What I saw - Eagles vs Packers, 8/10/17

TW

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I like Marty Bennett. He has good hands, and can throw blocks.

I've never been a Hundley fan. Despite what was darned good stats in preseasons, there's something lacking in his game. It's the ability to make the big plays when it looks like all is lost. I saw both Hill and Callahan doing that. Forget the talent level they were playing against, go with their ability to put the ball into narrow openings for big time completions, and their ability to improvise. If Hundley doesn't show more in the next game, in comparison to those two, I'd be looking at him as out the door. Sorry! My opinion.

Davis just beat Janis out of a job, in my opinion. Two amazing punt returns. He has good field vision, and is fast. He can get past people with a burst. He also appears to be a route runner, and that translates into someone that Rodgers likes on the field. I'm afraid I've already determined what "six" receivers I'd keep, and yes, there are six. Nelson, Cobb, Adams are the top three. After that, McCaffery. He can flat out catch passes, and has one heck of a vertical. Watching Callahan throw a couple of "jump balls" for distance to him, and how he went up for the ball? It was amazing. Only Nelson has shown that on our roster. Davis, because of his punt return capability. Last, but not least, Yancey, has the upper hand. It could change, if Dupre can come back and make a good showing. If we go with 5, I'd try to keep Yancey on the practice squad. I'm saying goodbye to both Janis & Allison. They just don't have that much improvement in them, the three I chose do. Once again, my opinion.

I'm still not a bit satisfied in how well our kicking game is going to work, come opening day. I still might want to see Goode back. As far as Crosby, he's fine. Will have another great year, unless they tinker too much with the long snapper and holder. It's all on Zook at this point. Justin Vogel is a solid punter. Five of his six punts were inside the 20, and there was only 3 yards of return against him, and six punts. He also averaged 44 yards per punt. He sure beats last year's punting fiasco. Rounding out the special teams play, it was good, for the most part, but because of individual effort, nothing to do with schemes, etc. Davis was the star with his two huge punt returns. I'm hoping that what we saw was just the beginning of what could be special teams that are game changers. My opinion from game one.

Everything we talked about as being good with our defense came true. The problem is, so did all the things we throught were wrong. The Eagles could not run against us, tackle to tackle. When they did get outside it gets a little hazy. Morgan Burnett showed he likes to hit people. Solid play, and picked up on outside runs very well, making tackles. Missed a couple though towards the middle of the field. Gotta clean that up. Kevin King is tall, big, and going to be one great cornerback. He's going to make people pay for running in his direction, and making those short catches on his side the of field. He's also going to be a force to contend with when you throw that ball up in the air, thinking your guy is the only one who can catch it. I have news for you. King does it as well as anyone I've seen in quite a while. I hate to bring this up, but we sucked when it came to passes between the hash marks, regardless of distance. They took a good look at Josh Hawkins and Marwin Evans last night. They played fairly well, from what I could see. One of them might have an outside chance of making the teams, but I think seeing Evans on the practice squad is the best we'll get. Josh Jones is not going to be cut, and the Packers will go with veterans to round out the four they keep, and they'll have a hybrid who can go both CB and safety as well. Like I said, adding King at CB is huge. He's going to be special out there. Remember, this is "first game analysis," not a body of work to reference.

Our defensive line can stop the run, tackle to tackle. I saw us "bunch up," and give the offensive line a chance to stop us on a few blitzes, because we'd have eight guys inside the tackles. You run each other over that way, and the blockers become a wall. Great idea when it's a running play, but when it's a guaranteed pass? Who's calling those defensive plays? Needs to have their head examined. As far as our linebackers, there's talent, now how well will they be utilized? I wasn't impressed in their coverage of the middle range passes between the hash marks. It's more a matter of scheme than individual player talent. It's going to be a problem. We're going to be easy targets for teams that choose to exploit the weakness. Let's see what happens over the next three games. I might change my mind, but based on Capers history of defense, I doubt it.

Impressive showing or not? I think it was more impressive than most first game showings the Packers have had, under McCarthy. I saw a few guys making plays, who can add to this team, and I saw some injuries that could hurt us, and the season hasn't even started. Even having Biegel on the bench with a foot injury, and those added this week.... scary possibilities.

Just my opinion, from one game with 90 guys taking the field. It was interesting though. I don't say that too often with early preseason games.
 
Good thoughts, I can't add much!

Positives: I liked Hill and MMs decision to finish aggressively! Trevor Davis may have locked in a WR spot leaving a big battle for the two (maybe three) left. Impressed with Kenny Clark and Lowry. Good 4th down stop in red zone, which we haven't seen in a while. Turnovers by D!

