Lang calls out Rodgers

[Darth Garfunkel]

Rodgers is a very impatient QB and hes always looking for splash plays down field when the check down for 4-5 yards was the better throw. I've seen TE's and RB's wide open underneath and Rodgers throws a frozen rope 30-40 yards down field for an incomplete pass.

This has bugged me forever about his play.

 

[7thFloorRA]

Hollywood wants the big play. The safer and shorter routes are beneath him and his star power. He is running his own program out there and it is killing the offense. MM needs to reign him back somehow.

 

[GreenBaySlacker]

I thought we played well enough to win. But we lost to a team that went 11-5 last year. So what. Do we really need to disredpect our hof qb? Come on...

We looked better with guion out there

 

[7thFloorRA]

He is a HOF qb for what he has done in the past....certainly not for last night. That was a horrendous performance by him.

 

[PackAttack12]

This Rodgers criticism is just insane. The same posters who are criticizing Rodgers for a lack of patience in the pocket are the ones who are failing to display patience in an offense that had how many preseason snaps together? Please don't tell me I'm the only person who sees the irony in that.

Rodgers was 20-36 last night. I would say 5 or so of those incompletions came as a result of miscommunication with Jordy. There were also a couple of drops, not to mention the few times that Rodgers threw the ball away because either a receiver wasn't open, the pocket was collapsing, or both. So if Rodgers completes 5 more passes and goes 25-36, what are we talking about right now?

How many times did we try that laughably awful toss play to Lacy or Starks on first down? That put us in a lot of 2nd and 3rd and long situations after they were stuffed at the line on first down. Then Zimmer gets to tee off on Rodgers knowing that he is in an obvious passing down.

Again, not absolving Rodgers. He indeed missed a few throws. Adams and Jordy both had their guy beat on a couple of different occasions and if Rodgers makes a good throw, it's probably 6. But to say that he deserves close to 100% of the blame for the discombobulation on offense is just insane.

We are a field goal attempt and two uncharacteristic turnovers from Rodgers away from winning the game. The drives in the fourth quarter looked really good. More slant patterns, more underneath routes, etc. We definitely utilized the middle of the field more which is encouraging heading into the next game. Both turnovers occurred in Minnesota territory, and Rodgers just didn't come through.

The guy has the best TD to INT ratio in the history of the National Football League. He will clean that up. Meanwhile, he and Jordy will get their timing together, hopefully the running game that almost no one is talking about will improve, and fortunately for us we don't play Zimmer 16 times a year.

We are going to be fine.

 

[MichiganSportsTalk]

Rodgers is a very impatient QB and hes always looking for splash plays down field when the check down for 4-5 yards was the better throw. I've seen TE's and RB's wide open underneath and Rodgers throws a frozen rope 30-40 yards down field for an incomplete pass.

Don't read too much into this, but once Stafford started hitting the short stuff, and quit launching everything a country mile, things got much better for the Lions. Look at the Indy game as the perfect example of how he should always be playing.

Granted, he regressed to Billy Chucks-A-Lot against the Titans.... but if he gets his head on right and ***** and dunks all day, they should keep it respectable.

Sounds like Rodgers might be in the same boat, maybe? If so, I feel your pain, believe me.

 

[Mondio]

We're not the same people, I've said all along this offense hasn't played together and if we're in week 5 or 6 I'm more worried. Right now I'm not. And I am blaming Rodgers because he had a bad game. I don't care what his final numbers were. I saw open receivers, some in his line of sight that were open and E either didn't look, didn't see, or skipped over to try for more. He fumbled 3xs? Threw a pick and missed some throws to open guys. He was off. No question. I'm not expecting him to always play that way, but he did and he's a really big reason why we lost.

 

[7thFloorRA]

Sure its only been 2 weeks (this season) His trend of average and even some below average play extends back to the Denver game last year (14 or 15 games). It was pretty well documented last night that he was throwing off his back foot quite a bit and I believe he did it last year as well.

He reminds me of Maverick from the 2nd half of Top Gun. He is just saying to himself "its no good, it's no good" as soon as he gets the snap from center.

 

[Arthur Squires]

It seems he has been protecting himself from big hits in the pocket starting last season.

 

[JBlood]

It seems he has been protecting himself from big hits in the pocket starting last season.

Rogers was sacked 47 times in the regular season last year and hurried on 1/3 of pass plays, according to ESPN. He's been sacked over 50 times in 2009 and 2012. If he's gun shy that's the likely reason. And the o line has a lot to do with it imo. Anyone thinking it's time to get rid of him is a candidate for electroshock treatment. Again just my opinion.

 

[melvin dangerr]

I'll give T J 50% correct on A-rod, but the other 50% I am sure he has called out the O coordinator right?

 

[AKCheese]

Yeah I agree it's totally unfair that we're only in week 2 and our starters only got as much work together during camp and the preseason as our coaching staff felt prudent whereas all these other teams.....oh....ummmm....never mind. (BTW Rodgers had a lot more time with his WRs in preseason than Bradford did)

 

[Sunshinepacker]

Hmmm...Has Rodgers ever called Lang out for whiffing on a block? This stuff should be kept in the locker room.

