I feel it too, Packer fans

I’m not sure I’ve ever felt worse for Packer fans than I did after last night’s game. Sure, I felt badly for all of us during the 70s and 80s. I felt bad for us when Jerry Rice clearly fumbled in the playoffs in the 90s and the officials considered him down. But this was particularly harsh. Our beloved QB Brett Favre leaves in 2008 and ends up on the rival Packer fans hate with all their might. Then, in the first showdown in Oct, the Packers get outplayed and lose in good part because of Favre. That hurt, but we still had the more important showdown at Lambeau to look forward to. So, then that game comes and the crowd is jacked up and the boos are loud. In a way, maybe we were thinking a Packer win would somehow return this whole messy situation at least to a balance point. But then Favre, of all people, has a fantastic game, shreds the defense and Packer fans are left to watch as THE most fair-weather fans in all of sports (if there can be such a distinction), jump around and taunt classy GB fans – who just absorbed it.

We didn’t have anything to do with Favre’s retirement indecision or personal conflicts between Favre/management. We didn’t have anything to do with Brett Favre’s decision to maneuver his way to the hated rival. We just follow closely the team we love. And last night, I just plain felt badly for Packer fans, the greatest fans in any sport.

Game Thoughts

• Yikes, ugly. While I was glad I could go for the experience – this ended up being a painful game to attend.
• Brutally hard loss to accept – especially watching Favre on the sidelines afterward getting high fives from teammates. Brutally difficult loss. It wasn’t fun watching and listening to idiot Viking fans who are now acting like they’ve been true to their team during good times and bad.
• That said, Brett Favre was fantastic. I was dead wrong – absolutely dead wrong daring the MN pass game to beat us again on our home field. They did it no problem today. Favre was efficient, but far more shocking to me was the MN coaching.
• Brad Childress and perhaps now to a greater extent than before, Darrell Bevell called a smart game. Do you have any idea how difficult that is for me to admit? I think Childress sucks as a coach – and I dread having to consider the possibility that he’s getting better. They went to Peterson a fair amount, but they called smart pass plays especially when they anticipated a blitz or any pressure – often throwing to the side the blitz was coming from. Watching the game live, it was tremendously frustrating to see MN either pick up the blitz super well or Favre just make a pass so quickly the effect of our blitz was negated.
• But one of the brilliant coaching decisions by MN in the first half was to pick on Tramon Williams. I’m not sure if the announcers talked about it, but at one point, I unofficially had the Vikes throwing at Williams on 6-7 pass plays, almost in a row – in the second quarter. Only at Williams. Favre completed a couple passes to Rice, a couple Harvin and then Berrian all while Tramon was responsible for those guys. He finished off that drive with a TD pass to Shiancoe, covered by yes, Tramon Williams. I didn’t think Williams was THAT much of a liability coming into this game, but the MN coaches must have seen something because they certainly went after the right guy tonight.
• I think another intentional part of MN’s game plan was to simply avoid Charles Woodson at all costs. You’ll probably remember, if you think about it, how infrequently you heard Woodson’s name called (2 tackles). If indeed that was the game plan, that was smart.
• I don’t like losing at home so much.
• Aaron Rodgers was off in the first half. Yes, he was running for his life and it is awfully difficult to play confidently under that kind of duress. But he made some particularly poor plays (choosing not to throw/run) that cost us downs. Rodgers needs to occasionally take a chance and throw a bullet here or there into tighter coverage. He did that once tonight on a critical 3rd down pass completed to Driver (that Driver caught but then it looked like MN stripped it clean, no?). If Rodgers were surrounded by a stud team with few weaknesses, he could play game manager more – but considering this team has holes, we need him to get more creative in the playmaking area.
• I agree 100% with Joshy. Mike McCarthy has patience of a 5th grader w/the offensive playcalling. It seems the second we fall behind, he abandons the run. In this game, throwing in more running plays throughout might have given our defense a breather, which it seemed to need. It would have also made our playcalling less predictable and made people like Jared Allen have to play more honestly. Ryan Grant, at one point, had a nice gainer on a play when Allen rushed upfield leaving a gaping hole behind him to his left. He wasn’t playing honest and it burned MN. We did that once. Even when we’re passing to save time and catch-up quick, running the ball has it’s place (like on 2nd down and 2 on the series in the fourth quarter when Crosby missed the field goal).
