Paul Bretl | 10/14/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — In the Packers Week 6 win on Sunday over the Arizona Cardinals, we saw on display what at the pass-catcher positions can do for an offense.

Jordan Love finished the day completing 22-of-32 passes for 258 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. Of those 22 completions, nine different players had at least one reception and 10 different players had a target.

Obviously, when this many pass-catchers are getting involved the distribution goes beyond just the receiver position. In addition to five different wide outs having a target for the Packers, so did two running backs and three tight ends.

“That’s just the glory of our offense, man,” said Jayden Reed at his locker. “We’ve got a lot of different players that can make plays. We distribute here. Got a lot of different playmakers, and you’ve got to game plan for that.”

While Jayden Reed has emerged as the top target and playmaker for the Packers in the first six games, this is still a wide receiver unit where the strength is in its numbers. If defenses try to key in on Reed and limit his production, the trickle-down effect is that it’s going to leave them exposed elsewhere, putting players like Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks in one-on-one matchups, which all will exploit.

Magnifying the impact of this depth is Love’s willingness to spread the ball around. In most instances, how the defense reacts to the play design and what the read dictates will determine where Love will go with the ball.

Production-wise, it was a fairly modest day for each of the Packers’ pass catchers. Reed’s six receptions were the most in this game, Christian Watson’s 68 receiving yards led the team, and Doubs led the way with two touchdowns. But you put all of that together and spread the production out over nine different players, and overall, you get a very good performance from Love and the offense.

“I think that we have guys in every position that can make the play at any moment,” said Christian Watson after the game. “So when we got that complimentary football just within our offense guys who can make plays at any depth of the field that’s hard to defend that.”

This ability to spread the ball around adds more pressure for the defense. Opponents are unable to key in on one or even two players pre-snap, almost regardless of the situation. This then forces them to defend the entire field, creating better spacing for the Packers’ offense to operate within, along with one-on-one matchups to take advantage of.

“I think the more that other people are making plays, we know that the more plays there are that’s going to be made going forward,” said Watson. “They can’t guard everybody, they can’t guard everybody perfectly, scheme everything up perfectly, so the more people that get their hands on the ball, the more people that can make plays, the better off we’re going to be as an offense.”

With a number of options in the passing game comes a variety of skill sets as well. Matt LaFleur can take an a la carte-like approach as he builds out the weekly game plan, mixing and matching formations and play designs that can very specifically attack an opponent’s weaknesses and create mismatches. This element can also make game-planning for this Packers offense quite difficult because they can hurt you in a number of ways.

Going back to Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, beyond just the sheer number of pass-catchers who had opportunities, Love was able to attack really all parts of the field and LaFleur helped facilitate that by scheming up different route combinations–again, something that can only be done when there are different skill sets to work with.

“Man, Christian’s fast,” said Bo Melton. “Not only fast, he’s elusive. He can make big plays. At the end of the day, when you have him out there, defenses tend to back up. We play a similar role. I’m a deep threat at well, but with Christian, he’s 6-4. Nobody wants a 6-4 big old gazelle running at them looking like that, running a post like he had today – he’s dangerous.

“I appreciate him, all our wide receivers. We have J-Reed. We have Wicks. We have Malik. We have Rome. Myself. Just everybody brings a special treat. That’s why we’re so special.”

Making matters even more difficult for the Cardinals defense was that the Packers were also finding success in the run game. Green Bay finished the game with 179 rushing yards as a team at an efficient 4.7 yards per attempt.

All week, the emphasis for the Packers was on complementary football in all three phases–which they accomplished. Specifically on the offensive side of the ball, the Packers checked the box there as well with the passing game distribution and the marrying of the run and passing games off each other.

When everything just described about the passing game can be coupled with an effective run game–look out.

“I think that’s always the goal is to be able to have a great run game and a great pass game, just play off each other with both of those,” said Jordan Love after the game.

“And then explosive plays, that’s our mindset. We try to get those explosive plays and then obviously try and take care of the ball, which I think we still (need to) do a better job, build on that next week. But explosives, take care of the ball and have a balanced game is definitely something we want to be on offense.”

Paul Bretl | 10/10/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Once fully healthy, the Packers have the ultimate luxury in their secondary: a number of versatile defenders for Jeff Hafley to build his game plans around.

