The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Packers vs Rams
Aaron hands out the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the Green Bay Packers Week 5 win over the Los Angeles Rams
By PackerAaron
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Comments (39)
stockholder
October 06, 2024 at 08:55 pm
I wouldn't put Wicks in the Bad.
We gave Devante Adams time.
I think the bad was Doubs.
Oppy
October 06, 2024 at 10:09 pm
"we" gave Davante Adams time.
"you" spent his first 6 years in the league complaining he was a no-talent hack.
Since'75
October 06, 2024 at 10:27 pm
Just for grins.......
Many people wanted Jeff Janis to get more of Adam's snaps back then because of the drops, some even wanted Janis to start ahead of Adams..
I said at the time....Rodgers and McCarthy know Adams and Janis better than we do, they must see something in Adams to keep going to him, and they were absolutely right.
Jeff Janis had a great 40 time (much like MVS), but as far as a NFL receiver...not so much.
Oppy
October 06, 2024 at 10:55 pm
Yerp.
If all you had to do was be fast to be a great NFL WR, universities wouldn't be able to keep a track and field coaching staff filled out.
stockholder
October 07, 2024 at 05:40 am
6 years -No - First two - Yes
I n fact=
I thought they should trade him
after he put up some decent numbers.
The double teaming started.
It was obvious to everyone,
he was getting in and out of his cuts.
And I suggested Rodgers throw at his left hand.
He became great with confidence.
jannesbjornson
October 07, 2024 at 09:38 am
He was running on a bad ankle year two. They have to learn how to play with pain. Every cut he made was the needle on the nerve. His rookie year showed he was special, especially against Belichick's squad. They let the Hollywood star system infect the team and the Focus was not as acute as needed to Win the Big Game. That's
Entertainment. The fails are from the defensive draft picks in Rd. One.
Oppy
October 07, 2024 at 03:34 pm
You bagged on Adams for years.
I refuse to have a conversation with someone about WR talent who repeated claimed that Adams wasn't a good WR because, and I quote, "all of his yards are after the catch."
I am not making this up. You literally argued this for years.
rstain99
October 07, 2024 at 06:15 am
Remembering back it took Adams sometime to find his hands too.
A win is a win but not sold on the schemes this defense plays, teams are finding that running on this group is the ticket. 5 games in and they haven't established an identity, no question McKinney is the real deal maybe the FA signing of the year. 24 years old crazy
Good: McKinney, Kraft
Bad: D line lack of pressure on QB,
Ugly: continued mismanagement of clock, get them out of the huddle happened under Rodgers too. Timeouts? why burn them so easy. run defense is ugly can make a stop on 3 short tackling is a problem.
Since'75
October 06, 2024 at 10:19 pm
Wicks has a catch rate of 56%.
Not as bad as Jeff Janis, but it isn't much better. He'll need to improve it. He has some time.
For comparison, Reed's catch rate is 69.8%
Seriously impressive for a 2nd year player, or even a blue chip veteran for that matter.
Doubs is clearly more valuable. He's young, he has some immaturity and selfishness issues, but he's young, he'll probably (hopefully) come out of it.
Coldworld
October 07, 2024 at 12:04 am
Wicks’ drop rate this year is well above Janis’ career rate. Janis actually wasn’t particularly bad catching despite a tendency to body catch, deep targets and trouble with route complexity. The real problem was that Rodgers wasn’t going to throw to him unless forced. He was only targeted 37 times in regular season play for 200 yards. He had 12 post season targets for 145 yards on 6 catches, mostly from one game of course.
marpag1
October 07, 2024 at 03:34 am
Nah, the real problem was that Janis was rarely where he was supposed to be.
Only one other team in the entire league was willing even to give Janis a chance. That was Cleveland, and they cut him before he had an opportunity to play a single snap. It's saying something when a guy who was a legitimate force on ST can't even get a tryout with anyone else. They realized that he had no clue how to run routes or play the position. It certainly was NOT that ARod somehow froze him out.
stockholder
October 07, 2024 at 05:47 am
Nah- Janis was showing he could return kick-offs.
But he never improved as a route runner.
Adams got open and separated.
Since'75
October 11, 2024 at 07:45 am
He showed he could return kick-offs, but then he made too many mental errors and they had to remove him.
Since'75
October 11, 2024 at 07:44 am
Once again Marpag nailed it.
Rodgers didn't throw to him because he couldn't run correct route tree's to save his life.
Then Janis would run a post, when he turned his head back, he would slow his run so bad. That's why some of Rodgers deep passes to Janis were overthrown.
Same problem MVS had.
Straya
October 06, 2024 at 09:09 pm
So now these pieces are video, and the recap articles are simply playing back what we saw on screen, will there be no post-game written analysis on CHTV at all?
