Cheers, PE optimist! All those previous clueless assessments of MVS can't do this, and can't do that, isn't a #2 receiver, can't play in the slot or short pass, etc. Mostly was based on limited number of reps and that he was needed in specific role to stretch vertical relative to the other diverse WR capabilities. And good on you for mentioning that he has progressed from a somewhat raw rookie and became more complete last year. Time for fans to reframe their opinions more in line with what the experts (coaches) see.

I’m on the other side of MVS. Yes, he had a great game against Baltimore, but they are far and too few between. He lacks consistency, which is shown in his career around 50% catch rate. In fact, his catch rate percentage is within 2 % points from his rookie year until now. So, in that area, he has shown no improvement. That is below average and doesn’t cut it as a number 2 WR’s in the NFL. 4 games ago he had 4 out of 10 attempts and 3 games ago he had 4 out of 9 attempts. That is normal for him, last game is more of the exception. In the first game against New Orleans it was worse yet around 37%. He just can’t be counted on to make the catch when needed. I’ll take a pass to Lazards over MVS in a clutch situation.

Of course we can use the excuse that a lot of his catch attempts are 20+ yards downfield. There is some validity to that argument, but he also has Arod throwing to him. To debate that argument I’ll provide a comparison. Now compare him to Jordy Nelson, who also had a lot of 20+ throws downfield from Arod. Jordy’s rookie year was at 61% and averaged throughout around 66%. If you remember many were complaining early in his career that he dropped a lot of passes.

My take,,,,, he is more of a “one trick pony”, then anything else and over 4 years hasn’t shown to be much more. The reality is we need someone as our Number 2 or 3 WR to catch more than 50% thrown his way. If the last couple of games becomes his norm vs the exception then I will agree he has greatly improved.

Agree on all points, Al. Great stuff. I have been frustrated by Gary too. Not being a basher. I just want to see him maul some QBs, and he’s simply not getting home. I think Gary should be destroying opponents, rather than just affecting their timing.

MVS has developed into a great receiver this season. We’ll see more moving forward here.

Merry Christmas!

" Gary continues to overrun the QB when he takes an edge rush approach. He's more effective using power moves, which we didn't see a lot of this game."

THIS was exactly where the Packers missed Kenny Clark most. Huntley was able to step up and out to either run or pass the ball while Gary and the others overran him. With Clark in the game the Center/Guard is usually shoved back a few yards and the QB has nowhere to go.

One other thing...What I didn't understand at all was the Joe Barry having the Packers CB's playing so far off. WHAT in the hell were they so afraid of in this Ravens passing attack? Other than Hollywood Brown and obviously Andrews, there wasn't anyone on that Ravens offense to especially fear. WHY were Douglass and Stokes lined up so deep? Douglass has been great and Stokes has been pretty impressive too.

Stokes doesn't need to play back because of his makeup speed. Once Alexander gets back (crossing fingers), the Packers will have two CB's with enough speed to play much closer to the LOS. IF Alexander comes back and I think he is, and IF the Packers can figure out HOW to defend elite TE's, THIS defense is made to play with ANYONE. Yes Al, even the Bucs.

The Packers biggest concern for homefield is now the Cowboys, at least for this week maybe longer. The Cowboys have a better conference record at this time anyways so the Packers must keep winning. My hope is the Packers win the next two and actually destroy and demoralize the Vikings in the process while the Cowboys drop one more to an NFC team. That way if the Packers wanted to give a guy with a broken toe a little more rest week 18, maybe enough where he could actually start practicing again and hit those wide open passes to Adams and Lazard.

"Pretty Pooch - If I'm an opposing special teams coach, I think I consider pooch kicks to the Packers all game. Make them handle the ball and make good decisions - two things they are struggling with." I agree Al, in fact, I think some teams have been doing that already.

"Gary continues to overrun the QB when he takes an edge rush approach. He's more effective using power moves, which we didn't see a lot of this game." It looked to me that both of our OLB's did not do a great job setting the edge but just rushed their quarterback as strongly as they could. I believe this was a coaching error. It would have made a huge difference in the game if we had Clark on the field and the OLB's set the edge properly.

Great job as usual Al.

Good summary of points, Al. Thanks to all CHTV writers. Love the site and appreciate all the content and different angles. Good stuff when I'm sippin coffee.

We always have to keep in mind in the 'what-ifs' such as if Harbaugh wasn't over-agreesive, we might have lost. True, but what if GB had not attempted 4th down conversion and punted, or what if GB had.....blah, blah.....? In the end, we have to conclude from the evidence of the score, even on the narrowest of wins, that the team calculated correctly all the odds and vagaries of chance and skill. Just bein philosophical....or maybe just trying to extend my coffee break.

