A nice win for you guys! A couple thoughts on it:
*Sheesh, as a football fan it's just tons of fun to Watch Lynch, Percy, and Wilson on the field together. Even as a 9ers fan I have to love it, just a ton of fun to watch these guys playing with each other.
*Loved a lot of the offensive playcalling, particularly adding the wrinkles to the read option.
*In one play we learned why neither Thomas or Sherman should be on special teams. Big mistakes by both of them on that play, and another near fatal mistake by Lane (?) on another one. Do the Hawks really not have anyone else who can return punts or cover the gunners?
*The Packers just aren't built to beat power teams. With the Patriots they're a holdover to the mid-2000s style of play. Really curious to see what the Saints end up looking like, as it seems like they may have been the only team in this mold to successfully transition into this new era of teams like the Hawks, Panthers, and 9ers -- definitely a move the Broncos seem to be trying to make this year too, although we'll see if that works).
*The Packers, on top of getting beat, really shot themselves in the foot tool. The Hawks had two scoring drives on which the Packers had gotten them off the field only to give up stupid penalties.
*Overall I thought the Packers' game plan on offense was a sound one, it just didn't work out at all. Running the hurry up both mitigates against the Hawks' use of D-line rotation, and I think CAN mitigate to some degree against the 12th man (in the hurry up all the yelling means the Hawks' defense has trouble communicating too, and in the first half it sounded like the crowd needed some recovery time on the Packers' long drive also :lol: ). I don't think the Pack are the last team that will try to do this while playing in the Clink, the downside of course being that if it doesn't work the game can get out of hand really quickly.
*So too with going after Maxwell, which I thought worked, save for a fluky INT off a tipped pass. As is Pete's way the Hawks just kept up lining it up straight, but I'm guessing the Packers were waiting for the Hawks to shade coverage before going to the other side of the field and trying their luck with Sherman (it just never happened).
*Lacy exposed himself as the overrated back that he is (too soft of a runner until he hits the second level, and is way, way too plodding to try to break off the play and bounce around the edge over and over again as he did. Marshawn is excellent at this; if the hole isn't their cut back and take the first lane behind the first line of the defense, don't try to get all the way outside and give the d time to recover.
*What % of Wilson's incompletes were throwaways? He has always been a smart player, but is getting even smarter. He still isn't stepping into the pocket and there might be less gigantic game breaking plays as a result, but by just throwing it away rather than spinning back again he'll also limit those deep back breaking sacks that happen with him sometimes. Overall what he was doing last night seems MUCH more in line with the Hawks strategy.
*Overall, it's a really good win over what is an incomplete but really good team. Definitely a win to be proud of.