• My dad, Brother disagreed with me re the 51 yard field goal. They didn’t mind the call. I did not like the call and here’s why. If we were in a tight, defense-oriented game and we needed that field goal, maybe. But our defense had given up a fair number of points/yards up to that point and a miss would give the Vikings a short field again. I was just not convinced the defense would hold. I wanted to go for it. Yes, that would have been a risk, but at least it would have essentially put the outcome of the game in the hands of, at that time, the hotter unit. And, a failed 4th down try would have given the ball back to the Vikes with slightly less decent field position (7 yards further back). Of course the real problem there is that the defense didn’t hold and gave up a TD, not a FG but a TD.
• I liked seeing Desmond Bishop in there. He appeared to play pretty well from my hugely biased perspective, with at least one big hit (on an important 3rd down play). We were sitting behind a guy with a Hawk jersey and at one point, after our not-so-quiet championing of Bishop, he turned around and I thought we were going to hear it. Instead, he sheepishly pointed to his jersey and said “Bishop should be playing in front of this guy, I know”. Looks like Bishop may have the chance now to see the field, though it’s too bad it’s because Chillar got hurt.
• I was worried about Percy Harvin when he was drafted and I am not surprised at all by how successful he is. He was, like Steve Slaton, a highlight reel in college – so far and away better than anyone he came up against. The guy is very shifty and better off the line than you’d think considering his size. Despite being constantly sick/injured, he’s tough.
• Quinn Johnson, from where I was sitting, missed several blocks. On one play I was all excited to see him in there and ready to shut up Jared Allen and he missed him, and I believe it was Allen who made the tackle.
• The offense seems WAY out of sync in the first half. Almost like not just 1 but maybe 2-3 guys were screwing up on nearly every play. That was one of the worst first half performances I’ve seen from a Packers offense. When I watch something like this and then consider our chronic penalty problem, it begs the questions: is Mike McCarthy communicating well enough? Are his plays too complicated or unnecessarily complicated? Are the players not studying up well enough?
• I would be very interested to see play charts of which sides of our defense opposing teams prefer to run to/pass to. My belief is this: they have much more success running to the right side and more success passing to the left. Kampman has been very disappointing when it comes to generating a pass rush from his DE/OLB position. Very. But he’s been quite good at stuffing the run when it comes to his side. When the Vikes were busy going nuts on Tramon Williams, I believe all of those passes were to the left side of the defense over Kampman. It’s possible putting Kampman up on the line with his hands down, or even his lack of speed in space may lead teams to believe that there is more room to work routes on that side.
• Coaching – this is the second time Mike McCarthy was soundly outcoached by Brad Childress. Importantly, this is the second time Dom Capers was outcoached by MN coaching. These two in particular need to get this figured out and figured out fast because we’ve got some tough games coming up. Brother Steve and I just marveled in the first half at how incredibly off McCarthy’s sense of game flow seemed to be. Throwing bombs, not running – it’s hard to remember specific plays. I just remember the feeling that he didn’t have a good rhythm for the game. And if I’m not mistaken, that happens in most first quarters with Mike McCarthy. I’d be very curious to find stats on that because one of the issues I have with McCarthy is that the team doesn’t ever seem to start fast and get that lead. With Holmgren, I remember the team would often score on the first drive.
• McCarthy also needs to make his players play with more discipline than they do. The penalties are ridiculous. But the players too need to be accountable. (And by the way, as bad as the Jolly penalty was, I’m still trying to figure out how he ended up on the ground after that without there being another penalty called).
• Ahman Green was brought in I believe in good part to block on passing plays. He made a couple subtle, but very effective chip blocks on a few successful pass plays.
• Spencer Havner is becoming just plain good. He seems to have a Mark Chmura-like ability to just find that open spot.
• On another positive note, that is yet another game now where Nick Barnett has been quite active. I wasn’t watching him the whole time so I can’t be sure if he screwed up big-time at any point or not. (“I’ll have to watch the game film…”). But when I did watch him, he was very active. That’s encouraging because if he starts looking at all like he did in 2007, the middle of our defense will benefit greatly. And Barnett being into the games may also help develop Bishop if he keeps getting more chances.
• Another positive, of course, was our comeback. While I’m getting tired of writing comments like these after tough losses, it matters at least somewhat that we came back in the second half and made a strong effort – we were arguably just a few plays from winning that game. Now, MM just needs to figure out how to get the team to start like games like this.
• I’m still not done yet with this team. This loss was disappointing, but as hard as it is for most of us to admit, we lost to one of the top 3 teams in the NFC right now (I’d say it’s New Orleans, Philly and MN in that order). We need to get ready for some brutal match-ups and just take care of business. We also need to be one really good team to give us a needed boost of confidence.

