This was not a fun game to watch. Losing is never fun, but this game just felt so boring. The Packers basically had a full compliment of defensive players and were shredded from the jump. The offense started off well with some short, rhythm throws, but once the Lions started crowding those lanes, yards were harder to come by. Between the holes in the defense and the stagnation of the offense, this game felt over long before the final whistle blew.

This is a feeling unfamiliar to Packers fans, but not one that is unfamiliar to a lot of other fanbases. I’ve been lucky to have seen the transition from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers. And, while not every season has been great, it’s hard to remember the last time the wind was taken out of my sails about a season so quickly. I fully admit that I am a spoiled Packers fan.

But writing this article over the past 5+ years has helped me look at the game in a different light. Losses are more than just being upset, and wins are more than celebration. I’ve learned to watch the game in a different manner than I have for the vast majority of my life. What did we see good in a loss? What did we see bad in a win? What worked? What didn’t? Who did I like? Who did I not like? It has been a fun exercise that has taught me more about the game than I thought it could.

It’s possible that Brett Hundley comes out of the gate against the Bears looking like a different quarterback. It’s possible that Mike McCarthy will cook up some different looks than we’re accustomed to seeing. It’s possible that Dom Capers will make some tweaks to his system and the defense will start playing lights out.

However, it’s also possible that we will see Hundley holding the ball too long, waiting for a long developing route to pop open. It’s possible that Capers will keep bringing out the same tired coverages and the defense will be torn to shreds by a veteran quarterback. If that happens, don’t lose heart. Find something you want to know and follow it. Blake Martinez is leading the team in tackles. How is he doing that? How does Kenny Clark look? Find a guy on every possession and watch them. Look at the pre-snap alignments and try to think what you would do in a similar situation. Does that linebacker look like he’s blitzing in the middle? Should that slot receiver run a slant against a zone look?

If the game is starting to turn, try not to concern yourself with the outcome. Watch what you want to watch. Find reasons to get excited about this team, because those reasons are definitely out there.

Let’s get to the film.

I wrote about the long pass that glanced off the hands of Davante Adams in One Big Play. You can read that here.

The Bad

The Lions had been doing anything and everything they wanted on offense up until this point. Then, on 1st down, they decided to get a little fancy and try a flea flicker. It didn’t work and the Packers sacked Matt Stafford [9] for a loss of 8. That’s great! That set up the Lions with a 2nd and 18 early in the 3rd quarter. Packers were down 14-3 at this point, but a stop here and some decent field position for the offense? Who knows what could happen?

But there was one thing the Packers didn’t anticipate: a short throw to Golden Tate [15]. How could they have possibly predicted that Tate – currently 3rd in the league in yards after the catch – would be a target?

I’m being sarcastic, of course, but the Lions dial up a great playcall against this defense. Damarious Randall [23] starts this play across from Tate in the slot to the left. He gets a little jam against him and looks like he’s going to follow him across the field. Instead, Randall passes Tate off to Blake Martinez [50] in the middle and drops back to the outside. This is meant as deception: if Stafford reads man-to-man coverage, he may have notions of throwing to that outside receiver, only to have Randall appear out of nowhere to undercut the route.

Instead, Tate gets room in the middle and Stafford has all day to sit back and wait for this to develop. Tate gets the pass and heads upfield. 21 yard gain on 2nd and 18.

There’s something else to look at here, and that’s the play by Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21] and Josh Jones [27]. Jones starts this play a little closer to the box, but he takes a couple steps back before the snap while Clinton-Dix takes a couple steps in, getting them fairly well aligned. While Tate is running a short crossing route from the slot, Eric Ebron [85] is running a post off the end of the line. That post holds both Clinton-Dix and Jones deep to allow Tate more room to operate underneath; Clinton-Dix drops over the route while Jones cuts underneath.

I can’t help but think there’s some miscommunication there. Jones can see the Tate route developing and has a good angle on it. Instead of attacking, he drops under Ebron, which takes him out of position to make a play on this. I don’t want to kill Jones on this – partially because he’s a rookie and partially because I don’t know the exact call – but I don’t see how spending two safeties on an Ebron post route does much good. I would have liked to have seen Jones hold his spot and read that Tate route. If there’s nothing there, he could still recover and take underneath coverage on Ebron. Even if he can’t, I’d rather have a match-up of Clinton-Dix on Ebron than Martinez on Tate.

I like Damarious Randall [23] and I don’t care who knows it. He has had his struggles, but he’s immensely talented and I believe he’s going to put it all together and be a star in this league.

