There's no easy answer with this. There were plenty of times ML had receivers schemed up and running wide open. There were plenty of times the QB couldn't get to them because of pressure. There were times he got to them and the play was wiped out by alignment penalties. There were times the QB had time but the receivers ran into each other.
If you want to feature your passing game and feature the QB then your passing game needs to be a HELL of a lot more disciplined and detailed and mature. Detailed and mature, I keep going back to that in my head. Otherwise we're in a position like Monday where half the time something was breaking down that made it impossible or very difficult for the QB to access these open receivers, but when the play does go well we all expect him to be 100% perfect. And hey, maybe that's reasonable if we want to say he's a top 5 QB. For me I think it's tough to ask that of any QB. It's like handing him a bag with 10 sandwiches, 5 have wagyu steak and the other 5 have cow sh!t, and then you complain that he's not enthusiastically biting into every one.
I think you are correct that it's not all Love.
I think it's coaching and preparation. It's the little things like you mentioned and other little things:
Receivers running into each other - these aren't rookies. They may not be superstars but they aren't all rookies. They should know the plays and where they are supposed to go. If they don't know, they're not being coached correctly. By the 9th game of the season even if they are rookies, they should know. Once a game, eh? But, it's multiple times per game.
NOT LINING UP CORRECTLY! Damn, the rules haven't changed that much regarding lining up. If these guys don't know how to line up somebody is not coaching them up correctly. It happened at least twice in critical settings against the Eagles.
The passing routes in and of themselves. Yes, several times there were Packers running free on mid to deep routes. By that time Love is getting clobbered or about to be clobbered and cannot step into that pass or even get it off. The offensive line is not good. The coaches should know that and should not be running long developing plays. They should design plays that hit quicker. Is it easy? NO! BUT, they are paid to do it. Similar to beating your head against the wall trying to run without an even Road Manicuring Offensive Line, trying to throw long developing pass plays with this Offensive Line isn't smart and is not good coaching.
The Pack was at its best in the first 2 games. Maybe the Lions and Commanders and other teams hadn't gotten their
Sea Legs yet. Well guess what? They have now. And, the stuff we got away with we no longer can. Our opponents seem to have ironed out the little things and are not making as many of those mistakes - BUT WE ARE! I get it, with the CBA, it's hard. But other teams are getting it done. Why aren't we?
