Let’s dust off one of our go-to’s for the 2019 Packer season in reference to yesterday’s game in Tampa:
Socrates, Descartes, Diesel. Not necessarily in that order.
But the logic of that line still applies to yesterday. I saw PLENTY of Packer Twitter getting fired up about the offense not living up to the LaFleur, ‘All Gas No Brakes,’ mentality yesterday. Their first two drives of the day they marched down the field and scored touchdowns, and their third drive of the day they marched right down the field before the Aaron Jones fumble in the end zone. After that? Squadoosh. 8 drives resulting in 7 punts, an interception, and 0 points.
Now the Bucs defense deserves some credit here. That’s one of the best units in the league. They had only given up 1 touchdown in their first two games heading into Sunday. They’re loaded on that side of the ball and it was actually pretty crazy how easy the Packers made it look on those first three drives. But they made adjustments and clearly those adjustments had the Packer offense in a straight jacket the rest of the day.
The most frustrating part of that was that the Packers really only needed to turn ONE of those 8 subsequent drives into points to get the kill shot. Hell a field goal would have gotten the job done. But they just couldn’t sustain a drive the rest of the day.
Luckily the defense and special teams came to play. Letting a Tom Brady-led team hang around within one score late in the 4th quarter hasn’t worked out for opposing teams a lot during Brady’s career. Leaving the door open late for a Tom Brady team is like parking your car in downtown Milwaukee unlocked. When he had the ball in his hands with under 2 minutes to go, a touchdown felt inevitable. But De’Vondre Campbell capped a MASSIVE day (14 tackles) with a Dikembe Mutombo finger wag after tipping the pass attempt on the two-point conversion. Huge road win early in the year.
- CUE THE MUSIC: ‘Return of the Bakh’:
- Like a lot of Packer fans, after 20 months of rehab and one random appearance against the Lions in the regular season finale last year, I was starting to wonder if we’d ever see Bakhtiari again. And if we did, would he ever be as good as he once was when he was regarded as the best left tackle in the game. Well he played in a ‘one-series on, one-series off’ rotation with Yosh yesterday and he looked fantastic. Especially in a tough environment, on the road, in the heat and humidity of Florida. All indications are that he’s going to be on the field with no limitations this weekend against New England.
- Romeo Doubs looks like the truth. No Christian Watson yesterday (hamstring), no Sammy Watkins (hamstring and on the IR), so you knew he’d be getting a ton of looks from Aaron Rodgers. He finished with an 8/73/1 line and you can see why they love him. He’s got great size and ELITE speed. Kid seems like he’s got a Mario Kart mushroom button he can use at will.
- ^Related: What happened to the Davante Adams graphics we saw throughout Week 1?? Every time Davante made a catch we had to hear about it during the Vikings game. Romeo had more catches and yards yesterday that Davante has had in the last two weeks combined.
- After his ayahuasca tea celebration last week, Allen Lazard took it to a another level of realism this week:
- How will he top that next week??
- Remember draft night in 2019 when 80% of Packer fans on social media were saying the Packers ‘wasted a pick’ by taking an underachieving defensive end from Michigan named Rashan Gary? Hah! Another sack yesterday, one in every game so far this season. I’d say he deserves an apology from every one of those fans but that line would probably stretch from Lambeau Field down to Manitowoc.
- Having competent special teams is quite a feeling. It’s like we got out of a bad relationship, and in our next relationship the other person does basic things that seem extraordinary because we’re not used to them. ‘Oh you did the dishes/punted the ball inside the 20?? THANK YOU!’ Pat O’Donnell has been a legitimate weapon. 5 of his 7 punts were inside the 20, forcing an injury depleted Bucs offense to put together long drives.
- Fox announcer, Kevin Burkhardt, after the Campbell deflection on the two-point conversion: ‘The Packers are gonna win it! Green Bay is going to hang on.’ SHUT UP KEVIN THERE’S STILL 15 SECONDS LEFT AND WE NEED TO RECOVER AN ONSIDE KICK.
- It sounds like Jaire avoided a major injury, but I haven’t been this concerned about another man’s groin since Val Venis fell into the hands of Kainentai on Monday Night Raw in 1998.
- ^That is a super niche reference and if you followed it, good on ya.
We said on the blog and on the podcast last week that it felt like the Packers were getting the Bucs at a good time. They were dealing with a ton of injuries at wide receiver, Brady is spinning his wheels a bit, it was a good chance to catch them early and maybe get a key road win. That’s exactly what the Packers were able to do in a game that felt like one of the old NFC Central matchups between these two franchises. There are no gimmes in the NFL, but the Packers hit a little bit of a softer spot in their schedule starting this weekend at home against New England, followed by matchups with the Giants (in London), the Jets (at Lambeau), and the Commanders on the road. Good chance they can get to 6-1 before a showdown on Sunday night in Buffalo the night before Halloween.
PS: I was hoping the Badgers could at least cover the 19 points in Columbus on Saturday night, but they were over-matched from the word go. Ohio State just has better athletes across the board. It looked like they were playing a different game at a different speed altogether. This led to a LOT of, ‘FIRE CHRYST’ posts on social media, and I’d have to say his seat seems to be getting a lot warmer, at least from a fan perspective. Whether or not Barry Alveraz feels that way, I have no idea. Again: Chryst will always get you 7-9 wins and a bowl game, but it feels like the gap between the Badgers and Ohio State, or any of the other top teams in the country, is getting bigger and bigger as the years go by. They’ll probably get back on track at home against Bert Bielema and Illinois this weekend, but nothing from Saturday’s game made you feel like they could hang with that team in a Big Ten Championship game should the Badgers win the Big Ten West.
