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elaine95  
#1 Posted : Wednesday, September 18, 2019 7:40:56 AM(UTC)
elaine95

Rank: Advanced Member

Groups: Registered
Joined: 5/28/2018(UTC)
Posts: 1,052
American Samoa

Mason Crosby had an extra day to think about what he’d done. An all-time ignominious performance against the Lions with five missed kicks and the dreaded talk of the yips. Maybe the extra day gave him time to get right because when the Packers needed him to pull a victory out of the proverbial jaws of defeat White Ty Summers Jersey , Crosby came through. In the post-game interview, Green Bay’s veteran kicker could barely find the words, admitting to being “broken up” about hitting the game winner in the Packers’ 33-30 come-from-behind win. With 1:07 left, the game tied at 30. Aaron Rodgers said he was thinking overtime but Ty Montgomery broke off a 14-yard run to get things going. A Richard Sherman illegal contact penalty extended the drive and Aaron Rodgers made San Francisco pay. After coming up lame a few plays before, Rodgers scampered for 21 yards for a huge momentum-building chunk play. Davante Adams caught a little out route to the sideline for nine yards to inch the Packers closer. Adams finished with a monster 10 catch night for 132 yards and the game-tying touchdown on a beautiful double move. The play of the night may have been what followed. Needing to get a little closer for Crosby, Rodgers hit rookie Equanimious St. Brown on his only target of the night on a corner route for 19 yards in which EQ had to contort his body and get two feet down along the sideline. The next 19 yarder to Adams was just gravy and Crosby won the game from there. “We had faith in Mason from anywhere tonight,” Rodgers said after the game and it showed. Crosby went 4-4 including the game-winner and unlike last week, made all three of his PATs.Heroics were needed because after a quick start, the offense bogged down and the defense couldn’t get a stop until late. In the first half Monday, the Packers forced two turnovers, Aaron Jones averaged over seven yards a carry, Aaron Rodgers was rolling Davante Adams Jersey , Mason Crosby made kicks, and yet Green Bay trailed the hapless 49ers led by CJ Beathard. For the third time this season, the Packers allowed a first-drive score on a seven-play 75-yard march featuring bad pursuit, coverage busts, assignment issues and bad tackling But the Packers offense looked up the task early, as McCarthy deployed personnel creatively and killed the 49ers defense with play action. On the first possession, a 60-yarder to Marqueze Valdes-Scantling, who also had a 100-yard game, was a harbinger of things to come for this passing game as Rodgers finished 25/46 for 425 yards, two touchdowns and a 100.4 rating. Jimmy Graham finally appears to have a place in this offense after his own 100-yard game including big plays and key catches. Green Bay scored its first opening-drive touchdown of the season but couldn’t keep the 49ers offense at bay and took a 24-20 deficit into halftime. For the steps forward the offense did take, the Packers finished 0-5 on third down in the first half, a bug-a-boo so far this season. But Green Bay has been the master of halftime adjustments andmade them on both sides of the ball. Rodgers Ray Nitschke Jersey White , having scored on every first drive of the second half this season, mixed run and pass well en route to a field goal from Mason Crosby to make it a one-point game. Another third-and-long stymied the drive. An embarrassing missed tackle by Clay Matthews lead to a 49ers retaliatory field to push the lead back to 27-23. It wasn’t until under six minutes in the third quarter the Packers finally converted a third down, but the drive ended in a punt and the 49ers once again deployed Robbie Gould to make it a 30-23 game. A terrific chance to tie the game went begging when the Packers couldn’t convert on fourth-and-short near the goal line. Rodgers appeared to want MVS to run his route flatter as opposed to the corner and Green Bay turned it over on downs. It was the defense’s turn to step up. From there they forced two straight three-and-outs to give the ball back to the Packers with 2:59 left in the game. Rodgers needed just four plays to go 58 yards thanks to a beautiful deep cross to Adams for 38 yards. On third-and-six from the 49ers 16, with Rodgers just 2/8 passing in the red zone to that point, the two-time MVP threaded a needle into the back of the end zone for and the game-tying touchdown. Needing a stop to either