Packers vs Vikings Game Keys

• Ryan Grant, Brandon Jackson, (Ahman Green??), John Kuhn and Quinn Johnson. I particularly like reader RayMidge’s suggestion that the Pack try to work in Brandon Jackson a bit more (but still get Grant 20+ carries). I think McCarthy may go heavier with the run than he has before and it will pay off. I think McCarthy is aware of the declining reputation of Minnesota’s once vaunted run defense – they’re just not as good as they used to be. Also, I know my praise for Antoine Winfield borders on ridiculous, but his absence is huge and not just for the passing game. Winfield does more from his CB position that just about any CB in the league, including stepping up and stopping big runs. Couple Winfield’s absence with EJ Henderson either not playing or playing hurt and that makes the tackling at the second/third level suspect. Look for Ryan Grant to rack up some big yardage tomorrow.
• If I were McCarthy, I’d start early on with a few run plays right at Jared Allen, with Quinn Johnson leading the way. Johnson flattening Allen would show immediately that being hyper doesn’t always win out. I’d also chuck a few screens over his head early on. Anything we can do to slow the guy down and/or limit his impact. He’s a total idiot yes, but he’s a good football player.
• Work Greg Jenning early until he gets too much attention, then shift to…James Jones. (Go to Driver throughout.) Jones could be a quiet factor in this game. The Vikes are down their best corner in Winfield, so that would leave their #4 corner trying to stay with Jones. That shouldn’t be close. It might be smart for McCarthy to throw in a play or two for new #4 WR Jake Allen, by the way. Chances are MN won’t know the first thing about him and he might be able to create a match-up problem here and there (he’s 6′3″+ and has decent hands).
• Two significant Packer players didn’t play much (or at all) in game 1 against Minnesota – Clay Matthews and Atari Bigby. Matthews did play and of course had that great strip/TD. But he’ll be on the field for far more time in this game than he was in game 1 and that’s good news. Atari Bigby, like friend Mike has said before, adds stability to our secondary because he can be trusted to be in the right place, if nothing else. Favre and co will be facing a less vulnerable defense tomorrow.
• AJ Hawk and Nick Barnett. It’s easy to be active against crappy teams like Detroit and Cleve, but both of these guys were active and looked focused/sharp. Getting production from Hawk in particular when he’s in there could be a quiet bonus.
• Cullen Jenkins. Even though his role in the 3-4 is said to be one of taking up blockers/gaps, Jenkins still manages to get stuff done. We could use a solid effort from him tomorrow. (I’ll throw in Raji too – not many really know what he’s capable of, this may be a good time to start showing it).
• Assuming McCarthy starts TJ Lang at LT, it will be a huge advantage in this game (especially compared to the first game) for the Packers to have two quality veteran players backing up the young starting RT and LT in Tauscher and Clifton.
• Jeremy Kapinos. He will have to punt at least a few times and field position will be important tomorrow.
• I’d take my chances by letting Favre beat us again. If we can shut down Peterson, but still manage to at least get some pressure on Favre when he throws, I would be absolutely shocked if the Vikes pull out the win on the strength of Favre’s play like they did in game 1. Shocked. Our defensive line-up will be stronger than it was in game 1 and their defensive line-up will be considerably worse, it’s not at Mall of America Field (still can’t get over that), and I just don’t think Favre will be mentally dialed in tomorrow. Because he’s played well in a few big games this year, for some reason, lots of people are talking about how clutch Favre is and essentially, how mentally strong he is. As great as Favre was while a Packer, one concern we did blog about toward the end of his career in GB was this tendency to seemingly check out of games mentally. You’d see it on the sidelines when the cameras showed him standing around – he’d wear this somewhat vacant “we probably can’t win this game” look. He’d do this after he made a mistake later in a game or at least when the offense had a bad turnover later in the game.  I realize that this is a totally subjective comment, but I encourage you to look for this look in the 4th quarter tomorrow because I’m pretty sure we’ll see it.

