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November 2008 - Posts
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Both the Packers and the Panthers defenses were less than admirable in their last outing. Carolina was beat up in a 45-28 loss to Atlanta and the Packers, well, they were shamed on Monday Night Football by the New Orleans Saints to the tune of 51-29. The loss, more importantly, dropped the Packers out of first place in the NFC North. With Chicago and Minnesota playing one another today in the Metrodome, its imperative that the Packers keep pace with a win here at Lambeau today. If the Packers should fall 2 games behind in the division, with only 4 games remaining, it could be all but over for the Packers post-season hopes.
With weather looming, it’s simple for both teams, run the ball. The Packers, before being forced to air it out in the Super Dome, Ryan Grant was gashing the Saints defense for an average of 4 yards per carry and 64 yards in the first half alone. The Packers run game and offense will be their best defense. Meanwhile, Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams has 4 straight 100 yard rushing performances, looking for his 5th in a row.
While this is a must-win for the Packers (5-6), the Panthers (8-3) are currently tied atop the NFC South with Tampa Bay so Carolina won’t be playing with the same sense of urgency the Packers will be.
Look for a “bounce back” day by the Packers defense including an interception or two from that humbled secondary and a much better performance by quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
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It's Thanksgiving and we're supposed to think about the things that we truly appreciate. While I am thankful for many things in my life, especially in these times that have hit many American's much harder than myself, I think about the things that you, me and every other person has to endure. So I now give you my list of things, in no particular order, that I'm NOT-SO Thankful For, things that....for lack of a better term, CHAP MY...well, you get the picture;
• The Detriot Lions playing on national TV today
• Watching Lebron James throw his cloud of dust into the air prior to tip off
• The New York Yankees
• NCAA officials who can't figure out a BCS playoff system
• People who can't sing the Star Spangled Banner the way it was written
• Brian Urlacher for using his 3 year old kid to get back at his ex
• Super Agents, Drew Rosenhaus and Scott Boras
• Oakland Raiders owner, Al Davis, "Just Go Away Baby"!
NOTE: Cincinnati Bengals owner, Mike Brown, can be flip flopped with Davis
They're both pathetic and living in the past.
• Stephon Marbury, of the New York Knicks, what a classless jerk.
If collusion were allowed, this moron is the poster child.
• The NFL Network. Figure it out already! You can't be hurting that bad for cash,
heck you're fining everyone for everything.
• Manny Ramirez, the guy is a selfish teammate and now he's going to get millions
• Fans who stand up and wave into the camera while they're on their cell phones
• ESPN for showing; competitive eating, poker, duck calling and fishing and calling them a sport
• Tampa Bay Rays fans; those losers didn't show up until the playoffs
• Roger Clemens, you took roids, we all know it. Even your WIFE tookem'.
• Reggie Bush's girlfriend, Kim Kardashian. Come on Reggie, you can do better!
• Chad Johnson, Cincinnati Bengal, your act has grown old and you're not that
good anymore. Catch a pass once in a while.
• MMA Fighter, Kimbo Slice. He got beat in 14 seconds. Shave your beard and
sell cheese burgers through a clown's head.
• Former track star, Marion Jones. You're guilty and you cry on Oprah, GO AWAY already.
• Brett Favre fans who can't get over it. You know who you are.
There ya have it. My list of 20 things that make me scream. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Last night in the Big Easy the Green Bay Packers were thoroughly embarrassed by the Saints aerial attack. From the very beginning, the Packers never matched the intensity of their opponent, “We weren’t ready to play”, muttered Nick Collins after the game, “They were and we didn’t have an answer for them. We just weren’t ready to play.”
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Mike McCarthy, who was so promotional of his team’s practice efforts this week, didn’t have his ball club ready when they took the field. Defensive Coordinator, Bob Sanders, was “out schemed” by Saints Head Coach, Sean Payton, and his offensive unit. It got so bad that Sanders finally gave up and went to zone coverage, something the Packers really aren’t good at. I haven’t even mentioned the poor fundamentals such as tackling and blocking yet but believe me, that’s a high priority in the NFL, the Packers might want to enhance that just a bit.
