The Green Bay Packer defense couldn’t stop the Lions’ offense in the first half. Not once. The two turnovers committed by Detroit were entirely the fault of Matthew Stafford. Aside from that, the Lions drove effortlessly for two easy TD’s and held the ball to end the half. The great and powerful Packer offense could only muster one drive that ended in a strip-sack and another that ended in a long field goal. To be honest, the Packers had no business being only four points down at halftime. Their offensive line was a liability, committing holding and false-start fouls when they weren’t letting rushers make Rodgers skitter around in the pocket. The defense couldn’t stop the run, never pressured the quarterback and was unable to cover all of Stafford’s receivers, always leaving at least one open. This is a team that had been handed golden gift when the Vikings beat the Lions earlier. “Coming out flat” is a uber-cliche but it’s an accurate description of the Packers at Lambeau on Sunday night.
So would Dom Capers have any answers? Would Mike McCarthy be able to make an adjustment, anything at all, to jump start his lethargic offense? Obviously his first-half game plan (aka: The Find Cobb and Throw Him The Ball plan) was flawed and poorly executed.
Down by only four and playing like crap on both sides of the ball, the Packers came out and drove right down the field, scoring on a huge 23-yard QB run by Rodgers and the defense, while still not themselves, quit allowing Detroit doing whatever they hell they wanted. I can’t put my finger on the precise changes, but whatever they were, they worked.
Perhaps the biggest change was the emergence of the running game. It came on so strong, they Packers actually scored a TD on a drive that consisted solely of rushing attempts. Whaaaaa? The PACKERS scored on an all-running drive??? Green Bay went from a “who the heck is going to run the ball this week?” to having a four-headed attack with Green, Harris, Grant and Rodgers himself combining for 145 yards on 24 attempts. By creating some balance, it slowed the potentially-devastating Lions’ pass rush and with the ability of Rodgers to move the pocket and throw on the run, the passing game become much more effective.
I have to say that I was not impressed with the way Mike McCarthy called this football game, even in the second half. This is (supposedly) a WEST COAST OFFENSE! You have the best QB in the NFL under center and you limit him by focusing too much on one receiver (Cobb) and then, when that doesn’t work, you swing for the fences again and again. Listen: Aaron Rodgers can make the long throws. We get it. He doesn’t have to prove anything to us. But this consistent game plan of forcing him to stand in the pocket, scramble about and throw the ball 20+ yards on almost every down is nuts. West Coast-style football is all about ball control. Short, high-percentage throws, effective running, spread the ball around, keep the chains moving, take total control of the game clock. Once the defense adjusts and tries to take that away, you can take your shots downfield. But MM seemingly forgets those first parts and goes right for the end zone. Come on, Mike! I saw a couple perfect opportunities for you to put this game away in the second half and you couldn’t do it because you wanted to put up six instead of getting the first down.
The long wait for a completely healthy Packer team will not, I’m afraid, come to an end any time soon. But you have to be encouraged by the looming return of Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson and maybe even Jordy Nelson. Without Matthews, the Packers simply do not have a pass rush. I know those guys are trying and I know that Capers dialed up some blitzes but it just isn’t there. Without Woodson, the defensive backs are in a pretty passive mode back there and the picks they are getting are more about opposing QB mistakes than great play by them. Without Nelson (or Jennings: it’s been a see-saw year with them) the Packers passing offense is only partly as effective as it can be and leans much too heavily on Randall Cobb. With a healthy cadre of receivers, the Packers become a crazy passing machine, capable of almost anything. The only sore spot is (and will continue to be) the offensive line. Nobody is coming back from injury there to save the day. There is no Tauscher or Clifton coming back into the lineup next or any other week. That is truly the wild card here. I will say it again (for those that have never heard it all the other 97 times I’ve said it) that the Packers will only go as far as their offensive line will take them. Ted Thompson made a conscious decision to carry fewer linemen this year and that’s come back to bite him in the ass. Don Barclay was not bad again tonight (he was impressive on running plays) and he may yet prove to be that savior for this line. One more injury, one more strain, one more pulled pinky muscle and the Packers are pretty much toast on the line.