“I think just the versatility we have in the secondary is a huge luxury,” said Matt LaFleur on Monday. “I don’t think a lot of teams have as many guys that we feel confident in to put in the game and not only put in the game but play winning football.”

Once Jaire Alexander is back in the mix, between the cornerback and safety positions, the Packers will have seven different players that they trust to play significant defensive snaps on Sundays. In addition to Alexander at corner, there is Eric Stokes, Carrington Valentine, and Keisean Nixon. At safety, is Xavier McKinney, Javon Bullard, and Evan Williams.

More often than not, with the majority of defensive snaps coming in nickel, five defensive backs will be on the field. The next most utilized formation will be when the Packers are in their base 4-3 defense, which requires just four defensive backs. Occasionally, we may see the Packers in dime, requiring six defensive backs.

Regardless, in just about every instance, the Packers will have a surplus of options at the cornerback and safety positions.

“I think that’s a great problem to have,” said Hafley of the depth. “When Ja comes back — hopefully we’ll get Ja back soon — once he does we’ll have to figure out who we’re playing, who our opponent is, what receivers we’re playing against, can there be different packages in the game.

“We call the package that Bull was in one thing and he knows to come out on the field in that spot and when he goes to the safety position, we call it something else and he goes to the safety spot and Keisean was going into the nickel spot, right, and this week we have some other things possibly up where we say this and guys are in different spots.”

One thing–and an important thing–that this provides Hafley with is immense flexibility when putting together the game plans each week. The only givens in the secondary are that Alexander and McKinney will be on the field. Beyond that, everyone else’s playing time or what roles that they have to fill could vary week-to-week depending on the opponent.

A great example of this flexibility came this past Sunday against the Rams. After the secondary had early struggles the week prior with Minnesota’s passing game, Hafley went back to the drawing board and came back with some brand-new looks on the back end.

Still without Alexander versus the Rams, we saw Nixon move from the slot to the boundary, while opposite of him, Stokes and Valentine shared playing time. In the nickel, against the more run-heavy Rams, was a more physical presence in Bullard. Then, at safety, was McKinney and Williams.

Every NFL fan wants their team to be willing to make changes on the fly when things aren’t working, injuries take place, or based on what the matchup dictates, rather than being rigid and rolling out the same game plan each week because that’s just how things are done.

Since Hafley arrived in Green Bay back in February, we’ve heard about his willingness to make those adjustments as needed, and we saw that on display against the Rams. The circumstances of that game–matchup-wise and injury-wise–played an important part in determining how Hafley approached things from a game-planning perspective.

“I think this game is a lot about matchups and I think sometimes people take it for granted that it’s not always your Xs and Os and like I’ve talked, these blitzes you can draw up and these coverages you can draw up, ultimately it’s gonna be me against you and I have to get off the block or I have to cover you or I have to beat you on a pass rush or I have to tackle you and those are the things we gotta win, so who gives us the best chance?”

With Hafley having so many options in the secondary in regards to who sees playing time, along with where he asks several of those players to line up and what their responsibilities are, it can make game-planning for this Packers defense quite difficult. As opposing offenses try to decipher how the Packers might attack them, they have to be prepared for a number of different outcomes, and when game day arrives, they might see something completely different than what was expected.

This advantage also goes beyond just the mixing and matching of personnel. Being able to rely on a number of different players means having a variety of skill sets to work with as well, which provides Hafley with the ability to use different coverages, along with disguising looks by moving defenders around.

“Matchups is huge, right, so for example,” said Hafley, “if they’re gonna line up with two tight ends, one back and two wide receivers, so they’re getting into a bigger grouping, you wanna put a SAM linebacker on the field or do you wanna put Bull on the field and play like that nickel-SAM position. What are they doing out of it? Are they gonna spread us out? Are they gonna get big and try to run the ball? Well then maybe you wanna put the SAM on the field.

“If they come out in 11 personnel, right, one back, one tight end and three wide receivers, do they wanna spread us out and throw the ball. Then maybe do we wanna play a lot of a certain coverage? Then maybe we’ll get true nickel personnel on the field and play with more corner-like people and if we feel like we have to play against the run, do we want a bigger body, a more physical body in the game? Then what do we wanna do on third down and medium vs. third down and long based on what the tendencies are and who they put on the field. So I think matchups are really, really important. But then I also think it’s within the course of the game, how are they trying to attack us and what are we gonna do to stop it and that’s constantly going back and forth.”