LeRoy Butler – making sense again

I strongly encourage you to follow this link to the 5 questions article by Tom Silverstein at jsonline with LeRoy Butler. Quality. I agree with 56Coop, this guy should be coaching somewhere.

 

Aaron Rodgers is really, really not bad

Growing up, my dad would often say that things were “not bad” when most others would have said they were “good” or even “great”. My mom would spend all afternoon putting together an enormously delicious Shepherds Pie and my dad would render his post-meal verdict: “that was…not bad”. If my mom had particularly outdone herself she might hear: “I will say this, that was really not bad”. When my high school soccer team won the state championship, I believe we received a collective: “that was really, really, not bad”. It wasn’t a mean habit of his at all – we all knew that anything “not bad” was actually something to be proud of. Well, using my father’s lingo, I’m comfortable saying already that Aaron Rodgers is really, really not bad.

As a preface to what I’m about to write, I want to establish the following: 1) I understand that statistics don’t always tell the whole story; 2) I realize that career passer rating isn’t the only way to measure a QB’s effectiveness and 3) I understand that Aaron Rodgers needs more games under his belt to more accurately compare him to some of the people I’m about to compare him to. With that out of the way, Aaron Rodgers has a career passer rating of 96.3. (This includes his first 3 years when he was a back-up and played in garbage time that didn’t matter – and stats from those years bring down his overall rating. If we counted only the years he’s been a starter, his rating would be 98.4. He’s #2 overall this year at 110.8.) Again, while I know Rodgers needs to play more games for this to be fair, at this moment, his 96.3 career passer rating would put Rodgers behind only Steve Young (96.8) in NFL history. Steve Young has been on top of this category for years now. The next two are Peyton Manning (95.4) and, you may be surprised by this, Tony Romo at 94.7. That’s some good company.

While I recognize that it will be difficult for Rodgers to maintain this high level of proficiency, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if he ends up doing it mostly because he is a very smart quarterback. Rodgers takes the plays that are there but at the same time, he’s been showing more this year that he can also improvise intelligently. As he continues to develop this critical balance between being smart with the ball and taking intelligent chances, my guess is that Rodgers could arrive at a Peyton Manning-like level of sensible QB decision-making. Consider the Havner TD yesterday, the long 3rd down conversion to Donald Lee yesterday, the Finley TD against the Vikes, etc. The guy has a great feel for the flow of the game, throws a beautiful ball and outside of some pocket awareness issues, has a very well-rounded game for a 2nd year starter. (And, a solid case could be made that he’s done all of this with a mediocre-at-best offensive line in front of him.) Even this early in his career, it’s already evident that Rodgers just plain gets it. In fact, I will say this: I’m growing more and more confident that some day Aaron Rodgers will end up being better than “really, really not bad” – perhaps he’ll reach “tremendously not bad” status.

Game thoughts

• Cleveland sucks.
• The O-Line looked quite good yesterday. They kept Rodgers upright and helped Grant by opening some holes.
• Grant finally ran through a couple people. Part of what made me a believer in Grant during the 2007 season was that he seemed strong enough to run guys over. Yesterday, Grant did that a couple times.
• Grant still has zero shake. There were a couple times when Grant came into the 3rd level of the defense having just a safety or cb in his way and Grant inexplicably ran right into the guy – didn’t even try to put a move on him. Still, overall, Grant was very good yesterday.
• Donald Driver is very important to this team. While Greg Jennings continues to almost be just another guy (one less TD than James Jones), Driver has taken advantage of almost every opportunity he’s had this year – and often made the most of them. He is so important to this team right now because he MUST be making the planning especially difficult for opposing defenses. It poses a great problem when opposing defenses may need to ask: which guy should we double up – Driver or Jennings?
• Aaron Rodgers had a QB rating of 155.4 yesterday – not bad…in fact, nearly perfect. His rating on the year is 110. Again, outstanding. His pass completion percentage in the last 3 games (after a shaky start) is nearly 75%.
• Nice tackle by Mason Crosby on that one Cribbs’ run back.
• As I noted yesterday during the game when McCarthy and Rodgers were laughing on the sidelines – I think it’s really important that McCarthy gets back to having some fun out there. I think he had fun in 2007 because they were winning etc. But since then, he’s been very serious. It was nice to see him enjoying himself – and it was deserved. While Cleveland is horrible, McCarthy and staff put together a quality game plan that was well-executed (after the first quarter anyway) by the players. I hope McCarthy had a cold one when they got back home last night.

