Acme Packing Company
I’m playing both sides, so that I always come out on top. Basically all season, and as recently as last week, I wrote that the Green Bay Packers need to lean harder into Jordan Love and a very efficient passing game if they’re going to be a threat in the NFC this year. And yet, there I was on Sunday and here I am today saying it was actually fine to just pop the football and go home.
The internet was ablaze, or as ablaze as it really can get in a game that never reached even modest discomfort in the second half, skewering Matt LaFleur’s playcalling in the second half yet again. It was a pretty typical script that we have become quite familiar with. Whether it was run, run, pass or run, run, run, or even in one case run, run, run, run, run, run, run, the Packers playcalling got about as conservative as it gets in the second half. And that was fine.
This game was over the moment Zayne Anderson recovered the muffed punt. The Packers’ win probability jumped up to 89%, per RBSDM’s model, and the nails were put in the coffin when the Packers punched in the touchdown a few moments later. The Vikings’ situation only deteriorated from there.
The entirety of the fourth quarter was garbage time, and frankly, from the moment the Vikings punted on the very next drive, the game was over.
This is because J.J. McCarthy royally stinks. As bad as you think McCarthy has been, he’s actually been worse. That terrible quarterback you have in your head right now… worse than him!
Eight hundred fifty-first out of eight hundred fifty-two.
Aside from McCarthy being the second worst quarterback the NFL has seen in the past quarter-century (while having a Hall of Fame-caliber wide receiver, mind you), the Packers’ own quarterback was operating at what was clearly less than 100%. It was reported before the game that Love sustained an AC joint sprain in his non-throwing shoulder when scrambling last week, and from the very first drive, you could see how it impacted the operation. It didn’t slow Love’s performance down, as he had perhaps the most ho-hum +0.32 EPA-per-dropback game you’ll see, but there was at least one time where he turned down the chance to scramble and pick up five-to-seven yards, instead just throwing it away to avoid contact.
Where it was most notable, however, was in the running game. To avoid any extra stress to the unstable shoulder, Love handed off pretty much exclusively with his right hand, regardless of which direction the play was run to.
And it’s not like this was breaking news to Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. Flores, who is already known for his blitz-rates, posted a cartoonish blitz rate on Love dropbacks on Sunday.
With Love banged up and a legitimate sicko on the other sideline and the game thoroughly in-hand — even moreso than the win probability model could properly calculate...
