When Green Bay raced away to a 14 point lead at the start of the second quarter, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was going to be another routine for the defending Super Bowl champions. Instead a resilient Tampa Bay fought back and managed to keep this surprisingly competitive before the Packers put their foot on the gas in the fourth quarter. Not perfect by any means, but these kind of performances are why they remain the class of the NFL.
Indeed even with Aaron Rodgers off form, (by his standards if not anyone else’s) they made enough plays on both sides of the ball to always keep the Bucs out of striking range. A shame for Tampa Bay as after two pitiful performances they actually showed what they were capable of this one, with Josh Freeman finally starting to look like the QB we saw last year.
Ultimately though it was another defeat for TB, and another victory for GB, so let’s see how it played out.
Tampa Bay – Three Performances of Note
Return to form
One of the most worrying aspects of the Bucs slump have been the performances of Josh Freeman (+4.6). You have to go back to Week 4 to find the last time the 23 year old truly impressed us, but this seemed like a sign he is getting back to his best. He didn’t have a host of standout throws, and did make some mistakes (chiefly forcing a throw to Mike Williams that Tramon Williams picked off with 41 seconds to go in the first half). However he was extremely consistent for the most part and had incredible success throwing across his body where he went 14-of-15 to balls outside the left numbers, including completing all three passes that went over 20 yards in the air. Is it too late for a playoff push? Perhaps, but for the Buccaneers to stand any chance Freeman is going to need to play like this as a minimum.
Bigger(s) isn’t Better
There was always going to be a lot of E.J. Biggers (-5.2) on the field and so it proved, with Tampa Bay combating the multiple receiver sets of the Packers by using a nickel or dime package on 70.1% of all defensive snaps. Biggers was replaced by Elbert Mack at times, but still got on the field for 42 largely disappointing snaps where he managed to give up two penalties and 107 yards while also missing two tackles on dump off passes to James Starks. With Ronde Barber nearing the end of his career and Aqib Talib always a legal concern, there’s a chance for Biggers to stake a claim to a long term starting job. Performances like this won’t just prevent that, they’ll get him taken off the field altogether.
Poor investments
In the off season Tampa Bay decided to lock up some of their own with some mega money deals. The biggest benefactors of this were Jeremy Trueblood (+1.3), Davin Joseph (-0.6) and Quincy Black (-3.4). Bucs fans feel free to answer but do you think the return on these guys has been worth the money they got? The biggest disappointment has been Black, who continues to perform exceptionally badly. It wasn’t just his head scratching actions for Tom Crabtree’s touchdown with 13:48 to go in the second, but adding three more missed tackles to leave him with 12 on the year. He’s only made two more defensive stops and is having the kind of year that sees him comfortably our lowest ranked 4-3 OLB on the year.
Green Bay – Three Performances of Note
Oh my lordy, it’s Jordy!
An uncharacteristically uneven display from Aaron Rodgers (+4.6) let Jordy Nelson (+3.8) step up and steal the headlines. The Packers receiver was sublime in nearly everything he did, whether it be working down the sidelines on go routes (as he did three times), or making a sideline catch on a comeback (Q2 12:42). Nelson caught everything that was catchable, and deserved to walk away with 123 yards and two touchdowns with his route running getting the Bucs defenders on the back foot on more than one occasion (8:46 in Q1 being a great example of this). To think, he signed a four year deal for $13.9m in September. Talk about outplaying your deal.
The weakest link
He had a nice pass deflection on the Bucs final drive of the game, but this was not a good day for Charlie Peprah (-4.3). It didn’t help that he missed a couple of tackles or got pushed around when he tried to make plays in the box, but his most glaring errors were in coverage. Tasked with tracking Kellen Winslow at times, all he gave up three first downs to the Bucs TE, as well as a touchdown to Dezmon Briscoe with 4:41 left in the fourth. He’s a big part of the Packs defensive vulnerabilities right now, and a an area of concern going forward against stronger teams. The Lions have two dangerous tight ends and he’ll need to step it up on a short week.
The Letdown?
Wasn’t Jermichael Finley (-2.5) meant to do essentially what Jimmy Graham is? Both play in similar offenses where the ball gets spread around, but Finley has really failed to shine as many had expected him to. Maybe it’s unrealistic expectations (in fact I’m pretty sure it is), but at the same time this game wasn’t a great display of his talents. Just three targets, which included one nice grab and one bad drop to go with an offensive pass interference penalty. There won’t be many games where his run block rating (-0.7) is higher than his receiver rating (-1.0) but this was one of them, as he failed to make an impact on the 40 routes he ran.
Games Notes
– How many tackles did LeGarrette Blount end up breaking? Just the 11 on the day as he was simply too big and powerful for GB tacklers.
– Sticking on the theme of missed tackles both teams combined to miss a quite ridiculous 27. Tampa Bay missed 14 which now means they’ve missed 42 in the last three weeks. The 49ers have missed 30 all season.
– Is Aaron Rodgers human? Probably not, but he did only complete 7-of-15 of balls thrown 10 yards or more in this one.
Game Ball
Hard to look past anyone not named Jordy Nelson.
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