While I couldn’t watch the game (I’m in Minnesota), I was following game blogs/box score and watched the highlights this morning. Wow. Aaron Rodgers looks so good it’s unreal. His passes seem so remarkably catchable. That’s a quality something that even some other good QBs don’t have to this extent. He can put air under them, he can throw a sweet touch pass, he can follow that up by throwing a bullet between defenders. He looked really, really good last night. And, our receiving group looks really good as well. Rodgers has a bunch of dangerous targets every time he drops back – defenses may key on Jennings, but Driver, Nelson, Jones, Finley, Sutton, Lee – any of these guys can catch the ball. (That said, I would like to see the team run more screens to Grant – then defenses would have to account for yet another potential pass catcher (for now, when Grant’s in and it’s not a running play, defenses can safely assume he won’t catch the ball).
I hope Sutton makes the team. Rodgers likes Finley. FInley does look good, but more importantly, Rodgers likes him so look for Finley to replace Lee this year as the primary pass-catching TE. I love our defense too – these turnovers are a big reason why I’ve wanted to move to a 3-4 now for a while. It just seems to be a better defense for disrupting opposing offenses.
One thing I want to note, and I will have to post something separately on this later, is that if this team continues to play like this and these young guys continue to develop, we all better start singing the praises of Mike McCarthy and his staff. Seeing Rodgers playing like this, Finley, Grant, the O-Line, all the young guys especially – it really seems like there is some coaching going on.
packergeeks 
August 29, 2009 at 9:36 am |
I haven’t seen the game yet either (be watching the DVR tonight) but what’s up with Crosby. 1-3 in FG’s? I understand R MArtin was holding–was that the problem?
August 29, 2009 at 9:43 am |
Again, without having seen the game, (I just read a synopsis on packers.com) I think what happened in the 2nd half makes a strong case for having a quality backup QB. Appears Leinart picked the 2’s & 3’s apart.
August 29, 2009 at 9:45 am |
Yes, I think that was the problem with Crosby. Martin did an ok job, but you could tell there was something out of synch.
Rodgers looked outstanding! No pressure seemed to affect him, as Andy had noted, a variety of throws (soft, bullets, etc.),
Defense looked very, very good. Just everywhere on the field. Of course, the one long throw that lead to the TD was a seam route that the replay showed Brady trying to make up the 7 yards of separation, then flying over the top of the pile after Bigby hit him.
Looking like a team to be reckoned with…
August 29, 2009 at 10:47 am |
The first team performed flawlessly. My major questions, Barbre and Sitton did very, very well. If they can keep this up the offense has no limit on what it can do. The defense is awesome. Four more take aways.
The second half? Wow! Cards had 300yds+ to 89 for GB. The good news is that after the cuts we’ll never have to see that linup again. In fact, the only time you’ll see any of them is as fill-ins not as a unit. That’s a very good thing because as a unit they pretty much stink.
One of my passions is to watch Oline play and Moll, Breno, and Dietrcih-Smith were absolutely awful. I’m not sure if it was communication or just bad play. The Cards kept their 1st team D in most of the 3rd Qtr and the GB line could not do anything with them. Play calling was very conservative for Brohm. He actually didn’t look as awfuyl as he did in previous games. They did, however, keep him on a tight leash. Lang, Meridith and Randolph might fit in to the final picture. I have not seen a tackle as slow as Breno in a long time.
Thbe defense in the 2nd half was disjointed and wasn’t communicating well. I think that was more due to the fact that some of the good players had to coverup for guys who won’t be with GB next week.
Crosby – one miss can be attributed to Martin bobbling the hold. The others, including a blocked XP were not so clear. He has to make the kicks he missed last year. That is an area of concern for the year.
August 29, 2009 at 11:34 am |
I went to Green Bay to watch the Packers practice. I was sitting directly in front of Kevin Greene and the linebackers. He was working them through fumble recovery drills. The first drill was to fall on the ball and secure it. The second drill was to scoop up the ball and run with it. I had never seen these drills at a Packer practice before and thought it was a good thing. It sure paid off for Aaron Kampman.
I watched the game last night and was impressed by the first team’s efforts. Rodgers was “near perfection” as his hard work since March with team activities and training camp really paid off. (That’s something even 40 year-old players should understand.) The defense was awesome in holding the Cards to only 10 points in the first half.
I concur with others here that Matt Leinhart shows why we should have a good backup QB. Is Flynn that guy? Could he have picked apart the Cards 2s and 3s? Brohm certainly couldn’t, although it did give our punter a chance to show his stuff. And he was good indoors.
Defense scored. Special teams scored. Offense scored and scored and scored. Nice all around effort. I’m jazzed for the season opener. Bring on Cutler and da Bears!
August 29, 2009 at 11:46 am |
I cann see why Brohm would have some trouble with their 1st’s. Guess I just need to watch the game when I gte home–and I will, oh yeah I wil.
August 29, 2009 at 1:46 pm |
was at the game, it was great hear that stadium silent as the Pack put up 38. I know its just the preseason, but I couldn’t help but have the feeling that we might be in for something special this season…I hope I’m not wrong about this
August 29, 2009 at 1:50 pm |
Wow! February in Tampa is a definite!
Let’s hope Rodgers remembers how fabulous he is when it MATTERS.