I too agree with nearly all your points Al, although I don’t believe we were lucky to win. We had a two TD lead and they were lucky to keep it close.
The Bucs are definitely the most scary matchup for us, even with their current list of injuries.
It’s also clear that teams are making our kick returners field the ball; and why wouldn’t they!
Mason can’t seem to kick it out of the endzone anymore. If he could, he would.
Merry Christmas y’all !!!

Yeah, Savage had nothing to do with preventing that two-point conversion. Huntley was off target throughout the second half, which made it all the more frustrating that the pass rushers failed to contain him. The defense has been leaky for a few weeks now. They need to tighten it up, and they also need to get better at forcing turnovers.

Unfortunately I agree with your take on Packers vs. Buccaneers in a playoff matchup.

If the Packers have an award for defensive MVP, I think Kenny Clark clinched it in this game. His absence was much more noticeable than the absence of Jaire Alexander or Zadarius Smith has been.

I would add one point Al. Kudos to Stenavich and his O-line who did an excellent job against a pretty good Ravens front seven. They kept Rodgers reasonably clean and with a good pocket to throw from and opened enough holes for the run game to be a legitimate threat. All this was accomplished with one starter (Patrick, playing a different position) and four reserves. Impressive to say the least.

Gary seems different after the arm injury. Maybe he just needs a little more time. The Pack won despite the defense having a bad game and STs mistakes........................again. Looks like key starters will sit until it really matters (playoffs). Good teams find a way to win. Not defending the middle of the field almost cost the Packers a win.

Core traits -
Resiliency is a great trait to have if you are a team looking to win the whole thing. Being able to not be affected by what is happening and find different ways to win is a great trait to have.

Thanks John -
I don't want to say we can thank John for it. But I will say we probably lucked out on that final play. Huntley was really good all game. Clearly that last play was designed to go to Andrews. But what seperates the good QB's from the Great ones are the ability to see what is happening on the play and if it breaks down, see what else could happen on it. The WR was running wide open in the middle of the endzone.

Pretty Pooch -
That was a hell of a kick. I don't get why teams don't do those things more often to begin with.

Big Dawg -
After his big play to get them to a first and goal, I was waiting for one of the next 2 plays to be something designed for him. Unfortunately it didn't happen.

Double Shadow -
Have to wonder how many other teams are going to take the same approach. And if they do we are really going to need other WR's to step up. MVS did that. Lazard did that. We will need more guys still though.

Stop the Spin Cycle -
The edge players in general didn't play very well. Part of that I think goes back to not having Clark pushing the middle. We have seen them play better against mobile QB's, so I'm not to concerned. But they need to do a better job.

Rematch -
I like the matchup better this time to be honest. Honestly I liked the matchup last year. We honestly just didn't capitalize on what the Bucs and Brady gave us. I am feeling better about this year especially if we would get Bakhtiari, Alexander, Turner all back. Maybe Myers, and Z too.

MVS -
We know MVS has the deep play ability. But him working underneath is very dangerous for defenses. Hopefully he doesn't have to miss a game, because I would love to see him follow up what he just did.

Sack of frustration -
This game you could really see how much this missed Clark. There wasn't the normal push up the middle, forcing the QB to step up.

2-point conversion try -
I agree about Stokes being the one who created the play more then Savage. Stokes was very physical with the much bigger TE. Honestly it was a great play by Stokes.

I remain firmly of the opinion that Barry just got his assessment of Huntley wrong. The whole approach to that game seemed to be premised on Huntley not being able to hit targets and so let him try to run and throw on the move. In fact, Huntley proved more elusive and to be more effective with his arm when outside the pocket unless throwing straight up the middle to Andrews.

I kept waiting for Barry to adapt to Andrews who was single covered and by a safety till late while the two perimeter guys were largely shut down and it was clear Huntley wasn’t going deep. Then the change was to a single CB. I kept expecting us to stop trying to flush Huntley and just hold him in pocket, but if anything it went the other way.

Campbell seemed to be used to prevent middle runs but Huntley showed that his tendency is to leave the pocket laterally. Campbell was typically caught up at that point, Savage was on Andrews, the outside corners had their man … no speed available to chase down Huntley initially.

There was limited film on Huntley. He was better than in what I’ve seen of him too. A wrong initial assessment is at least understandable, but I am concerned that Barry didn’t seem to learn from what happened during the game.

For me, credit to Huntley (he showed good awareness as well as mobility and at least decent accuracy on short to mid zone passes), but I do feel we facilitated him and provided future opponents with a guide to how not to defend him.

I do feel that Clark being absent was a major factor. We see how much his penetration is missed, collapsing the pocket. We see how much the attention he draws helps other players get into the backfield. Our best two without him were Lancaster and Keke, but Keke is weak against the run. Lowry was just plain bad against run and pass without Clark, heck, even the PSer Abdullah out played him. I’d really like to see less Lowry snaps after that. I think Keke and Slaton would do more in Clark’s tow than he has.

