Ok, there are only so many ways some thing can be said, but this game illustrated it perfectly.
Here it is: Matt LaFleur is a brilliant offensive mind that runs his offense so that it does not need elite players at wide receiver.
He marched out some practice squad receivers and Day 3 running backs and marched up and down the field all night, making sure the game was never really in question. Yes, the Falcons aren’t good, but this offense has lit up everyone it’s faced , despite injuries at skill positions and it’s time to give Matt LaFleur the credit he damn well deserves!
On the other side of the ball, Mike Pettine made adjustments, too. Missing Kenny Clark, he brought in new players, new formations, and new assignments to make the run defense more of a small desk-sized trash bin than a full-blown dumpster fire. The pass defense wasn’t terrible, either. Outside of of continued 4th down failures, the defense was pretty solid. I’m not concerned about the Falcons racking up garbage time stats. It’s 2020, there was no offseason, no one is playing great defense, but holding a team to single digits through 3 quarters (when your offense put up 4 TDs in the same span), is more than enough to win.
Other things to note
- Bob Tonyan keeps showing up, he’s taken time to win me over, but he keeps doing it
- I knew Jamaal Williams was a good receiving back – I didn’t realize he was a good wide receiver
- The Packers offensive line doesn’t get enough credit
- Za’Darius Smith looked like he took his game up a notch tonight
- Darnell Savage just doesn’t look like a natural – on the first drive of the game, he looked like he didn’t know he was allowed to just pick off an easy ball
- MVS isn’t a dominant WR1, but he is becoming more versatile than just a guy who runs go routes
- I laugh at the people who think Matt Ryan is anywhere near Aaron Rodgers’s class
- Packers battled through injuries on both sides of the ball and deserve this bye