach!
The Szotman

Game ball to the entire D-line! They stuffed the Seattle rushing attack and put their QB under pressure all night. They held Seattle to 80 yards rushing and 128 net yards passing (173 yards minus 45 lost due to sacks). Holding an NFL team to 208 yards of total offense is hard to do, particularly on the road against a team that coming off a four game win streak. Really good defense keyed by strong D-line play.

Clock management at the end of the first half is my only real lame call and it was a head scratcher. Both LaFleur and Love acted like they had all day rather than under two minutes. Don't the Packers plan for and practice a two minute drill???? That sequence was just inexplicable to me.

This team isn't anywhere near consistent enough to rest players and take games off. The only chance they have at making any type of post season run is to get red hot right now. We've seen time and time again how sloppy they are and how slow they start early in the season and after bye weeks.

This teams seems the best when it starts the game fast. This article comments about clock management is right on. Also, play calling in the second half is at issue. That is on Lafluer. Love may have something to do with it because he likes to push the ball down the field.
We have Jacobs and Kraft that are great after the catch to help dink and dunk down the field. Hope Lafluer is listening

Great game by the players. Only things that concerned me is just what heck they were even thinking on that drive before halftime. 6 years as a head coach and MLF has learned nothing about clock management. The other thing is when in the second half Seattle started loading up and stuffing the runs up the middle, though they finally adjusted with running Reed outside, I would have liked to have seen them use screens and Kraft more. Last thing is, I absolutely hate seeing 3rd and goal from the 2 yard line and they go shotgun and run right up the middle. It never works. Get big and go right over the top or do a Love Shove, a Play Action roll out to a leaking Kraft, anything other than a slow ass shotgun hand off up the middle where Meyers is at.

Other than those 3 things, it was a great effort and showing by the entire team and a joy to watch.

Game Balls: Cooper, Engabare, DL, Doubs, Reed and Josh Jacobs.

Lame Calls: First half clock management. Allowed 15-20 seconds tick away for no reason. The Packers consistently take too long to get their plays in resulting is wasted timeouts and poor clock management.

Bring on the Saints. Go Pack Go! Thanks, Since '61

The Packers should have won that game last night and I am relieved that they took care of business. Let's face it, the Seattle O-line is sub par and our D-line is average so we should have won that trench. The boys did their job and made life difficult for the Seahawk offense.

Glad that we showed up after the extended break. Still a ways to go if we are to get "hot" for a playoff run. O-line needs to improve if we are to impose our will on teams. Was hoping for a pound the rock finish for this game but the line got pushed back repeatedly.

GAME BALLS

Edgerrin Cooper —
He is proving to be the biggest difference maker on the defense. He changes the way Hafley can call the defense. When he is on the field you can just feel his speed. He feels like he is running while everyone else is walking. He is a field tilting player.

Romeo Doubs —
Doubs definitely deserves a game ball. He had 3 catches for 40 yards and 2 TD's. He could have had 2 TD's more if him and Love were on the same page on the first throw, and on the play before half if Love leads him.

Christian Watson —
Watson had 3 catches for 56 yards. Had Love been a bit more accurate he could have put up better stats. He drew a 39 yard pass interference penalty which if he gets a better ball there is a chance it goes for a td. And the final offensive play he threw it short to Watson again. He is becoming one of Loves go to guys. He isn't just a deep threat.

Carrington Valentine —
I have to move Valentine to the game ball category. He had what to me was the dagger interception. He missed one the play before, but then he made up for it on the next play. That play was huge in this game as the Packers were up 14 points in the middle of the 2nd quarter. Seahawks had the ball for over 6 minutes got to the 12 yards line and were looking to bring this game to within 7 before half time. But Valentine intercepts it, allowing GB to go down and put points on the board. That was about a 10 point swing before half time.