Negatives: RUN GAME! Missed tackles. 2nd string OL. Injuries. Didn't like starters' performances in 1st quarter.

Neutral: Hundley, Callahan, Janis with a big drop but nice TD route and tackle as a gunner.
 
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nice write-up. not sure i agree with everything, but still nicely done. hundley did not have a good game. i'm not convinced that's all on him though. the first drive was killed by a penalty and the second was killed by a montgomery fumble. in-between those two drives the packers starting defense sucked hugely giving up a ten-play, eight minute touchdown drive. carson wentz had an almost perfect 158.3 rating on his one and only drive of the night. as the eagles began to pull their starters, the packers defense started looking a little better. and the deeper the eagles got into their roster, the better our defense looked. the same could be said for our offense, which didn't really do anything until the second drive of the second quarter. hundley's two scoring drives were 40 yards for a td and -4 yards for a field goal.

i'm not as impressed with mccaffrey as you are. he was thrown to seven times and caught three. janis was thrown to twice and scored a touchdown. i think he still has the highest points per reception on the team. and probably the highest points per target as well.

the packers running game on offense was downright pathetic. the two longest runs of the nigh came from backup quarterbacks callahan and hill. monty had three rushing attempts for a net of zero yards and lost a fumble in the process. williams averaged 3.5 yards per carry on four attempts. take away the quarterback carries, and the packers had 18 yards on 14 carries. "pathetic" may be generous.

i try not to draw too many conclusions from preseason games, but i think it's safe to say that our running game is not working.

for me, the biggest concern (beyond the running game) is that we are 25% of the way through the preseason and we are down three cornerbacks and a receiver.
 
nice write-up. not sure i agree with everything, but still nicely done. hundley did not have a good game. i'm not convinced that's all on him though. the first drive was killed by a penalty and the second was killed by a montgomery fumble. in-between those two drives the packers starting defense sucked hugely giving up a ten-play, eight minute touchdown drive. carson wentz had an almost perfect 158.3 rating on his one and only drive of the night. as the eagles began to pull their starters, the packers defense started looking a little better. and the deeper the eagles got into their roster, the better our defense looked. the same could be said for our offense, which didn't really do anything until the second drive of the second quarter. hundley's two scoring drives were 40 yards for a td and -4 yards for a field goal.

i'm not as impressed with mccaffrey as you are. he was thrown to seven times and caught three. janis was thrown to twice and scored a touchdown. i think he still has the highest points per reception on the team. and probably the highest points per target as well.

the packers running game on offense was downright pathetic. the two longest runs of the nigh came from backup quarterbacks callahan and hill. monty had three rushing attempts for a net of zero yards and lost a fumble in the process. williams averaged 3.5 yards per carry on four attempts. take away the quarterback carries, and the packers had 18 yards on 14 carries. "pathetic" may be generous.

i try not to draw too many conclusions from preseason games, but i think it's safe to say that our running game is not working.

for me, the biggest concern (beyond the running game) is that we are 25% of the way through the preseason and we are down three cornerbacks and a receiver.

I'm not certain I agree with it either to be honest. But, I watched the throws to McCaffery several times, to see what he was doing, and the throws themselves. What I saw was a receiver who knew how to "hand fight" for the ball. It's something he knows, and does, better than anyone I've seen on the Packers, outside of Nelson. To me, that's what Favre's receivers brought to the table, and made it possible for him to throw into traffic. It's also why Nelson is Rodgers' go-to-guy. Not certain it will carry over into game 2, or if he runs good routes to be honest, because the camera coverage was terrible.

I'm actually looking forward to the second game. It's been a while since I've felt that way.
 
I only saw the 2nd through 4th qtr , but the first 2 preseason games are more or less glorified scrimmages. Point being I won't get too worked up or evaluate a bunch until that 3rd game.
 
Well, I finally got to see the Eagles game. (DVR is a wonderful thing)

Even though we won fairly easily against a not horrible team, I kinda have a vague feeling of disappointment. Sure, we dominated their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings with ours, our first string both O and D didn't look so hot. The O Line showed little ability to run block, and most of the passes were after our QB was forced out of the pocket. None of our RBs were impressive, but then they never had any openings. I don't think the Eagles D was stacked to stop the run either - why would they do that against the Packers.
Pretty much all of our WRs were impressive. I'm thinking now more than ever that Cobb's days could be numbered with the Packers. Allison also didn't look like much, and he has the suspension which may or may not mean an underlying character issue. You always have to consider who played against scrubs and who went against better players, but Yancy, Janis, Clark, maybe McCaffrey and Dupre all looked better than guys above them on the depth chart.

