The New York Nightmare!

I am not upset about the loss, I knew it was a tough task going into the home of the champs without Greg Jennings, Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson, and Sam Shields just to name a few BUT I disagreed with nearly decision that Mike McCarthy made after the game started poorly. Running the ball as often as you pass it in a game where you lose 38-10 can only be considered giving up.

It is clear to me that even though the Defense the Kicker are problems, the biggest problem is the Offensive Line. It needs to improve NOW!

MVP’s to Jordy Nelson for the nice long TD play and Dezmand Moses for his sack of Eli Manning.

3 in a row: The Packers are now 5-3

Packers 24 Jaguars 15

 

Yes, this was an ugly win but it beats the hell out of the ugly loss or a stolen win.

The Vikings lost badly to the Buccaneers and the Bears also won ugly vs. Carolina so overall it was still a good week for the Packers.

The Defense gave up a lot of yards but only 15 points so they were not the problem this week. My MVP goes to safety Morgan Burnett, he played his best game this season when we needed it most. 

The Special Teams was great again except Mason Crosby, again. this guy has never become the kicker we expected him to be clearly has not yet figured out the wind patterns at Lambeau field after the latest renovations. His missed Field goal made things more difficult than they had to be and the Packers never did totally put the Jaguars away until he finally made a short one in the final minute. Zach and I saw him make a 75 yarder with the wind in warm-ups too.

 

It was the blocked punt by Devon House, recovered for a Touchdown by Desmond Moses, that won the game for Green Bay. Football is truly a young man's game and these two members of the Special Teams will start to play a bigger and bigger role on the Defense as well. They were both great in pre-season and now needed in regular season. The good times have just begun.

The Offense on this day was not very good at all. It was a very choppy game. Jermichael Finley continues to drop passes and when he does make a catch for a first down he looks like an idiot in celebration. The biggest problem was the Offensive Line, again. Both starting receivers being out was also a big problem, bigger than I expected. It looks like not ALL of our receivers are starting quality. Donald Driver is nearing the end of his career but with only two Touchdowns by this group on the day, Donald's score was huge as it turns out. We might have just seen his last Touchdown and Lambeau Leap so with no good candidates, I give the Offensive MVP to Donald Driver this week. Also worth noting, Randall Cobb continues to look good and scored another Touchdown and despite everything, Aaron Rodgers looked good. When he gets a little help he is unstoppable!

Winning games when you don't play very well is the sign of a good team!

 

This Packer/Bear battle in the NFC North should be a good one all season long. No style points gained by either teams Offense this week but there are other ways to win a game.

Get healthy Packers!

The Arizona Cardinals are coming to town and they have mastered the art of winning ugly!

Our Packers are ready for the 2012 NFL season

Wow, an easy 24-3 win over Kansas City to close out the pre-season is more than I had hoped for. Especially after seeing Aaron Rodgers, Cedric Benson, and Jermichael Finley fail to produce any first quarter points.

Tonight was about the backups proving that they deserve to play in the NFL and prove it they did. I will need to do some tweaking of my 53 man roster predictions. The Defense is so hard to predict that I have decided to just leave it alone. I am sticking with my prediction that 7 rookies will be part of the 25 Defensive guys. 6 draft picks and the undrafted OLB Dezman Moses. My list includes the same three specialists as well. With the 25 Offensive players there is small change.

In what may or may not become a place for a sixth wide receiver on the 53-man roster, young prospects Jarrett Boykin, Diondre Borel and Tori Gurley all had their moments. Graham Harrell and each of them need each other to play well so they can each succeed. In this final practice game it finally all came together. When B.J. Coleman came in to play QB things did not go as well.

What this all means is that the Packers need only two Quarterbacks on this roster: Aaron Rodgers and Graham Harrell. B.J. Coleman can be safely placed on the practice squad with very little worry that some team might offer him a spot on their roster. More importantly, the Packers need not worry about looking to make a trade to bring in another backup.

Graham Harrell (13-15 223 yards and 2 Touchdowns) proved he can do the job. So, this does open up one spot on the roster.

All three of the young receivers mentioned above might be picked up by other teams as soon as they are cut so it makes sense to keep the best one as a 6th receiver on the roster...but...after Benson's fumble tonight I wonder if maybe it is too soon to cut James Starks. Maybe the Packers 5RBs need to include only one fullback or maybe 6RBs will be kept for now until more is known about each.

Here is what I have come up with:

2QB: Rodgers, Harrell (Coleman goes on practice squad)
5RB: Benson, Green, Saine, Kuhn, Cooper, Starks (either on the roster or the PUP list)
6WR: Jennings, Nelson, Cobb, Jones, Driver, Gurley (Boykin and Borel make other rosters)
4TE: Finley, Williams, Crabtree, Taylor
8OL: Bulaga, Sitton, Saturday, Lang, Newhouse, Dietrich-Smith, Wells, and someone new* (Datko, practice squad)

7DL: Pickett, Worthy, Raji, Daniels, Wilson, Muir, Neal
8LB: Matthews, Hawk, Smith, Perry, Walden, Moses, Francois, Manning
10 DB: Woodson, Williams, Burnett, Hayward, McMillian, Jennings, House, Bush, Levine, Shields

3 Specialists: K Crosby, P Masthay, LS Goode

So I have added James Starks and Tori Gurley and subtracted B.J. Coleman and Andrew Datko. The Packers will keep these rookies around but they might not be part of the 53. I am confident that Ted Thompson will pull off a trade before the 8pm deadline to bring in an OL* as we are weak at that position overall. Hopefully it will happen in a trade as most every team is interested in young WRs like Boykins and Borel. Maybe the Packers will trade a veteran receiver like James Jones to get an OL and then be able to keep one more young receiver.
Many things are possible, my goal is to be 50/53 or better!


No matter what decisions are made with these final spots in the lineup, it is the core veterans of this team, guys like Rodgers, Jennings, Nelson, Matthews, Woodson, and Williams, who need to lead the others and make this team go and achieve the ultimate goal. The only goal that can make this season successful is the 14th World Championship in the storied history of Our Green Bay Packers!