UNSUNG HERO

Jordan Love —
I'm going Love on this one. He didn't put up monster numbers, and had some throws he would like to have back for sure. But he finished 20 of 27 (74%) for 229 yards and 2 TD's. He escaped any danger in the pocket, a just did a great job of managing the offense.

LAME CALLS

The Sideline —
"Clock management, time out management and challenge management were mishandled at various moments, which ultimately are Matt LaFleur’s responsibility. "
My biggest take on this is the end of the first half time management. I would have rather seen them call a timeout then waste 20+ seconds. I want to see them being more aggressive rather then play to not lose basically. They were more worried about the Seahawks getting the ball back rather then going down and getting the TD. Go for the TD!

As far as the challenge, I didn't figure it would get overturned, BUT, I feel like it could have been. I am not sure his hand was going forward with the ball. I personally thought it was worth a challenge.

FINAL WHISTLES

GB won this game against a playoff caliber team in their house. I know Geno got hurt in the game, maybe he makes it more of a game, but they were down 20-3 when he got hurt. They held Smith to 149 yards through midway through the 3rd quarter before he got hurt. The Seahawks have throw for the 3rd most yards in the NFL.

Packers scored 30 points in a hard place to play. They definitely could have scored more. This was against a team that had everything to play for. They had a 1 game lead on the Rams for first place in the division. They win that game they maintain that lead. They lose and move to 2nd place in the division and possibly out of the playoffs.

This was a good win against a good team who was coming off a 4 game winning streak.

Lets enjoy some victory Monday!

Game balls to all the players that gave max effort and played smart.

Game balls to all the Packer fans chanting "Go Pack Go" at Lumen Field. Now, that's our 12th man (and woman and child)!

Please, two more game balls to Santa. He needs them if he ever attempts to still have his own children at some point. You see, he currently has POP CORN balls.

Santaz lil helper,
P-Burp

"It seems to be the new Packers’ formula: Punch ‘em in the mouth early, build a solid lead and then let the opposition slowly creep back in so that by late in the third quarter it’s time to sweat."

Interesting opening - this is how the best Packers teams from the Rodgers era on have done well in the regular season - build leads, bleed clock, wait for their opponents' mistakes, usually win. And generally, this is the way good teams are successful.

Also, there was no sweating last night, unless you started when the Packers were up by ten points and had the ball...?

If we wanna go all the way lafleur has to stop being so conservative with the runs constantly up the middle has to get the middle of the field covered in pass defense and has to manage the clock better….PLEASE

I cannot believe the 2-min drive at end of the first half was actually conducted by a professional football coach and professional players. that was an abomination of garbage of a pile of stinking feces.

LeFleur's seemed inability to comprehend the importance of clock management leaves me bewildered. Add to that his tendency to run plays that consistently are stopped by the opponents defense (running up the gut) after they have figured out how to stop it. It's a tendecy that he needs to acknowledge and change.

Isn't anyone concerned that Love has consistently underthrown Watson? I was glad to see Love admit that in the post game presser but it wasn't just this game. It seems to often work to get a PI but against a top CB, that's an INT. Other than that, Love did have a good game supported by some great catches.

Very disappointed that when they stopped JJ, they couldn't get anything going consistently. If they had done that, I would have said we are ready for the playoffs. We have all these great receivers, TE and JJ and we don't seem to be able to put together that pick apart offense like teams have done to us. That's on MLF, yet again.

Nothing counts after Geno went down. While he was in, all those fears started to come back. We need to be able to man-up on D to get to the next level and we would be able to take on any team. I'm thinking they are going to rest Jaire until the playoffs. Will that be enough?

Basically coasting downhill until the playoffs now. Time to try some new things. MLF has not been much for trick plays though.

GPG!

Game balls-
Having Doubts back adds a middle of the field dimension to the passing offense.
Having Cooper back improves middle of the field passing defense.

