I think the three most valuable Packers are:
- Aaron Rodgers
- Mike Daniels
- Jordy Nelson
The two starting offensive tackles are not far behind. I also think Atlanta, fresh off nearly winning the Super Bowl and at home for a new stadium opening, are one of the three or four best teams in the league. Maybe Green Bay could have planned for the absence of two of their three best players had they known in advance they would miss the game, but seeing both start and then leave almost immediately put the team in an impossible situation.
Had this been the NFC Championship Game it would have been a tragic case of bad luck. Fortunately losing a game to the NFL’s elite in week two while severely undermanned means next to nothing, and drawing any large-scale conclusions about the Packers or Falcons based on this performance is foolish. Atlanta won a game they should have won, Green Bay will be fine going forward if they get healthy, and that’s that. On a smaller scale, there are a few positive takeaways for the Pack...and a few negatives.
Get Excited About Kevin King
The rookie corner played 46 snaps, and was targeted on 4 passes, none of which were completed. King used his speed and length to stay with Julio Jones more than once, and acquitted himself well. King is one of, if not the most athletic player on the team, and if he can start to put the mental part of the game into place, he will make the jump from backup to starter very quickly.
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That’s especially good because Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins continue to struggle, and Matt Ryan managed to hit several big gains against the duo. Rollins simply looks too slow to stay with most NFL receivers, and Randall continues to display a maddening lack of technique, especially in press coverage. A King/House combo looks much more desirable going forward, though someone will still have to succeed in the nickel role for the unit to be truly special.
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix Made the Worst Defensive Play of the Night
On second and ten at the beginning of the second quarter, Mohamed Sanu lined up outside and ran a deep crossing pattern. He easily lost Rollins off the line, but Ha Ha Clinton-Dix was in perfect position to make a play. Matt Ryan never should have thrown the ball and at worst, Clinton-Dix should have had a sure tackle on Sanu, and in truth should have easily picked off the pass. Instead this happened.
There wasn’t any deception on this play and Clinton-Dix had a clear view of Sanu and Matt Ryan. There is no excuse for not meeting Sanu immediately and making a play on the ball, let alone somehow allowing a 24-yard gain. The drive would eventually result in a touchdown.
Clinton-Dix has been too passive for some time now. This is somewhat understandable as the corners in front of him were a mess for all of 2016, and as the last line of defense he has to keep everything in front of him, but Ha Ha has been, and can be a better playmaker than this. His issues have gone mostly unnoticed due to the greater struggles of Randall and Rollins, but they’re very real, and need to be cleaned up.
Matthews Returns
When Mike Daniels left early in the game with an injury the defense faced a tall task, and while those 34 points look bad at a surface level, in truth the defense tightened things up around the middle of the second quarter, and played very well once King moved onto Jones. They even generated a reliable pass rush, and Clay Matthews looks better than he has in years. Matthews spent most of 2016 being too aggressive and running himself out of plays. So far in 2017, he’s doing a much better job of setting the edge, and hurrying quarterbacks even when he isn’t getting home. The defense will get all of the criticism in this game based on the score, but the pieces are in place for a big step forward. To the extent you want to worry, worry about the offense.
Jordy and Aaron
We take it for granted that Aaron Rodgers is amazing, and he is, but in 2015 he wasn’t actually that amazing. That year Jordy Nelson blew out his ACL before the season started, and the offense was merely average without him. The Packers entered this game without either starting tackle, and the playbook was limited as a result, but once Nelson was forced to leave with an injury, everything fell to pieces. The Packer offense continuously put the defense in bad situation after bad situation, and it’s actually amazing, given all they faced, that the final score was as respectable as it was. Without Nelson, the prospect of a deep attack all but dried up, and the Atlanta defense feasted on a smaller field.
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That said, there were some signs that this offense could be better than it was in 2015, even without Nelson on the field. Randall Cobb played very well before exiting with a shoulder injury (not believed to be serious) and Ty Montgomery was uncoverable when he spread out wide. The big problem in this game was that Martellus Bennett just couldn’t hang on to the ball.
Bennett was targeted a team-high 11 times, hauling in only five balls. At least four of his incompletions were drops, several of which were the difference between a first down and a punt. Bennett had four incompletions on 3rd down, and he needs to make those kinds of catches because he isn’t getting upfield as quickly as he used to. Bennett was still a force as a blocker and I believe he will clean up the drops, but 3rd down drops are essentially turnovers, and Bennett had quite a few. Randall Cobb also had a huge 3rd down drop, and had the execution on 3rd down simply been better, this game would have been much closer. Rodgers was just five of 12 on 3rd down conversions, but at least five of those are on his receivers.
Not that we should absolve Rodgers. His interception late in the 2nd quarter was terrible, and his fumble/lateral, ended whatever comeback may have been possible. Rodgers too often became impatient with his line and team, and made uncharacteristic mistakes as a result. Fortunately, if I have confidence in one thing, it is the ability of Aaron Rodgers to bounce back.
Officiating
Finally, it’s tough to blame officials for what was essentially a blowout, but football is a game of high leverage plays, and Walt Anderson and his crew did their best to make sure the Packers would not be rallying. It started with an offensive pass interference call against Martellus Bennett in the second quarter, wiping out a huge 36-yard gain by Randall Cobb, which would have moved the Packers out near midfield. Bennett did make contact with defenders, however the NFL rule on offensive pass interference states that:
“It is pass interference by either team when any act by a player more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage significantly hinders an eligible player’s opportunity to catch the ball.”
There are two types of bad calls. I have no issues with an official missing a call on a “bang bang play.” Missing a call because of the frantic nature of the action in front of you, or because the play was close, is perfectly fine. Later in the game Aaron Rodgers would lose a fumble on a play that could easily have been ruled a forward pass, but I have watched it dozens of times and still can’t say definitively one way or the other what actually happened.
This was not that. This was a crew seemingly not knowing the rules, as Martellus Bennett was well within a yard of the line of scrimmage, and well within his rights to pop defenders. Instead of having the ball at midfield down 17-7, Aaron Rodgers would instead throw an interception on a bomb to Geronimo Allison. Adding insult to injury, the Falcons would then score a touchdown on an illegal pick play in which tight end Austin Hooper engaged his man three yards downfield, allowing running back Tevin Coleman to walk in unscathed.
The Packers would run another pick play near the goal line with Geronimo Allison clearing out for Randall Cobb, which was nearly identical to the play Atlanta ran for their touchdown. Allison did not do the best job of selling it, and this wasn’t as clearly legal as the Bennett play, but it was much closer to being legal than the Atlanta touchdown. The Packers settled for a field goal, and just like that, the officials caused an eleven-point swing at least.
In the first quarter Aaron Rodgers also had an opportunity for a free play when he caught Atlanta making a late substitution, but the officials blew the play dead because they were not in position. The free play is a huge weapon for Rodgers, and losing out on an opportunity because an official is taking his time is maddening. Fortunately the Packers did score on this drive as Ty Montgomery took it in from a yard out, but it was another in a log line of game-changing, inexplicable referee errors.
Overall It’s Not So Bad
In the grand scheme of things, the Packers are in good shape. They just completed the toughest part of their schedule with a 1-1 record, they face a Cincinnati Bengal team that is in shambles at the moment, and there is every indication that when healthy, the offense and defense can be special. Every so often you have a game in which everything goes wrong. I’m glad the Packers got it out of the way early.
