Just when you think it can’t get any worse at running back for the Green Bay Packers, starting running back and rookie Brandon Jackson suffers a concussion and will miss Thursday’s preseason finale. Like the the Packers’ woeful running game get any worse. When you are down to DeShawn Wynn at running back, I think it’s time to panic. What general manager Ted Thompson has in mind I have no idea.

I understand you need to have a good defense, but if you can’t get a first down on offense, what good is that? Thompson has built what should be a top ten defense, but in the meantime, and with twenty-million to spend, he did nothing to improve an already average offense, particularly at running back. One has to wonder how many backs the team has to lose before Thompson brings in some help. I’m willing to try out.

How the Packers expect to move the ball is beyond me. The zone blocking scheme doesn’t appear to be working and expecting Brett Favre to stay healthy and throw more than 600 times again this year is ridiculous. Head coach Mike McCarthy is being held hostage by his general manager. I can’t imagine what Thompson is thinking about his running back position, but I know I disagree with it.

Al

Strange start to tonight’s game. Packers offense used 12 plays to go 40 yards, the Jags do the same to go about 30, then a fight breaks out. Brady Poppinga got a great after the play push in. Now both teams have tried and failed on fourth down. Brett and company coming back out.

The Packers need to find a way to run the ball. It seems like there are very few holes for the running backs to run through. The more I see of this zone blocking scheme the more I don’t like it. Bottom line is, it’s not working.

James Jones makes his first big mistake of the preseason by fumbling a first-down catch. Not good. Favre is wild, and has been mad all night. This is not a good matchup for the Packers and the Jaguars are starting to take over.

The Packers defense is still playing well. They have given up a few yards tonight but the pressure on the QB is there and the aggressiveness as well. Desmond Bishop just about killed a guy a minute ago, and pressure up the gut on third down forced a bad pass. Packers take over on their own 20.

Holy smokes! Favre, bing, bing, bing and they are inside the Jags 20. Better finish it off.

Shoot! Jones wide open in the endzone and Favre’s pass got batted down by a lucky d-lineman. Look what I found. Oh well, great drive. Favre was on fire, Bubba Franks makes his case for the starting tight end job with a huge catch and run. Not too shabby. 3-0 Packers.

While the offense looks good, the Packers have just suffered the biggest loss they could possibly suffer outside of Brett Favre when Donald Driver appeared to severely injure his leg. The way he came off the field and his refusal to even touch his foot on the ground leads me to believe it could be a significant injury. The Packers offense just took a huge blow. If they lose another reciever, a.k.a., James Jones, they are in big trouble.

Aaron Rodgers continues to impress. He just ran the two-minute drill to perfection, going 73 yards for a touchdown, and making a tremendous play by hitting Brandon Jackson in the flat while getting hit. Jackson converts a third-and-10 at the Jaguar 12 to first-and-goal and the one and scores a play later. Sweet. 10-0 Pack.

The second-string defense is not looking good tonight, neither is the second-string offensive line. Rodgers is now running for his life on every snap. The Jags are now shreading the Packers’ defense. Soon to be 14-10. Ugly.

Got to close up shop, so take heart in the Packers’ first-string offense and defense tonight and say a prayer for Donald Driver. Other than the Driver injury, the first-strings look good, a little more out of the running backs would be nice, but overall a good performance. The second-string, not so good. 14-10 Jags now and the Packers are about to lose their first preseason game and likely won’t try too hard next week at Tennessee. Rodgers just got crushed again. Get him out of there.

I’m out.

Packers get their first first-down in of the year, by penalty. It’s a start after another three-and-out by the starters tonight. Now Bubba with a catch on third-and-two. Holy cow! Nice little drive here, would be nice to finish with a touchdown. Nope. 37-yard field goal. 3-0 Pack.

Wow! Will Blackmon is a slippery little devil. Long kickoff return sets up a Brandon Jackson touchdown and a 10-3 lead.

Terrible play by Nick Collins and Nick Barnett led to a Seattle field goal prior to that. Seahawks do not look to sharp with Matt Hasselbeck at quarterback. Seneca Wallace is not the answer.

Another nice defensive series for the Packers. A.J. Hawk gets a sack, Cullen Jenkins a tackle for loss. Add another nice return by Blackmon and the Packers take over in Seattle territory.

Favre with a long one to Driver and the Packers are threatening again. Sweet.

Favre to Jones. Touchdown! The offense is clicking tonight. Jackson looks good, Favre looks good, even Bubba Franks looks good.

