Wilde, others reporting Michael Philbin’s body has been recovered from Fox River

Jason Wilde and others are reporting that Packer players have been informed that the body of Michael Philbin, son of Joe Philbin, has been recovered from the Fox river in Oshkosh.

This is just really sad. Our thoughts and prayers are with Joe Philbin and his family.

Philbin’s son missing

Read here. Joe Philbin’s 21 year old son has been missing since late Sat night/early Sun morning. Scary. Hope they find him and hope that he’s OK.

Tauscher says thanks

Follow the links from here to see the full page ad Tauscher put in Sunday’s paper. Classy.

We should thank Mark Tauscher for his contributions over the years as well. Fantastic player but also a high quality human being. Smart. Was great to listen to on local sports radio – he knows his stuff (so much so that it’s natural to wonder if he’ll eventually get into coaching).

Friend of mine golfed with him last year and said he’s just a stand up guy.

Packers/Giants Pre-Preview

Thought I’d offer up some thoughts on the game far in advance and then some closer to game-time as my feelings about a game seem to evolve throughout the course of the week.

• I’m just not worried about the Giants like I feel I should be. Their O-Line has been dominant. Manning and his WRs have looked really good and Bradshaw and Jacobs are finally getting into the action. And the rise of their D-Line is bringing back bad memories of 2007 for Packer fans. But I’m just not that worried.
• The Giants have been up and down this year and this latest rally probably wouldn’t have happened had either of the last 2 games been on the road. They aren’t a great home team either, but I think they really fed off the energy of their home crowd in the last two games and they won’t have that advantage this week.
• If I were Coach McCarthy, I would put together a 1/2 hr video with of Eli Manning looking like a loser after a poor play – whining, Brandon Jacobs being disgruntled, their punter deciding himself to fake a punt and having it fail, Hakeem Nicks dropping easy TD passes and of course a number of highlights of their defensive deficiencies (especially LBs and secondary) earlier this year. Maybe throw in a highlight from the 2010 season of DeSean Jackson running back the punt to eliminate the Giants. The segue between all the clips would be Tom Coughlin’s trademark bewildered expression – the one he sports so often when something goes wrong. The goal of doing this would be to remind Packer players that this NYG’s team is not far removed from some seriously shoddy play and plenty of internal turmoil. (Coughlin was on the hotseat earlier this year – remember?) While they are riding some very positive momentum presently, it could take just 1 or 2 big turnover plays or other huge errors on their part to set them far enough back mentally to interfere with their ability to compete. The Packers don’t have that problem right now.
• The LBs and DBs for the Giants are just not good. When their pass rush is awesome, it can distract folks from the incompetence of the rest of the D (like yesterday vs Atlanta). So yes, if we allow their pass rush to be too disruptive, we could struggle some. But we can’t forget that overall this unit finished the regular season as the #27 overall defense in yards allowed, #29 in pass yards against and #19 in rushing yards against. This is not a good defense and while Rodgers may get sacked and hit a few times, our offense should be able to march right through the Giants’ D.
• I can’t explain why I am so convinced of this, but I believe the Packers’ defense will be the story of the playoffs. And not a bad story. The unit has been awful this year – averaging more yards allowed per game by the defense than the counterpart offense gains on average. But it has also had moments of quietly stepping up at big times. There is just something different about the playoffs and I think this defense will tighten up and make it very difficult for Eli and company to move the ball.
• Dom Capers better have some backup plans in case we’re not getting enough pressure on Eli (like trying So’oto at ROLB, moving Bishop to ROLB, trying Francois at ROLB, pulling Woodson out of coverage to be a roving presence/always a threat to blitz like Polamalu, other weird blitz looks, etc, etc.) Pressuring Eli will be a huge part of this game. Odd then that I’m so confident the D will play well Sunday when pressuring the QB has been a big problem this year. I guess I just think guys like Raji, Matthews, Bishop and Woodson will be quite disruptive Sunday.
• I do hope that McCarthy and the offense have been working on screen passes, play action and the running game. The Giants pass rush is so aggressive that with some crafty dump passes over and around the NYG D-Linemen, or some sneaky running plays, the Pack can quickly temper that aggressiveness. If they have the chance to straight rush as Rodgers sits in the pocket, we could be in trouble.
• I don’t see this being an especially high scoring game like a few weeks back. I can see the Pack maybe having 27 or 28 points and the Giants having 13 or 14 or so.

Rodgers for MVP

Can’t argue with Silverstein here. I think he makes a very solid case.

Game Thoughts Packers/Lions

• What a wacky game. Just wacky.
• The Packers pulled out what was a surprising track meet of a game. I had assumed going into the game that because of the weather, both teams would have at least some trouble throwing the ball. Absolutely unreal clinic both Flynn and Stafford put on today.
• On the other hand, really amazing just how bad both defenses are. Detroit’s secondary is pathetic. They weren’t good to begin with, but were made quite a bit worse a few weeks ago when Louis Delmas went down. He’ll be back for the playoffs so Detroit could be at least slightly more competent defensively come playoff time.
• Has to injure the morale of the Lions to be taken down by the Pack minus a number of our best players. One gamble of playing your starters in a game that may not mean a lot like this is not just the risk of injury but the mental damage that is done by losing to the back-ups.
• There were a number of boneheaded plays in that game (Pat Lee, Walden, Bishop, Jordy on that clearly dropped punt that the refs blew). We need to clean that sort of stuff up for the playoffs. Even one of those kinds of plays can ruin a game.
• Matt Flynn threw for 480 yards and 6 TDs. That is absolutely unreal for a backup to come in and do that. Unreal.
• The Packers had 2 sacks on that day. In a game where the running games were very obviously being shunned, it is pathetic that we only had 2 sacks. I know Matthews wasn’t in, but someone else has to be able to get some pressure. Nice to see So’oto get one at least – give that guy more time. Walden continues to be a complete liability.
• Matthew Stafford is really, really good. Some of those throws were stunning. The announcers rightfully got all excited about the throw in there to Scheffler – that was in such a tight window it was scary. As much as I always enjoy watching super talented people do their thing – I’m a bit concerned about the future having to face this guy year in and year out. He will start winning games like these before we know it. Talented guy.
• Calvin Johnson is also frightening. Tramon was atrocious playing him today, but nobody else in the league can defend the guy either. No WR has the combination of size, strength and speed the Johnson has. He truly is a freak and easily the best WR in football.
• Exciting to have a 15-1 season. A major reason for the success of the Pack this year has been Mike McCarthy. Capers and his defensive unit certainly haven’t helped out much. So that leaves McCarthy. He has put together some high quality game plans, and coached up the players so that they can execute his game plans. He has done a heck of job this year. In my mind, there is absolutely no question that he is the coach of the year this year.
• Congrats Packers – and good luck in the playoffs!

Should we bench Rodgers for the playoffs?

Just kidding. But wow- does Flynn look comfortable out there.

On the other side – nice defense we have. I realize our studs aren’t in there but our defense remains a real question mark.

Flynn has 402 yards passing – unreal

Unreal. I heard lots of talk about how important it would be to have Rodgers avoid injury this week so that he’s healthy for the playoffs. I generally agree with that – but I didn’t agree when those same folks would talk about how screwed we’d be without him. Rodgers is awesome and I definitely prefer that he play over Flynn – but Flynn has shown today just how good McCarthy’s system is – and how good Flynn himself is.

why is jordy still in there?

take him out.

vanden bosch is a tool