The Green Bay Packers had a week off to prepare for the roughest road trip of their season. Playing at Denver and at Kansas City back-to-back would be a tough trip for anybody outside of Indianapolis and New England. Two strong home fields, one, Arrowhead Stadium, rich in tradition much like Lambeau Field. Speaking of, I hate that tradition is lost in some cities these days. Come on, how can the Broncos not be playing in Mile High Stadium. Money is root of all evil.
Anyway, if the Packers are to maintain their division lead they need to win at least one of these games. The Chicago Bears made it perfectly clear Sunday that they are not going anywhere and in my mind they are still the team to beat in this division. I can easily see the Bears putting together a major winning streak after looking at their schedule. The Packers need one out of the two for sure.
The Packers will have another weapon in wide receiver Koren Robinson this week. While it will take a few weeks probably, Robinson is probably the second-best receiver on the roster behind Donald Driver and has the potential to be number one. Robinson is only 27 and has his prime years are ahead of him. Without even a hint of a running game, the Packers need to give Brett Favre all the weapons they can, like the Patriots did with Tom Brady. Too bad Packers’ President Bob Harlan wouldn’t allow Randy Moss to come to Green Bay, maybe if he had the Packers would be doing what the Patriots are doing right now. Huge mistake, but that is another story, but it’s getting worse each week.
Robinson appears to be ready to play and I believe he will spark the offense out of it’s doldrums of late when he gets up to speed. It might not be on offense the first week, but nothing about a long kick return hurts. I would like to see him get a few plays on offense as well, too. Robinson is better than Javon Walker and he’s healthy and a lot less expensive. It would behoove head coach Mike McCarthy to get him involved early and often. We don’t need any more fumbles in the red zone.
I don’t see much chance of the Packers’ running game improving unless the offensive line makes a drastic improvement with a week off. Granted the running backs are pedestrian, but even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. The Packers’ offensive line can count on one hand the number of positive running plays the unit produced in the first six games. It does not bode well for the Packers with winter coming, and not to mention the alarming number of injuries to quarterbacks around the league this year. How long can Favre keep doing it? Handing off every now and then is a good thing.
I can’t wait for Monday, what a difference from last year at this time.
More to come…