KGB and Nick Barnett combine for a sack and fumble and Barnett takes it to the house. 24-3. The rout is on.

Not so fast. A bad snap and fumble. Short field for Seattle, bad play by the defense and it’s 24-10. Lets see if Rodgers can overcome a little adversity.

Rodgers responds well. Nice 71-yard drive topped off with a bullet to James Jones for the touchdown. Very impressive.

Another defensive touchdown. What is going on here? 38-10 Pack.

Brett Favre, as usual, speaks from the hip and his current view of the Packers’ offense does not exactly instill Packers’ fans with confidence. Favre spoke to the media Monday and expressed his concerns about wanting to win now but trying to do so with a semi-pro team around him. He sounded more like Paul Crew than Brett Favre. He basically said he doesn’t have confidence in his receivers running the right routes or the ability to build the chemistry needed to win a championship. I, for one, have never seen Favre this frustrated.

While Favre said he could play five more years, it’s obvious he’s having second thoughts about even playing this season. Backup quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ stellar performance against the Steelers after Favre’s four three-and-outs can’t help much either. Rodgers seemed to have some chemistry with his receivers. You can say Rodgers’ performance was against the second-teams and it was, but the guys who stand out against the second-teams get promoted to the first team. I’m not saying it’s time to pass the torch, but I think it’s about time somebody put some pressure on Favre.

One quote from Favre that struck me was this:  ”two ways to look at this year:  You’re a young football team with a mature quarterback who’s seen it all with a defense that is our best phase, so don’t make any mistakes as a quarterback. Or, as a team so young that it needs its quarterback to to carry it on his shoulders, take some chances and make something out of nothing”. Certainly Favre leans toward the latter, and so do I.

Head coach Mike McCarthy seems to be trying to make a robot out of Favre. McCarthy said “it’s not the old days, but to me that’s good, because I don’t need him to play like a wild stallion anymore. We’re not built that way.”Wow! I think “wild stallion” worked pretty well. One Super Bowl Championship and two NFC Championships are not bad bullet-points on a quarterback’s resume. Maybe it’s McCarthy who has this all wrong? Maybe the Packers should be putting the ball in Favre’s hands and letting him do what he does best, and take the good with the bad. The team’s refusal to address its woeful stable of running backs has no explanation, neither does trying to change a three-time Most Valuable Player’s style of play.

Like I said, Favre wears his emotions on his sleeve, but this might have been the most discouraging press conference I have ever heard from him. When confidence should be high after a four-game winning streak to close out last year, Favre seems to be totally lost. Very strange. One thing is sure, my confidence in the Packers improving on last year just took a huge hit. If Favre doesn’t think they can improve, what chance do they have? Can you say Aaron Rodgers?

by Al Davis

The Green Bay Packers have a long way to go to be regular season ready, but isn’t that training camp is for? Clearly, in the Packers case, the defense is ahead of the offense, especially the first-string offense. Amazingly the Packers’ starters couldn’t even generate one first down. To say they looked bad would be a compliment to them.Thanks to backup quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the offense finally showed signs of life and put up 13 points, enough to beat the Steelers because the Packers’ defense was shutting down the Steelers backups all night. Only mistakes by Atari Bigby let the Steelers get on the board. I doubt Bigby will be around much longer as those are the types of mistakes the Packers have been stressing against making all off-season. Those were the mistakes that killed them early last year in games against the Bears and Saints and several others.The defensive line was very impressive let by defensive end Cullen Jenkins. Jenkins had two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He also stuffed former Packer Najah Davenport on a third-and-one. Jenkins is key to the defense and early indications show he is up to the task.Even first-round draft pick Justin Harrell got into the act with a sack late in the game. If the Packers’ defense can get off to a strong start this season it will go a long way in helping the offense, which simply put, needs help. With no running threat and no tight end threat, the Packers are very one-dimensional. Of course the Packers were without starting running back Vernand Morency and only had four series, so running out and giving up the bank for Larry Johnson can wait at least another week.Second-round draft pick running back Brandon Jackson showed some signs he might be a player after getting off to a slow start. He only had three carries with the starters but ended with 58 yards total for the game. Jackson and Rodgers could be playing together a long time so it was good to see them have some success together right off the bat. Third-round draft pick wide receiver James Jones also continued his impressive play this training camp with a solid game against the Steelers. The new triplets maybe?All in all it was game just like all the other games last weekend, and thanks to NFLN I saw quite a few of them. But one thing is sure, the Packers are ahead of where they were last year in their preseason opening, but that isn’t really saying much because they should be with a year under their belts. Head coach Mike McCarthy wasn’t totally displeased with the game, but you can bet he will expect more out of his starters next week against Seattle at Lambeau Field. So will the fans. Another week like this one and we might have a quarterback controversy in Green Bay. by Al Davis�

Former Packers’ general manager Ron Wolf will go his grave believing the offense line of a football team is the key to the team’s success. “If you don’t have five, you can’t play,” he said. And he didn’t mean five nobodies, he meant five quality players, starting with left tackle. Apparently current general manager Ted Thompson subscribes to the same theory with the current Green Bay Packers.

Thompson’s second draft as GM brought three starters to the offensive line last year, two who will be starters this year in Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz, and super sub Tony Moll, who started his share of games last year. The venerable Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher are solid at tackles and Scotty Wells has the nasty demeanor that has to remind Brett Favre of Frankie “bag of donuts” Winters.

Moll is the ultimate team player. He will fill in where needed and it wouldn’t surprise me if he replaced Clifton or Tauscher some day. The Packers still need depth on the offensive line and I’m kind of surprised that Junius Coston has not made a bigger splash this training camp. The Packers have been high on him for the last two years and you would think he would be pushing for a starting job, but apparently that is not the case yet.

The offensive line is so important not only because they protect one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in Favre, but they have no proven running back behind them who can make up for a slip here and there. They need to be even more precise than they were last year, which shouldn’t be all that hard.

For some reason I’m not quite sure of, I think the Packers offensive line will be better. Not just because the youngsters are a year older and everybody knows the system better, but because their former coach is now the offensive coordinator. Joe Philbin knows this unit’s strengths and now has the ability to call, or at least strongly suggest, the plays that work best for them. Philbin did wonders with this raw unit last year and I can’t wait to see if the whole offense responds to his way of coaching like the offensive line did last year.

Offensive line coach James Campen is a fan favorite who played his heart out for the Green and Gold. Campen knows how to protect Brett Favre, having done it himself for two years. If Favre stays upright, the Packers will be have a chance to win every game, throw in a respectable running game, and the Packers may surprise on offense.

Bottom line is, more than ever before, the Packers’ offensive line will determine it’s success. I have faith in Philbin and Campen. If the Packers do indeed become a surprise team in 2007, the reason the talking heads will attribute it to will be the offensive line.We will find out a little more Saturday at Pittsburgh.

by Al Davis

From the reports, looks like Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy want ten not nine players on the defensive line in order to dominant the line of scrimmage. I thought they would want more flexibility in the defense as a whole. That is my reasoning for seven linebackers. I guess that is why they get paid the big bucks J. Individual reports on the ten potential players for defensive line. We will start with Aaron Kampman, Aaron is having a solid training camp but he is still getting stuffed by Mark Tauscher in one on one pass blocking. That‘s, alright because the same thing was happening a year ago. Plus Kampman is coming off minor knee surgery. Ryan Pickett, on the other hand went into the doghouse on the first day of training camp due to not passing his physical testing. Basicly not finishing sprints in a certain amount of time between the width of the practice field. Ryan has recently past and is back on the field and clogging up the middle as usual. Corey Williams was immediately put as a backup to Justin Harrell when the official depth chart right before training camp started. Corey is playing with the starting line up due to the fact that rookie Justin Harrell is trying to get back into football shape after being out for 10 months from football. Then Cullen Jenkins, there was a report stating just recently that has Mike McCarthy saying that Jenkins is having a solid camp is ready for a possible breakout this year at defensive end position. 