Without question, it is great to have as many reliable options as the Packers do in the secondary, but with that comes its own challenges–specifically finding playing time for everyone.

The competition at several of those positions will hopefully help elevate the play of the entire unit, just as we saw along the offensive line during the second-half of the 2023 season when there were rotations at right guard and left tackle. Perhaps, as the season progresses, one of Valentine or Stokes and Bullard or Williams will get more playing time as they begin to separate themselves from the other at their respective position.

However, with that aforementioned adjustability being in Hafley’s DNA as a coach, at least for the time being, to be any set-in-stone starters–again, outside of Alexander and McKinney. Playing time could continue to ebb and flow week to week depending on what the matchup calls for, and the Packers’ recent history of rotating players on both sides of the ball tells us that they may try to find a way to keep all of these players involved to some degree with there being specific alignments that get whoever the non-starters are that week on the field.

“I think it’s our job to, if they’re playing well, to find roles for ’em and make sure that they’re on the field,” Hafley said. “But what unit gives us the best chance to win that particular game.

“I think it’s very nice to have options and I think the more guys are healthier, the more competition we’ll have, the better we’ll get, the better they’ll get and we’ll play better defense as we continue to go. But having those guys on the field and having that versatility, where they can kinda switch around positions, I think it’s huge.”

Regardless of what side of the ball you’re discussing or what position, options are always a good thing. Options mean versatility, competition, and the ability to keep the opponent off-balance. Well, the Packers have a lot of options in the secondary and as the group gets healthy and the young players gain experience, we will really start to see the value in that, just as we did in Los Angeles.

Paul Bretl | 10/10/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers defense will have to contend with one of the more efficient rushing offenses this weekend, taking on the Arizona Cardinals, which features running back James Conner and quarterback Kyler Murray.

As a collective unit, the Cardinals are averaging 5.5 yards per rush this season, which is the third-best mark in football through five weeks. An explosive run is categorized as a rush of 10 or more yards. The Cardinals have 21 of those–the most in the NFL–and their explosive run play rate of 16.5 percent is also a league-best.

“I mean you gotta pick and choose how aggressive you’re gonna be on early downs,” said Jeff Hafely, “but we wanna win those early downs so we get ourselves in those situations on second. I know we’ve played better against the run and we’re continuing to improve that way.”

Leading the way for the Cardinals in terms of carries is Conner. On the season, Conner has carried the ball 82 times and is averaging 4.6 yards per attempt with three scores. Among all running backs, Conner ranks fifth in missed tackles forced, according to PFF, has the second-most rushes of 10-plus yards, and is tied for fifth in rushes of at least 15 yards.

“Conner, he’s a beast,” said Matt LaFleur on Wednesday. “He’s a big physical back that is more elusive than he leads on just in terms of, for a bigger guy.”

On the year, the Packers’ play against the run has been mixed. Outside of Jonathan Taylor, who routinely ripped off some chunk runs, the Packers, for the most part, contained Saquon Barkley, Aaron Jones, and Kyren Williams, but each back also generated a carry or two of at least 15 yards.

The 4.4 yards per attempt that Green Bay is allowing ranks right in the middle of the league at 16th. The 12 explosive rushes that the Packers have surrendered is right about in the middle as well.

In Jeff Hafley’s system, which primarily features four down linemen versus at least five blockers, gap integrity will, as always, remain crucial, along with the ability to flow with the gap as it moves. In addition to that, the play of the defenders at the second level to fill any gaps that do appear will be paramount as well. There has to be order and a coordinated effort amongst the defensive front in how they rush so running lanes don’t open up.

“Typically what we’re trying to do is get guys in the backfield to own their gap through their man,” said defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich. “So if they’re aligned as  3-technique on the outside part of the guard, it’s his job as you go through the outside part of that guard and own the B-gap in between the outside part of the guard and the inside part of the tackle.

“So wherever that gap moves he’s gotta move a along it and then that allows the guys behind it to obviously scrape, get over top, get downhill, and fill the gaps that they have to fill.”

