Packers-Titans game blog

12:06: Bad start for the offense. Let’s see what the defense can do. The Titans are fired up. Just have to weather the storm here for a little while.

12:13: Well, could have been worse. What should have been a three-and-out results in a 3-0 lead for the Titans. Now Rodgers gets his second chance. Better calm down. Try running the ball once maybe.

12:27: McCarthy’s lack of faith in his punter might have just cost the Packers big time. If the Titans take the ball and make it a 10-0 game, the Packer will be hard-pressed to comeback against this tough Titan defense. I do think the play they called was a good one but for at least the second time today a Titan blitzer had a free path to Rodgers. If the Packers can’t figure out this Titan pass rush Rodgers is going to be a sore man three hours from now.

12:43: The Packers are not playing well nor smart at this time. The defense stops the Titans but Brady Poppinga gives them new life and results in three more points. Very stupid move by Poppinga. The get a long pass to Jennings but the Packers can only had three. Oh well, 6-3 is better than 10-0. It is still a game. Packers need a turnover by their defense now.

1:11: The Packers use a nice drive to take the lead then are poised to give it right back after a long run by Lendale White. Damn! Touchdown Tennessee in about a second. I can’t believe it. This is sick. All the good work the Packers did on defense down the tubes. Titans back on top.

1:29: Halftime down 13-10. Could be worse I guess. Positives are the offense is finding it’s groove against a tough defense. The defense however is not playing up to par. 4-play drives on the Packers should not happen. And no turnovers. The second half will be interesting. Confidence remains high.

1:53: The Packers were on the move and Rodgers does his best Brett Favre impression and throws into double-coverage for an interception. That hurt. No reason to go deep there. Period. Grant is running the ball well, use the man.

2:02: Confidence is no longer high. The rush has been getting to Rodgers all day and this time Rodgers is hit and fumbles. Back-to-back turnovers by Rodgers. They must hold them to three points or the Packers have no chance to win this game.

2:16: Packers come back but fail in the red zone again. Got to get touchdowns when you get down there against a team like the Titans. 16-13 bad guys.

2:29: The Packers simply cannot protect the quarterback today. The Titans have shut down Grant in the second half and are teeing off on Rodgers. Running out of time. The Titans will grind it out now.

2:42: Packers tie it up but again fail to get in the endzone. Donald Driver is having a good day but has dropped two crucial passes and almost gave the game away on the last one. Defense needs to make a play right here and right now.

2:59: The Packers defense is to blame for this loss. Unbelievable.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Al Davis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  • Pete H

    I don’t neccessarily think Rodgers was as to blame for some of this as others, even though I was on the #4 side in the summer. I have some serious issues with the play calling in the red zone this year. I don’t get why MM is so aggressive on going for fourth downs….bad move by the way….and yet he completes softens in the red zone. Its not Rodgers calling audibles, its the plays that are coming in. It seems like the closer they get the shorter the play calls are…now In know thats only logical but you know what I mean….They don’t take shots in the zone until they are too close not to. When they are at the twenty they aim for the 10, from the 10 they aim for the 5 and so on. It seems like MM has truly been settling for field goals too often, and I think they can win shoot out games. They just have to call plays looking for TDs and not avoiding turnovers….Wild card is about out..division is all there is

  • montanafan

    Nah, Favre didn’t win all those close games last year. He helped, of course. But I remember a bunch of HUGE plays by special teamers or fumble recoveries taken to the house by Woodson, etc. That’s what we missed today; no big plays by the D. On the road, against the best team in the NFL, we got a decent performance by the offense, and a pretty good one by Rodgers.

    I’m waiting for Favre to elevate all the other players on the Jets, like the Favre fans think he did on the Packers.

    Today, all Favre did was throw a pick. Not one TD. And I’m still expecting the cold-weather crash. And then the big game choke. After that, I’m expecting the second retirement.

  • Oconomowockid

    The bottomline is we lost! You can blame the O line, the defense, the play calling, etc… We have problems in several areas and Aaron Rodgers is not one of the problems. As a matter of fact if AROD goes down we will be the second coming of Dallas. We are one play away from having no chance this season if AROD goes down. This team is not strong enough to have any chance. I find it very sad TT has put us in this situation.