So, as expected, the winner of the North for this season will be decided by the Packers vs. Bears game next Sunday at noon in Chicago. The Bears, after tearing up the NFL with their opportunistic defense, have gotten into a slump - those breaks that were all going their way earlier in the year are not falling in place for them now. Like the Packers, injuries have played a major role. Brain Urlacher may not make it back and now Cutler has a neck injury that might put him back on the sidelines again. Their two most important players on either side of the ball out and that’s a huge blow. The Packers, whether they get those injured guys back or not, will need to play their best game of the year because I do not for one minute believe that even an undermanned Bear team will lay down and give up without a fight.
The Green Bay Packers knew that they were going to face a pretty one-dimensional team on Sunday. With Percy Harvin watching from the state of Minnesota, the Vikings were going to win or lose this critical North Division match on the legs of Adrian Peterson. Christian Ponder wasn’t going to beat anybody with his arm. So you can imagine that Packer defensive coaching staff clustered around their laptops, dialing up all the eight- nine- and and ten-man fronts in their arsenal.
Aside from the crap the defense put on the field last weekend, the Packer stalwarts have been pretty good against the run this year, so you’d think without much of a passing threat, AP would be kept in check, right? WRONG! Peterson ran for a two-season high of 210 yards and chipped in for another ten through the air. Two MASSIVE runs (including an 82-yard scoring scamper) made up the bulk of it but you have to question the focus of the Packer defense if they know who is getting the ball and still cannot keep him corralled. The TD was a play that should have been finished in the Minnesota backfield but awful tackling and some comic collisions by would-be defenders.
The missing pieces of the defensive puzzle (Matthews, Woodson) have been sorely missed in the last two weeks and you have to start hoping those two guys can make it back sooner than later.
On the offensive side of the ball, the return of Greg Jennings certainly had an effect on the passing game (he had four catches for 46 yards) but I can’t really say he was too impactful. The good news was that Aaron Rodgers was able to hit nine different receivers for 286 yards and 1 TD and the offensive philosophy of spreading the field (instead of just watching where Cobb went) and short, quick passes (he was sacked only twice) certainly looked worlds removed from the “swing for the fences on every down” that failed so miserably last week. The makeshift offensive line was not great, but they certainly were not awful. Losing TJ Lang to injury forced Don Barclay (and a weary Packer nation collectively says “who???”) into a major roll. Most telling of all was the 152 yards rushing, thanks to workman-like efforts by Starks and Green, the former scoring only the third Packer rushing touchdown of the year on a great 22-yard run.
Aside from the critical loss of Lang, another injury that will have an adverse affect on future games will be the loss of Jordy Nelson. Injured on a sideline tackle after his one and only catch, Nelson immediately knew he had a problem and his body language on the bench spoke of something fairly substantial. With Donald Driver inactive due to a thumb injury, the weight of the offense fell upon Cobb, Jones and Finely. No one man carried the entire load as it was shared all around. But you have to worry going forward if Nelson is out again that the newly-recovered Jennings will need to be 100% on every snap for the Packers to be successful.
Mason Crosby had a better-than-average day, going 3-for-4, one of the made attempts doinking off the right upright and in. For better or worse, it’s going to be an adventure on every attempt this year. I can’t decide if I’m impressed or disgusted by Mike McCarthy’s continued trust in his kickers’ erratic leg, but it is what it is, I guess. He did contribute 11 points to he win (three field goals and two extra points), more than any other player including Aaron Rodgers, so you have to give the guy some credit, don’t you?
