What to do now? Do we change things up?

[gopkrs]

I think we should change things up. On D we have to get pressure and not let the qb get outside. Our pass defense isn't good enough to hold them back from scoring. We have to blitz. Run and pass blitzes. And so ultimately our O has to win the games. No more keeping it close until the 4th quarter. Our D isn't good enough. Quit the pitiful 3 yard passes. We have guys that can get open. Use them. No running to use clock. Everything, the entire game, should be to score more. That's the headset, imho, that we need starting with chicago.

 

[gopkrs]

Could someone put this in sticky threads?

 

[tynimiller]

I think we should change things up. On D we have to get pressure and not let the qb get outside. Our pass defense isn't good enough to hold them back from scoring. We have to blitz. Run and pass blitzes. And so ultimately our O has to win the games. No more keeping it close until the 4th quarter. Our D isn't good enough. Quit the pitiful 3 yard passes. We have guys that can get open. Use them. No running to use clock. Everything, the entire game, should be to score more. That's the headset, imho, that we need starting with chicago.

Have you looked up our average depth of targets to see if your claim of short passes being a thing?

I suspect defensively we see Hafley deploy Quay and Cooper on blitzes along with Evan Williams (if healthy) a lot like he did in 2024 to create pressures.

 

[tynimiller]

Some ADOT (avg depth of target) of the best QBs in the league:

Stafford - 8.87
Goff - 6.89
Prsecott - 8.05
J Allen - 7.58
Nix - 8.00
Maye - 9.24
Lawrence - 8.9
Hurts - 9.61
Mahomes - 8.56
Mayfield - 8.58
Jackson - 8.95
Williams - 9.34
Rodgers - 6.25
Jones - 8.24

Love...higher than all above but Hurts, - 9.54

 

[tynimiller]

Could someone put this in sticky threads?

Stickies or pinned are almost always reserved for game threads in the season, Roster tracking or very specific pinpoint/universal news or topic type things (draft picks as they happen also in draft section).

 

[gopkrs]

Have you looked up our average depth of targets to see if your claim of short passes being a thing?

I suspect defensively we see Hafley deploy Quay and Cooper on blitzes along with Evan Williams (if healthy) a lot like he did in 2024 to create pressures.

I don't care about average depth of targets. I don't want to waste time anymore on those junk plays. Which usually just waste a down or try to make 3rd down more manageable. I think we need to go for it if we want to get anywhere. I don't mean bombs.

 

[tynimiller]

I don't care about average depth of targets. I don't want to waste time anymore on those junk plays. Which usually just waste a down or try to make 3rd down more manageable. I think we need to go for it if we want to get anywhere. I don't mean bombs.

Your declaration implies we do that a lot, we simply don’t however it seems.

 

[gopkrs]

Yeah. I don't really mean to imply that although I think we have too many going in dump off routes and we do use it too much. The stats also get skewered because of the bombs we throw. But my point is that we need to go for it offensively if we're going to get anywhere. Not **** dunk and bomb. They wait on our dump offs. I think we go for it both on offense and on defense or die a slow death. But offense is what will win it for us.

 

[tynimiller]

Gotcha, never broken it down to eliminate outliers if your claim of our bombs are covering it - could be true

 

[milani]

I think we should change things up. On D we have to get pressure and not let the qb get outside. Our pass defense isn't good enough to hold them back from scoring. We have to blitz. Run and pass blitzes. And so ultimately our O has to win the games. No more keeping it close until the 4th quarter. Our D isn't good enough. Quit the pitiful 3 yard passes. We have guys that can get open. Use them. No running to use clock. Everything, the entire game, should be to score more. That's the headset, imho, that we need starting with chicago.

I think on D our focus must still be to stop the run. Parsons had more effect on the pass rush than the run. Yesterday, we still outgained Denver on the ground thanks to Jacobs. Sean Payton realized that and decided to throw on 1st and 2nd downs. The Bears will try to run. The Vikings will, too. The Ravens will use Henry. Force them to throw. There is always that chance of an incompletion or a pick.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Yeah. I don't really mean to imply that although I think we have too many going in dump off routes and we do use it too much. The stats also get skewered because of the bombs we throw. But my point is that we need to go for it offensively if we're going to get anywhere. Not **** dunk and bomb. They wait on our dump offs. I think we go for it both on offense and on defense or die a slow death. But offense is what will win it for us.

