After every Green Bay Packers game, Railbird Central will provide you with a look back while we hand out our blue chip, red chips and cow chips for yesterday's performance.
The blue chip, amazing performances:
-
Greg Jennings -- It's hard to classify anyone's performance as being "blue chip" yesterday, but Jennings comes close. He's on his way to his first Pro Bowl berth this upcoming February. After another 100-plus yard performance, Jennings leads the entire NFL in receiving yardage. He's at his best after the catch when he almost always makes the first guy miss, and frequently the second and third guys too. He's learned well from Donald Driver.
Nick Collins -- Not only does Collins have three interceptions this season after having had only four in his previous three seasons combined, but he's showing an aggressiveness in his tackling this year that he has never shown before. The Packers are definitely struggling without Atari Bigby in the defensive secondary, so it was nice to see Collins display a little toughness and return to the lineup against Tampa Bay. In one memorable play, a Buccaneer receiver got a reception downfield, and while the rest of the defensive backs were positioning to make an open field tackle, in came a diving Collins to take the receiver's legs out from under him.
The red chip, solid performances:
-
The young cornerbacks -- Tramon Williams wasn't perfect, but his number of good plays outnumbered his bad ones. He gave up a handful of completions, but his interception helped make up for it. The play of Will Blackmon and Jarrett Bush were the most encouraging. When it was known Al Harris would be missing several games at the minimum, that was a scary thought. Williams, Blackmon and Bush helped weather the storm.
-
Brady Poppinga -- It was really hard coming up with a second red chip performance. Poppinga comes the closest after leading the team with 12 tackles including one for a loss. He was very active although he among others gave up too many yards against the rush.
The cow chip, crappy performances:
-
Run offense -- Grant started off the game with four rushes for 17 yards. While that was spectacular, the yards were hard-fought including one rush that went for a first down. It went all downhill from there. Fifteen rushes for twenty yards for a paltry 1.3 yard average was not what the Packers were looking for especially since Scott Wells returned to the starting lineup. The number of rushes that went for either zero or negative yardage was simply unacceptable.
-
Run defense -- After getting torched by Marion Barber and Felix Jones of the Cowboys, the Packers got beat by Earnest Graham of the Buccaneers to the tune of 111 yards on 20 carries for a 5.6 yard average and an additional 63 yards by Warrick Dunn. The front seven of the Packer defense is not playing exceptionally well this season and the only difference from last year is the loss of Corey Williams. Now Williams was a good player, but should he alone be the difference? Where are the '07 versions of Nick Barnett and Ryan Pickett?
-
Derrick Frost -- Do you think getting rid of Jon Ryan was a mistake yet?