Another component to a very ugly loss was Green Bay’s special teams. Mike Stock, who’s flown somewhat under the radar, is squarely in the crosshairs now. His desire to bring in Derrick Frost and kick to the curb John Ryan has proven to be a dismal failure. Frost has been inconsistent at best. His vaunted gift for getting hang time has been subpar at best and has been exceeded by his inability to kick consistently over 40 yards when needed. Let’s not forget about his one consistency, shanks in domes….in domes. They are weather controlled bubbles for God’s sake. No breeze, no cold weather….perfect conditions and he’s guaranteed to shank one when you need it most. One more thing special teams-wise, last night late in the ball game, when Will Blackmon was struggling for yardage after yet another New Orleans kickoff, there were guys actually walking off of the field before Blackmon was down.
This leads me to the offense. It was like watching a prize fight in which both heavyweights were slugging it out until one fighter lands the blow that takes the other out of his rhythm. That punch was when Greg Jennings slipped and fell down on an out play in which Aaron Rodgers threw to a particular spot. The ball was in the air before Jennings made the cut. Saints cornerback Jason David has an easy pick and scampered down to the Packers 3 yard line before Rodgers gave him a full body block, leading with his bad shoulder. Rodgers, in the next series, wasn’t on the same page with Jordy Nelson and threw yet again to David. That was the knock out blow. The Packers never regained their form. It didn’t help that the Saints were rushing 3 and 4 men and the Packers schizophrenic offensive line, minus Mark Tauscher, couldn’t hold a block to save their lives. Rodgers, later in the game, forced a pass that was destined for his 3d pick of the game. This was the first time this season that I saw Rodgers clearly frustrated and began to come a little apart.
This was a poor game all the way around. Include the fact that both the Bears and the Vikings won on Sunday, to put the Packers a game behind in the NFC North. Also, Minnesota and Chicago play each other next weekend so the Packers still won’t gain any ground in the division even with a win over Carolina. The Caroline game is now a MUST WIN game. The only positive coming up is that Green Bay has 2 warm weather teams (Carolina and Houston) coming to Lambeau in consecutive weeks. Maybe they can get a couple of wins, gain some confidence and get on some type of roll. But let me caution, you can’t get bigger, stronger or faster at practice. The only way the Packers will be able to remain a viable candidate for the post-season is to play mistake-free, fundamental football, something they show a clear propensity not to be very good at on a consistent basis.
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The Packers should venture into Louisiana with the mindset that anything less than an impressive performance will completely diminish last week’s smack-down of the Chicago Bears.
With everything clicking vs. the rivals from Illinois the Packer lockerroom seemed to believe that everything has finally come together. “We’re ready to roll now. Here we go”, proclaimed a confident Greg Jennings. Tonight, in the Super Dome, we’ll see if Jennings prognostication has any validity.
The Packers defensively are facing the most prolific offense in the entire NFL. The Saints average 411.5 (1st) yards per game and, with their aerial attack lead by Drew Brees, are averaging 319.7 (1st) yards per game. The interesting match-up is going to be the Packers secondary vs. Brees and his “toss it up turf circus”. Saints WR, Lance Moore, caught 32 balls last year for only 2 TD’s. This year he’s already snagged 52 for over 600 yards and 5 TD’s. Moore is Brees’ favorite target. Look for another lock-down performance from Al Harris. With both Deuce McCallister and Reggie Bush ailing, don’t expect much from Aaron Stecker or Pierre Thomas and the run game.
For Green Bay, Rodgers and Grant were one heck of a tandem last week but it all started up front. Chad Clifton had one of his better games last week and the interior linemen (Spitz, Wells and College) were stellar in both run and pass blocking assignments. If the O-line has a repeat performance, don’t even look for this one to be close.
The Packers have a solid pass defense and the Saints don’t run the ball very well. With Reggie Bush looking as if he’s out, New Orleans’ already is coming into this game with a special teams deficit. The Packers have been consistently decent in that department.