But this? This is not great, and it’s not first time we’ve seen something like this from him.

He starts this play on the right, lined up over Marvin Jones [11] in the middle of the bunch route. Out of the bunch, T.J. Jones [13] runs an angle-post from the inside, Golden Tate [15] steps back for a WR screen and Marvin Jones runs a fade up the sideline. Randall plays this pretty well: he sticks on Jones’ hip off the line and follows him up the sideline step-for-step after a slight hesitation on the part of Jones. Randall is even looking back at Matt Stafford [9] as he releases the ball. The ball is released and Randall turns and runs with Jones. He knows the ball is coming – he watched Stafford release it – but he never turns his head.

The throw isn’t high. If Randall had turned his head, he would have had a good opportunity to at least knock this down. Instead, he never looks back and Stafford whistles it past his ear for a touchdown.

We’ve seen this kind of look from the Packers before; fake the jet sweep, then drop back to pass. I’ve expressed my love for this concept – and what can be run off of it – in the past. What I love about this is that is can get the player running the jet sweep in space, as they’re running under the formation at full speed. In this case, that player is the speedy and underutilized Trevor Davis [11].

But what I also love about this is the variations that can be run off of this. Get the defense following Davis and cheating in that direction, then hit them with a counter to the other side. It has serious big play potential, and could be a relatively simple throw.

On this play, the Packers are facing 3rd & 12. The action to the left side is fine: Davante Adams [17] is running a crossing route from left-to-right while Randall Cobb [18] starts in the backfield and runs a wheel route. All that action is meant to give Davis some space to work with. And it does, but it’s 3rd & 12 and the Lions are playing a safe zone. So, while he has room, he doesn’t have enough room and is easily tackled before crossing the sticks.

The Packers have a counter set up for this, but it’s a long-developing one and it’s botched. While Adams is running a crossing route from the left side, Richard Rodgers [82] is running a crossing route from the right side. That’s meant to create a natural pick for Adams, but something goes wrong. Based on the depth of the linebacker in the middle, I think Adams was supposed to run this route a yard or two deeper while Rodgers was supposed to stay on his path and bump that linebacker out of the way. Instead, they find themselves playing a game of chicken, both pulling up and outside at the same time and running into each other. Just like that, the counter to this was wiped out.

It looks like Brett Hundley [7] is looking at Davis the entire time, so the botched routes in the middle don’t really matter too much in this particular instance. But they’ll need to clean that up for future use. This is a really cool concept that I’ve seen them run at least 4 times this year. I think there is real potential in this concept, but they’re not quite nailing it yet.

I put this in The Bad because of the failing counter and Hundley locking onto Davis, but I really like this concept. The execution just isn’t where it needed to be this time.

This play takes place on 4th and 2. Once again, we have a player in motion from the right side. Given the way Don Carey [26] is following Randall Cobb [18] across the formation, this is man coverage. Since the motion is part of the play, Brett Hundley [7] doesn’t have long to diagnose that, but it’s something he should notice.

What does that mean? With it being 4th down, the safety playing close to the line and at least one defender in man coverage, it’s safe to assume the Lions are playing man coverage across the board. Since the Packers have two receivers to the left side of the formation and one receiver to the right, that means Cobb is running to the side with more defenders in the area. That’s more traffic to get through.

Furthermore, if you watch Glover Quin [27] from the safety position, you’ll see him tracking Cobb across the formation and starting towards the line before the ball is snapped. The Packers are absolutely telegraphing this play to the defense.

Which makes it a prime opportunity to run a counter to this. Get the defense moving to their right and throw back to their left. Ty Montgomery [88] is in the backfield, running in the flat to the offensive right. With all the defense moving left, faking a toss to Cobb and throwing back to Montgomery would have a better chance of success. You can’t always run a counter, but the Packers seem to do this kind of thing quite a bit: set up the defense to make it look like you’re running a certain play, then run that exact play. There’s no deception here. They get the defense moving in the exact direction the Packers shouldn’t want them moving, and they have done nothing to this point to suggest they’ll be running anything to the contrary.

There are things here that can be exploited. The Packers just aren’t exploiting them.

It’s also worth nothing that Lance Kendricks [84] absolutely whiffs on a block on the left side. It wouldn’t really have made a difference, but it’s still ugly.

This looks bad. We have a nice route by Jordy Nelson [87] out of the slot to the left: a little angle outside before a violent cut back to the inside. Nelson sheds his man, the safety is turned to the other side of the field. From this angle, it looks like Brett Hundley [7] is looking directly at him. The pocket is breaking down, but he is set up to throw and has enough time to get this throw off if he releases on-time. Instead, he gets spooked, tries to flee the pocket and gets sacked.