Great points Al.

I also think that Savage tipped the ball closer to Andrews. However, I get why people give him credit. When the ball is tipped, it gets moved from its trajectory, thus throwing off the receiver's catch attempt. If Andrews had in fact managed to catch it, Savage would have caught a whole lot of flak more for moving it closer to the receiver! That, in essence, is the nature of the game. It is not what you do, but the outcome of what you do that frequently gives you accolades or brickbats!

Beating an injury depleted Ravens team by 1 point does not show we are prepared for the playoffs. If we don't get back some of our injured players, it's hard to see us making it to the SB - unless we can stop making really stupid mental ST errors and the MLF/AR learn to stop wasting timeouts and to use the run when you are supposed to.

You write "The other is never letting us enjoy a comfortable win." I think this is an understated problem with MLF/AR.
I'm reminded of the Bears winning the SB in 86 with Jim McMahon being the star instead of Walter Payton. I don't recall the exact quote but Payton made some sort of comment about being overshadowed.

Considering that some of the Ravens' CBs had as many regular season NFL snaps as I did, I guess the only think I'm shocked by is that Adams and MVS didn't take it to the house all game long. So good on those guys. You gotta move two shadows with Davante? OK. I get it.

I agree that MVS is not a one-trick pony and hasn't been since the beginning of this season. Yes, he had one good game at the end of last season, but one game was not enough to sell me. With two guys shadowing Davante he had his second-best game of the season for 98 yards. His outing against the Vikings was more impressive to me in a lot of ways.

When you stack him up against the other WRs that will be available this off-season, where does MVS rank?

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/wide-receiver/

Because saying he is not a one-trick pony now is the easy take at this point. The hard take is saying what he IS. Can he be a #1? Is he a legit #2?

Good article and some great comments! One complaint that I have about Matt and the coaches is that I think that as the practices keep getting shorter and shorter, less time is spent on ST practice. Muscle memory is a real thing and just coaching “above the neck” is not enough for the players on special teams. When you have players coming in and out of the lineup you have to have repetitive plays in practice. You just can’t just insert a player and tell them what to do. You have to practice it over and over. We all noticed when key starters are out but may miss how many ST players have missed practice because they are starting in place of another or have also been injured.

MVS missed some games this year so his stat totals look worse than they reallly are. He has some issues but he always seems to be giving 100% and is a willing, and effective, blocker. I would be happy if we can cheaply keep him going forward.

Harbaugh overplayed his hand with Huntley and Andrews on the 2 point conversion. Everyone knew that Huntley was either going to try to run it in or that he was going to throw to Andrews. The giveaway was the rollout. The Packers defense played it well and made the play. Even a more accurate throw would have been contested. Harbaugh should have gone for the one point and tried to force over time. The flip side is that Harbaugh is well aware of what Rodgers can do with about 40 seconds on the clock and one time out to move downfield for the game winning FG.

Given the Packers reaction I think that we are going to see more pooch kicks all the way through the playoffs.

Lewis nearly had the TD. He will have a few more shots before the end of the season.

Spin Cycle - I can only think that the Packers saw something on film that made them think the Ravens OL was vulnerable to spin moves because it made no sense for the Packers to do it on every play.

Rematch - maybe! The Saints showed the blueprint for stopping the Bucs. The question is can other defenses execute as well as the Saints. One thing for certain Brady has never been able to successfully throw on the run.

MVS has improved his route running over the course of this season. He still reverts to body catches which is poor technique but he is solidifying himself as a threat that the defense needs to account for.

The Browns game could be a problem. They need every game to reach the playoffs while the Packers are coming off a division clinching win in a tight ball game.
We can't afford a letdown if we want to earn the #1 seed. GPG! Thanks, Since '61

First, "I'm not Raven about this game"? Seriously? Please, Al; nevermore. Second thought is seeing the Bucs in the championship game scares me to death. Especially with the patched together OL, and the ST's being a huge liability.

Al, A+. Nothing else to add...

You think it's all pun and games? You broke the site.

I was NOT in the MVS camp. In fact last year it was easy to justify why A.R. was not trusting. This year I think we are witnessing a maturity in MVS and his talent may be rising to the surface. His amazing speed and (this year's) sticky fingers when thrown the ball is exciting to watch.

On the Raven's 2pt conversion;
No matter how you cut it, It was the Ravens that blew the play and Huntley that missed the throw. Our defense got very lucky. But like so many others said and keep saying, "We'll Take It."

Go Pack...
The Division is NOT enough !

"The other is never letting us enjoy a comfortable win."

Oh so true. Lmao but it hurts to.