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According to Tom Pelissero of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, B.J. Raji is ready for an increased workload. That's partially based upon his solid play in the past two games. "Raji played the best game of his young career on Oct. 25 at Cleveland, where he registered two solo tackles in 14 snaps and showed his restored explosion by driving back veteran guard Hank Fraley during a goal-line stand," writes Pelissero. "He had two more solo tackles in 12 snaps Sunday against Minnesota — a performance that would have graded out better had he not drawn a 15-yard face mask penalty." The Packers didn't draft Raji for overall for nothing. It would be nice if he stepped up an made an impact down the stretch.

With quarterback Aaron Rodgers sidelined with an injury during the first few practices this week, backup Matt Flynn has been getting an increased amount of snaps with the no. 1 offense and has reportedly looked good. "I actually thought he had a very good day today," head coach McCarthy is quoted as saying by Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He's throwing the ball with more velocity. It's nice to see the improvement that he's made from Year 1 to Year 2. The ability to throw with more velocity, playing with his feet, his time clock has definitely picked up. I thought he did a lot of good things today."

For a guy that rarely misses practice, the fact that Donald Driver has missed a few this week comes as a mild concern. "Driver’s status after suffering a stinger last Sunday sounded slightly less certain," writes Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com. "Asked if he thinks Driver will practice on Friday, McCarthy responded, 'I hope so. Donald doesn't miss practice, so we'll see where he is tomorrow.' However, McCarthy said he 'definitely would consider playing Donald without any practice.'" You have to figure Driver will be ready by Sunday. Because if he didn't play, the Packers would head into the game versus the Buccaneers with their top receivers being Greg Jennings, James Jones and then Jake Allen.

McCarthy has been mum on tight end Jermichael Finley's availability for this weekend's game, but a more encouraging report came from one of the assistant coaches. "The Packers aren't expected to have Finley available this week, but (tight ends coach Ben) McAdoo reported that he's pretty close to being healthy again and was bouncing around during the jog-through as though he were ready to jump into the huddle for the next play," reports Silverstein.

Speaking of tight end, the Associated Press (and I can only assume Chris Jenkins) profiles Spencer Havner. "Making the most of his increased playing time in the wake of an injury to tight end Jermichael Finley, Havner has caught three touchdowns in the Packers' past two games, tying him with Donald Driver for the team lead," according to the AP. Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that Havner would be tied for the team lead in touchdown receptions?

With Brandon Chillar out for a couple weeks with a broken hand, it appears A.J. Hawk is going to get a majority of snaps in the nickel defense, but all the inside linebackers are getting some practice time. "According to Hawk, he, Nick Barnett and Desmond Bishop have been rotating at the two inside linebacker spots to get well-versed in all of the packages in case of injury," writes Bill Huber of Packer Report.

Aaron Nagler of Cheesehead TV calls for more of Ahman Green in the running game. "It took one play on Sunday for Green to show what he could do to help the Packers’ offense in an area that has been nothing short of abysmal under coach Mike McCarthy," writes Nagler. "Catching a  short swing pass out of the backfield it looked like he was dead to rights. But Green slipped the tackle, turned up-field and ran for a first down. It’s a play we’ve seen Ryan Grant fail to make time and time again, but Green makes it look effortless." One play is an awfully small sample size, but one thing is for sure. Grant has failed to deliver with a much larger sample size.

Gene Bosling of Ol' Bag of Donuts is critical of Aaron Rodgers. "There’s the other side of Rodgers, what you see on Sundays: Too many snaps where he looks 20-25 yards down field, makes a read or two there and never comes back to a checkdown," writes Bosling. "The times where he seems not to have the “internal clock” to step up and feel a pass rush like the great ones so often do. The red-zone inefficiency. The games where he doesn’t really get the offense clicking until the Packers are throwing every down in the second half."

Monty of Total Packers finds that the Packers make the playoffs after 10,001 simulations.

Greg C. of Packers Lounge wonders if this past Sunday's game was a "signature loss."

Railbird endorsed video: Enjoy "Used to Get High for a Living" by the John Butler Trio. Great song...