How good are we?

[Zombieslayer]

The Packers are still one of those teams vying for third-best in the league. It's between them and the Cowboys right now. The big tests will come against the Lions (did I say that?) and Cowboys later this month. It's going to be exciting. But they still have two more games (against the Vikings and Panthers) before then.

I agree that their ability to close out games is the big difference. They play with confidence late in games, instead of playing scared, which we saw so often in the Sherman era.

We had better shore up our defense before the Vikes game because Petersen is a monster.

I agree about Peterson. However, we did hold LJ to 53 yards today on the ground.

We didn't hold AP the first time though. That's what scares me. Luckily for us, Childress is a moron and barely played him. Hopefully the second time he'll be stupid again and barely play him.

 

[vechenzo]

I believe the reason for all the close games, is ... we really havent played a bad team yet this year. We have gone against decent and good teams all season long.. there is no dolphins or rams in our schedule thus far so naturally when good teams play, expect closer games.

 

[Greg C.]

The Packers are still one of those teams vying for third-best in the league. It's between them and the Cowboys right now. The big tests will come against the Lions (did I say that?) and Cowboys later this month. It's going to be exciting. But they still have two more games (against the Vikings and Panthers) before then.

I agree that their ability to close out games is the big difference. They play with confidence late in games, instead of playing scared, which we saw so often in the Sherman era.

Greg - I sincerely think the reason we finish games well is not coaching, but depth. We have the depth to rotate in and out our DL. Makes a huge difference. Kampman can play the whole game, but we have four DTs playing a game and on the other side, we're rotating KGB and Jenkins (well, not today because Jenkins was taking it easy because of injury, but you know what I mean).

Good point, Zombie. That depth on the DL has been especially important, because a tired DL will collapse at the end of a game. You see it all the time in the NFL. Thompson was no dummy for keeping 11 D-linemen.

I still think the game coaching is part of it, though. McCarthy is not afraid to let his players loose even if they have a lead, and that attitude affects the entire team. I had no problem with the play-calling at the end of the half, for example. There's nothing wrong with going for more points instead of punting it back to them with three time-outs. Sometimes that's going to backfire, and the guys in the FOX studio will scold McCarthy like he's a naughty little boy. But usually it's going to pay off, and more importantly, it shows the players that their coach trusts them.

 

[Zombieslayer]

I still think the game coaching is part of it, though. McCarthy is not afraid to let his players loose even if they have a lead, and that attitude affects the entire team. I had no problem with the play-calling at the end of the half, for example. There's nothing wrong with going for more points instead of punting it back to them with three time-outs. Sometimes that's going to backfire, and the guys in the FOX studio will scold McCarthy like he's a naughty little boy. But usually it's going to pay off, and more importantly, it shows the players that their coach trusts them.

I love that! I was glad we went after more points at the end of the half.

Aggression is a good thing, and I'd like to see more of it. Sure, it blew up in our faces last game, but more often than not, it pays off.

I hope MM continues to be aggressive and continues to try to get an additional 3 points right before half-time.