November 2008 - Posts

• Loss Ugly But Not Fatal

  Posted Nov 25 2008, 12:33 PM by Dennis Krause

   Many of the same people who overreacted to the Packers whipping of the Bears are now going to bury the Packers after they got embarrassed by the Saints. One fact overwhelms all of the swings in emotion: the Packers play in the NFC North. They are one game out of first place with five games left and their division record could earn them the tiebreaker nod. Everything else is just noise.That doesn’t mean that the Saints debacle wasn’t telling. For Nick Collins to say that the team wasn’t ready to play and lacked fire is more condemning that anything fans or media could say. How could they not be fired up? Their two division title contenders had already posted wins on Sunday and a national television audience was watching to see what the Packers were made of. What was revealed was a mediocre team with only one path to the playoffs—win a mediocre division.Did you ever think that maybe the Packers pass defense numbers were a little skewed because teams had so much success on the ground against the Packers? When faced with a real quarterback in Drew Brees with enough talented skill position players (even without Reggie Bush), the Packers defense got gashed. Aaron Kampman must feel like the lone ranger in mounting any kind of pass rush.Welcome to the 2008 NFL where, unless you’re one of the league’s elite, your team can look great one week and awful the next. Here’s how bad the NFC North is—the Packers could lose Sunday at home to Carolina and still win the division. A 9-7 record might very well be good enough. What the Packers can’t afford to do is lose two more games. They can’t stumble at home to Houston or Detroit and they need to win at Jacksonville. That leaves Carolina at home and the Bears in Chicago. If you split those two and beat up on the three losing teams on the schedule, that might be enough.Winning the NFC North may just be a ticket to a first-round playoff exit, but the Packers are still right there. Even if the Saints game showed they might not deserve to be.
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• Packers Savor Rout of Bears

  Posted Nov 17 2008, 10:33 AM by Dennis Krause
   When you have manhandled a fierce division rival 37-3 to move into a tie for first place, you have every right to smile. Yet the Packers wisely tried to contain their glee after Sunday’s mauling of the Bears at Lambeau Field. The locker room was a satisfied one, but also cautious for a couple reasons. First of all, by its very nature a 5-5 team needs to show excellence more consistently. Also, the Packers didn’t want to strut too much knowing a rematch at Soldier Field on December 22^nd figures to loom large in determining the NFC North division champion. For one afternoon at least, the Packers looked like a contender and the Bears looked like…well, I’ll leave that to your vivid imagination. The Packers ground game put it all together against one of the NFL’s stoutest outfits against the run. The maligned pass protection kept Aaron Rodgers clean and allowed him to bounce back with a strong game.The Packers revamped linebacker corps was in the middle (literally) of a dominant performance against a Bears offense limited by a gimpy quarterback and a poor group of wide receivers.The Packers special teams kept Devin Hester quiet, with Colin Cole even extending a warm Green Bay welcome to the return man on the sidelines.  If the NFL has shown us anything this season, it is that you shouldn’t get too excited about one game. The manic, up-and-down fluctuations of team performances have left fans’ heads spinning all over the league. Remember Cleveland blowing out the Giants or the Jets destroying Arizona? Yes, the Packers may have provided a glimpse into a strong stretch run to the division title. They’re also capable of getting lit up by Drew Brees and the Saints next Monday night in New Orleans. Neither scenario should surprise us. Not this year.
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• Packers Look Shaky

  Posted Nov 10 2008, 09:11 AM by Dennis Krause
  Aaron Rodgers is perhaps the perfect symbol for the 2008 Green Bay Packers to this point. Like his team, Rodgers is capable of very good moments and poised when things are going well. Yet he’s also capable of poor decisions and jumpiness when adversity strikes. The first thing we all need to do is forget about last season. Turn the page. 13-3 isn’t walking through that door. Neither is a certain number 4 but that story has already been written. The Packers and their fans must deal with the present.That means staring at a 4-5 record. The good news is that the Packers are remarkably still only one game out of the division lead in the NFC North. Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field against the Bears presents another great opportunity for the Packers to still salvage the season. But the loss at Minnesota was another stark reminder of the flaws of this Packers team. A porous run defense and an offensive line that seldom can impose its will is a deadly combination that usually has teams watching the playoffs on television. And the Derrick Frost Experiment seems to be a case of trying to be too smart and fixing something that wasn’t really broken.I’d still rather have Mike McCarthy than Brad Childress but McCarthy didn’t have a great day at the Metrodome. He seemed reluctant to run when it made sense and then too conservative at the end of the game. The penalties have gone from an irritation to an indictment. For all of their issues, a win over the Bears could provide a positive start to a stretch run. Home games against Houston and Detroit in December are two nice chips to have in your pocket. But a loss to Chicago Sunday could send the Packers season into the crisis mode.
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• Titans Loss Not A Disaster

  Posted Nov 03 2008, 01:20 PM by Dennis Krause

  I'm not one of those people who blows off losses and skips on my merry way if the game is close. I'm also not one of those people who is ready to bury the Packers because they lost in overtime on the road to the only undefeated team in the NFL. The answer is somewhere in between, kind of like the Packers 4-4 record.

  Here's the reality. The Packers are going to have to win the NFC North to get into the playoffs. The best way to do that is to win the next two weeks against the Vikings and the Bears. If the Packers win at Minnesota Sunday and the Bears lose to the Titans, the Packers will be back tied for first place and have the Bears coming into Lambeau the following week. That's hardly a scenario to wring your hands about.

  Certainly, the Packers squandered several opportunities to win at Tennessee. They could have recorded a signature road win and blinked. They also got an up-close view of the model that the Packers can still use to get to the playoffs and make some noise. The Titans know their weaknesses and play to their strengths. They're a smart team that does just enough to win. There's northing wrong with that.

  The timing is unfortunate that Aaron Rodgers made some costly mistakes in his first game since signing the $65 million extension. But I liked the way he took the arrows after the game. I would have liked to have seen him get a chance in overtime, but in all honesty the Titans should have won in regulation.

  So, I'm not hysterical about the loss to the Titans. But if the Packers lose to the Vikings Sunday...

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