Official Game Day Thread: Packers @ Falcons 11/28: LOSE 20 - 17

JoshuaRHuffman

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If he doesn't facemask, he's taking that back for 6.

I'm not sure losing this game is bad in the long run. Call me crazy, but I don't want Atlanta in a snowy Lambeau field. They'd have a big advantage with that powerback.

Great game by the Falcons, though.
 

maxlives

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Good learning game for us and better than I thought it would be. Our ST need big time work and our running game needs major help if we plan to go very far into the playoffs. Bad penalties still hurting us at worst possible times. Falcons got more breaks than the Pack today but AR kept us in the game and earned a "clutch" battle star. Now must hope the Eagles don't have a major break down and handle the Bears as easily as I think they should and we will still be in a first place division tie. Not great but not bad. My brother drove to the game from Birmingham, now we've both watched the Pack drop 3 point games they should have won (I was at the Redskins game in Oct). Niners at home next week, then Lions, then more tough match ups. GO PACK GO!!!
 

GrandMstrBud

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Okay I have to rant a little bit. Why in the world would Mike McCarthy not challenge that non catch by Gonzalez? Why would he send Rogers in for a QB sneak? Why does he go for it on the road on 4th down with no running game? It's clear that was not a catch and that would have taken away 7 points. This is the second game this year McCarthy has made stupid decisions costing the Packers the game. We should be 9-2 now not 7-4.
 

maxlives

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Okay I have to rant a little bit. Why in the world would Mike McCarthy not challenge that non catch by Gonzalez? Why would he send Rogers in for a QB sneak? Why does he go for it on the road on 4th down with no running game? It's clear that was not a catch and that would have taken away 7 points. This is the second game this year McCarthy has made stupid decisions costing the Packers the game. We should be 9-2 now not 7-4.

Understand the need to rant, this is one that shouldn't have got away. BUT, the replay miss was on the coaches in the booth, not Mike. He has the worst possible angle on that play but the coaches upstairs should have been busting his eardrums to throw the red flag. Missed opportunity and a different game maybe.
 

PackersRS

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Great game Falcons fans.

I antecipated we would do a better job containing Turner. That guy is a monster. I already knew that, but still.
Tramon and Sir Chalres did an amazing job containing White, a better job than I antecipated, not because they're bad corners, quite the contrary, but because White is a beast.

In the end, the game was decided by ST play IMHO. There was the lucky Rodgers fumble, that bounced your way, and there was an incompletion in 4th down that our coach didn't challenge, but the game was tied, and we allowed a 50 yard return...

I wouldn't like to see your team in the playoffs, quite frankly, not because I don't think we can win, because I do, but I'd rather face a weaker opponent.

But if we do, it'll be a great game, and this time, the ball will bounce our way, and we will come out on top!
 

njpackersfan

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This was the first time I saw Atlanta play. At least they look as good as the record they hold. Considering we don't have all players able to play, our team did very well. Yes there were some mess ups or whatever, but a strong showing with a "skeleton crew".

As a fan, I want to see the Bears lose. But since I am right across the river from all the Vick hype on the radio, part of me wants to see him go down.

For some reason I feel this will be the only loss we will have before the playoffs. A winning streak, then a loss to a good team to learn from. Now to apply what was learned and follow through.
 

JCpackers04

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I dont know about winning out the rest of our games...beating the Patriots in NE is gonna be very tough. pretty sure they also have like a ridiculous record at home lately.

Detroit has played better at home in all of their games too, so i see that as a potential upset game.

Plus the Giants are gonna be fighting for their lives as well when they come to Green Bay.

All in all, its gonna be an absolute dogfight to get into the playoffs this year, the NFC is a giant cluster****
 
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No running game and the Pack can't stop the run. I'm seeing perhaps 2 more wins and probably 3 losses to put them at 9-7 and out of the playoffs. Draft news anyone?
 

GreenGoldAngel

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No running game and the Pack can't stop the run. I'm seeing perhaps 2 more wins and probably 3 losses to put them at 9-7 and out of the playoffs. Draft news anyone?

Yes, the Green Bay Packers, with their first choice in the first round of the 2011 draft, draft the entire O-Line of the University of Wisconsin.
 

Kitten

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What if we had scored on that fumble in the endzone?


Sadly there are a lot of "what ifs" in that game. What if the Gonzalez non catch had been challenged and the call would of been overturned? What if our ST had played better and stopped (I actually forget now who the hell was carried that ball) before we needed to bring him down by his facemask to keep him out of the endzone? You mentioned the fumble in the endzone. When you lose you are always left with a pile of what ifs that still end in a big L. A good team will go back and review these plays, study the film and learn from their mistakes. The fumble in the endzone was just unfortunate, Aaron rarely does that. I guess you have to go back and work on the things you can fix (cough cough, ST) and pray for some better luck next week.