You’re right. The Packers are going to have to rely on their offense. Parsons compensated for a group of weak CBs by getting QBs to get the ball out before they were ready.

No one else on the DL has stood out, despite Parsons taking on double teams. So where is the rush gonna come from?

It will require a good balance of run/pass. Jacobs leads by example each week and that will continue. Love is playing great.

A deep playoff run is a big ask. And until Watson gets back (hopefully), MLF should use the talents of the first round pick.

But yeah, the season is on the shoulders of Love and Jacobs. And plenty of guys have a huge opportunity to step up.

 

[gopkrs]

You’re right. The Packers are going to have to rely on their offense. Parsons compensated for a group of weak CBs by getting QBs to get the ball out before they were ready.

No one else on the DL has stood out, despite Parsons taking on double teams. So where is the rush gonna come from?

It will require a good balance of run/pass. Jacobs leads by example each week and that will continue. Love is playing great.

A deep playoff run is a big ask. And until Watson gets back (hopefully), MLF should use the talents of the first round pick.

But yeah, the season is on the shoulders of Love and Jacobs. And plenty of guys have a huge opportunity to step up.

The way you say it, I don't think it's any different then what we do. It's been a bit better with going under center but we always seem to be thinking keep it close. I think we need to go out on the limb. You are maybe hoping for better execution, I would like an attitude adjustment. Our O line is what it is. And it's not a world beater that lets us run when we want or think it's advantagious for the clock. No more game mgmnt. Think points. imo

 

[jdizz81]

We root for our team, we adapt and overcome. We were a good/great defense before the trade for #1 he made us great/elite. Turnovers have been lean this year the ball has to start bouncing our way, weren’t we top 10 last year in takeaways? Watson and Tom don’t appear to be done for the year, we go as far as Jordan and the offense takes us. Gary will be primary pass rusher JJ LVN and cox/mosbey is a decent rotation on the edge like last year when we had a top 10 defense. I’m in the middle of bear country, central Illinois, cocky bear fans think they already won the game. ***** that we root for our team we believe just like we did before the trade. We got Jordan McKinney quay cooper Reed Jacobs, Tom Watson and Evans will be back. We stick together we play every play like it’s our last play. Go pack go

 

[lambeaulambo]

I think it is pretty much a guarantee we change things up immediately on D. The offense still has a few weapons. Keep in mind that we r without Parsons, Williams, Jenkins, Kraft, Tom, and Watson. If you told me these players were out what the chances of being successful were? My response would be .500 winning record. The entire nfls lot of o line coaches all just breathed a huge sigh of relief not having to worry about Micah. The question is can we beat any of the following in the playoffs if we get there:

Chicago - tough task due to youth and hunger
Detroit - they win out and we lose out they are in
San Fran - bad juju and history
Philly - bad juju and history
Seattle - bad juju and history other than the Al Harris game
Rams - they just lost Adams, so this could be a possibility but the running game in LA is borderline elite.
Tampa/Panthers - we have bad histories against these teams especially recently

Unless Hafley shows DC genius we are beatable against all of the NFC playoff teams.

 

[milani]

I think it is pretty much a guarantee we change things up immediately on D. The offense still has a few weapons. Keep in mind that we r without Parsons, Williams, Jenkins, Kraft, Tom, and Watson. If you told me these players were out what the chances of being successful were? My response would be .500 winning record. The entire nfls lot of o line coaches all just breathed a huge sigh of relief not having to worry about Micah. The question is can we beat any of the following in the playoffs if we get there:

Chicago - tough task due to youth and hunger
Detroit - they win out and we lose out they are in
San Fran - bad juju and history
Philly - bad juju and history
Seattle - bad juju and history other than the Al Harris game
Rams - they just lost Adams, so this could be a possibility but the running game in LA is borderline elite.
Tampa/Panthers - we have bad histories against these teams especially recently

Unless Hafley shows DC genius we are beatable against all of the NFC playoff teams.