The challenge for the Packers doesn’t stop there, however, they also have to be hyper-aware of Murray and his ability to extend plays once outside of the pocket. As a ball carrier, Murray is averaging 10.7 yards per rush on 23 attempts this season. Those 247 rushing yards are the third-most among quarterbacks and Murray also has the second-most rushes of 10 or more yards.

Individually, both Conner and Murray will create problems for opposing defenses, but the Cardinals are also deliberate about their usage of RPOs and zone reads–all added stressors for the opponent, who are forced to read-and-react on the fly and sometimes all it takes is a slight hesitation that can result in a big play.

“You’ve got Kyler Murray who is able to, whether it’s a zone read that he takes to the house for 50 yards or whatever it was or just trying to contain him in the passing game, you’ve got to defend for a long time when he’s got the ball in his hands because he can throw within the timing of the pass, of the play, or he can go off schedule,” LaFleur said.

In the first two weeks of the season, the Packers faced Jalen Hurts and Anthony Richardson and took a more controlled pass-rush approach in those two games in an effort to keep those quarterbacks in the pocket. For the most part, the Packers were able to do that, limiting Richardson to only 37 rushing yards and Hurts to 33 yards.

Of course, LaFleur wasn’t going to delve into the specifics of whether or not the Packers would approach this game in a similar manner, but sound tackling, all 11 defenders swarming to the football, and the defensive front being disciplined with their rush lanes, along with rushing Murray as a collective group in unison will be at a premium.

“You’ve got to be smart,” LaFleur said. “You’ve got to be smart when you’re going against a quarterback of this caliber in terms of he can make you look really silly really fast. And if you give him huge rush lanes, he’s going to take advantage of it. Like I said he can beat you with his legs, he can beat you with his arm. I think he’s got a lot of talented players around him. I think they’re really doing a nice job, so it’s going to be a great test for our football team.”

The potential downside of this defensive approach, as we saw in Weeks 1 and 2, is that while you may keep the quarterback in the pocket, it makes getting consistent pressure more difficult. This then results in the quarterback having time in the pocket and puts added stress on the secondary, who has to be in coverage longer.

Murray has been a very efficient passer, completing 68 percent of his throws with seven touchdowns to just two interceptions. He’s also been willing to push the ball downfield, ranking eighth in percentage of pass attempts of at least 20-plus yards.

Cardinals rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. has already showcased his big-play abilities, averaging nearly 17.0 yards per reception with four touchdowns. Tight end Trey McBride has also been a go-to target of Murray’s.

“Tremendous challenge,” said LaFleur of Harrison. “I think he’s just, he’s a long physical receiver that is capable of making great plays down the field. What’s scary is he still learning the NFL game, so I think he’s going to be a star in this league for a really long time.”

Oftentimes, success for just about any defense begins with limiting the offense’s ability in the run game. In general, when an offense can find success on the ground, there’s a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of the unit. This creates short down-and-distance situations, opening up the entire playbook for the offense and forcing the defense to defend the whole field.

On the flip side, struggles in the run game puts the offense in predictable passing situations where the defense has the advantage–both from a pass rush and coverage standpoint.

“We showed the guys a bunch of clips of him just making multiple defenders miss in the pocket and his ability to create and extend and make those off schedule, chunks down the field,” LaFleur said of Murray. “He’s extremely dangerous. He’s probably playing as good as he’s ever played. I think he really looks good, so it’s going to be a great test for our defense.”

Paul Bretl | 10/7/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers offense was able to do just enough with the help of some takeaways from the defense to secure the win over the Los Angeles Rams. The overall performance was very ‘feast or famine,’ as Matt LaFleur put it, with either big plays or short drives taking place.

“I was talking to Jordan about this in the locker room,” said LaFleur after the game, “just in terms of it seems like we’re a little bit feast or famine offensively in terms of we either get the big plays and we go score or there’s no big plays and we’re punting. We do have to get a little bit more consistency, just making sure we’re getting positive plays, staying ahead of the sticks, trying to stay out of third downs as best we can.”