    Wins are Wins and loses are loses!! Right now we are an average team, capable of losing to the majority of teams remaining on the schedule. I really don’t care about AROD’s stats, I care about the record. The offense should be putting many more points on the board than they are. The receivers we have are the best group we have had in years yet we have one or two big plays a game and stall out in the red zone.

    Finally, sorry to see KGB canned!! He was a quality act. Well, I guess we got younger again and made room for Ted’s bust.

  • Michael Legat

    I’m sure there were lots of Giants fans last year hung up on their win-loss record at the halfway mark too.

  • TRIP

    True, Legat.

    However,

    The the Giants didn’t win their division. And here are the prospects for a wildcard this year: the Redskins, Eagles, Cowboys, Buccaneers, and Falcons all have better records than us and NONE are leading their respective divisions. Mind you, we’ve played 2 of those 5 teams and lost. So, unless we can go 6-2 the rest of the season, the Bears and Vikings better starting losing more than us, because we won’t get a wildcard berth, against those odds.

    I don’t feel like the remainder of our games are impossible, granted, the lineup is: Vikings, Bears, Saints, Panthers, Texans, Jags, Bears, Lions. But there is no room for gaffs. A loss to the Vikings, Texans, Lions, or even the Saints signals our attention shifting from this season, to the draft.

  • TRIP

    And after the 13-3 season, that ^^^ would make be want to cry.

  • Larry

    Matt, I believe a statement is made when you play toe to toe w/ a team that a lot of people are saying is probably the best in the league. I dont think they are, but in any case they beat us. Here again, into the depth of the OL and every body other than C and RT playing out of position. From what I gather this game was lost on about (4) significant plays (2) of which were ARs admitted fault. At least he maned up and can learn from it. Just like ATL, TENN surprised me w/ their running strength in the OT. My bad! Pack is still the best thing going in my sports world and while I’m not pleased w/ the outcome I’m not going to make wild charges about ego and such when everyone in the organization is pulling their load as best they can with what they have. We have room to improve, obviously, and will – I’m confident and dont drink Kool-Aid.

  • Larry

    Zach, some trivia for the 39 yr old QB Club. The oldest QB to win the big one was a 38 yr old in ’98. His leading RB ran for over 2000 yds that yr and the team had a 14-2 record with the QB throwing 22 tds and 10 ints. Somehow I dont think BF could’ve pulled it off w/ us this year.

  • Pete H

    At least Grant looked like a running back again….he must have gotten nutered. They played a good game all around yesterday, but as said, bottom line is they lost again. For whatever reason there seem to be a lot of breakdowns in the 4th on this team. I don’t want to hear tired. That defense played well for 3 1/2 quarters….not enough. they then promptly served up 2 long easy drives. Rodgers looked very overmatched early…happy happy feet..very telegraphic in his passes. Jennings has to catch that ball and stop looking for a flag…..MM has to decide if he’s actually going to be aggressive or not, because if you are then you look for a TD to go ahead and not settle for a field goal, if you are not then you punt from the 50 early in the game. Point is that this is a good team in a good conference that proved they can play with anyone, but are also showing that they nut up in the 4th in close games….all sides

  • Pete H

    My other question is what they helll are they doing calling timeout when Tenn picks up 8 yds on first down?

  • Larry

    Cheer up Ocono we’re still re-tooling. Keeping a 39/16 QB and KGB would have been emotional decisions. Going w/ a 24/4 QB, putting another 12mil in the kitty, picking up another 3 or better pick, and reducing the roster of another non-performer as well as another 6mil in the kitty next yr were business decisions. Also, I submit we have back up QBs; (2) in fact. Over the last 50 yrs I’ve learned a little patience, especially concerning the Pack. The bad that happened in yesterdays game provides one more building block.

  • Pete H

    Only if they learn from it……hasn’t been the case yet

  • Larry

    Pete, one might think so given the final results. But my gosh, that OL hasn’t had one game yet with the same lineup as last yrs final 6-8 games I don’t think. There just has to be a silver lining in there somewhere…………..can it get any worse than what we have gone through this year so far?