I'm always interested in this response, "kept in the locker room". How sure are you that this hasn't been something that's been brought up in the locker room before? Is Lang supposed to just keep talking in the locker room if it becomes obvious that that method isn't changing anything? At what point is Lang allowed by the fans to try something different? Or is he, a guy who is far closer to the situation than any fan or media member, just supposed to shut up and watch Rodgers regress before our very eyes while the supposed QB guru McCarthy trots out an offense that the league caught up to a year ago?

 

[Packer Brother]

Aaron Rodgers hasn't been the best QB for awhile. Something has changed for the worst. It's not just missing Nelson last season. Start earning your pay!!!

 

[Deleted member 6794]

It could be that he already reached his "celebrity status" that he just doesn't care any more. He has a SB ring, millions in earnings and endorsements, etc.
And the fact that many have already brought up that Rodgers is looking for big plays down the field is worthy of wondering if he cares anymore. He doesn't look the same out there.

I think Rodgers not caring anymore is BS.

My hopes are that the team is just meshing still with Jordy back a new TE plus no Sitton, Tretter at center instead of Linsley, new starter at LG in Taylor and Lang now playing RG.

Lang is in his fourth season playing right guard.

I didn't watch him much but Lang didn't play great at RG last night the plays I did see!

Lang was most likely the best offensive lineman against the Vikings, performing on a high level.

This Rodgers criticism is just insane. The same posters who are criticizing Rodgers for a lack of patience in the pocket are the ones who are failing to display patience in an offense that had how many preseason snaps together? Please don't tell me I'm the only person who sees the irony in that.

Rodgers was 20-36 last night. I would say 5 or so of those incompletions came as a result of miscommunication with Jordy. There were also a couple of drops, not to mention the few times that Rodgers threw the ball away because either a receiver wasn't open, the pocket was collapsing, or both. So if Rodgers completes 5 more passes and goes 25-36, what are we talking about right now?

How many times did we try that laughably awful toss play to Lacy or Starks on first down? That put us in a lot of 2nd and 3rd and long situations after they were stuffed at the line on first down. Then Zimmer gets to tee off on Rodgers knowing that he is in an obvious passing down.

Again, not absolving Rodgers. He indeed missed a few throws. Adams and Jordy both had their guy beat on a couple of different occasions and if Rodgers makes a good throw, it's probably 6. But to say that he deserves close to 100% of the blame for the discombobulation on offense is just insane.

We are a field goal attempt and two uncharacteristic turnovers from Rodgers away from winning the game. The drives in the fourth quarter looked really good. More slant patterns, more underneath routes, etc. We definitely utilized the middle of the field more which is encouraging heading into the next game. Both turnovers occurred in Minnesota territory, and Rodgers just didn't come through.

The guy has the best TD to INT ratio in the history of the National Football League. He will clean that up. Meanwhile, he and Jordy will get their timing together, hopefully the running game that almost no one is talking about will improve, and fortunately for us we don't play Zimmer 16 times a year.

We are going to be fine.

It's possible that a lack of preseason snaps factors into the offense struggling. Hopefully McCarthy changes his approach about it next season.

There's no denying Rodgers has struggled for quite some time starting in week 8 of last season. With the Packers relying on their quarterback to perform at an elite level he has to play better again for the team to be successful.

Suggesting to trade Rodgers is completely insane though.

 

[Bagadeez04]

I think Rodgers may be indeed be regressing. Two problems that I think have gone from minor tics to constant issues. First and most obvious, holding onto the ball for too long. This has been a problem for a while with him, but it now is an every down thing.

Second is his form. Just about every throw he makes is from some kind of awkward position. In the past he received much praise for being able to throw from difficult positions when needed. This has manifested into throwing awkwardly on most passes. His accuracy is way off and I think this is why. Gotta get back to the basics. Drop back, set and throw.

Ultimately the question is, are the coaches able to coral him in and put him in his place a little. I feel like he may be unable to take to coaching, kind of like Favre got to be. His problems are definately fixable, if he's willing to humble himself a bit.

 

[Mondio]

Rodgers can play better, and I expect him to. our offense usually starts slow. It's frustrating, not the end of the world. Week 5-6 if it still looks like this, it will still be frustrating, and they'll still have people we know can play better and we'll have to wait and see if they'll do it or not. It's not like we're relying on a bunch of scrubs to play well. We have guys that can, but haven't all performed at their potential together for a while. Jordy is still working his way back. Cobb is better than last year. Our oline looks better now than at the start of most other seasons in the past 5 years. Lacy is running well, he needs the ball and opportunity. We need more plays to get him the ball more too. Cook will get worked in, RR still has great freaking hands. Just get him to the sticks and turn around, put the ball there and he'll catch it, 4 more downs.