Now we will go over the second tier of players that could be on the final roster. One positive report coming out camp is on Michael Montgomery. Montgomery is having a monster camp and by all counts the coaching staff is looking to get him anywhere between 15 to 20 snaps a game. That will be huge for giving breaks to Kampman and Jenkins while keeping KGB only as a designated pass rusher. Montgomery has come from no where because last year he was left for dead due a knee injury toward the end of last season. The knee is fine and he has added 15lbs on his frame to be more stubborn against the rush. Another good report is that Collen Cole started out with the starters in the beginning of camp. Cole is still good against the rush. A bad report coming out of camp is from Johnny Jolly the second year defensive tackle had a solid off season but the month before showing up to training camp, something happened. He fail his physical training test along with Ryan Pickett. The Packers are not committed to Jolly and could easily go with an undrafted rookie Daniel Muir who has put together some solid practices before hurting his ankle. Muir is back and hopefully will play Saturday in the intra squad game. Getting back to Jolly, in one on ones pass rushing he was getting blocked by everyone except for Pat Murray. Pat is an undrafted rookie offensive lineman that at this moment just looks lost at training camp, but that is another story. KGB is the next player that is not getting a lot of positive press, due to not being able to get off blocks in order to rush the passer effectively. I had a feeling KGB might not be able to go back to his old ways of a designated rusher but we are early into camp. If KGB continues this way then look forward to Jason Hunter as his replacement. There was a scene with one of the defensive ends not being able to make it to the cooling tent. Larry Birdine collapsed to all fours just off the field and had a scolding from Carl Hairston to the effect, that type of effort or lack there of will not be accepted. Birdine, gave up on not finishing one of the defense line drills. So it looks like Larry Birdine just bought himself a one way ticket out of town.

At this moment that is all the updating I have except for the second installment of the potenial starting ten defensive lineman. Starting lineup Kampman, Pickett, Williams, Jenkins with Montgomery, Cole, Harrell, KGB then Muir for the defensive tackle and Hunter for defensive end as backups. 

Go Pack!!!

By Joe Blackwell 

Are the Packers really physically and mentally ready for this 2007 training camp. Your starting running back Vernand Morency goes down with a knee injury and will be out for two weeks. A backup tight end Tory Humphrey, a up and coming tight end ended his season on a broken ankle and broken fibula bone in his left leg. Both of the earlier injuries, the player were in shape. But there have been instances where players could not stand the heat and the length of practices because of cramps and fatigue. One instance had all the tight ends dropping out except for Donald Lee. This caused Mike McCarthy to shorten the practice about 20 plays for lack of players. Defensive tackles failed their physical tests and could not join the team. Those two players were Ryan Pickett and Johnny Jolly. Another promising defensive tackle is having ankle issues, that is stopping his growth at the moment. That player would be Daniel Muir, he is positioning himself to overtake Johnny Jolly on the roster.

So the loss of one body from the tight ends, will mean, Donald Lee, Bubba Franks, Zak Alcorn and Clark Harris will have more opportunities. Also with the Packers using the TE’s more in the offensive philosophy, we as fans could be looking at the tight ends that will be kept for 2007, all four of them. But there was a report being published that has Alge Crumbler the tight end from Atlanta being traded to Green Bay for Aaron Rodgers and a 2^nd round pick next year. Do I see that happening, NO due to Ted Thompson philosophy of building a successful football program from within, but you never know.

Morency was the other loss and will be recovering for two weeks. Again allowing the others to get extra opportunities. The good thing for Brandon Jackson, PJ Pope, Noah Herron and DeShawn Wynn they need the extra work. But for all the injures I blame them on the different training camp schedule that the Packers are using, with Wednesdays off and the longer practices.

What I find funny is the fact that Mike McCarthy said that he would be upset if any of his players came to camp out of shape. He thought the team would be raring to go, once training camp started. Enter Ryan Pickett and Johnny Jolly, both failed their physical test, not good if you want to continue to take the next step above an 8 – 8 football season from 2006.

This leads me to believe that Mike McCarthy really did not crunch the numbers because of all the early injuries besetting the players. Evan though McCarthy is concentrating on giving the players off on Wednesdays, due to what was accomplished during the OTA’s. Lets compare what McCarthy is trying to accomplish and what was successful back in the middle to late 90’s. That is when the Green Bay Packer machine was working to perfection with Mike Holmgren, practices lasted any where between 40 to 50 minutes based on a high tempo. For the moment practices are going thru stretches between 1 – 2 hours. Not trying to say that McCarthy’s practices are not high tempo but the length of time is crucial, that could come back to hurt McCarthy in the end.  The players may get Wednesdays off, but during practices after fatigue sets in, and the heat factor, along with longer practices the players are going to be stressed which leads to injures. Like cramps from not having enough fluid in the body or a twisting of ankle, or breaking your leg. We will see after training camp is concluded but the results so far are not good.

If something could be recommended about the training camp schedule, it would be to shorten up the practices until all the players are in shape, then at that time the coaches can then lengthen the practices all they want to. Eventually the players will catch up to the day to day regime that is being used right now but at what expense with player injuries. Hopefully everyone  will stay healthy from now till the pre-season game against Pittsburgh Steelers.

by Joe Blackwell