The Good
-Special Teams! Wow. GBs best offensive weapon was Philly's inability to field a punt. Crosby made TT look smart by nailing 3 FGs, including a 53 yarder (if we still had Longwell, we would have punted) and the 43 yard game winner. Plus, Crosby consistently drilled kickoffs into the end zone. Remember when Longwell's kickoffs went to the 11, the other team would run it out to the 36 like every single time? How annoying was that?
- The entire Defense. By pretty much rushing the standard front 4 (and still making McNabb move around a bit), Philly was basically trying to complete passes through 7 guys. It didn't work. The usually accurate McNabb was 15-33 for 184 yards. That's the beauty of having a deep, talented D-line. GB kept everyting in front of them....Westbrook didn't have any huge plays, McNabb couldn't slice through the D with his feet, and there were plenty of arms in the passing lanes.
- So far, so good on my "breakout players" from last week's Packer preview. Johnny Jolly played huge knocking down 3 passes and mixing it up vs the run. My other breakout guy was...
- ...Jarret Bush. He was outstanding. Last year, Philly picked on Ahmad Carroll to no end. Carroll had like 3 pass interference penalties and gave up like 5 catches over 20 yards. This year, not only did they not pick on Bush as a nickle back, he did a quality job as the #2 when Harris was hurt. He also created the first punt fumble by decapitating the Philly punt returner and recovered the second punt gaff in the 4th quarter.
- The linebackers and safeties did a nice job on Westbrook. His longest run was 11 yards as the athletic back 7 didn't miss many tackles.
- The Packer RBs did a better job in pass protection than I expected.
The Bad
- The offense. They sucked. The O-line looked lost. Even Chad Clifton looked poor.
- Darrin Colledge was terrible, eventually replaced by Junius Coston. They just can't create any space for the RBs. Bang on Brandon Jackson all you want, Walter Payton wouldn't have done much yesterday.
- The offense was not only ineffective, they didn't do much to help out the situation...it was vanilla. Very vanilla. They struggled mightily to get anything going, so, why not try to spice it up a bit? How about start a drive no huddle (not just with 2 minutes left in the half)? How about a reverse? A flea flicker? Halfback pass? Something, anything to provide a spark??
Final Word
The Packers are who we thought they are....all defense, no offense. Is anyone surprised? Ugly or not, it's a win. Not only a win, but a win versus a team that many people had winning the NFC East. Plus, take a look at the schedule...look at it: McNabb might be the best QB they will face all year. And they got the W. Can they count on the other team not being able to field a punt? No. But you can count on the defense and special teams to keep them in practically every game.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Forgot to add Bigbie to the Good list. He seemed to be everywhere. He's infinatly better than Marquand Manuel.
Um, excuse me, but the Packers play the Bears and Rex Grossman twice. Rex is clearly the best quarterback they will face this year. If not ever.
The Bears shut down LT. Here's betting GB rushes for 5 yards vs Chicago...in both games combined.
The defense is formidable. That's for sure. It didn't seem like they ever blitzed though (even though they really didn't have to). I would like to see more blitzing against a weaker quarterback (Rivers, Grossman, Campbell, etc.). Maybe the coaches were holding something back.
No mention of Favre Chopp? He looked terrible. That interception of his is the sort that CANNOT happen.
The Bears shut down LT and he still accounted for 2 TD's....
The Packers shut down McNabb & Westbrook more than Chicago held the Chargers down.
Here's betting that Grossman will one again complete more passes to the other team than to his own VS. the Pack.
My only complaint in yesterday's win is that our team is starting to look like the Bears of the last 3 years. Defense + Zero offense=cross your fingers and hope that special teams wins it for you.
Agreed. Pretty busy this morning so I didn't cover all the bases. That Favre pick was bad. Bubba didn't help the cause by not giving much of an effort. Favre did make up for himself with that classic Favre improvised drive. Not only did they get a FG, it rested up the defense for the 4th quarter.
Woz, to your no blitzing comment. I agree...I was looking for a Bigbie/Hawk blitz more often, and it didn't come. I think the idea is to get pressure from the front 4, play the rest back and make the other team earn every point. Blitzing could make you pay by giving up some home runs...putting additional pressure on the god awful offense. McNabb has killed the Pack in the past, they were happy with letting him try to nickle and dime his way down the field.
Hopefully they will add a few wrinkles against other QBs. Maybe next week where Eli left the game with an injury...their backup is that fat guy from Kentucky, remember him? Hopefully Eli is out next week.
A good start for Green Bay. This is how they will have to win every game because of the puke offensive roster TT has put together. I wonder if Randy Moss (190 + yards receiving and a TD) would have contributed more than Allen Barbre (2007 4th round pick) did?
Why would Moss want to come to GB, when his other option was NE? He wouldn't have came.
We should miss Jacobs next week at RB as well. I think he's out a few weeks. I think the Giants lost about half their team last night. I agree; I hop Eli is part of that since he looked pretty good last night.
While 18 rushing yards may not win you a game, I guess 40-some will. I am happy to be 0-1 on my Packer predictions! Lets shoot for 0-2 for me next week! I like the odds if Lorenzen is the starter.
Post a Comment