For the second year in a row Bishop failed big time on big 3rd down plays on simple screens against the MN Vikings. Last year he was juked out of his jock - this year he looked like a lost kid who gave pathetic effort after standing there looking totally confused after he blew it by going underneath Hutchinson on Peterson's 44-yard screen .

He has upside and good parts of his game, but MN sure recognized his weaknesses and exploited them at critical times.

Bishop is not and should not be the scapegoat, but boy did his play leave me missing Chillar.

BIG game, BIG opportunity for Bishop = small performance by Bishop.

He also cost the team a timeout by being the 12th man on the field.

Bishop is a hitter, but IMO he is not yet ready for prime time.

Sad but true Bruce.

This Defense is predicated on DISCIPLINE.........Bishop just didn't do what he was SUPPOSED to do, keep outside containment. Instead he went inside to make a play and got stuffed by Hutch..result was 44 yd gain

Bishop is a hitter, but IMO he is not yet ready for prime time.

Spot on assessment

For some players, there's simply no subtitute for learning in action. Practice can only give you so much. Bishop needs to be given some more playing time. Put him in against Tampa.

I agree that playing time is important, but not if the players mistakes are going to cost you BIG games.

Use Bishop in situations that will not hurt the team - like Bishops hesitation on a called blitz and cheating inside on Hutch resulting in a killer 44 yard screen that should have been stopped for no gain.

That play sealed it for me with regards to Bishop. Hawk is not blanket-cover kind of LB but he is assignment sure and I don't see him hesitating like that when asked to blitz.

Wow how things change with Bishop. Before this some were saying he should replace Hawk. I've always said if he's not playing there is a reason. Hawk is a far better player than Bishop.

Mike McCarthy when asked whether Bishop will replace Chillar: "Or A.J. I think A.J. is playing well. I think he had 25 reps in there. We'll look at A.J. and Desmond there. I'm very comfortable with A.J. I think the way he is playing; I think he has been very consistent."

Note he was not asked about A.J. This was in direct response to whether Bishop will replace Chillar. Pretty telling IMO.

Further, Moss was furious with Bishop's lapse on the screen - saying something to the effect "a player can NOT give that play up by making that mistake."

Hawk will be the nickle back but I think that Capers needs to get Bishop involved in a way to help the team and Bishop himself. Also Brad Lones has been active quite abit and never plays from scrimmage , I would like to see some innovative packages to utilize his speed rushing the passer.Have Jones at OLB and Kampman at end and bring them both for instance along with Matthews on the other side.

I didn't see the game on TV heard it on a stream but Larry McCarren sure agrees with Bruce and the other posters.
You can't keep making excuses for all this bad execution by the players good gravy they are professional athletes.

It's hard to get him in there if he's a liability to the team. I like his hitting ability but if he is unsure of his assignments, just being a hitter won't cut it. These coaches see him everyday. Capers has been in this league a long time. I trust that his evaluation is better than mine. Hawk needs to be in there more than Bishop.

Kellen Winslow


So do we have a LB that can cover him?

I agree Bishop can be a liabilty but when Capers came aboard the train it was touted he will use the players at his disposal toward the talents they have and he was supposed to be very intuitive and able to do this with his vast experience and knowledge.I am dissappointed that the versitility and abilities of the players are not being used at this point. I do realize that there is a transition between the 4-3 and 3-4 and that not all players can play bth types of defense.It seems that what is going on is this is the defense and the players have to learn it as it is with no variations.

Good coaches can adapt and make adjustments to put their team in a better position to win. Look at the Dolphins pulling out the wildcat , they most likely didnt plan on using this offense as it is outdated and usually only used in high school or college. But the Dolphins staff realized what they wanted to do wont work with the players they had so they adjusted the playbook to make the team better.I think under MM the mantra is this is the system we will be using ,work within the system and all will be well. That is Bull&*#T you take what you have and adapt . Dont get me wrong you have to have a specific system for your team to implement and then you take it as far as you can go and make adjustments to the teams benifit.

Right now GB is not getting pressure on defense and Brad Jones our fastest OLB is active often but never plays from scrimmage why not? Why is there no creativity to utilize Kampman? When there are obvious passing situations why not have Kampman put his hand in the dirt and bring Jones behind him with Matthews on the other side with Jenkins,Jolly or Raji rushing also .What they are trying to do with Kampman now is not working and have had 6-7 weeks to set up the plan. The blitz of the month is to stunt the ILB's with the 3 man line and that is not productive so why not try something different and utilize the strength of the players that are available?

