T7Steve: I think I am more in the author's camp than yours on Walker. Walker is a wonderful athlete who seems to have few instincts for the game. His inability to diagnose plays often sends him to the wrong hole or be in the wrong spot on a passing play. Maybe he will get better with time, but I haven't seen much of a learning curve to date.

The truth sometimes is harsh. I thought Wilson was a play maker while Walker is a play reactor. Walker should be asked to earn his job back.

I didn’t get to see the game as it wasn’t carried by CBS in SW Ohio(🤬). From what I read, I sense that Eric Wilson is a better combination with McDuffie than Walker is. Anyone else think this is accurate?

Walker is the leading tackler on the D, by far...and if healthy, you don't bench that production.

I do believe Quay should be receiving pre snap directions, not making them. "Mike" is not the role for him.

Hafley's mantra is to simplify the game plan and play FAST. He needs to simplify the game a lot more for Walker.

Give the green dot to Cooper, even Wilson permanently. Let Walker play Will or even Sam. Use his tremendous athletic talent in more pressure packages. More thumping, less thinking.

I think #7 can be used effectively but this team has not yet learned how to do that. I think they played better without him, in this game.

You guys hold such high praise for Gute's draft picks.- WTF-
Nobody goes sideline to sideline, better than Walker.
We don't have #66 on this team.
What we have had, is a lot of flash in the pans.
Even one AJ HAWK moving from OLB to ILB.
I prefer to keep Quay Walker. So just stop.
He's better than AJ HAWK was.
And he leads the team in tackles.
Guess you prefer Blake Martinez again.

I am a Evan Williams fan. Just love the way he plays. Gute had another great draft with the improvements he made on defense.

However, I am not sold on Nixon playing defense. He is a liability. More bad happens when he is playing defense than good. I like his kickoff work but defense? Not so much!

Bisaccia has been a disappointment. He is over-rated and over-paid as one of the richest ST coordinators in the league.

Carlson was his draft pick...Gutey would not have made it without his lobbying and insistence.

Since Crosby, who he inherited, the K replacements were well known to Rich, and they all failed.

The ST penalties and bone headed decisions point to ineffective coaching...they always do.

How is it the LS Orzech remains a Packer? Are LS in short supply now? This would be a far different comment section today had Whelan not saved the game by calmly gathering Orzech's terrible snap and placed just before McManus follow through!

Rich is also Associate HC...I don't know what those duties are...but I hope he performs them better than his ST job.

Amen, brother.

I always watch the ST snaps and Orzech’s are consistently wild.

Time for some roster churn. Orzech should be gone by now.

I agree with you. To receive or defer is vastly overrated. And I do not believe Matt has a penchant for winning the toss and taking the ball. He has deferred often.

However, to start the game...put your best unit on the field. For the Packers this remains Offense...for now.

Too often Matt would put Barry Ball on the field first and watch them get dragged down the field and too often kick a FG or score a TD, putting the Team in a hole before the O took a snap.

Soon, perhaps this season, the Packers will have a dominant D and deferring becomes even more moot. But for now, start the game with Love and Co, if possible.

I am diametrically opposed to receiving the opening KO; unless it’s a “bad” weather game. The opportunity to stack scores before and after halftime is a substantial opportunity to overwhelm the opponent.

Take away the 27 yd scamper by Jacobs and you have a team that was not running the ball well. Yes, a bit more playaction, but passing the ball was the better game plan especially with Texan's depleted backfield. We will eventually get more consistent play from or line and passing from our QB.

After the fact, it's easy to criticize LaFleur for running those jet sweeps, because they didn't work, but those plays have been a big part of the Packers offense all season, and they've been very successful with them. Three in one game is probably less than usual. I give the Texans a ton of credit for shutting those plays down.

It was a somewhat disjointed offensive effort overall though, which was eventually redeemed by the game-winning drive at the end. The Texans, even with a bunch of players missing, were a tough out.

"Statistically the running backs had 17 carries, the WRs had three carries and Love threw the ball 34 times. That is an imbalance of 37% run and 63% pass in a close game where the Packers often led. LaFleur needs to go back to his drawing board after this one."

My sister-in-law pointed that out in real time. What in the actual F is he NOT SEEING?

Get it together, Matt LaFleur. Yeah, YOU!!! Do you want to lead this team -to- a Super Bowl, or do you want to lead your team to -winning- a Super Bowl?

C'mon. Get it together. The HC has to bring his best if he is to lead properly. Especially if the goal is to win it all.

Our RBs only had 17 carries vs. MIN!!!! WTF??? C'mon. Quit F-ing around. It was a game Love clearly was not ready to play, and you allowed him 54 passing attempts???? To just 17 rushing attempts??? That's idiotic.

The three turnovers completely cloud the game plan's post game analysis.

Had they not happened, I believe Matt would have had more balance in run vs pass. The Texans have a very good Dline...but even LaFleur wants closer to a 50/50 balance. 12 attempts for Jacobs is too few. Eventually he will gash you. He creates big runs with vision and balance and power. And with real estate in front he can motor!