With the Bears getting beat in overtime by the Seahawks, the Packers once more slip into first place with Minnesota falling back and Detroit in danger of becoming irrelevant this season. You can’t help but like the position the Packers are in: first in the division with four games to play and one contest with the only team within reach. After the on-field excrement from last week, this game against the Vikings had all the hallmarks of a must-win. It certainly wasn’t easy but you have to give the Packers credit for putting that loss behind them and focusing on what they can control: the next game. The problems are still there (offensive line is suspect and paper-thin, no pass rush without Matthews, wide-outs can’t get open, defense susceptible to the big play) and there will be no fixes. Yes, we can hope Woodson and Matthews can get back in on defense but the O-line will finish the season with the guys they have. So each and every week will be a struggle. We all hope that the struggle will make them stronger.
The Green Bay Packers lost only two games last year. The first, against the clearly awful Chiefs where neither the offense or defense showed up to play, was seen by many (including myself) to be a fluke. The second, against the New York Giants in the playoffs, was a case where a clearly superior team had an exceptional game plan and executed it to perfection. The Packer coaching staff could not (or would not) adjust, the defense never showed up and the offense was out-of-synch and harassed all day long. It was an awful, awful game for Packer fans to watch. I think I speak for many of us when I say my reaction could best be described as “dumbfounded”.
That was then, this is now. Then, the Giants were on a late-season roll that would carry a modestly successful team on to claim the Lombardi Trophy. Sound familiar? The Packers, at the time, were hugely successful team but had stumbled and looked like a team that had peaked too soon. So what would 2012 bring? The Packers, battling injuries but on a 5-0 run versus the Giants who shot out of the gate with a slew of early victories but had completely lost their offensive mojo. How did it go?
Different season, same result as the Packers were completely embarrassed on both sides of the ball.
The real key to the Packers ineffectiveness starts and ends with the men in the trenches. The Packer offensive line vs. the Giants defensive line was a complete joke. Exactly like last year, NY dropped seven into coverage and rushed four. They could do that because our five offensive linemen (and sometimes a back and sometimes one or two tight ends) are not capable of blocking their four guys. As an extra added bonus, they can tackle our running backs on the way to the quarterback. So Rodgers, if he isn’t being crushed and hit by the pass rush, is being chased all over the field. Add in a bunch of drops, several poor passes and the inevitable penalty whenever something actually did go right and you have the worst performance by a Packer offense since, well, since they last played the Giants.
On the other side of the ball, it was a 2011 flashback all over again. Remember that crazy Packer defense from last year? The one that couldn’t put pressure on opposing QB’s if they rushed 11? The one that gave up more passing yards than any team in NFL history? Yeah, you remember them, don’t you? Well, they came back with a vengeance. Watching the Giant offense, so ineffective over the last month, explode for 31 points in the first half, running the ball at will, completing pass after pass and walking all over our defense was horrifying.
If Clay Matthews can’t get back on the football field next week, they might as well just put him on the IR and start thinking about next year. If Marshall Newhouse and TJ Lange are unable to block premier pass rushers, they’d better just put Harrell in right now or Rodgers is going to get killed. I know this is just one game and it was a really, really bad game but I think the injuries have finally caught up with the Packers: too many holes, not enough quality guys to fill them. The offensive line, barely able to give Rodgers time against the Lions last week, will be hard pressed the rest of the season. If Rodgers can’t throw the ball, the Packers will not be winning, pure and simple.
This game might have been different if the Packers were able to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them: In the first half, there were three almost-interceptions. There were two punts muffed by the Giants the Packers couldn’t jump on. McCarthy put Crosby out there to attempt a 58-yard field goal with predictable results, then, down by 17 in the first half, he doesn’t go for it on fourth and short and settles for three. They were the last points the Packers would score. If any one of these goest the other way, it might have shifted momentum.
It’s unfathomable to me that our coaching staff has no plays to make an aggressive defensive front pay for it. It’s inconceivable to me that our coaching staff has no way to put pressure on an opposing quarterback without Clay Matthews.
This game may or may not be a fluke. It may or may not be a harbinger of things to come. It may or may not mean the Packers have regressed to the worst performance of an otherwise outstanding season last year. It does mean that they Vikings and their pass rush and their running game are no doubt salivating at the prospect of facing the Packers next week and I sure can’t blame them.