I was not overly impressed at first look with Kevin King. Rollins, for all the good words in practice, didn't look like much. Same with Hawkins. The Safetys on the other hand, looked excellent - Bryce and Evans in particular. It seemed like the Packers were emphasizing ILB blitzes and not much from the OLBs. It was frustrating, however, that so many times that the pass rush came close but didn't quite get there. I can't help thinking that Capers just ain't showing his best stuff ...... and we still held 'em to 9 points. Our D Line looked better than our D Line has looked for a few years anyway - first string on down, a lot of quality play.

Vogel looked great as a punter, but the kicking game, even though there were no misses, didn't very good - kicks that were good but kinda ugly.
 
Agree with the DVR. Watched for different things. Don't pay too much attention to 'highlights'. Pay more attention to mistakes and see if they learned from it. Watched Spriggs get beat by their #1 pick Barnett DE. Barnett caught him with a counter move, Spriggs was leaning the wrong way. It didn't happen again. Saw Barnett try it a couple more times and Spriggs squashed it. Nice! Thought Dline got nice push up the field. Only time Eagles scored was when CMIII totally whiffed on the sack. Yes, King missed the tackle, but late in the game he came up and made some nice hits.
Barclay got hurt, but McCray looked ok filling in at center and IMO Amichia held up well at LG. Vogel did a nice job pinning them inside the 20, really only one bad punt (which was still an average punt for Schumm). I'm jumping on the McCaffery bandwagon. Good speed, good routes and nice hands. Janis caught a TD, but he is still Janis. Every WR would have caught that ball. Not a bad first game for the Pack. Sloppy, but that should clear up. Running game sucked. That will need work. Our defense forced a couple fumbles- that hasnt' happened for a while.
 
Yes, King missed the tackle, but late in the game he came up and made some nice hits.

overall, i was disappointed with what i saw from king - which is the opposite of all the hype i was reading the morning after the game. he didn't just miss that tackle, he was way out of position. and he gave up at least one other long pass later in the game when his man had him beat by at least three yards. he's a rookie, so i'm hoping he'll improve. but he needs to improve rapidly because we are going to be counting on him heavily it seems.
 
I saw those lapses by King as well. What made me curious was the fact that on two plays where he was beaten, it appeared he was supposed to have a safety over the top in coverage, and they'd been sucked in by the QB looking off the receiver to the opposite side of the field. I can't be certain if that was what caused the problem, or if King was blowing assignments. I have a hunch it was a little of both, and questions on reads as well. Our defense is so geared to a multitude of variables based on what they see coming off the line of scrimmage, and inside the tackles. With an inexperienced safety playing center field, it can look like a CB screwed up when in fact, their job was the under coverage, and the safety on top.

I doubt if we're going to hear anything to explain any of it from the Packers. They'll iron those things out, and in the next game, see if the corrections helped.

It has to be difficult for new guys hitting the field at CB, and ILB. Their reads, and their assignments, are often so confusing that I'm not certain Capers knows what they are, under some circumstances. It's kind of "run to the ball."
 
I re-watched the game and these are my assessments:

Defense
The d-line does look solid. I really liked what I saw from Lowry and Clark. Lowry may have improved the most over the off season. He looks good.
Safeties are solid and should be a strength of the D barring injuries.
I did like the way the LBs (inside and out) got to the football. They were decisive but did miss some tackles. It is the first preseason game; however.
CB's are hard to tell but I agree with TW on King. He has all the physical skills and good instincts. If we hone his cover skills, I think he could be really good. Remember, it is the first preseason game. King will mistakes. I also liked some of the things Jones did throughout the game. I think both of these guys look better than any CBs we have now. :)

Offense
Hundley actually looked fine, IMO. The second drive was a fumble by Monty and the 3rd drive was stopped by two drops. ( Janis and Allison) Hundley was pretty accurate throughout the game. I do agree that he is not a game changer. He is a back up for a reason. Then again, if we are comparing him to AR that's just stupid. Nobody is AR. He is a serviceable back up.
I think we ran the ball ok. The problem was we did not run the ball often. (same issue as always with MM) Williams has natural instincts as a RB. He definitely could take Monty's spot by the end of the year. This is why I think Cobb is expendable. Monty can do what Cobb does now out of the backfield and we have younger bigger WR's out of the slot.
I like McCaffrey. He has length, is a good route runner, and has good hands. He reminds me of Wes Welker but taller. We will see how the rest of the preseason plays out. Michael Clark needs to make this team, IMO. He will get picked up just because of his size if we cut him. Work on his route running and physical ability and he could be a great addition.
O-line seems to be fine as long as we don't have any major injuries. (knock on wood)
All in all, not a bad start for this team.
 
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