Hoping we lay a killing on San Fran!!! Those poor souls are gonna get Packerized!!!
 

Matty Ice 2010

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Good game packer fans. I enjoyed hearing about it. You guys have a tough team and I hope this is the matchup in the Nfc championship game. I am going to hang around here if y'all don't mind because I like the packers the most in the NFC North Divison.
 

Mr. StyleZ

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Good game packer fans. I enjoyed hearing about it. You guys have a tough team and I hope this is the matchup in the Nfc championship game. I am going to hang around here if y'all don't mind because I like the packers the most in the NFC North Divison.

Good game. A rematch would be awesome. Both teams match up very well.
 

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Good game packer fans. I enjoyed hearing about it. You guys have a tough team and I hope this is the matchup in the Nfc championship game. I am going to hang around here if y'all don't mind because I like the packers the most in the NFC North Divison.

Welcome! Always glad for the company!!! :)
 

ivo610

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Injuries: LB Brandon Chillar (shoulder and TE Spencer Havner (hamstring) are out this week. Didn't say how long they'd be out. RB Dimitri Nance (concussion) will go through the normal process of evaluation this week to get cleared. WR Greg Jennings (foot sprain) may miss a day of practice. CB Pat Lee (ankle) will be challenged to play this week.
RB James Starks may have to be active this week. Asked if he was ready, McCarthy said, "He better be."
Said he thought the passing game was outstanding against Atlanta and that's why he stayed with it. Said he never really got to his I-formation plays much.
He defended QB Aaron Rodgers' decision to check to a quarterback sneak on second and 1 in the second quarter. "It was a good check," he said. Should have been executed.
Of the lack of running attempts, he said it was because of the opponent and environment. "We played in a dome, a very fast track and had favorable match-ups," he said.
Said they need to tackle better. Have been doing tackling drills three days a week since the spring and he expects better.
On TE Tony Gonzalez's catch on 4th and 3, he said he had "no information that led me to challenge that play." He said there's obvious evidence and "blind" evidence, i.e,, the Falcons hurrying to the line of scrimmage to get the play off. He said he saw neither.
He said he saw Gonzalez get both arms under the ball from the sideline and thought it was a good catch. He said typically referee Pete Morelli's crew is one that gets calls correct. Said he didn't see anything that indicated Gonzalez might have trapped it until much later.
Said there was no reason to take a timeout if there's no evidence a play needs to be challenged.
Asked about the replays not being relayed to the coaching booth fast enough on the road, he said, "That's part of the game. I'm not going down that road."
Kickoff return at the end was poor tackling.
Said it was louder than he ever remembered it being at the Georgia Dome but thought the team handled it well on both sides of the ball. Said defense used 10 different combinations in the first 18 plays with no problem.
Felt team played with an edge the previous three weeks, but edge wasn't as sharp as it had been in Atlanta game.
 

ivo610

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Green Bay -- The following are excerpts from interviews conducted with Green Bay Packers assistant coaches Monday afternoon, a day after the Packers' 20-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons:

SPECIAL TEAMS COACH SHAUN SLOCUM

On the final kickoff was Nick Collins trying too hard to make a big play? He tried to shoot the gap on the left side and he could have done a better job reading the play and understanding it was a middle return and folding over the top.

How much of a setback is that for you after three good weeks? I’ll say this, we lost the football game. You win and lose as a team. We’ve played pretty productive special teams over the last four weeks. No penalties. I think some of those penalties (Sunday) were impactful in the ball game. I think we need to continue to move forward. We didn’t get it done yesterday and we have one focus, the San Francisco 49ers.

What did you think of the Sam Shields penalty on the kick return when he was called for a personal foul? I saw Sam use a stiff arm and his hand ended up in the facemask area of the player. It was not malicious by any means. I think he was protecting himself on a sideline tackle. That’s what I saw.

What did you think of Mason Crosby’s last kickoff? Mason kicked a good ball. About 75, 76 yards, 5 or 6 yards deep. He had an over 4-second hang time. I thought we should have done a better job covering.

SAFETIES COACH DARREN PERRY

Did your players understand how hard it was going to be to get Michael Turner down on the ground? I think we tried to show them a pretty good picture of what he was like. I think they saw the video of other players, other teams going against him. Obviously, you can’t simulate that in practice. But I think they understood the magnitude of the challenge of getting him on the ground.