Hafley will do all he can with what he has. Bears have Frisco on the road and the desperate Lions at home. The Seahawks play the Rams, Panthers, and Niners. Lions have the Steelers, Vikings, and Bears. If the Rams beat Seattle this Thurs nite they should be in the driver's seat but not quite. We could get help from any of these schedules but we must win at least one game.

 

[Heyjoe4]

The way you say it, I don't think it's any different then what we do. It's been a bit better with going under center but we always seem to be thinking keep it close. I think we need to go out on the limb. You are maybe hoping for better execution, I would like an attitude adjustment. Our O line is what it is. And it's not a world beater that lets us run when we want or think it's advantagious for the clock. No more game mgmnt. Think points. imo

I'm not arguing with that gopkrs. They have to be aggressive on offense. But RPO doesn't work without a legit running game. In any case, the team will now go as far as the offense takes it.

 

[SudsMcBucky]

Have you looked up our average depth of targets to see if your claim of short passes being a thing?

I suspect defensively we see Hafley deploy Quay and Cooper on blitzes along with Evan Williams (if healthy) a lot like he did in 2024 to create pressures.

Yep, this is what I expect to happen, too.

 

[Magooch]

Have you looked up our average depth of targets to see if your claim of short passes being a thing?

I suspect defensively we see Hafley deploy Quay and Cooper on blitzes along with Evan Williams (if healthy) a lot like he did in 2024 to create pressures.

Echoing the same. Really it seemed like the presence of Parsons is what had Hafley dialing back a little bit on blitzing, we've been incredibly blitz-light this year but that wasn't the case previously. With him out it will almost have to be the case, we just don't generate enough pressure at all otherwise. I read yesterday - some of it is going to be a function of Micah producing at SUCH a high level - the pressure gap between Parsons and Gary is the largest between a team's "#1" and "#2" pressure-generators in the league.

Gotcha, never broken it down to eliminate outliers if your claim of our bombs are covering it - could be true

You know I've kinda been curious about this too. I don't know if there's any easy/clean way to get that data. But for instance, if you have 10 passes. Say 9 of them are really short routes, or even screens with no DOT beyond the LOS, but the 10th is a 50 yard bomb shot. You could have 9 passes with a ~3 yard depth of target but come away with an ADOT of ~7.5 or something. But this is kinda misleading, your "mean" ends up being more than double that of your median and mode. This could be mitigated by looking at ADOT by pass type (short/med/long), "trimming" the mean and removing the top/bottom 5-10% or something, but like I said I dunno if there's any quick/easy way to get that sorta data together (and I don't have the time to do the leg work lol)

ANYWHO, all that to say I wonder to what degree that is relevant with Love. It does feel like in general there is sometimes a feast-or-famine aspect to it where we are often not taking a ton of mid/intermediate passing shots and the bulk are screens, jet sweeps, very short routes, or total moon shots. That paints a picture that has the ADOT mean as being more "intermediate" or skewing to more "aggressive" but I don't know how accurate of a picture that is, I guess...

 

[tynimiller]

Echoing the same. Really it seemed like the presence of Parsons is what had Hafley dialing back a little bit on blitzing, we've been incredibly blitz-light this year but that wasn't the case previously. With him out it will almost have to be the case, we just don't generate enough pressure at all otherwise. I read yesterday - some of it is going to be a function of Micah producing at SUCH a high level - the pressure gap between Parsons and Gary is the largest between a team's "#1" and "#2" pressure-generators in the league.

Some stats on blitzing % your post made me curious.

Right now per Pro Football Reference we have blitz on 19.1% of snaps. In 2024 our blitz % was 17.3%

I was SHOCKED personally. Hafley doesn't blitz a ton. He however does send unbalanced pressures, like dropping Enagbare back say and Cooper or Quay "rushing up the gut" - essentially moving the attack not necessarily adding to it. Will be curious if however Hafley gambles and blitzes more now.

 

[gopkrs]

I would not call anything a real blitz if we don't send more than 4. And I have also noticed too much of big men in the pass pro mode. And it hasn't helped.

