Thanks go out to faithful Railbird Central reader Hans for coming up with some tidbits after the APB we put out yesterday. This comes from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Packer Insider. I hope we're not breaking any rules, but here's just some little tidbits. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, right?

On A.J. Hawk's performance in pass coverage, Bob McGinn said, "His coverage against skilled RB Matt Forte was more than adequate and coordinator Bob Sanders credited him with relaying his electronic calls without a hitch.

"He also choked down some of Forte's options as a receiver by moving up aggressively to chuck him."

Eric Baranczyk also adds, "When Hawk was playing the true mike linebacker spot in the 4-3, his pass responsibility was low hole or flat. I think he might be better suited to that, too. He didn't have to run with the tight end. Hawk can run with them, but his hips seem a little stiff and he gives up ground when the tight ends start making their cuts. Inside, he's much better suited to his assignment: Running with the running back and tackling him."

The six receptions by Matt Forte this past week still bother me, but Hawk has been getting rave reviews. The question is, "Will Hawk get help this week?"

Regardless of how well he played last week, Reggie Bush is still way faster than Hawk. How will the Packers contain him when he comes out of the backfield.

Published in the November 10 issue of the Sporting News, RealScouts has some information on what makes Reggie Bush so dangerous:

"Reggie Bush creates havoc. More receiver than runner, he lines up all over the field -- in the slot, out wide, offset or in the I-formation -- to get the ball in space and outrun defenders. He makes linebackers look silly in the open field, and when safeties cover him it leaves wide receivers facing single coverage."

When Bush lines up as a receiver or in the slot, he'll obviously have a member of the secondary and most likely one of the Packers' shut-down corners covering him. But it will be interesting to see how the Packers defending Bush catching passes out in the flat.

An article written for SportingNews.com in part by the Journal Sentinel's Tom Silverstein thinks it has the answer:

"Assuming Bush plays, the defense has to put two men on him almost every play to make sure he doesn't beat them. That probably means playing nickel defense much of the game and taking a chance that the Saints won't run the ball a lot. A combination of linebacker Brandon Chillar and safety Nick Collins or Chillar and cornerback Charles Woodson would be able to shadow him. It wouldn't take that much away from the rest of the defense because the corners play man-to-man to begin with and are expected to cover their man without help."

On the heels of some debate about A.J. Hawk's performance against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, we're sending out an APB for anyone with some information on Hawk's duties in pass coverage on Matt Forte.

Does anyone out there have a copy of the game they can watch to identify Hawk's responsibilities in pass coverage against the Bears?

Matt Forte had six receptions against the Packers, a high number coming out of the backfield. We're looking to find out exactly how many of those receptions came against Hawk in coverage.

With the Saints and their aerial attack coming up, there's some concern about how the Packers might try to contain Reggie Bush coming out of the backfield. We're looking to preview the Saints game and give some concern to how the Packers might try to defend the Saints.

If you have any information on this subject, leave your answers in the comments.

After every single Green Bay Packers game here at Railbird Central, we bring you the silver lining. In a loss, it's the reason for optimism. In a win, it's an unexpected performance. Either way, it's good news for Packers fans.

This week's silver lining: new personnel groupings.

The Packers got creative a couple of times in the game against the Chicago Bears. It didn't happen many times, so you may have missed it.

One of the more unique instances of player groupings occured in the second quarter when the Packers stopped Bears running back Matt Forte on third-and-1.

The defense used a 4-4 front including Desmond Bishop and Brady Poppinga in at linebacker. Forte was stuffed and the little used Bishop was in on the tackle.

One has to wonder whether the Packers will be using that grouping of players more often considering their troubles this season in defending against the run.

Number one, they get more run stuffing help up front. And number two, the defensive backs seem more than capable of fending for themselves despite less help in the secondary given their performance this year.

As for the offensive side of the ball, there were a handful of times in which rookie tight end Jermichael Finley was split out wide as a wide receiver.

The Packers only kept four receivers active on the game day 45-man roster with Ruvell Martin forced to the sidelines. But even with Martin gone, the Packers were able to use Finley in some space.

If the Packers are forced to keep one receiver de-actived on gamedays, it's nice to see they have some flexibility to still be able to spread the offense outside of the tackle box. And that's especially important if the Packers ever suffer and in-game injury to one of the four receivers they keep activated.

Flexibility on both sides of the ball is a good trait. And that's your silver lining.

Photo credit: Flickr user radranny

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:

The red chip, solid performances:

The cow chip, crappy performances:

• The continued lack of sacks -- Just one sack yesterday against a team that was behind nearly the whole game and you just knew when they were going to be in a passing situation. The one sack came from Charles Woodson too. The defensive line has to find a way to get to the quarterback. The Packer linebackers just don't have a knack for blitzing.
•  
• Kickoff returns -- Will Blackmon has proved himself as a punt returner with two touchdowns already this year, but the kickoff returns just haven't been there. Blackmon returned two kicks for a paltry 14.0 yard average on Sunday. The Packers certainly didn't need the field position, but they will in the future.

 1. Greg Bedard of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noticed it first, and he was spot on:

If I'm the Bears, I go after Hawk all day in pass coverage against all of their running backs. That is a huge, huge, huge mismatch. Hawk isn't right physically, I don't care what he says. He can't cover tight ends right now, let alone any of the Bears' running backs.

Matt Forte is a big contributor in what has been a bumper crop of rookie running backs across the NFL. Forte hasn't been overwhelming running the ball, but when combined with his skills catching the ball out of the backfield, he's been a dangerous threat.

Hawk is a step slow as it is, and now as a middle linebacker, he's going to have to cover running backs coming out of the backfield in pass coverage more often than he had a weakside linebacker.

The Bears exploited Hawk when Forte had six receptions for 60 yards on the day. 

2. Give credit to oft-injured defensive tackle Justin Harrell for playing through the pain. After suffering through a knee sprain earlier in the week and being listed as questionable, Harrell gutted it out and showed some mettle for perhaps the first time in his professional career.

For being much-maligned in his young professional life, it was nice to see Harrell step it up a notch.

3. On Fox's broadcast, Troy Aikman mentioned that Donald Driver has been playing through un-reported nagging health problems. Aikman specifically mentioned turf toe. Driver at one point limped off the sideline and it was possible that he aggravated this here-to-fore unknown health impairment.

Driver returned to the game and didn't appear to be visibly affected.