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The first half of this big, big North Division game was an exercise in ineptitude for the Green Bay Packers. How did they fail? Let me count ways:
- Jordy Nelson dropped an easy pass that would have been a first down.
- There were two holding calls and a false start on the offense.
- There was a blow to Stafford’s head that resulted in a first down instead of a punt.
- Mike McCarthy decided to eschew a 49-yard field goal attempt and the offense could not convert the fourth down.
- He also didn’t challenge a reception by Johnson that sure looked like an incompletion on replay.
- Tramon Williams forgot he was supposed to be covering Calvin Johnson.
- Mason Crosby missed the same field goal twice.
- Aaron Rodgers threw a pick two plays after the Packers had picked off Stafford.
Is that all of them? I’m sure it’s not but that’s all I can remember. Worst of all, six penalties for 50 yards plus two that were declined. HOLY CRAP, Batman! That’s a pretty awful half of football. The worst one was the Rodgers interception as a Packer drive for a score after a turnover would have completely altered the complexion of the game, but the Packers were only down by 3 at the half.
After giving almost the entire third quarter over to the Lions, (the only scoring the Pack could manage was M.D. Jennings EXCELLENT pick six) and giving them the lead back when Calvin Johnson scored on a 25-yard pass (which somehow magically was not picked off) it set up a big, big fourth quarter.
After a Detroit field goal, the Packers were able to score on a fantastic catch by Cobb and get a one point lead. The defense then came up HUGE on two series with everything coming down to a failed Lions fourth down attempt. With their field position, the Pack were able to tack on a field goal and then just had to withstand some desperation attempts by the Lions to cement the win.
You know, the Lions are not that good of a team. I’ve seen them play and saw quite a bit of their loss to the Vikings last week and I cannot for the life of me figure out why this was such a hard game for the Packers. If you look at their secondary vs. our passing attack, this should have been a track meet with Green Bay racking up score after score. But that’s not how it went down. With the poor first half, the Packers seemed bent on giving the Lions every single opportunity to beat them. It was very telling watching Rodgers get slammed around on most passing plays. The shuffling of the offensive line, so successful last week, had to have some effect on it. Rodgers did not have much time in the pocket and his usual ability to scramble and roll out was negated. Why the Packers did not shift into their normally effective hurry-up offense is a mystery to me. I have to say, there were a few moments in this game where I thought Mike McCarthy was either asleep, drunk or busy playing Star Wars Angry Birds.
The Packer pass rush, while not stellar, was certainly not awful either. Without the services of Clay Matthews, the Packer pass rush tends to evaporate and opposing QB’s can easily pick apart our secondary. I would have loved to see Stafford on his back a few more times but I’m more than happy with the productivity: Erik Walden had a pair of sacks and Desmond Moses got one, plus two from the secondary. There were many hurries and hits as well. More importantly than the sacks were the interceptions by Hayward and Jennings with the latter going for six. On a day when the defense would be shorthanded and sorely tested, I have to say the Packers won that battle.
And now on to the most painful topic that we are all going to be talking about in the weeks to come: Mason Crosby. Up until this season, Crosby was one of the most accurate kickers in the NFL. For some reason, he has come completely unraveled. Mike McCarthy had obviously lost confidence in him when he passed on a 49-yard FG attempt in order to go for it on fourth-and-and four. Failed. Crosby got his chance later but missed the same field goal twice (thanks to an ill-timed timeout by Detroit) to end the first half. He missed another one in the second half and just about shanked an extra point. When the Packers had an opportunity to cement the win with a 39-yarder with 24 seconds left in the game, you could almost see his entire football career coming to an end. But he made it, thank the football gods, and will live to play another week. Kickers are notorious head-cases and it looks like our guy has gone way ‘round the bend. His confidence is shot, he’s second-guessing himself, overcompensating and I fear we will have to deal with his inconsistency the rest of the year. Will Mike McCarthy make a change? Is Ted Thompson scanning the waiver wire or shopping someone in a trade? We might all hope so but that would be totally out of character for both our coach and our general manager. They are thoughtful, measured men (almost to a fault) and are not prone to panic-induced measures. Crosby is our kicker for the foreseeable future and all we can do is hope he can break out of it (a few short attempts would be nice, offense) and he doesn’t cost us a game down the line.