Once again, the Packers best defense is their offense. The dome is going to be rockin’ and that seemed to be a real problem in Minnesota, so hopefully, with that experience behind them, they’ll have a better idea of what they’re in for. This is the first time the Saints have been on their home turf in a month (London, Bye Week and 3 road games). You know their fans are itching to come out in full throat tonight.
I know Vegas is booking this one with the Saints giving a point but I’ll go one better 27-17 Packers. The Packers defense, remember, gives up a bunch of yardage but not a lot of points. That’s the caveat that I’ll keep in my back pocket for this one but remember, I’ve got a big butt and I could end up squashing my caveat.
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This past Sunday, the Packers beat the Bears 37-3. The drubbing was received well by thousands of Packers fans. As I opened my email, during the post-game show, I was blown away by the number of listeners who dropped me their thoughts regarding Brett Favre. Now, let me preface this by saying that after a Packers loss all of the “Favre Kool-Aid Drinkers” come out of the woodwork to point out how wrong McCarthy, Thompson and yours truly were wrong about the ugly off-season divorce. But this was a win. This was a rivalry shellacking. So why were all of the Favre-Aid Drinkers coming out of the woodwork?
Apparently, during FOX’s NFL Pre-Game Show, Terry Bradshaw went off about how the Packers would be 7-2 or 8-1 if Favre were still the Green Bay signal caller. Bradshaw, in his rant, claims that the Packers have one of the BEST offensive lines in all of the NFL and that McCarthy and Thompson were wrong in running #4 out of town.
CLICK HERE to hear Bradshaw on FOX's NFL PRE-GAME SHOW
Let me say a few things before I give you MY rant;First of all, I’ve always thought that the way the divorce went down, the public airing of grievances, was wrong. I was, and still am, in favor of the team giving their up and comer a chance, a chance that’s paid off so far by the way.
Secondly, if Brett Favre were walking down the street and stopped suddenly, all that you’d see of Bradshaw and ESPN’s Christ Mortensen would be their feet hanging out of Brett’s rear end. That’s how close they are to kissing his #$s.
“One of the best offensive lines in the NFL”, this is where Bradshaw loses his credibility. It wasn’t until game 7 last year that this vaunted line started blocking worth a darn. It took them a year and a half to understand the simplified zone blocking scheme. It was the addition and emergence of Ryan Grant that started everything clicking. Did Bradshaw watch the Tennessee game? Did Bradshaw watch the Packers / Vikings game the week prior? Did Bradshaw see the defense play via the o’ le’ method of tackling on the final two drives of those games?
Tell me Terry, what games WOULD Brett have won this season? Would it have been the Tampa game, the Atlanta game, the Dallas Game, the Vikings in the dome?
OK, I’ll give you that Brett might have brought this team back in the Tampa game or the Atlanta game, possibly in the Tennessee game. Then again, Favre might have thrown another record increasing interception as he has so frequently done in the past. Dallas? Please! He was awful against Dallas last year. It was Rodgers that brought the Packers back to the threshold of victory in that game last year. What makes you think that he suddenly “has their number” this year?
Bradshaw vented about how effective Favre was last season and what a great coaching job McCarthy did with the entire offense. Bradshaw proclaimed that the Packers were only one game away from going to the Super Bowl.
Terry, do you remember who threw the INT that cost the Packers the Super Bowl? Of course it was Plaxico Burress that had a tremendous game via Al Harris but let us not forget about the lack of a pass rush which allowed Manning to sit in the pocket and loft pass after pass to his primary receiver.
Brett, had Tom Brady not had such a great season, would have won his 4th MVP Award and rightfully so. He was tremendous last year. Everything clicked for the Packers, injuries were at a minimum, fumbles and INTs bounced their way, special teams finally emerged, players played to their maximum, everything fell in to place for this team. For Bradshaw to make a statement that in no, way, shape or form could ever substantiated clearly shows his bias for Brett.
The former Steelers QB pandered shamelessly for the fans and Brett and didn’t deliver the knowledgeable insight that you’d expect from a “analyst”. Bradshaw has clearly taken a step back in credibility.
One more thing Terry, you’ve been singing the praises of Aaron Rodgers, does that make all of your prior statements about the Packers current QB inaccurate?
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