Jennings out ’til playoffs

Jennings is a good player and key to what we do on offense. However, if there is one guy on the team who can be out for a bit only to come back and not miss a beat – it’s Jennings. He’s smart, he knows what’s going on and he will be able to jump back in and contribute come playoff time without a problem. I don’t want to over-silver-line this issue here (if you will), but with Jennings out, this may give Cobb a chance to show what he can do as he will now be part of the 4 WR sets.

The Pack will be OK.

Game Thoughts Packers/Raiders

• Rodgers had an off game. 2 tds to 1 pick and a number of drives stopped (but at least FGs) deep in Raider territory. More significant however, was the fact that he was 17 of 30. Why is this significant? Because Aaron Rodgers knows he was 17 of 30 and he also knows that his last few games have brought his incredible completion percentage down quite a bit (it was over 72% I believe until the last few games). He gets fired up about things like this. He demands perfection from himself and when he’s not great, it ticks him off. Look for a big game from Rodgers next week at KC. He’ll be ticked.
• Great overall effort by the team today. Not surprising that the Raiders didn’t show up. They are no longer good.
• Francois and Smith both made some tremendously athletic plays. That is the second pick now by Francois when he’s extended fully and made a great hands catch high like that. He is a talented dude. Both guys had 7 tackles and were just very active out there. It’s interesting when I see that they were tied for 2nd in tackles (Burnett had 10), it makes me wonder again why there is often a big difference in tackles between Bishop and Hawk. These two manned the middle well today.
• Peprah had a huge hit today. I like to see that. Great play (I believe against Louis Murphy).
• I thought it was kind of lame when Slocum was all worked up over the missed extra point – we were up 43-7 at that moment. Then McCarthy came over to check on the situation. That wasn’t tight coaching seeking perfection – that was a meeting of coaches who were so thoroughly bored they simply were trying to conjure up drama.
• It was nice to see Grant have a good game. A few of his runs were as good as they were primarily because he made the right decisions/cuts and that’s a comfort. He ran with an energy today that was very positive.
• I enjoy watching Shane Lechler punt. He didn’t have his best day today, but he’s still fun to watch. Every year, he and Mike Scifres, the punter for San Diego, place a significant wager on which guy will have the best gross average. And every year, it’s usually really close between those two. Right now Lechler is ahead by 2 yards (50.8 to 48.7). Nice lives they have – I’m jealous.
• Shocking that as immobile as Carson Palmer is back there, we had just 1 sack. I thought it would be a sackfest back there today. Maybe it would have been but instead Palmer just threw up easy picks.
• Once again McCarthy called a great game. Even though Rodgers stats weren’t that great, we had a nice mix of run pass and as has often been the case recently, we’ve left defenses guessing most of the game. Very nice.
• The Packers are really good and this is really fun.

McClain should be in jail…

…but he’s had a couple nice plays today.

Rodgers in a rare jerk move…

Very interesting that he didn’t take Curry’s hand to get helped up there. I know he was probably ticked at the possibility that his “error” may have led to a TD for Oakland, but that just seemed odd to me. Curry’s hit wasn’t dirty or anything. Kind of a jerk move there.

Horrendous decision by Houston to clip Kuhn

Kuhn was being outrun by Wembley – surprisingly by quite a bit – and he wasn’t going to catch him. Just a bad decision.

Throw the challenge flag

Why isn’t McCarthy challenging ?Ok there we go. The play is closer than Simms/Nantz make it seem. It almost looked like Rodgers tried to check up on the throw as soon as Curry hit him, resulting in a fumble. This could be tough to overturn.

It also doesn’t really matter at all as Palmer will just get sacked and fumble on one of the next plays.

Also, take Rodgers out. I’m not kidding. This is a terrible game and we shouldn’t risk injury in a blowout like this. If the game were closer I’d feel differently.

Nice block by Finley

Finley held off a big dude opening up the lane for Grant there. Very nice.

Now take Rodgers out.

Pull Rodgers

I’m only sort of kidding. He just took a helmet-to-helmet shot there. We have total control of this game right now. Honestly, one more TD and I pull him.

There are 2 picks

Terrible pass by Palmer – also probably bad route by Heyward-Bey. That guy is so bad.

Unstoppable

Just didn’t figure this one would be close at all. Raiders aren’t that good. They are a different team with Darren McFadden in there as he’s a threat every time he touches the ball. They are seriously overmatched in this one.