I really enjoyed this game. You're right it was a poor game plan. That's because of in game adjustments! It was a chess match. Hafley was owning the passing game, so Houston went to heavy runs. After the half, the defense made adjustments and it shut Houston down. Similarly, Houston D was making adjustments as well on Green Bay. We were going up against a very stout run defense and the only way to loosen it is to pass, screen, jet sweep and play action.

The ebb and flow of both sides could be seen in the lead changes. 7 lead changes is not a game that you can say follows any game plan in my opinion.

LOL! Double LOL!!

Honestly, which was worse, the picture of that miniscule dick or the crocs in bed? I guess it makes sense in retrospect that he chose #4.

Two things…

Last season, I thought Kraft was the more complete TE than Musgrave. Musgrave is useful but Kraft continues to outperform him.

Second, Whelan earned a game ball yesterday. So did McManus.

I am not laughing! Whelan should have received the game ball (I heard Matt gave it to the entire Defense, also deserved).

The kick happened in front of me and I could see the sloppy LS from Orzech. How Whelan so calmly gathered in the wayward snap is one thing. How he was able to place the ball immediately before McManus followed through was simply amazing.

That was the game winning play. What would comments be today had Whelan been unable to secure Orzech's wobbler?

Harry, I still have Athlon's 2023 NFL Draft Guide. Tucker Kraft was ranked #18 Overall in their Top 100 Prospects listing. Ahead of TE Darnell Washington at #19, ahead of DE Lukas Van Ness at #20, and ahead of TE Luke Musgrave, ranked #23 Overall...

Gutekunst STOLE Tucker Kraft at #78 in R3 that year.

It is nice to see Tucker Kraft's development with the Packers, especially his progression this season.

*Other notable steals for the Packers from Athlon's Top 100 Prospects listing in 2023:
CB Carrington Valentine #71 (taken by Gutekunst with Pick #232 in R7)
DE/DT Colby Wooden #81 (taken by Gutekunst with Pick #116 in R4)

** The Sporting News Top 125 Prospects steals:
#26 DE Lucas Van Ness (swiped off the board by Gutekunst at #13)
#61 TE Luke Musgrave (taken with pick #42 in R2)
#71 DT Karl Brooks (taken with Pick #179 in R6)
#99 DT Colby Wooden (taken with Pick #116 in R4)
#100 TE Tucker Kraft (taken with Pick #78 in R3)
#119 WR Jayden Reed (swiped off the board by Gutekunst with Pick #50 in R2)

*** Daniel Jeremiah had LVN ranked #14 Overall, if anyone was wondering. He also had Musgrave #38 Overall. Jayden Reed #81 Overall... Tucker Kraft #56 Overall... Dontayvion Wicks (to GB at #159) #145 Overall... Carrington Valentine #137 Overall...

Also, Harry, to your other point, I'll never forget Holmgren purposefully using P Craig Hentrich as a weapon to flip the field position to help us win Super Bowl XXXI. Holmgren was masterful with that, and Hentrich always delivered. Good on you for seeing the same with Whelan. I saw that snap high and wide right too, and Whelan helped bring home that win as much as McManus did to close the game on McManus' 1st FG for the Packers. HUGE win.

They have a new coach.
Also a key OL went down.
Difference?
Try the OL.

Absolutely—a catch as that by a TE is unreal.

I'm not following your reasoning here. You seem to be magically making one of the Packers' timeouts disappear while leaving LESS time on the clock. It doesn't add up.

For the record, I thought they should have used a timeout before the two-minute warning, but maybe they had their reasons for not doing so. I'm not convinced it was a blunder. After all, they did get into a position for a game-winning field goal on the last play of the game, although I would have preferred the attempt to be about 10 yards shorter. Part of it was they burned about 20 seconds while Love checked out of a play because he didn't like the look of the defense. It was probably time well spent. Better safe than sorry.

Also, look at clock mismanagement after 1:44 left.. I'm frankly amazed that didn't cost us the game.

I didn't understand that either. Kickoffs that went out of bounds used to come out to the 40, which was a fitting penalty. The NFL supposedly wants to encourage more kick returns, but now they are rewarding kickers for kicking the ball out of bounds.

I googled this for about 15 minutes and could not get a consensus. The new rules state a ball that lands in the landing zone and goes into the endzone comes out to the 25. A kick in the endzone comes out to the 30, and everywhere I looked, it said a kickoff OB comes out to the 40.

So my only thought based on two words Romo said was that it was a "Free Kick". Because of the 15 yard Unsportsman penalty, the 15 yards does nothing to penalize the team, but a kick OB, and ball at the 25 instead of the 30 or 40 does. I really don't know, maybe a rules expert can clarify this?

How soon they forget the Drayton special teams...

The long snapper needs to run fast enough to be helpful in punt coverage. Starting NFL centers are too bulky for that. Long snappers are much lighter, like around 250 pounds.

There’s the issue of practice: the regular center needs to practice with the first team offense, the LS needs to work with kickers, holders & punters.