Great second quarter – I’m pleased with that effort

I liked how the defense responded to some adverse circumstances in the first half. The 12 men on the field penalty was terrible and against a good team, that would have cost us. But the defense did respond on that series and held the Browns offense again. Also, when the Browns had to settle for a field goal and didn’t go up 7-0, that was a big momentum shift. The better team here is clearly winning – now let’s hope we come out in the second half with the same intensity and get a few quick TDs.

Derek Anderson sucks. I know he doesn’t have many quality receiving targets to throw to, but even when he has made throws, he’s not putting the ball anywhere near his guys. Just weak. Also, I can’t imagine why they keep Jamal Lewis in the game – that guy is so bad. He had zero burst, zero and zero ability to make people miss. So being strong doesn’t matter at all – he’s just bad. Lewis has 6 rushes for 6 yards. Yes, we’ve done nicely against the run (which is something by the way, that we have done pretty consistently this year), but anyone could defend against Jamal Lewis.

One thought I did have when Grant scored on that last series was – why wouldn’t McCarthy put Quinn Johnson in there to lead the way. If McCarthy is committed play-call wise to pushing Grant in for a TD, why not use someone who can get more push. Kuhn did end up diving into the area where Grant eventually scored, but I’m not sure Kuhn plays big enough to clear out the space Grant needs on those runs.

D’Qwell Jackson out for the season

While this news may not seem too relevant to Packer fans, it is. This Cleveland Browns’ LB already had 59 tackles in 6 games and typically leads the team in tackles each year. I’m not sure who will be taking his place, but I am pretty sure that this loss will seriously hurt the Browns going forward. His absence SHOULD help us in both the run game and the pass game.

Pack sign Ahman Green

Here from jsonline. As I said before, I’m not too bothered by this signing. If he were signed with the idea of making him the featured back, I’d be more concerned than him being signed to be the #2 or #3 back. Despite some fumbling issues over his career, Green is a guy who has averaged 4.5 ypc over his career. He is a hard runner defensive players don’t like to tackle  – and despite his age, I’m guessing that characteristic probably hasn’t changed. While I would rather have signed or traded for a younger RB (because age at RB matters more than at other positions), I don’t think the addition of Green will hurt anyway.

One interesting thing to consider: in the last 2 weeks, the Packers have signed two former Packers (Tauscher and Green) who are old. While I know that we have needs at both RT and RB and that these two were signed primarily because of that, I would say it’s possible that TT and co may have finally succumbed to the consistent pressure applied by LeRoy Butler and others to bring about a better veteran/young guy balance to this team. Tauscher and Green are two very hard-working, admired guys in an NFL locker room, especially the Packers’ locker room, so I do wonder if signing these guys wasn’t just for help on the field.

Conflicting reports re Ahman Green signing with Packers

Reports from earlier today indicated the deal had happened. However, Greb Bedard reported later this afternoon that it may not happen. Part of it depends on DeShawn Wynn’s knee and apparently whether or not he may be placed on injured reserve. Green’s agent says nothing has been done yet.

I wouldn’t be opposed to making Ahman part of the team again. He was a popular player who played hard – and watching him run over defensive backs (and sometimes LBs) was one of my favorite things to watch. I wonder if he was brought in at least in part because he is good at catching passes out of the backfield and because he’s not a bad blocker in pass protection. There may even be a mentor factor here for Brandon Jackson (Jackson, like Green went from Lincoln, NE to Green Bay). Even though I would prefer that we sign veterans for other positions where being old is less of a negative factor (Ahman is 32), I would welcome Green back.