Let’s look from another angle.

Hundley never makes his way over to Nelson. After the playfake to Aaron Jones [33], he looks at the middle, drawing the safety away from the left. Instead of checking elsewhere – possibly to Nelson – he lingers too long in the middle, allowing the rush to hit home. I think he may be waiting for Lance Kendricks [84] to get free on the corner route, but Kendricks gets tied up in the middle, delaying his release. If that is what Hundley is looking at, he needs to see the delay and check to the next receiver. I’ve seen him go through reads quickly, but he needs to be more consistent about it.

The Good

I said something negative about Damarious Randall [23] above so now I will say something positive. I’m harsh but fair.

You can see Randall come in from the right side and take on the block of Darren Fells [87]. His initial push gets Fells moving backwards, forcing Ameer Abdullah [21] to take a wider path to the edge. Randall holds the block until Abdullah is getting ready to clear the block of Fells, disengages and makes a nice tackle in the backfield.

Randall had a rough start to the season – and, based on the earlier play we looked at, he’s not out of the woods just yet – but he has rebounded pretty well. One of the knocks on Randall is that he’s allergic to tackling. This is a great read and tremendous effort. It was good to see this out of him.

Kevin King [20] is lined up in zone at the bottom of the screen, over top of Marvin Jones [11]. He takes a step back, sees the quick flat route from Golden Tate [15] and jumps it. Matt Stafford [9] gets this ball out quickly to Tate’s outside shoulder so King isn’t able to get there. Even though he didn’t make this play, I like this read and reaction time from the rookie. I think he could be something special.

Speaking of Kevin King [20], let’s look at one more play from him before we move to the offensive side of the ball. He starts this play at the bottom, lined up over Marvin Jones [11]. Jones’ initial release is to the outside, so King turns inside to play under Jones and keep an eye on Matt Stafford [9]. Jones quickly runs a slant, creating space between him and King. Stafford throws to Jones just out of the break, yet King is able to get back, undercut Jones and make a nice play on the ball. Great recovery here.

Again, he could be special.

A Monday Night game means the film for that game is available later than normal. Combine that with an overall busy week for me and a not-terribly-exciting offensive game from the Packers, and I only have one offensive play to talk about here. I apologize. Sometimes events conspire against me. I’ll be posting more plays over on Twitter in the next day or so, so feel free to hit me up over there.

Randall Cobb [18] is running a crossing route from the right slot while Davante Adams [17] is running a crossing route from the left outside. Meanwhile, Ty Montgomery [88] waits a beat in the backfield before running a quick middle curl.

I believe that delayed curl is meant to draw up one of the linebackers to open a lane to Cobb or Adams in the middle. It doesn’t, but that doesn’t matter to Brett Hundley [7].

Hundley looks left before coming to the middle. That draws Tahir Whitehead [59] to a wide drop to that side, under the route of Adams. The hesitation by Whitehead, combined with Quandre Diggs [28] dropping under the dig route from Jordy Nelson [87] on the right opens up a sliver of space for Hundley to fit this ball.

He throws to Cobb’s back shoulder – away from Whitehead – but Cobb is able to catch it in stride, get past Whitehead and pick up 46 yards on the play. Good read by Hundley and a terrific throw.

Let’s look at it from another angle.

You can see Hundley go through his reads here and deliver a strike to Cobb. This is a good, decisive, confident throw. If the Packers want to have any chance at the playoffs, they’re going to need more of this out of him.

Random Thoughts

I am officially a published horror author! A short story I wrote was included in an anthology. It’s called Dreams of Desolation – spoooooooky – and you can buy a paperback copy on Amazon for less than $4. My story is probably perfectly fine, but the others in the collection are all terrific. Check it out and let me know what you think!

It’s pretty tough to win when the opposing quarterback is putting up numbers like this. Matt Stafford had a QB Rating of 100+ in every single quarter, and was very close to perfect when throwing deep (15+ yards down the field). He was 5/7 for 98 yards and a touchdown when throwing deep.

Brett Hundley and the offense need to perform better, but it’s hard to win a game when the defense is allowing numbers like these.

Unlike last week, Hundley actually completed a deep pass this week. He was only 1/5 (his lone completion going to Lance Kendricks), but 1/5 is better than 0/5. Progress!

Albums listened to: Fever Ray – Plunge; Jake Bellows – Help; Soundtrack – Stranger Things 2; Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson; John Carpenter – Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998; Future & Young Thug – Super Slimey