Yeah, we sure did. And it sucks.
But, I'm still seeing some rays of hope, and I would remind everyone that we're 2-1 at this point, with lots and lots of football yet to play.
- Aaron looks solid. Not spectacular, but by golly the kid isn't going to lose a game for us. I'm sure that has a fair bit to do w/ MM being in his face near-constantly, reminding him that turnovers won't be tolerated, but I'm really impressed so far w/ his smarts. We're not going to get some of those patented Favre miracle plays, but we're also not going to see a bunch of pull-your-hair-out turnovers. For now, I'm happy with what he's done. I forget who the talking head was, but he said something to the effect of "if an 80+ rating is your let-down, you can't feel too badly for the future" -- I'd agree with that.
- We stopped TO cold, and held Witten down to a tolerable level. We didn't handle that massive Cows OL well, but I really didn't expect that we would -- I knew Sanders wouldn't risk blitzing as much as we would have had to in order to rattle Romo. ChuckWood was brilliant, IMO.
- We gave up 3 big plays, and we let Barber run all over us. I know you can't 'take away' those 3 plays, but it's not like they were up and down the field all game long, and if one doesn't figure those 3 plays into the equation, we played with them all game long.
As it stands, we played right along with what looks to me like the best team in the NFL for well over half the game, with a patchwork OL and w/out some crucial pieces of our secondary. That ain't bad.
Now, don't get me wrong -- there was a lot not to like in this game, as well.
- The OL really disappointed me -- I somewhat expected we'd have some trouble running, but I expected far better pass protection. Unlike lots of folks, I don't see it as my duty to second-guess the GM at every turn, but to this point OL and how to deal with it sure seems to be his achiles heel. I hope they get this fixed to some degree, somehow.
- As mentioned above, Sanders' refusal to really commit to getting pressure on Romo bothered me -- whatever happened to "we know we could give up a few big plays, but getting to Romo is key"? We didn't get to Romo, and we still gave up some big plays. Bah. Use the speed on this defense, dammit!
- Dropsies, dropsies. Jordy Nelson dropped more than one pass he should have caught. Could Aaron have kept them a little lower? Sure he could, but the rule is that if it hits your hands, you better damn well catch it. No QB puts the ball in the perfect stop every time, that's why these folks are supposed to be professional football-catchers.
- Having Ruvel out and then losing JJ so early really hurt our offense, IMO. No Big 5, and after JJ went out, not even a 4-wide option -- made us way too vanilla and easy to defend.
I could go on, but y'all have fairly covered it already. Still, 3 games into the season we're 2-1 and that's including what could prove to be our toughest matchup this year. There are all sorts of folks who were predicting (and, in some cases, hoping for) an 0-3 record. We're on top of the NFC North w/ 2 divisional wins in our pocket -- and I do know that it's not turning out to be the toughest division in the league, but that sort of thing is for apologists and windbags to dwell on. If we win this division we're in the playoffs, regardless of how strong or weak a division it is.
I'm disappointed in the loss -- I don't like it when the Packers lose, period. But I didn't see much to make me re-assess my opinion that this is a good team that has potential to be great.
Bring on the Bucs -- go Pack!!