Packers Stuff...

townsend

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In regards to Garrett, I'm more worried about him having this team ready to play.

I can't recall a single instance since he became coach in 2010 where we looked sharp coming off of a bye week.
Against the Jags in 2014.
 

2233boys

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In regards to Garrett, I'm more worried about him having this team ready to play.

I can't recall a single instance since he became coach in 2010 where we looked sharp coming off of a bye week.
For what it is worth, Zeke, Dez and Witten are saying the last practice was the best one they had this year.
 

townsend

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Jordy Nelson has been ruled out (duh.)

We really have no excuse to lose this game.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I think our defense matches up better with the Packers, we have a ton of depth at DB. Scandrick, Claiborne, Brown, and Carr at CB. Church, Wilcox, Jones, and Heath at safety. The spread is not as intimidating if your 8th best db is still pretty good.
And without Nelson their WRs aren't very scary frankly.
 

L.T. Fan

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How can you not be apprehensive with the game riding on two rookies and a sometimes suspect defense.
 

townsend

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How can you not be apprehensive with the game riding on two rookies and a sometimes suspect defense.
Unless you're the Patriots, you have to have apprehension going into the divisional round, 7 teams are still alive in the tournament because they're really good.

That's the point Dallas is really really good. Sure it could all fal apart but Dak and Zeke have already rewritten the rule book for what to expect from a rookie. They're big time players who've already delivered in the clutch over and over and over and over.

So are we guaranteed to win? Absolutely not. Do we have reason to believe we should win? Absolutely.
 

mcnuttz

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How can you not be apprehensive with the game riding on two rookies and a sometimes suspect defense.

Those two rookies have transformed this team.

I don't remember being this confident in the Cowboys since they were winning Super Bowls.
 

Cowboysrock55

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How can you not be apprehensive with the game riding on two rookies and a sometimes suspect defense.
Because I base Dak and Zeke on what they've done and not by the number of years they've had in the NFL. How they have played all year has a much bigger impact on their play Sunday.
 

Cotton

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Jordy Nelson Is Behind The Packers’ Renaissance
By Ty Schalter

Aaron Rodgers was in the midst of the worst statistical year of his career, had just suffered losses in five of the previous six games and was about to spend Thanksgiving watching the Detroit Lions pull 2.5 games ahead of his Green Bay Packers. Yet Rodgers somehow knew there was enough talent in the huddle, on the sidelines and in his arm to win the NFC North.

“I feel like we can run the table,” Rodgers said at a news conference on Nov. 23. “I really do.” On Sunday night, he finished the task by leading the Packers to the division title with a masterful 300-yard, four-touchdown performance. What felt like an offhand comment in the moment looks like a Namathesque guarantee in light of the Packers’ six-game win streak.

But how did Rodgers and the Packers flip the switch midseason? The same way they flipped it in the middle of Sunday’s season finale: by using fully healed wideout Jordy Nelson to dictate matchups and exploit mismatches.

Although Packers head coach Mike McCarthy declared Nelson 100 percent at the start of the season, it was clear that Nelson wasn’t nearly in top form early on. Having missed all of 2015’s regular season with an ACL tear in his right knee, Nelson was slowed over the summer with an injury to the other knee. In Week 1 of this season, his first competitive action since the 2015 Pro Bowl, Nelson got nine targets and six catches, but for only 32 yards and a touchdown.

This mincing performance — Nelson averaged just 5.3 yards per catch — set the tone for the first half of the season. Across the first eight weeks, Nelson caught just 51.7 percent of his targets, averaging four catches and 59 yards per game.

Though Nelson remained effective in the red zone, his yards per target (6.9) were far below his career average of 9.9. He struggled to get open deep, struggled to break short passes long and failed to help his fellow pass-catchers by drawing coverage to his side.

As Rodgers forced passes to well-covered receivers, his numbers sagged, too: Through five games, Rodgers’ completion rate, touchdown-to-interception ratio, passer efficiency rating and average yards per attempt were all below his career-worst season marks.

But as Nelson regained his explosion, the Packers offense found its groove. Even as they lost shootouts in Nashville and Washington in Weeks 10 and 11, Rodgers and Nelson put up big numbers. But he’s really come on since Rodgers’s prediction. Over the first 10 games, Nelson caught just 56.4 percent of his targets, according to ESPN Stats & Information Group; over the final six, he caught 83 percent of them.

The routes Nelson was running weren’t that much deeper than they had been — his air yards per target, meaning how far past the sticks the ball traveled, only went from 11.87 to 12.43. But the effect of an improved Nelson opened up the offense. Through the first 10 games, only 19 percent of Rodgers’s pass attempts went 15 or more yards down the field; 10 percent went 20 or more yards. Since then, those numbers have spiked to 24.5 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

In the first half against Detroit on Sunday, Nelson was shadowed by top Lions corner Darius Slay. With both teams playing conservatively and relying on their ground game, Nelson saw only one target before halftime. The Packers went into the locker room down 14-10, and the winning streak was in serious danger.