Lame calls-
"The Matt Eberflus School of Clock Management" at the end of the first half. To his credit, LeFleur took responsibility for it in the post game press conference. Hope he learned his lesson.

this team is very good, but not great.
We can beat or lose to anybody.
To beat the best, we need an adult to fix clock management, timeout management and challenges asap!
These issues need corrective action immediately before it dooms this season.
Not, in MLF'S words, at the end of the season.
Chsheads have witnessed it and begged for improvement, eerily similar to past teams' ST's issues.
Fixing it next year is too late.
Let's improve now and win it all THIS YEAR!
GPG!

also, great review Jonathan!
GPG!

"Punch ‘em in the mouth early, build a solid lead and then let the opposition slowly creep back in so that by late in the third quarter it’s time to sweat".
BINGO!
Unfortunately, it seems to be one of LaFleur's hold-over's from the McPuffy era, the second half offense is too often too conservative! Why not go for the throat? (See Lions/Bills for clarification)!

Thrilling game--particularly the creative use of mutiple players on the Pass Rush. I wonder if Saleh was on one of the head-sets? Hafley had to get creative as they don't have the horses on the D-Line.
Cooper is the difference-maker. MacKinney was a tackling machine. Enagbare was huge with 3 big stops, one after the other. Clark got into the action. Valentine had that great interception!.

Lame Balls: Stokes looks lost and was ineffectually 'covering' JSN way too often. There has to be someone else who can sub for him (at all times)

Game Balls: Romeo and Cooper. Romeo dragged 2 players with him across the goal line and made an acrobatic TD catch, Cooper plays with the grace of a true talent-he's a star.
Romeo was thrilled as he waved to the camera after both TDs. I hope he heard what Mina Kimes said about him-high praise.

Another reason to ding Evan Williams (who has had, IMO, a very good season otherwise):
His hit on Tyler Lockett, that caused Lockett to exit the game, could easily have been flagged and cost the packers 15 yards, or even gotten him ejected.

Wtf,no more gut reactions by nagler? I cant find anywhere on this blog,also not on YouTube. Does anyone know why?

The clock management at the end of the first half was beyond frustrating, that is something I expect from the Bears, not us. That said, we never apologize for a win and it felt good to win in Seattle and not have a collapse. Get the win on Monday night at home and put this to bed. We are going to have a tough road in the playoffs but I think this team is more than capable of beating anyone in the league.

A few takeaways...
...first half intensity against an 8-5 team that had won 4 in a row (three of those on the road) on their field was fun to watch. Packers punched the Seahags in the mouth early and put them in a hole. There are two teams out there trying to execute, folks.
...Jacobs ran like a man possessed in the first half. He was just shrugging off tacklers on some of those plays.
...Edgerrin Cooper already looks like a better player than Quay Walker.
...Isaiah McDuffie has played well the last few weeks. He's mostly a run-down guy and he'll never be a force in coverage, but he plays hard and doesn't miss many tackles.
...Packers' defensive front played a really good game, and Hafley wasn't afraid to bring a corner off the edge or an extra rusher up the gut to change things up. Some will say that they should've eaten against Seattle's front...I'm not going to diss them for actually doing it.
...Seattle got a couple chunk plays through the air, but the defense played a mostly clean game (Nixon's phantom holding, then actual holding calls, aside) and rallied to tackle. For a team that has been one of the leading throwing teams in the league all year, Seattle was mostly quiet.
...another repeat, but it's about time LaF for at least paying some lip service to running wide to try to loosen up Seattle when they were crashing the inside gaps hard against the run in the second half. There have to be opportunities there, and I know he wants to shorten the game with a lead, but put someone away.
...red zone offense was only so-so last night. They got those first two scores, but struggled in the red zone from there on. This game could've been over in the third quarter. That said, the decisions to kick points made sense. They just need to be better prior to that.
...I still go back and forth on that 4th down late that gave Seattle the ball back on about the 40 yard line. Too far to try a FG (gives Seattle the ball close to midfield on a miss), a punt probably gets a TB and the ball on the 20. With Smith on the sidelines and the defense eating on that OL, I still think I try to pin them deep and play defense. A first down probably salts the game away, yes, but I think I'm more iffy on the play call (they went extremely conservative) than anything else in that situation.