This offense has the pieces, they all need to perform together, and I think they'll get there. But it's frustrating watching this that's for sure. Rodgers had an off game, for some same and some different reasons than he had off games last year, I'll never buy that he doesn't care. I know he'll work at it, and I think we'll see it pay off.

 

[Half Empty]

Saw a couple of comments about the lack of time the Packers offense had together in preseason. Doesn't seem to be any consideration of Bradford's two weeks total with the Vikes before the game.

 

[4Ever4Favre]

This

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/09/aaron-rodgers-stats-mediocre-green-bay-packers

I love the Twitter quote

 

[easyk83]

Rogers was sacked 47 times in the regular season last year and hurried on 1/3 of pass plays, according to ESPN. He's been sacked over 50 times in 2009 and 2012. If he's gun shy that's the likely reason. And the o line has a lot to do with it imo. Anyone thinking it's time to get rid of him is a candidate for electroshock treatment. Again just my opinion.

The Oline can only protect for a finite period of time. Aaron loves to extend plays to set up big gainers down field. But when you do it too often Defenses can and do adapt. He doesn't run as much as he used to so jet rushes by your ends two high shells and man coverage on the receivers. Aaron will predictably sit there for 4+ seconds until he either gets sacked hit or flushed. We've seen Brett Favre compete effectively with lesser offensive lines, but then again when Brett played like Aaron has been playing Mike benched him. Look at the 96 season, our Oline was a joke yet somehow we won a super bowl. How?

Holmgren ran a true WCO complete with rubs intersecting crossing and slant routes designed to get receivers open quickly. In contrast we run the old Jeff George run and shoot offense.

We saw multiple drives end in punts after third and short because Aaron went for kill shots instead of the conversion. Is that the fault of the offensive line?

 

[easyk83]

Saw a couple of comments about the lack of time the Packers offense had together in preseason. Doesn't seem to be any consideration of Bradford's two weeks total with the Vikes before the game.

Which comes back to scheme, the vikes ran a lot of vanilla plays with intersecting routes and rubs to create space. The Packer offense in comparison... yeah. If Aaron and the receivers aren't on precisely the same page it just doesn't work. It's pretty much 4 guys running option routes.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Rodgers can play better, and I expect him to. our offense usually starts slow. It's frustrating, not the end of the world. Week 5-6 if it still looks like this, it will still be frustrating, and they'll still have people we know can play better and we'll have to wait and see if they'll do it or not.

Rodgers had an off game, for some same and some different reasons than he had off games last year, I'll never buy that he doesn't care. I know he'll work at it, and I think we'll see it pay off.

The most concerning part about Rodgers struggling is that it has been going on for 14 consecutive games. There's absolutely no doubt he can perform on an elite level but something is off with his game and I'm not convinced it will change over the next few weeks without fundamentally changing some things.

 

[Vrill]

When you have a QB with an extreme tendency to hold on to the ball for too long and dance around in the pocket, its going to make the OL look bad by default. No Offensive Lineman wants to be pass blocking for 7-10 seconds on every single snap. No way. I know I wouldn't and yes, I'd get pissed off at my QB for it too.

 

[TomBrownFan40]

I refer to the problem as Drew Bledsoe disease. Lang's criticism is valid. However, I'm not sure how much of the problem is #12 or the offensive philosophy in general. Most likely, it's a combination of both.

Last year, Denver won a championship with Peyton Manning on his last legs. The Pats are 2-0 without Tom Brady. It seems like the Packers' offense cannot win games unless the QB is performing with 100% perfection/100% of the time.

Some things I've noticed:
-Rodgers seems to rely on the back shoulder fade a lot. Favre used to throw a lot of INTs and it was frustrating. #12 seems to be going too far in the other direction. He's so determined to avoid the INT, he'll use his mobility and wait until the guy breaks totally in the open or force it in short and make the receiver come back for it. How about occasionally, just putting it out there and letting your receiver go get it?
-What happened to the seem/slant routes? We have not seen much of that since Jennings/Driver.
-Is the whole concept of a check down gone? Can Ripkowski or the TEs ever be in the game for two plays in a row?
-Mr. Thompson seems either unwilling or unable to find a 3rd down, change of pace back. Can Lacy or Starks catch an occasional flare or screen?
-The hurry up offense can be great but, it can also be like the fast break in basketball and lead to sloppy stuff. I've noticed in the hurry up, we're still down to 5 seconds or less before the snap. Can we dispense with some of the motions and formation changes at the line? How about an occasional old-fashioned huddle, up to the line, set, and go?

Anyway, that's my rant and yes I'm a gray-bearded old timer. I played for the Ararat Arkonauts and coach Noah was a tough taskmaster.

 

[Arod2gjdd]

I could not possibly agree more with anyone claiming Rodgers has regressed. He no longer exudes that trademark confidence, no longer looks comfortable in the pocket or aware of where he is going with the ball, and he seems to have lost his mechanics that made him so deadly accurate.

I think the Monstars from Space Jam sucked all his abilities out or something midway through last season.

Where the hell did THIS guy go??

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