The Packer season has had several interesting segments: First we had the four-game opening stretch against really tough opponents. The Pack came out of that 2-2, thanks to the replacement refs and The Inaccurate Reception in Seattle. Next came a three-game road trip which ended up 2-1 with the loss coming to the surprisingly tough Colts. Then came a two-game pre-bye stretch where, as expected, the Packers came away 2-0. That was some exciting damn football and while we all wished for a better record, I thing 6-3 was a pretty good tally. Now, we come into the most important segment where we have the final seven games, five of which would come against NFC North teams and one against the New York Giants, the team that so throughly humiliated the Packers in the playoffs last season and would eventually claim the Lombardi Trophy. I have only one way to describe such a schedule: I LOVE IT! You want to find out who the best team in the North is? We’ll find out, won’t we? Not by fighting it out with AFC teams or some bottom-feeders but by playing North teams. Want revenge on the Giants for that drubbing last season? Kick their asses next week! You just can’t ask for a better stretch of football if you are truly a fan of the sport. If the Packers are the better team, ask them to prove themselves in the crucible of this seven-game stretch. If they are not the better team, we will find out. Sure, it would be nice to finish up the season against weak-ass opponents but won’t it be so much more fun to do it like this? Beating the Lions in this gritty, tough game was nerve wracking but, in hindsight, necessary. To both this team and to this season. We will start to see some starters back from injury and we will see just how good this team really is. Saddle-up and strap in tight, football fans; It’s gonna be good!
If I told you that Alex Green ran for 53 yards on Sunday, you’d say, “nice afternoon running the ball”. If I told you that James Starks rushed for 61, you’d say “Wow, great job!” If I told you that those things BOTH happened in one game and that Cobb chipped in 29 and Rodgers added 33, you’d probably say, “we’re talkin’ about the Packers, right?” For those of you playing along at home, that’s 176 yards on the ground! In one game!
No doubt about it the Green Bay Packers came to Lambeau Field this afternoon, determined to run the football. And, for once, they were actually effective at it. The return of James Starks to his 2010 form was welcome as Green has been ineffective the last two contests. The Cards, in an attempt to duplicate some of the successful defensive schemes teams have used against the Packers this year and last, followed the Jacksonville example and concentrated on coverage and dared the Packers to run. Unlike last week, this strategy was not effective. Aaron Rodgers did have a rather pedestrian outing (14 for 30 and only 218 yards) but when he connected, it was for scores, racking up four TD strikes (two to Cobb and one each to Jones and Crabtree).
The injury bug, responsible I think for much of the Packers inconsistent play, continued to hammer away at the roster. It seemed like just about every series the Pack lost another starter. Jordy Nelson, attempting to come back from a hamstring injury, seems to have messed up his ankle. Brain Bulaga got carted off. Randall Cobb spent some time having his shoulder examined. Probably the most impactful injury occurred when Clay Matthews hobbled into the locker room in the third quarter. At that point the Packer pass rush attack went into deep hibernation and the secondary looked like it needed a nap and took one. Sure enough, the Cards walked down the field and scored their second TD of the day. They would come back a bit later on but the damage was done. We’ll have to see the extent of Matthews’ injury because when he is out of the lineup, our defense is pretty pathetic.
For almost that entire third quarter, the Green Bay Packers looked like they were already thinking about a nice post-game shower, maybe get some dinner and cocktails and then early to bed. This seems to be a pattern with this team: no pop coming out of the locker room with a lead, conservative play calling and lax defense. The Pack never punted once in the first half and then called on Masthay three times in just the third quarter. That period might have been a total loss if Crabtree hadn’t been able to split the defense and race 72 yards for a score on the last play of the quarter. It would be the final points of the day on either side.