1-0 this week, double digit wins means that my preseason prediction (9-8) is now happily in the crapper.
They can lock up a postseason bid with a win over an undermanned and undergood NO team at Lambeau next week.
Hard to imagine that a 12-win Packers team might end up the 6-seed.

Game balls to running game - O line and pass rush. Best I've seen them this year.

Lame calls to Lefluer for running his own clock out at the half instead of trying to get a TD. Its great to run the clock at the end of a game but not at the end of a half when you have the ball. I still dont care all that much for the guy.

Making it to the playoffs is not the goal; we've been doing that for years. The question is, can this Packers team beat Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, and Detroit, all games on the road, to make it to the SB? That's what it currently looks like they'll have to do. We can run the table; we'll have to, but many things must go right. The most important;

1) MLF has to be better. He hasn't performed well in playoffs and has tended to make glaring mistakes in offensive playcalling and clock management. He's had a miraculous overall record, but he still sometimes gives off the vibe of a teenager just learning to drive.

2) The passing game has to be better. Teams will load up against Jacobs. Can MLF and Love make better use of their receivers? We rarely have a receiver with more than four or five targets. Teams with successful passing games expose a weakness in the secondary and don't let up, taking those easy receptions over and over. Our attack is often described as multi-faceted in that we have so many good receivers. I think it's more scattershot. Not only does the other team not know where the ball is going, but neither do we.

3) Our secondary has to be better. Jaire would greatly help when we go against Jalen Hurt, Goff, and Baker (or possibly Minnesota), each with at least two great receivers: Jefferson and Addison, A.J. Brown and Davonta Smith, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Jameson Williams... the thought of Stokes, or any of our CBs covering these elite receivers is frightening.

MLF should know that we won't be favored in any of those games, but we have a puncher's chance as long as he throws punches and doesn't sit on his hands as he's wont to do.

I think the clock MGMT before the half was part lafluer desperately not wanting Seattle to get a quicky before halftime, because every single team this year seems to get 3 before the half and 7 after, two for one special. And the other part was love wasting time trying to dictate what the defense was doing. It was bad but we got 3 at least and Seattle got nothing.

The goal is to win another SB, so even after a win there are things to learn that will make the team better. My question: who evaluates the HC? I mean besides hiring and firing. Does the GM or GM-equivalent sit down with LaFleur at year's end and give him a performance review? Or does he simply evaluate himself? I'm glad to see LaFleur bring in the old Saint's coach for a review, but to what degree is he listening to and acting on those critiques?

The reason I ask is you see the same things over and over, falling flat, costing the team time outs, etc. Here is one I can't figure out. Nobody in the league believes all the motion etc. when GB lines up to go for it in fourth down. What's the point if you NEVER run the play? In the illusion of complexity, you rely on the element of surprise...you gotta go for it and run that play sometimes or the defense just uses it as a chance to catch its breath.

What I think is a more bothersome pattern is the offense going flat in the 2nd half. It's as if LaFleur thinks having the "better idea" is going to win the game, as opposed to catching the other team off guard, mixing things up, and adjusting to what the opposing DC is doing when all of a sudden your inside runs aren't going anywhere. This is where having the HC act as the OC has its limits--the HC should be poking the OC when patterns like that persist game after game--and will limit how far this team can go. Is LaFleur willing to change things that fail, or is he stuck in love with ideas that don't work?

I was so ecstatic after the first half. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable in the second half. I was especially getting upset with some of the play calling on 3rd and 4th down. Getting stoned running it up the middle. Last game as well. Need to plan on getting Love on the off side perhaps with a tight end as protection or as an outlet. Too predictable and not successful. But today that has faded and I am happy as hello.