Chapter 1: Fear Jaire

  I have to admit that as much as I've wanted to love Jaire and as much as he has impressed me with his play, part of me was still wary after our less than stellar history with DBs. I wanted to love our first-round defensive back, but I was also afraid of being hurt again. But that’s behind me now. I love Jaire and I don’t care who knows it.    

  Quarter 1

3rd and 4 – Alexander 3yd Pass (13:51)

Alexander right on his man, peeks back at Brees and breaks off to make the tackle. Any stop on 4th down is big and with the way our defense has been playing, any one player making a tackle is not a given.

  Quarter 2

2nd and 8 - Alexander -2yd Pass (13:32)

Jaire doing what Jaire do. Gets low, wraps up and gets Kamara to the ground, a seemingly impossible task. This play was huge because it forced a 3rd and 10 and a clear passing situation on the following down where we forced a fumble and then a punt.

  Quarter 3

2nd and 9 – Alexander Incomplete Pass (07:04)

This is one of the few times where I can tell that Brees wants to throw it deep(ish) and Jaire has it covered all the way.

  Quarter 4

2nd and 7 – Alexander 2yd Pass

The play happens away from Jaire but you wanna see my boy press? Watch my boy press.  

  1st and 10 – Alexander Incomplete Pass (02:00)

Alexander reads this all the way and has his eyes on Brees almost the whole time. This is a great pass breakup and, while it’s not an easy interception, if Alexander starts picking these off instead of just breaking them up, he’ll take his game to another level.  

  Chapter 2: The Lazard King

Lazardus rose from the dead that was the Jacksonville Jaguars and came unto us so he could eventually deliver this 146 yard performance. All hail the King.

Quarter 1

3rd and 2 – Lazard 5yd Pass (10:21)

This is not so much the catch and run by Lazard but more the blocking by our other wide receivers. I love to watch them block.

  Quarter 2

1st and 10 – Lazard 48yd Pass (11:59)

Lattimore is peeking into the backfield and the safety steps up on the run fake and Lazard is gone. Great adjustment on the catch as well.

  2nd and 5 – Lazard 5yd TD Pass (10:36)

Again, the CB is looking at the run and completely abandons his assignment. Easy TD.

3rd and 10 – Lazard 72yd Pass (14:50)

The linebacker does a great job carrying Lazard up the seam and the safety lets him run right past him. Lazard with just a small, subtle move to the inside and then it’s all over, he’s gone.

2nd and 1 – Lazard DPI (02:56)

Watch every CB say “Fuck it, we’re holding,” at the same time.

  BONUS:

At 6’5” 225lbs it’s pretty incredible how athletic Lazard is. I mean look at his vertical.

Watch it again in Slow-motion.

  Random Thoughts:

1. Jaire flies to the ball.

2. I really like King but he did not look great.

3. Watching Jaire, I noticed he kept his eyes on Brees more than I’ve ever seen him do. I think it’s because he was not really afraid of getting beat deep. He knew that ball was going to come out quick and come out short. That sounds wrong but I’m being serious.

4. In my native land we have a phrase that describes the embarrassment you feel when someone else does something humiliating, a phrase that doesn’t really exist in English. Loosely, this phrase translates to “Foreign Shame.” The Germans have a word for this as well. I don’t actually know that they do but it seems like a fairly German concept and also the Germans have a fucking word for everything. Anyways, my point is that I had to transverse three goddamn languages to tell you how I felt about our tackling on that 52-yard run by Kamara. If my girlfriend hadn’t made me get rid of my Samurai sword, I would have committed Seppuku after that play. That’s four fucking languages. I’m not really highlighting anything here that we didn’t already know. We’re a bad tackling team and we’ve been a bad tackling team for a lot of my years as a Packers’ fan. I don’t know why. I wish it would change. If we could just get runners on the ground at first contact, we’d be a much better defense. But, then again, if I had two wheels, I’d be a wagon. What I’m saying is, I guess, this isn’t going to change this season. Let me also say, this is not taking away anything from Kamara. We were embarrassingly awful at tackling but he was also frightfully good at embarrassing us.

5. MVS and Lazard are not great route runners. There’s room for development and I really do hope that they can step up in that department.