I can’t say enough about the impact of Randall Cobb: whether he’s catching TD’s, running the ball or returning kicks and punts, the guy is a tremendous asset. With Jennings out and Nelson newly injured again, this season would be complete free fall if it hadn’t been for the contributions of #18. He had over 200 all-purpose yards today! I’m not running down James Jones here (he had 4 catches for 61 yards and a score) but you can’t even compare him with the Cobbster.
Finley has needed to step up and step up big the last few weeks since Jennings and then Nelson have been on the sidelines. I cannot report that he has been up to the task. He had one catch for six yards this afternoon. I did see him throw some nice blocks out there, which is expected of a tight end. But a man of his size and talent should be dominating games, not being regulated to a footnote. You have the best QB in the NFL under center and, for large stretches in game, he had absolutely nowhere to throw the football. A security blanket in the form of big #88 would be a nice thing to have. But it is not happening out there. Tom Crabtree is a better blocker and he does have pretty good hands (that TD catch and run was tough) and I thin Mike McCarthy has done more than enough to motivate J-Mike. If I were the coaching staff, I’d be starting Crabtree and trying to provide some alternate motivation.
A few words about the Packer special teams: Jarrett Bush made a great muff recovery to seal the fate of Cards late. Tim Masthay continues to provide extremely effective punting in all situations. The return game seems to have at least one great effort per game. The coverage teams have been simply outstanding. I can heap praise on just about every special team player except one: Mason Crosby. He had another miss after the Packers’ first series today. It’s got to be in his head. He can be spot-on perfect on one play and then shank badly on the next. The guy has three jobs to do: kick-offs, extra points and field goals. Those first two, I’ve got zero complaints. That last one though...well, it’s always an adventure. He’s had kicks come off his foot and take right angle turns. He is maddeningly inconsistent, much like his team at times.
If any team needed a bye, it’s the Packers. The injury report grows longer and more ugly every day. Losing Bulaga, Nelson and Matthews in one game is going to be devastating. We won’t know the severity of those injuries for a while but having an extra week off to treat and rehab those wounds can be nothing but good. This team looked fairly shaky against the Jags last week and could have lost things in the third quarter today. Two weeks from today, they will be facing a Lions team that will be attempting to recover something of the successes from last year. After that, it’ll be the Giants, a team that humbled the Pack at home in the playoffs last year, rendering their exceptional 15-1 season pointless. By all accounts, New York is even better than they were a year ago. Only a Packers team at full strength and with their best effort will emerge victorious from those contests. The countdown to the second half of the season started as soon as Rodgers knelt down for the last time this afternoon and Mike McCarthy might have his work cut out for him.
The Green Bay Packers were picked by everybody and his brother to demolish the Jacksonville Jaguars today. I saw one writer give them a 30-point edge. Sure, the Packers were missing six starters, most notably Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson and John Kuhn on offense, but the Jags were even more hobbled: Maurice Jones Drew, who accounts for a huge percentage of their offensive production was in a boot on the sidelines, their QB Gabbert had a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder and their best cornerback didn’t even make the trip. So I suppose you could forgive the pundits and oddsmakers in thinking that this would be a blowout at Lambeau.
Whoa! Nobody could foresee what we all witnessed on Sunday!
Rodgers was definitely missing Jordy Nelson. In those key situations where you’re in third down and somehow, someway Nelson shows up open on the sideline? Not so much today. When the defense is crowding the line of scrimmage and Nelson slips behind them for massive yardage and a score? Gone. You would think with guys like Jones, Cobb and even Driver available to pick up the slack (don’t get me started on Finely) you would still expect a big day through the air, wouldn’t you. I have to give Bert Fav-rah some props here (please don’t tell anyone, OK?): #4 had the ability to make any receiver look good. For whatever reason, Rodgers could not elevate the level of play of his wideouts today. He was left looking for open guys on repeated occasions and was victimized by several key drops as well.
