Overall thoughts after last night.
-I think Love is fine when he has to improvise...as a young QB. But when the pocket is collapsing every play...and you can't bail out because you have DEs who are rushing wide, there's just not much to do. He's inconsistent there. The two point vs the Saints last week to Toure and he's made some nice plays getting out of the pocket. Even the left handed push pass was pretty big and gained some yards.
-Joe Barry is terrible. Again, he just comes out and plays a preseason, bland, vanilla defense and his entire scheme is our guy can beat yours and that's actually been working...vs poor OLs and with Jaire on the field, Quay and Gary dominating.
-I'll push back on the "coming out flat." I don't think they did come out flat in either half. I think they just came out and got their asses whooped. But the first couple series, they were getting off blocks, they were battling. They got a pick on the first play.
The defense had breakdowns, but two huge plays given up by Douglas. One in which he tried jumping a route in cover 3. You just cannot do that. You're responsible for the deep 3rd. The other in man, he had Laporta in a blanket and Goff made a perfect throw.
But it wasn't an effort issue. Guys were flying around. Wyatt was making tackles 10 yards downfield, Walker was...everywhere last night. He's been outstanding at flying around, filling the gap and been a sure tackler, great in the open field.
STs-I'm still not dinging Walker too much. 30-17, I don't think we're coming back. Nixon can't be bringing it out 8 yards deep every time. You're giving the KO team the best of both worlds. They don't have to try and kick it high and short to try and entice you into bringing it out, you just do it regardless. And I'd guess there are penalties on about 20% of returns. It's just not each to block guys who are changing course constantly and there's holding on every punt(I know we're talking about KRs) as the gunners are getting mugged out there.
-Reed trying to pick it up on the 2nd bounce...you're taught never to do that, but it bounced right up to him. A "clean" bounce. He just took his eyes off it. I get what he was trying to do.
Bottom line, I can't figure out exactly what Love IS, only what he could be after 4 games. And I can see that he's got Pro Bowl or EVEN All Pro potential. Potential is so often unreached though and we're going to get beat up vs good DLs.
Defensively, I can see what we are. We're a much better, more physical team that's faster, flies around and hits players and we're also CONSTANTLY out-schemed. All the rules favor the offense. ONE play last night I saw Colby Wooden drop on a zone blitz and McDuffie coming flying in giving us numbers.
I saw that ONCE.
Otherwise it was Detroit with that big, strong OL and one of the best young players in the game in Sewell just washing away whoever was in front of him and then usually taking out another player at the next level and the defense by the 30th carry just getting wiped away and the group tackling was just bad.
I believe in the foundation of what this team has built. I really do. I think the last two drafts have been outstanding.
-Love was ALWAYS going to struggle and have his ups and downs. But at least his ups at this point have been...VERY high level. The throw to Reed last night as the 3rd Q expired. I don't care if it did or didn't(I've been told...I think but you that it wasn't close)...but he still had to make that throw and Detroit was still covering.
The question aside from the OL is can he clean up those quick outs where he it's hitting them quite in time?
You won't fix either side of the ball until you make another round of significant investments into the OL and defensively until you just fire Joe Barry.
Lets hope that...I guess Jenkins comes back, we continue to improve at OT with Walker, Tom, get through the season with Myers and JRJ and then we need just massive changes next year to that OL first and foremost.
Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy. Both look like very good QBs. They're not more talented than Jordan Love. Justin Fields looks like absolute trash(and so many before him) and it's because they never had a chance due to their OLs.
Bakh-I'll bring him back if he restructures, waives the 9.5M roster bonus, drops the 10.7M base to a vet minimum and we add that money back in incentives. See how much he really wants to rehab and play for the Packers(to be fair, I do think he WANTS to and is trying, but you can't pay him the remaining 19M hoping at this point if that's not obvious to everyone).
I've already thought about what I'd do in the off-season.
1-Move up for the OT that you want or you're convinced is a franchise LT. There are maybe 10 who at this point look like they could be that guy, but if it's Alt or whoever.
2-The Dolphins run a similar offense. Spend the money to steal their center...who is 26 and playing at an elite level in a similar system. They'll be 40M over the cap and Tua hasn't been paid yet.
3-Move Walker to Guard.
4-RB/DL/S in the draft
But none of this transition to Love matters if he's getting beat up. Rodgers had 18 years worth of playing time to process and get the ball out quick and it still wasn't good enough. Fix it for your young guy. I loved LVN. I'd love Darnell Wright better, but moving forward, that HAS to be their top priority, right?