Oppy
October 06, 2024 at 10:09 pm
Unfortunately, it would seem that way.
majik7
October 06, 2024 at 09:31 pm
Good: Tie between Kraft and McKinney
Bad: Unimaginative offensive play calling early on
Ugly: Defensive front's hapless pass rushing
marpag1
October 07, 2024 at 03:38 am
It always makes me giggle when people talk about "unimaginative play calling" from MLF, or that he failed to make "in-game adjustments" or that he is "predictable." Sorry, but I have no clue what these folks are watching.
A New Era
October 06, 2024 at 09:43 pm
This was the clearest good, bad, and ugly ever!
All we can do ponder honorable mentions. Also good: McKinney, the third best Packer free agent signing behind only Woodson and White. Also bad (despite an incredibly good outcome): Love's early decision to throw to a triple covered Reed. Also ugly: the Doubs situation preceding the game.
saltandpeppers
October 06, 2024 at 09:49 pm
The pick 6 saved the game. What’s the alternative? Safety and the rams get it back against an absolutely gassed packers D that had been getting worked? You’re looking at down 9 going into half. He avoids the safety, down 7 after the rams drive it down our throats. Pick 6 then going down and getting points (while getting some much needed time of possession) was the best outcome.
A New Era
October 06, 2024 at 10:01 pm
You could have a future as a play caller for a ragtag team like the Chicago Bears.
Since'75
October 06, 2024 at 10:35 pm
Yea....i had to laugh when i read that.
I'm sure Love was thinking.....I think i'll throw a pick 6 to save the defense....lmao.
Oppy
October 06, 2024 at 10:16 pm
You make an interesting point that I have not seen raised, and that is the fact after a safety you are forced to kick to the opposing team again.
That being said.. there's no guarantee the Rams march down the field and score after the Safety kickoff.
It was a bad situation, and Love needs to learn that he can't make every throw from every position. However, as foolish as it was to attempt, after reviewing the play, I don't think Love was trying to throw the ball to the sidelines, I think he was trying to hit Kraft- who was breaking across the field from left to right on a shallow crosser- and who thought the play was dead and had shut down his route. Much like last week's attempted pass for Wicks in the Endzone that ended as an INT, if Kraft had run his route until the whistle was blown, he *might* have had a chance to make a reception. Either way, it was still a poor choice by Love.
marpag1
October 07, 2024 at 03:45 am
Wow... a take so cold it proves that it is actually possible to reach absolute zero.
Zero degrees Kelvin achieved!
jannesbjornson
October 07, 2024 at 09:42 am
How about just tossing the ball out of bounds with heat in your face?
4thand10
October 06, 2024 at 10:14 pm
Is Wicks a #1,2 or 3 pick or something? Did I miss the bombshell that he is their guy and deep threat? Just cause he was someone’s camp darling and claim he is more talented than anyone else? I’ll have to see it to believe it. If it was thrown to Doubs those 7 times the ball would be caught at least 5 of those times, same with Reed and possibly Heath and Melton if they’re having good days. Not saying what Doubs did was right, just saying. I just don’t know where these expectations on Wicks are coming from…because I have not seen it yet, his draft status doesn’t show it and field production doesn’t show it. I hear about talent…but i don’t see even a glimpse of that on the field . No one is talking about how the actual #1 pick ( Watson) hasn’t been catching a ton of balls or can even stay on the field the last 3 yrs. At least I can see a little talent with him in terms of speed and getting open to work with, but drops and injuries overshadow all of that at this point. Any way
Good: Kraft and more Kraft
Bad: kept forcing the ball to Wicks again when there are other plays that can be called, and other players that can catch
ugly: The D line and the lack of pressure and sam ol problem of LBs over shooting their gaps and completely wiffing their opportunities.
Bonus: The Kicker made his kicks
Oppy
October 06, 2024 at 10:17 pm
"If it was thrown to Doubs those 7 times the ball would be caught at least 5 of those times,"
Well, last week, Doubs has 8 targets and only 4 receptions, at least 3 of those 4 (incompletions) hit him in the hands.
Doubs is capable of making amazing catches, but he's also streaky and his hands haven't been great so far in 2024.
Coldworld
October 07, 2024 at 12:07 am
That’s a little harsh. He had one bad drop (so did Reed today) and the other one was deflected by Musgrave and it looks like he lost the ball.
Advanced Stats had Wicks a full eleven percent below Doubs after 4 weeks on what it seems catchable targets, and Doubs 65% isn’t stellar. Reed was at 86% (typically slots rates are higher). That was before today.
Oppy
October 07, 2024 at 03:40 pm
Deflection or not, that ball landed directly in both of his hands. yes, he had to bend over to attempt the catch, but he wasn't picking it up off the grass and it's not like he was laid out completely extended mid-air parallel to the ground- He was literally stationary, without a defender hanging on him, stooped over with the ball directly in front of him, and he had both hands on the ball for a moment.