Jordan Love finished the game averaging 8.6 yards per pass attempt. For some context, over the course of the season up to this point, that would be the second-highest rate in football. The catalyst behind that figure was a 66-yard catch and run touchdown to Tucker Kraft, a 53-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed, and a 21-yard catch and run from Josh Jacobs.

So of the Packers 24 points in this game, 14 game from just two of those plays. So what about the rest of the game?

In the first half, outside of the Packers nine-play touchdown drive that was capped off with the aforementioned pass to Reed, Green Bay had five other drives, with four of them ending in three plays or fewer, resulting in three punts and a pick-six from Love.

In the second-half, the Packers turned two takeaways into touchdowns, one of which was a two-play drive with the Kraft touchdown and the other lasting seven plays. Their next two drives ended in punts, one of which was 14 plays and did eat up some valuable time and the other being just four plays.

Excluding the kneel-down on the final series, the Packers had 10 possessions in this game and six of them ended in three plays or fewer. Green Bay finished the game just 1-for-8 on third downs and didn’t convert their first third down until the fourth quarter. Typically that isn’t going to be a stat you hear when talking about the winning team.

“I think there’s so much that we need to build on,” Jordan Love said after the game. “I think we leave a lot of plays out there, and then we make some really good plays as well. I think it just comes down to consistent execution and trying to be as clean as we can for four quarters. And I don’t think we’ve done that yet. I don’t think we’ve played a full four-quarter game that’s clean.

“There’s so much stuff that we can look back on, can watch film when we get back and stuff to clean up, but I like who we have. I think we’re just going to keep building, but there’s definitely a lot of stuff to clean up.”

This isn’t a one-off performance either. Last week against the Minnesota Vikings–where certainly, the dynamic chances when trailing by early–the Packers had 10 drives that, whether they resulted in a turnover, punt or touchdown, ended in five plays or fewer.

Explosive pass plays are great–they lead to points. And the Packers’ offense entered Week 5 as the best in football at generating big plays with 37 of them. The next closest team was the Indianapolis Colts with 29. However, it’s also a tough way to live in the NFL if that is your primary means for moving the football.

“I think explosive plays lead to points,” LaFleur said. “That’s a fact. The stats are pretty staggering when you talk about explosion plays and your ability to score or, if you don’t give them up, your ability to stop people. So that’s something that we’re always hunting. It’s just the consistency, I would say, down in and down out.”

To a lesser extent in comparison to last season, this boom-or-bust approach on offense seems to be stemming from issues on early downs–particularly first down. Whether it be a run play that doesn’t go anywhere, a penalty, or an incomplete pass, whether that’s due to an off-target throw from Love or a dropped pass by the receiver, the Packers are putting themselves in disadvantageous long down-and-distance situations.

“Penalties are a consistent problem,” said LaFleur. “Certainly don’t have the answer for that right now. It’s extremely frustrating and it’s been an Achilles heel for us and it’s a big reason why we haven’t won more, in my opinion. That’s something that we have to get corrected and we better do it quick because I want to say this is probably the most penalized team that we’ve had in my six years in Green Bay.”

During these obvious passing downs, the pass rush is able to pin its ears back and the secondary has the advantage from a coverage standpoint because there usually only so much time for the quarterback and so many routes that can be ran when needing eight-plus yards.

In terms of the overall scope of the game, it becomes more difficult to marry the run-and-pass games as offenses become more pass-heavy, and the short possessions can result in a discrepancy in the number of plays ran for each team–wearing out the defense and forcing the offense to be extremely efficient with its opportunities, which isn’t going to lead to sustainable success.

According to Pro Football Reference, the Packers average distance to go on second down is 8.29 yards and on third down it’s 7.5 yards. In both instances, this is around a full yard more than last season.

There are certainly stretches in each of these last two games where it looks and feels like the Packers’ offense is on the cusp of really taking off. However, more than anything, accomplishing that begins with them getting out of their own way on early downs so they can consistently sustain drives and get into a rhythm on offense.

“You either get better or you get worse; you’re never staying the same,” added LaFleur. “Every week is a new challenge. I think that’s a lot of coachspeak but I believe in that. I think it all starts with your preparation and how you approach it and your willingness to put the work in to strive to get better in practice, and that gives you the confidence to go out there and make plays in the game. There’s certainly a lot of areas where we have to get better.”