The defense was certainly missing the services of Charles Woodson. I know, much has been said about Woodson’s age, his lost step, his lack of big plays this season. All are perfectly accurate but Wood’s worth is greater than how he plays in the secondary...he’s a disruptive influence on every play and his leadership with the younger members of the Packer defense is almost incalculable. Finding a replacement for that kind of contribution isn’t simply matter of plugging in the “next man up”. On occasion, the Packer coverage was almost laughable and the plethora of missed open-field tackles was very troubling.
I know I’m not alone is this assessment: if the Packers were playing a better team today, the result would have been much, much worse. The Jags made a game of it, no doubt, but their penchant for committing penalties in key situations and the dropped passes (when was the last time an opponent dropped more passes than the Pack?) showed me why they can’t seem to win any games. Here you have a Packer team on a roll, at home, with a win streak and they are playing like crap. No, I’m not going to sugarcoat this: I think the Packers were the lesser of the two teams on the field today. But the Jags have this really golden opportunity to pull off maybe the biggest (in terms of point spread) upset of the year and they simply didn’t have horses to pull it off.
Somebody please tell me what was going on with the Packer special teams today? Mason Crosby, pretty reliable over the last three season, has missed his third field goal in three games. And the fake punt where you had Masthay at QB, roll left and then throw what I can only imagine is a check-down all the way over to the right...well that was just ill-conceived and poorly executed. MM has rolled the dice on trick plays and been successful three times this year and that one butt-ugly play should just about put the end to it.
It struck me several times during the game that Rodgers seemed to be just a bit out of synch. It’s probably totally due to his injured weapons on the sidelines but it’s not like he hasn’t had to count on the likes of Cobb, Jones, Finely and Driver in the past, so you can’t put it all there. I’m not sure why but Rodgers just didn’t look like he did over the last two victories.
On very nice thing to see was Donald Driver catching that great , great TD pass in the fourth quarter. DD only had two catches for ten yards but that score was the key one, the one that put the game out of reach for the Jags. I’ve been very disappointed that Driver has not been a bigger part of the offense this year and, with our two best guys on the sidelines, I assumed he would be key today. And it turns out I was right. Note to MM and TT: you are paying Donald to to stand on the sidelines this year and, on days like today, your QB could use a pretty fair possession receiver out there in the pattern. This will be his last year in a Packer uniform, he’s got the skills and he’s certainly got the fans behind him. USE Donald Driver!
I’m going to be happy with the win and I think I am going to drink another beer and maybe a dram of Jameson right now and try to put this one out of my mind. We’ll all look back on this game and see the “W” next to it and say, “yeah, we won that, third in a row, on a roll” and we’ll all be right. We’ll forget how inept the running attack was and how predictable our play-calling was (a first down run for 1.5 yards! WOW!) and how our defense would have been torched if Cutler or Stafford or even Ponder had been across the line. We will not recall how Rodgers (22 for 35 for 186 yards) was out-dueled by the injured Gabbert (27 for 49 for 303 yards). We will be happy with the W and we will all hope (some of us secretly and some out loud) that what we saw today was not indicative of what we are going to be seeing until Woodson, Jennings and Nelson can get back on the field.
The Green Bay Packers have had their share of ups and downs this year. We’ve had highs (the great win over the Texans last week) and lows (getting screwed by the replacement refs in Seattle) but the 3-3 record they took into St. Louis was indicative of an inconsistent team, one that was struggling to find its identity on both sides of the ball. The Packers have had the stink of a mediocre 8-8 season all over them. Coming off a 15-1 campaign in 2011, that was an odor no one in the land of Cheeseheads could stomach.
The NFL schedule-makers decreed that a 15-1 team (despite their painful early exit from the playoffs) would have to run a gauntlet of top ranked teams and a 3-game road trip through the first half of the season. Doesn’t sound particularly fair but those are the breaks. Coming through the first six games of that challenge at 3-3 does not sound impressive but you have to look back with hindsight and almost breathe a sigh of relief because it could have been worse: We got beat by a better team (San Francisco), got screwed by the refs (Seattle) and committed a heinous second half meltdown of historic proportions (Indianapolis) for those three losses. So please excuse me if I have sounded shrill in my yearning for a more dominant team this year because we’ve been so DAMN close to a much better record.