give the ball back or force overtime, the Packers defense held. Facing a zero blitz with no safety in the middle of the field, Beathard heaved one down the field with Kevin King in coverage. King turned just in time to see the ball float into his arms to give the Packers the ball with that 1:07 left. That was all Rodgers needed to give Crosby a chance. For anyone who will say Crosby didn’t deserve a chance after what happened in the Motor City, old No. 2 proved them wrong. The man with some of the biggest kicks in modern Packers history was a hero once again Monday night. It must have been the extra day. Much remains unclear about the 2018 Green Bay Packers.At 3-4-1, the Packers rank third in their own division standings but could still find a way to sneak into the playoffs over their final eight regular-season games. Their offense could still become a dynamo given the top-shelf talent on the roster but it has yet to translate in the red zone. The new defense called by Mike Pettine has made strides since the bye week but must now accommodate for the lack of adequate (or even healthy) safeties.But regardless of how the rest of 2018 unfolds, Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the New England Patriots will mark the unofficial end of the Mike McCarthy era in Green Bay.McCarthy has faced the Patriots three times as a head coach, each serving as a measuring stick for his teams in that given moment. The first, an Aaron Rodgers-less matchup with the eventual No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs Aaron Rodgers Jersey White , showcased the depth of the Packers’ roster and previewed their eventual Super Bowl run later that season. The second, arguably McCarthy’s finest coaching performance, turned on Green Bay’s expert use of wideout Randall Cobb in the backfield, a tactic borrowed by numerous NFL teams since.Conversely, Sunday’s game in Foxborough underscored just how far the Packers have fallen behind their competition. While McCarthy followed a relatively straightforward game plan, the Patriots unleashed multiple trick plays and packages specifically designed to exploit their opponent’s deficiencies. Green Bay’s defense had no answer for the lightspeed no-huddle offense Tom Brady led on the opening drive, nor did the unit have any idea what to do on the James White-Julian Edelman flea flicker that set the Patriots up 2 yards away from the goal line. The difference in coaching represented the biggest (and perhaps only) meaningful difference between the two teams, an indictment of McCarthy and the staff he has assembled.McCarthy has come under fire at multiple points during his Packers tenure and has always found a way to extinguish the torches outside 1265 Lombardi Ave. His record as head coach -- 124-74-2 -- puts him in rare company, as does his status as a Super Bowl champion. He has produced some of the greatest offenses the NFL has ever seen, and his teams have performed more consistently than all but a few across the league during his time as a headman.However, McCarthy’s once-golden touch hasn’t manifested in 2018, nor did it a year ago when Aaron Rodgers missed most of the season with a fractured collarbone. Looking back further Womens Ray Nitschke Jersey , McCarthy’s last two playoff squads also underperformed offensively relative to their talent, a sign that a bigger drop-off approached. At a time when more NFL teams have adopted concepts from the college game, the Packers look stagnant, lifted only when their future Hall of Fame quarterback goes supernova. While that recipe could still yield another playoff berth if the Packers get enough breaks, it doesn’t portend well for their title hopes.Green Bay’s management hasn’t made a public statement suggesting a hot seat for McCarthy, but their actions belie their words. Team president Mark Murphy restructured the organization this past offseason in order to give himself the power to hire and fire the head coach. At the same time, Murphy demoted longtime general manager Ted Thompson in order to install Brian Gutekunst, a move further reducing McCarthy’s ties to the front office. Sunday morning’s report that the Cleveland Browns -- a team led by a cavalcade of former Packers scouts -- see McCarthy as a possible replacement for deposed head coach Hue Jackson further reinforces the idea that Green Bay will make a change this offseason.And while the Packers won’t formalize that decision until after their final game, the move became unavoidable in November.
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