 

[tynimiller]

I would not call anything a real blitz if we don't send more than 4. And I have also noticed too much of big men in the pass pro mode. And it hasn't helped.

Which is why the above illustrates we are massively lower on the league lists both this year and last year.

 

[GreenBaySlacker]

I think we should change things up. On D we have to get pressure and not let the qb get outside. Our pass defense isn't good enough to hold them back from scoring. We have to blitz. Run and pass blitzes. And so ultimately our O has to win the games. No more keeping it close until the 4th quarter. Our D isn't good enough. Quit the pitiful 3 yard passes. We have guys that can get open. Use them. No running to use clock. Everything, the entire game, should be to score more. That's the headset, imho, that we need starting with chicago.

I think is getting LVN back, along with Cox, and those interior Dlinemen. We will be able to at least compete up front...

I think some of the difference will have to be made up by our WRs and Love getting some go to plays down field. Our receivers including Musgrave and Holy Crap did you see that TD catch by Jacob's?!? Someone at the bar said he caught the ball and the defender. Lol. I had to use that , because it was absolutely true.

Anyways. The offense needs to step it up and start putting up 30s instead of 20s.... Quit with the stupid penalties. Win the turnover battle.

 

[El Guapo]

Why blitz when you have Parsons creating pressures most times that he is on the field. Going back to the 2024 defense is not an option either. Yes - we didn't have Parsons but we had two studs in Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt, and TJ Slaton in the middle. We have none of those guys now, and nobody else in those spots are even close to those guys. I like Brooks and Wooden, but neither measures up to the three that we lost. Wooden was ATROCIOUS in the Denver game. I'm not being a debbie downer, but just realistic about what is in the Packers cupboard. It's bare.

We absolutely will need to start blitzing more to create pressure unless LVN or Gary starts to shine. Against the Bears, I expect to see Nazir Stackhouse playing as many snaps as he can handle. We've got to stop the run. Without Parsons, I expect that either Quay Walker or Edgerin Cooper will be a spy on Caleb Williams.

If Evan Williams can't play, make prediction is to see Bullard at safety and Hobbs the slot safety.

Hopefully we get Watson back by Saturday, but either way I expect/want LaFleur to start using Golden as the deep threat that Watson presents. That opens the under for Reed and Doubs.

Most importantly, we need to run the MF'ing ball down the Bears throats, balls deep. Who is the bully? We're the bully! Who has the better RB? We have the best running back!!

(edit - my apologies. As I typed that last paragraph, Ted Nugent started rocking out "Stranglehold" through my stereo speakers )

 

[tynimiller]

Quit with the stupid penalties. Win the turnover battle.

Discipline alone would be big....

 

[OldSchool101]

Parsons compensated for a group of weak CBs by getting QBs to get the ball out before they were ready.

With our current 2025 Defense I’ve come to realize a more recent change is that our Safeties haven’t had many opportunities to get an INT. Passes are coming out so quick that things are mostly kept in front of us. Xavier is being mitigated because it reduces rye longer throws. Even as Bo started chunking out throws, you could see how the opportunities also rise. Now we didn’t capitalize on those but we should have.

2. We seem to allow an excessive number of completions underneath for short to medium gainers. These are high probability throws and a biproduct is longer drives.

In 2024 the Packers were #1 in scoring allowed in Q1, Q4

In 2025 the Packers D is #1 in scoring allowed in Q1, but #22 in Q4
Qtr1 #1
Qtr2 #15
Qtr3 #17
Qtr4 #22

We might need to be a little more aggressive sending a LB blitz going forward. Hafley has been really good at scheming up Blitz Packages last year. We actually finished #8 in Sacks after all the complaining. What’s concerning is with Micah we actually went backwards. I think we expect the front 4 to get it done too regular. That has hurt our Sack # but the bonus was it left an extra player in the box at the second level.

I’d rather be assertive and put more trust in Xavier to hold the fort down. As the game progresses, i would recommend we increase the blitz% from Williams of Cooper, Quay or Isaiah. We’re really missing that production in the blitz by our LB group from 2024.