August 29, 2009 at 2:45 pm |
We do need to guard against over-confidence . . . what a great problem to have!
Woodson must be the most underappreciated great player in the NFL. Who makes a bigger impact? So great to have a playmaker like that on our side.
I think Sutton made the team last night. He showed he belonged and he gives them a different type of runner. Hope they can figure out a way to keep Wynn too, because if they don’t he may turn into someone else’s Ryan Grant (if he can stay healthy).
If this O-line is as good as it looks, TT and MM both deserve a ton of credit. These are all basically their guys and they are all young except LT.
The sky is the limit for Finley, he is just a physical mismatch. With that WR corp someone has to be left open. He and Lee can be a rerun of Chmura-Jackson.
I totally agree about the screen game, and my guess/hope is that they don’t want to put it “on film” in the preseason. Still, it’s such a timing and feel type of play I’d like to see them test drive it a bit.
This team looks locked in and ready to progress. The talent is there, it’s all about performing when it counts. The only thing that really concerns me is the kicking game. Crosby needs to be automatic by now and we don’t know if we have a punter. The only other thing that didn’t look good was the run D late in the 1st half. Maybe Barnett and Matthews will improve that.
I’m very optimistic. Should be an exciting season, and yes, it’s realistic to think of Tampa in Feb.
August 29, 2009 at 3:56 pm |
As fans we certainly can look forward to Tampa–but as players they need to look no further than next Sunday. OF course with the guys at this blog I probably just wasted 5 minutes of my life typiing this–it’s pretty obvious…..
August 29, 2009 at 6:09 pm |
I don’t see a scenario that we lose to the bears week 1. Thoughts?
GBP 4 LIFE
August 29, 2009 at 7:18 pm |
I don’t want to be too much of a wet blanket, but… let’s not get too excited here. It’s just the preseason. Teams prepare a lot more, and play a lot harder, when they start counting wins and losses.
Oh yeah: the last time the Pack went 4-0 in the preseason? That was the year Ray Rhodes was HC. Which resulted in a very sloppy 8-8 finish to the regular season.
August 29, 2009 at 7:26 pm |
Dave, In normal circumstances I’d agree. This year, however, the Packers are playing with emotion and attacking very aggressively on both sides of the ball. It’s not the wins to me. It’s the way they are playing the game that give me hope for this season.
August 30, 2009 at 12:28 am |
FYI, The Superbowl in 2010 will be in Miami not Tampa Tampa is where it was this year.
August 30, 2009 at 2:27 am |
19-0, baby!
August 30, 2009 at 1:12 pm |
Welll Guys-I got to watch the first half of the game last night & I’m not as warm & fuzzy as I was before watching it. I will say first of all that it was finally good to see all the penalties called against the other team & not us. Appears to me while our defense is solid & as Ron says are agressive & emotional but we can still be ran on. It appears we’re pretty good at stopping up the middle runs but it seemed to me outside containment broke down quickly & the corner could be turned on us too often. I am totally in for the new scheme however. I like the fact that they can see the ball better & Woodson is just a horse at whatever he’s asked to do. Hawk needs to become the player he’s supposed to be.
Offense running game has improved but still needs to keep chugging. Hope we keep Grant, Jackson & Sutton. Seems we are getting to 2nd level a bit more often now we need backs to get some misses and tear off some long runs. Aaron said in one interview that he was barely touched all night. I didn’t see that. Protection is better but still needs work. Obviously, if Rodgers goes down, we’re done. He is a very good (great almost came out of my mouth) QB. As stated by Andy, great passes of all knds, good reads, excellent mobility & very good feet. HAte to see him run though simply for fear of injury. The couple of runs he did in that game were very smart & he avoided contact. I’m just afraid we are depending a little too much on the long ball & teams can game plan against that very easliy. The game I watched featured the Cardinals announcers in the booth and they stated a couple time that the Cards had not game planned for the Packers which is typical in preseason games I supose.
At any rate, much happier with the prospects for this season but don’t put us in Tampa yet. I do like the coaching on both sides — now all 53 that remain have to really step up & play to their potential. We have to get the NFC North back– I think we stack up to any North team but it is going to be an interesting year. Couple bad calls, couple mental mistakes, couple injuries & this division goes many different ways.
Just MHO.
August 30, 2009 at 9:03 pm |
Hayes & Gang, take a look: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/ic/blogs/insider/2009/08/woodson-packers-can-win-it-all.html
Nick Barnett tweeted this article, the Pack D can feel it!
August 31, 2009 at 1:30 pm |
This from Peter King this morning:
Regarding the Packers, their first unit has had 12 possessions this summer and hasn’t punted. Sixty-six points in 12 possessions … just sick. And the starting defense has forced six turnovers in 12 opposing possessions.
“Three games, no punts, 31 points in this game,” said Aaron Rodgers, who’s looking more like Brett Favre than Favre. “The line was great [Friday against Arizona]. I barely got touched. It was just pitch and catch out there.”
What makes Mike McCarthy happy is that a year after L’Affair Favre, Rodgers seems to have the team in his hands. “It’s clearly Aaron’s team,” McCarthy said Sunday
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/08/30/mmqb/1.html#ixzz0PmYfj0R1
August 31, 2009 at 4:19 pm |
Thanx Mike–U R right–Landshark Stadium–Wonder if Buffett’s gonna be halftime entertainment?