Paul Bretl | 10/5/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The overall numbers through four games may not suggest it, but Packers second-year wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks is on the cusp of some potentially big performances.

“Definitely a problem for defenses, for sure,” said Adam Stenavich. “And if you look at his production his last eight games or something like that, he’s had seven touchdowns. So he’s getting that production. But he catches those balls, it might be crazy. You know what I mean? We just have to get him to that point and we’ll have some fun.”

That point that Stenavich mentions and what the Packers and Wicks want to arrive at lies in his consistency as a pass catcher. In the first four weeks, Wicks has been targeted 22 times but has caught just eight of those passes. In part, as Jordan Love shook off the rust last week, there were off-target throws for Wicks to contend with. However, Wicks also has a drop rate of 27.3 percent, according to PFF, the second-highest mark among all receivers.

During Wicks’ final season at Virginia, he dealt with drops that season as well, totaling nine in the nine games that he played, per PFF. However, that wasn’t going to stop the Packers from drafting him because, as now passing game coordinator Jason Vrable described last spring, a lot of those drops were the product of Wicks trying to turn and make a play before he caught it. A relatively simple fix that requires going back to the fundamentals. The drops Wicks has had this season seem to be of a similar ilk.

“I had some drops. I had some good catches,” said Wicks of his performance against the Vikings.” I try to critique myself on those bad plays and see what was the reason of them. It’s really nothing, for real. Drops really just taking my eyes off the ball before I finish the catch. That’s really it. It’s really nothing I need to change, stay the same, keep the same routine. Just be me.”

Yet despite the early ups and downs, Wicks remains a big part of the Packers passing game, with quarterback Jordan Love continuing to go back to him. Wicks’ 22 targets this season are tied for the most on the team with Jayden Reed. Even this past Sunday against Minnesota, Love kept looking in Wicks’ direction, targeting him 13 times. In all of football, only three receivers had more targets in Week 4.

“I think he’s very resilient,” said Love on Wednesday. “I think he has that mindset that he wants the ball and if he makes a mistake early on, I think he’s gonna be hard on himself about it and find a way to fix it and keep going, but I think that’s everybody on this team. Nobody’s gonna give up or have the game kinda be defeated after having one bad play. I think we all gotta be able to bounce back and respond.”

One of the big reasons that Wicks may be on the cusp of some huge performances and why the team remains confident in him is in his ability to get open. Wicks came to the NFL as an already fairly refined route runner with a release package at the line of scrimmage that can put most cornerbacks in a bind.

PFF has a metric called separation percentage, which tracks how often a receiver gets open by beating the coverage rather than benefitting from how the defense defends the play. So far this season, no receiver has won their routes more often than Wicks, who has gotten himself open on a whopping 82.14 percent of his routes.

“I don’t look at any of that PFF stuff,” Stenavich said, “but that doesn’t surprise me with just the way he runs routes, his ability to double people up, his ability to get out of cuts with speed, he’s a threat. He’s an excellent route-runner. And he’s shown that so far for sure.”

Week-to-week with the talent that the Packers have in the wide receiver room, we never quite know how the targets in the passing game will be distributed. However, this week against the Los Angeles Rams, it looks like the Packers will be without Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, both of whom are listed as doubtful, which means more potential opportunities for Wicks, as well as Jayden Reed, Malik Heath, and Bo Melton.

This is also a Rams defense that is surrendering a hefty 8.6 yards per pass attempt this season, which ranks last in the NFL through four weeks. The Rams have also given up 15 passing plays of at least 20 yards–the fourth-most in football–and eight passing plays of at least 30 yards, which is tied for the most.

The drops certainly can’t be overlooked and do need to be corrected, but in the grand scheme of what can be a long NFL season, they seem to be more of a blip on the radar for Wicks than a worrisome trend. Once that’s taken care of, sparked by Wicks’ ability to create separation, the recipe for some big-time production very much exists.

“Again, with the way the game was going, and he had a couple of drops, and I’ll tell you what, there’s not one guy that has better hands than Wicks,” added Stenavich. “So I think he expects himself obviously to make those plays, as we all do with him. But yeah, it’s just something he’s got to work through and I have all the confidence in the world that he’ll make those plays when they come up again, because he has usually got some pretty good hands.”