But on the first drive of the second half, Nelson lined up primarily in the slot — and sliced through the Lions’ linebackers and safeties for gain after gain. On that drive alone, Nelson had three catches for 42 yards, streaking through holes in the Lions’ zones and setting up a go-ahead touchdown.

As the Lions’ defensive backs shuffled around to contain Nelson, receiver-cum-tailback Ty Montgomery did damage out of the backfield, and undrafted free agent rookie wideout Geronimo Allison roasted the Lions down the sideline for a team-high 91 yards and a score on the day.

This is the Packers offense as it’s supposed to be: Defenses scrambling to cover all of Rodgers’s targets, Rodgers picking them apart and making unknowns look like world-beaters in the process. During their table run, the Packers offense averaged 30.8 points per game, third-most in the NFL — after ranking just 11th in scoring offense over the first half of the season with an average of 24.8.

During the six-game win streak that won the Packers a division title and made Rodgers an MVP candidate, Nelson averaged nine targets, seven catches, 99 yards and a score, with a healthy yards-per-target average of 10.6.

“I believe in myself and my abilities, but I also believe in this team,” Rodgers said after Sunday’s win. “This wasn’t just a shot in the dark. It was an optimistic belief in my teammates that we were going to start handling adversity better.”

But now the Packers are in the playoffs, and arguably the hottest team in football. Can they handle the adversity of winning three straight playoff games to make it to the Super Bowl? As long as Nelson keeps changing the math of how teams defend the Packers, it’s possible.

:towel
 

Cowboysrock55

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Cowboys/Packers replay just started on NFL network.

Due to the weather I've closed the office today, so I'm going to enjoy this game preparing for the weekend.



Man, I forgot how good Lacey looked in that game early. The rest of the Packers were meh.
 

UncleMilti

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How can you not be apprehensive with the game riding on two rookies and a sometimes suspect defense.
Best post of the whole thread.

No speed at DE (bye Gregory), a pass rush that has faded at times in the 4th quarter, and your best (arguably) CB of the year has his first game back after 6 weeks.

The 2 bright spots...we are at home, where Dak has looked really good, and the Pack's D is terrible.

Will Garrett take the cuffs of Dak and go after the Packers terrible CB's?? That's the game IMO.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Best post of the whole thread.

No speed at DE (bye Gregory), a pass rush that has faded at times in the 4th quarter, and your best (arguably) CB of the year has his first game back after 6 weeks.

The 2 bright spots...we are at home, where Dak has looked really good, and the Pack's D is terrible.

Will Garrett take the cuffs of Dak and go after the Packers terrible CB's?? That's the game IMO.
Lawrence isn't slow and he is probably as healthy as he has been all season. Mayowa is fast and has literally finished the season as well as any pass rusher on the team, leading us with 6 sacks. I'd love to have Gregory but our pass rush came alive before he ever hit the field.
 

2233boys

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Best post of the whole thread.

No speed at DE (bye Gregory), a pass rush that has faded at times in the 4th quarter, and your best (arguably) CB of the year has his first game back after 6 weeks.

The 2 bright spots...we are at home, where Dak has looked really good, and the Pack's D is terrible.

Will Garrett take the cuffs of Dak and go after the Packers terrible CB's?? That's the game IMO.
Disagree "the game" is running the ball consistently and effectively
 

Cowboysrock55

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Disagree "the game" is running the ball consistently and effectively
If we can run against them like we did in the first game it would go a long way. I forgot how many times we shot ourselves in the foot in that game. Really should have blown them out big time. That was the game where Dak had a fumble without being touched. Another where Rodgers fumbled and it somehow helped the Packers out with a bunch of yards.
 

ravidubey

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If we can run against them like we did in the first game it would go a long way. I forgot how many times we shot ourselves in the foot in that game. Really should have blown them out big time. That was the game where Dak had a fumble without being touched. Another where Rodgers fumbled and it somehow helped the Packers out with a bunch of yards.
We went for it in that game.

Last drive before the half Lucky goes for over 20+ on a quick play from scrimmage. Suddenly we're thinking score.

Then the defender falls down on a deep shot and we have a TD.

Might have been extremely lucky, but we did it.

We need to generate similar offense at some point each half, hopefully each quarter but I'll take what I can get.
 

Cowboysrock55

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We went for it in that game.

Last drive before the half Lucky goes for over 20+ on a quick play from scrimmage. Suddenly we're thinking score.

Then the defender falls down on a deep shot and we have a TD.

Might have been extremely lucky, but we did it.

We need to generate similar offense at some point each half, hopefully each quarter but I'll take what I can get.
There was a bomb to Butler that he was open on and just flat dropped the ball too. We certainly didn't hold back from throwing deep.
 

ravidubey

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There was a bomb to Butler that he was open on and just flat dropped the ball too. We certainly didn't hold back from throwing deep.
Most of our deep production came from that final first half drive.

We kind of stumbled onto it, thanks to Lucky's big play.

We need that kind of production in the game plan by design.

For us to win three in a row, we are going to have to make some of our luck.
 
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