One of the effective blitzes from the preseason was bringing Bishop and Lannasch and Lannasch would give himself up so Bishop would get the sack , they were flooding the same gap .Are the players not taking that attitude now because they want the sacks for themselves?I dont know if that is the problem and I dont know if Jones will be effective but I do know that GB has to get better at rushing the passer to make the defense more effective. I will say this they are good agianst the run this year and maybe that is like a baby step and hopefully now that they can defend the run they can move on and do both.

So Capers should've designed a defense to account for Bishop making a boneheaded decision on that play?

I guess you cant read or your just being a smartass.

I'm being a smartass. Bishop didn't blow that play because Capers told him to do something he physically was unable to, or his skillset wasn't fit for. He blew the play because he made a mistake.

Or perhaps he wasn't developed enough by the coaching staff? He supposedly has all of the talent in the world, but the coaching staff can't use him to his potential. That seems to be the excuse around here as to why the O-line isn't performing, why not on the defense?

I don't see Bishop as being the savior that some of the meme-types here did a week or two ago, but you can't expect someone who doesn't start to play like a starter. There's no replacement for experience.

The o-line is either badly coached, is pursuing a bad approach or both. I refuse to believe that guys who actually made it to the NFL and were drafted in spots roughly on-par with where the rest of the league put them can, taken as a whole rather than as individual players, actually be that bad.

Believe it, because they are pretty bad. Worst in the NFL in terms of sacks given up, if I'm not mistaken.

I could agree with you on the penalties maybe being due to poor coaching, but the fact that the O-line consistantly loses the one on one battles to give up sacks kind of tells me it can't all be the coaching, but perhaps these guys just aren't that good to begin with by NFL standards.

So about that Bishop guy. He did have a nice hit on someone to force an incompletion.

I agree this offensive line is a mess but in their defense the best O-lines seem to have played together and gelled. I didn't like that they were playing with the starting line up all preseason and then with injuries and shifting guys around it's hard to expect them to play as a group. I don't think these guys are all chumps. I think they are very inexperienced as a group.

You can't consistently make the mistakes Bishop makes and expect to play. The same was true of Rouse.

A lot of fans began to fancy Bishop because of his preseason performances. But once Bishop started to play in the regular season his mistakes have cost us.

Bishop is still a very good run defender and playmaker (these are the traits he showed off last year and in the pre-season this year) but saying he's a liability in pass coverage is an understatement. Put him in there to give Hawk a breather on sure running downs, but otherwise he shouldn't be in.

For an opposing QB, that translates to "Audible out of the run and pick on Bishop".

Pass covg is not Bishop's strength, but he's not any worse than Kampman or Popinga. Hawk isn't much better either.

We're really picking on a guy that has proven he can cause turnovers and is a playmaker, potential game changer because he cant cover a screen?????

We gave up 38 freakin points the last two weeks!!!!! Heaven forbid we give up 42 because Bishop is in there. Or, just maybe he causes a turnover that gives us 7, or drive stopping tackle that might have resulted in a TD had he not been in there.

Sorry, but we need some game changers at this point.

He is actually worse than Poppinga and plays a position that requires him to be able to play coverage against running as a primary coverage - whereas outside linebackers in this defense at most drop into zone coverage. Hawk is far superior to Bishop in coverage at this point- which is why the staff chose him hands down over Bishop with Chillar down.

We are not picking on any one, rather simply pointing out that he is not ready for prime time. It is easy to make a few big plays if a player is consistently willing to sell out his teammates and scheme to make a few - unfortunately such a player also frequently costs his team the game with those sellouts and mistakes.

Bishop has NOT proven anything other then he can hit. He made a few plays in the preseason, but as I was pointing out many of those torchings that were taking place once the starters left the field were the result of Bishop being out of position and gambling.

Against MN he was given a great opportunity - he failed miserabley and he has been justly rewarded with more pine time. Had he stepped up and played consistenty and with signs that he was learning and growing the reward would have been field time.

He has upside, but he has work to do - that is not picking on the guy, rather stating the obvious.