Were the players just going too much for ankles? I think sometimes if you don’t hit him in his power source he’s going to bounce off of you. But more importantly, when you think you’re close to him, you have to take one more step because so many people want to gather because he’s so powerful. Sometimes you start thinking too much about how you want to hit him, what angle you’re going to take to hit him and next thing you know you come up short and you can’t get your head across. And if you arm tackle him, he’s just going to keep on going. He’ll run through that. You have to get underneath him and hit him in his power source.

On the final series, where you’re blitzing up the middle, is there more your safeties could have done? Can they jump any of those routes? No. You’re playing zero coverage. You’re trying to knock them out of field goal range. It’s one of those deals where you can get up and press, but any time you’re playing man you have to be conscious about being picked. So we have to have one guy off, to eliminate pick routes when they know you’re running man-to-man and give them a cheap one.

Do you feel like you did all you could in light of how close the Falcons were to field-goal range on their final series? They need 10 yards to get a field goal, you can’t give it to them, regardless where they are. If they get the ball on the 1-yard line, our goal is to not lose the game and let our offense win it. I think that’s the motto you have to live by on defense. We’re not going to win that game. Our job is to not lose the game because if they don’t score, we can’t lose.

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR DOM CAPERS

Are you happy with the way you stacked up against the Falcons despite the loss? I don’t know if you’re every totally happy. The two touchdowns they scored, they had first and goal on the 5 and we got them to third and 4 and they ran the 'nod' route on us and stuck the ball in there. We can play that better. Then they had first and goal on the 1 and it took them to fourth and 1 to get it in. They had to fight their tail off to get the ball in against us. It’s one of the things we’ve been doing better than anybody in the league is keeping people out of the end zone. So, I think our guys are still confident in our ability to do that. We have to clean up the things we weren’t sharp in yesterday.

Were both sacks on four-man rushes? It was a combination of coverage on both of those. (Matt) Ryan didn’t have any place to go so he had to hold the ball. The first one where (Frank) Zombo got his sack we had really good rush lane distribution and same thing when Cullen (jenkins) got his. Cullen got off a block late, the one lineman went out to block the outside guy and he was singled up and he beat the guy. But we had very good coverage on both of those.

How do you view the close losses you've suffered, four of them each by a field goal? Is there a common thread? Everyone was a little bit different. First game against Chicago we had two interceptions nullified by penalties and two others hit us in the hands and we shot ourselves in the foot. The Miami game we were playing pretty shorthanded on defense and it affected us. We had them stopped and put them back on the field again and they scored a touchdown. Every game is a little bit different. One thing when you get into December you have to be playing your best. That’s the challenge. I think the last four weeks we’ve been playing our best. We weren’t quite as sharp as we needed to on the road against a good football team to win the game.

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOE PHILBIN

What do you think about running back James Starks? Very competitive guy, eager learner, has some good hands. I think he’s got a big body. He runs a little high at this time. But he’s very young, but I like him. He’s got some instincts that are hard to teach and hard to drill into somebody.

Do you practice that last "Cal Band" play you used at the end of the game a lot? We did this week. Usually we alternate weeks. We did it the other day. There was still (Dunta) Robinson here and another deep guy, but you never know.

Were you happy with the flea-flicker? It was a good play, but it wasn’t exactly the way you draw it up, let’s put it that way. We’re not going to turn our nose up at a 30-yard gain. To sit there and say we had perfect execution and that’s the way we dialed it up wouldn’t be honest. We weren’t able to sell it the way we wanted. Brandon ran into the tackle, the right tackle got bumped, guys are coming off (blocks), so it wasn’t the greatest football play. Let’s put it this way, I’m not going to be giving a clinic about that in the off-season. No one is going to be impressed with it.

RUNNING BACKS COACH EDGAR BENNETT

How has Starks developed since coming off PUP? He continues to get better. … He needs to continue to work on his fundamentals and get comfortable with what we’re asking him to do. It’s been extremely positive. All of the situations we’ve put him in – certainly some extremely competitive – he’s stepped up to the challenge. We see this kid continue to improve. At some point, like coach mentioned, he’ll probably get an opportunity.

How do you get him ready in a hurry? You certainly want to put him in that game-type setting because the speed is different than it is in practice. We try to simulate the tempo of the game speed as best we can in practice but obviously it’s a little bit different. Certainly, you want to get him more live reps. It’s been awhile as far as the contact part of it, the physical part of it.

Was Dimitri Nance's failed third and 1 similar to the one he converted against Minnesota? No, unfortunately it was a different play. Even coach made reference to trying to get a timeout because they ended up going to a goal-line defense, so from a personnel standpoint we tried to get a timeout and unfortunately it didn’t happen. Nance read the play correctly, on that first initial contact he accelerated his feet and the kid gave tremendous effort. Unfortunately, we just didn’t convert.
 
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