The Packers offense was a bit sporadic and “un-rhythmic” if that’s a real word. While they always do more than enough shooting themselves in the foot, I have to give a bunch of credit to the Cincy defense. They looked to be well coached, and seemed to know what was coming most of the time. The first series, I think the Packers caught them with some unexpected plays, but after that, it was a pretty vanilla offense.
Mason – what can you say? LaFleur was going to show his loyalty to Mason until the end of time. Mason deserves it, but I don’t think I would have so easily given up trying to score a TD on the last drive.
Bohorquez had a bad punt and evidently is human – we’ve been robbed!
Fast feet – Does Davante have the fastest feet you’ve ever seen on a wide receiver? Does anyone come close?
Space man – Please get Aaron Jones into space as much as you can. Once he has room to operate, electric things happen.
Swing and a miss – How in the world did Savage whiff at the deep ball that Chase caught before the half for a walk-in touchdown? He seemed to time his jump perfectly and then just missed the ball despite being right on it. A seven point mistake that turned the game around for the Bengals. And why are the Packers rushing two and giving Burrow over 8 seconds to let his speedsters run around and get open?
Kickoffs – While the punting, punt coverage and punt return game has improved, kickoffs are entirely another matter. In this game, the Bengals had kickoff returns of 44, 28 and 22 yards. If the Packers at any time are telling Crosby to positional kick instead of kick it out of the end zone, that needs to stop. Maybe it’s just that Crosby can’t always get it that deep anymore, in which case it’s a moot point, but if it’s intentional – please end it.
Tackling – I don’t know how many total missed tackles the Packers had, but I’m confident Samaje Perine had to be responsible for over 90% of them. That dude runs hard and it takes a village to bring him down.
Run Game Scheme – The Cincy front four did a great job in controlling the line of scrimmage, and yet the Packers continued to try to pound the middle of the line without much success. I felt like more plays designed to get Jones outside were in order. Something like the first play of the game which I don’t think they ever came back to.
For me, it was a combination of the 1st down run predictability and the continuing to try to go up the middle when there was little there. I though they should have tried to go outside more with Jones, like the first play of the game.
— Jersey Al – GBP (@JerseyAlGBP) October 11, 2021
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“Jersey Al” Bracco is the Editor-In-Chief, part owner and wearer of many hats for CheeseheadTV.com and PackersTalk.com. He is also a recovering Mason Crosby truther. Follow Al on twitter at @JerseyalGBP.