He has to catch that ball.
Since'75
October 06, 2024 at 10:44 pm
"Camp darlings"......i caught that and smiled 4thand10
Sometimes i call them "pre season MVP's, like Hundley was some years back.
Some fans don't seem to realize how different camp is to real season games when judging players, it's like night and day.
You can't crown players in the off season.
******************
I think the Good, Bad, and Ugly have been covered well.
How about the 'weird'?
I have never seen an NFL team win a game, when converting just one 3rd down conversion. Weird!
marpag1
October 07, 2024 at 04:44 am
The idea that Wicks is just a "camp darling" is beyond absurd. If people "haven't seen anything yet" from Wicks, it's either because they aren't looking, or because they don't understand what they're seeing.
2023 was probably the most productive class of rookie pass catchers in the entire history of the NFL. (People are free to disagree with this, but then show me the better year). Yet despite all of the truly great rookie pass catchers, only 10 rookies caught passes for more yards than Wicks.
Puka Nacua set an all-time rookie record at 1486 yards. Rashee Rice (938), J. Addison (911) and Zay Flowers (858) were bona fide problems from day 1. Does anyone doubt Jayden Reed (793) showed pretty well for a rookie? Josh Downs had 771. Sam LaPorta (889) is the best tight end to come along in years, and Dalton Kincaid had 673 yards of his own. Tank Dell only played 11 games due to injury, yet he still managed 709 yards. Jaxon Smith Njigba caught passes for 628 yards. Those are the only rookies who had more yards than Wicks.
Of those players, only Tank Dell had more yards per catch than Wicks (15.1 to 14.9).
Of these players, Wicks had by far the LEAST number of snaps to work with, at 458. Even Dell, who played in only 11 games, had 36 more snaps than Wicks. For comparison, Nakua had the most snaps at 1,000. The average number of snaps for all these players was 738, which is 280 snaps more than Wicks.
On a yards per snap basis, Rice led the way at 1.51 receiving yards per snap, Nakua was second at 1.49, Dell was third at 1.44, Reed was fourth at 1.37. Only those four had more yards per snap than Wicks, who had 1.26. (No one else was over 1 yard per snap).
But people "haven't seen anything yet" from the "camp darling?"
Seriously?
PhantomII
October 07, 2024 at 11:30 am
I wanted La Porta for our TE1. Pretty happy with Kraft...Musgrave seems really clumsy running..like he hasn't gotten balance from a growth spurt or something....I believe we need to poach another pretty good TE from a practice squad somewhere. The drop fix IS...miss a catchable ball in practice= sprints. Worst case you get in good shape while the eye-hand coordination becomes really dialed in with every sprint..It works in baseball, it will work in football.
Since'75
October 11, 2024 at 07:37 am
Marpag....
I think the rookie class of 2020 was a strong draft class. led by Justin Jefferson.
Leatherhead
October 06, 2024 at 10:35 pm
Good. A win on the road.
Bad: A reckless and stupid failure to protect the ball on what was the biggest play of the game.
Ugly. The LA offense between the first drive and the last one against the Prevent. A bunch of noise and fury, signifying nothing.
Coldworld
October 07, 2024 at 12:27 am
How was that the biggest play of the game? We won. It was certainly not smart and it could have been. The biggest play of the game was either Kraft’ 66 yard TD, the Interception by McKinney or Enagbare’s punch out that McKinney recovered. I would go for the punch out as that turned the momentum on its head.
Starrbrite
October 07, 2024 at 12:29 am
Maybe this is the trigger point that Naverson becomes Justin Tucker?
More Cooper please.
…where’s Gary; Preston Smith looks slow.
I’m doing much complaining about a team I believe has its best days ahead of them.
Go Packers!!!
BAMABADGER
October 07, 2024 at 07:40 am
The Good: Kraft. McKinney, a Win
The Bad: Offensive play calling, No pass rush, IDL against the run
The Ugly: High paid players not performing (Gary, Clark, Smith) and insert Doubs head
mrtundra
October 07, 2024 at 08:46 am
Good: Kraft and McKinney.
Bad: Our Defensive scheme. We could not stop the Stafford from moving his team down the field. I thought it was over when Stafford marched the Rams down the field, with under two minutes left, in the game.
Ugly: Jordan Love's Pick 6. The invisibility of Gary, Van Ness, Clark and Preston.
mbpacker
October 07, 2024 at 09:48 am
The Good: Road win, Kraft. Reed, McKinney, Narv didn't miss.
The Bad: Doubs putting himself before the team,
The Ugly: Run defense, penalties, mistakes- have to be cleaned up pronto!