So here we were, having risen up and beaten the previously undefeated Texans, poised for our fist back-to-back victory of the year. While a seemingly innocuous mid-season game, this was really a major moment for the Packers. Lose the game and you sink to 3-4 and are left with a hill to climb as the Vikings and Bears look down at you. Win the game, go to 4-3 and gain some momentum moving into an easier part of the schedule.
I don’t mind telling you this: after several beverages on Saturday night (mostly in celebration of Mrs. MMQB’s birthday) several of my hard-wired football neurons kept firing with one thought: PLEASE get a win, Packers! It meant more than just a “W” on the ledger. It meant we had momentum. It meant we have escaped the most difficult part of the season with a winning record. Make no mistake, this is not the team that went 15-1 last year. This is not the team that struggled early on in 2010 but put it all together with a Super Bowl victory. We still have Aaron Rodgers with his cannon arm and Mensa football brain. We still have that cadre of stealthy ninja receivers. We still have Clay Matthews and Charles Woodson and the defense that can rise up at any moment and just take the ball away at will. But this team will have to work and struggle for everything it gets.
The first half was not very clean for the Packers. Rodgers rarely had a clean pocket to throw from and the combination of a indifferent offensive line and a QB who held on to the ball too long resulted in three sacks. Likewise the defense seemed to have few answers for the rushing of tandem of Jackson and Richardson and the time-of-possession battle was firmly in the hands of St. Louis. But with a narrow lead, the Packers came to play in the second half!
Jordy Nelson has to be the most dependable receiver in the NFL. You need a catch to keep a drive alive? Jordy is your man. That used to be the place where Finley would shine but Aaron Rodgers has wisely stayed away from the drop-prone tight end over the last two weeks. Randall Cobb has become the multi-purpose threat we all thought he would become and opposing defenses are hard-pressed to figure out how to cover him, whether he’s in the backfield, split out wide or in the slot. James Jones, after a season where he gained a reputation for drops in critical situations, has become Mr. Consistent.
The running game did not shine this week as the Packers became supremely predictable in their rushing attack. Is it first down? Alex Green is going to get the ball. They were so predictable, I kept thinking it had to be on purpose. IF you are going to hand the ball off on first down so often, why would you not take advantage of that tendency by calling a play-action pass a couple of times? That should have been huge for the Packers but for whatever reason, Mike McCarthy never pulled that particular weapon out of the arsenal. Maybe he never had to. Regardless, the Packers had a pretty ordinary day on the ground, running only to keep the defense honest. I know that’s the only reason why we hand off the ball but that doesn’t mean I can’t wish for more production.
One of the most disconcerting developments in the game was the lack of a Packer pass rush. I know the defensive front seven was depleted and suffered another blow when Mike Neil went out with a knee injury but he Rams offensive line was sporting a third-string tackle across from Clay Matthews and that should have meant a big day for the Packer pass rush. The reality? Not so much. The Packers officially had three sacks but you would have never known it if you didn’t check a stat sheet. Sam Bradford had all kinds of time, all day long. It’s only a testament to the Packer secondary that Bradford didn’t have a career day. Many, many props to rookies Davon House and Casey Hayward for stepping in raising the level of play in the defensive backfield.
I can’t help but look back on this game and think it could have been a very different kind of contest. It was close in the first half but the Packers turned on the jets in the third quarter and only a slop-time TD by the Rams made it look respectable. But getting that fourth win of the year, the second in a row, was huge. We went 2-2 through the rough opening four games and now 2-1 for the three game road trip. There are no guarantees but the next two contests before the bye are certainly winnable, especially at home. Hitting that bye with a 6-3 mark would make this uneven season seem a bit more rewarding.