  • Pete H
  • pmeyer

    60 million plus for Rogers. He has yet to prove anything. Has not come from behind, has a boo boo, etc, etc, etc. TT should have made him play a full year and evaluate before hitting the check book. Rodgers was signed through 09, what is the rush!!!! And why for so long. If he is great, in three years he will want a new contract, if he sucks (good chance of that) he will get paid for 6 years. I CAN BELIEVE IT!!! Even Terry, Howie, and Coach said TT is an idiot to do that now. Romo had to play a lot longer than that to get his money. More evidence of poor management. 66 million please!

  • paul

    Opps, 60 million plus for Rogers. He has yet to prove anything. Has not come from behind, has a boo boo, etc, etc, etc. TT should have made him play a full year and evaluate before hitting the check book. Rodgers was signed through 09, what is the rush!!!! And why for so long. If he is great, in three years he will want a new contract, if he sucks (good chance of that) he will get paid for 6 years. I CAN BELIEVE IT!!! Even Terry, Howie, and Coach said TT is an idiot to do that now. Romo had to play a lot longer than that to get his money. More evidence of poor management. 66 million please!

  • Reid

    Matt Hayton – This team would be 9-0 if Chuck Norris was the QB, BF #4 with 12 int’s is a wuss compared to Chuck Norris. Chuck would have 40 TD’s and 0 int’s by now and the other teams wouldn’t have scored on our defense because he would stand on the sideline and stare at them and they would be scared to even hike the ball.

  • paul

    60 million plus?

  • paul

    Obama will love to tax Rodgers wages as he will make 65 million over the 250,000 dollar cap…I am not talking politics here, just some darker humor to cover up the pain…oh the pain.

  • AllAboutThePack

    I think there were some key mistakes in that game yesterday, but considering we were tied at the end of the game even after making those huge mistakes says a little something about the strength of this team. Holding the Titans to a field goal after coughing up the ball at the 20 was a huge improvement especially against the running tandem that the Titans have. I think we got caught with our pants down late in the game as we were playing run and all of a sudden they started passing on us. Softened us up late instead of attempting to soften us up all game so we could adjust. Take away the couple of mistakes including Popinga’s stupid unnecessary penalty that gave the Titans a first down instead of 4th and 10 – which they subsequently scored on that drive – and this game is a win. Also, I think three dropped sure interceptions had a lot to do with the loss as well. Bigby got hit right in the numbers and didn’t pull it in – Harris and Collins were looking to pad their stats so they were fighting each other the interception and no one intercepted it. Just some fundamental breakdowns and missed opportunities today. I was glad to see Grant put up better then 4 yards per carry most of the game giving us short 2nd and 3rd down tries. Was a little frustrated with the play calling in the red zone, did we even TRY to give Grant the ball down there? I think we went to a pass happy offense once we reached the 20. I think this team has the capability, based on yesterdays performance against the number 1 defense in the league, to go 6-2 through the remaining games.

  • Larry

    Good discussion, sure glad algore invented this thing. AATP you’re describing FOOTBALL the game we all love. As to the AR contract, if he doesn’t perform he won’t get it, thats the way it is – mgmt in complete control. Whether he ever receives 60 mil or not will depend on his growth. If its not there he’ll be replaced so what difference does it make when the deal is done?

  • AllAboutThePack

    Pete H Says: “My other question is what they helll are they doing calling timeout when Tenn picks up 8 yds on first down?”

    I honestly believe the Titans were playing to get into OT when they ran that first play as they were showing no urgency and when MM decided to take a timeout they just figured if we were going try to win the game in the last minute then why don’t they take a shot at it. Kinda like that Timeout pissed ‘em off a little and they decided to go for the win instead. Turns out that it didn’t matter, but if you believe in Karma, that may have something to do with the reason we didn’t get the ball in OT ;)

  • iccyfan

    It’s a new week but the same thread topics as last week and the week before that. Matt H is still presenting his logical reasoning prowess that we’d be 8-0 if BF were QB; Ray L is still pining for Gonzo and paul is still hatin’ on AR/TT. I think I’m gonna play my old Talking Heads CD and blast “Same As It Ever Was”….

    Only one new issue in this thread, namely I don’t disagree with a single thing that Pete H has written!!! Bravo, well done, couldn’t have said it better myself and more… :)

  • paul

    Iccyfan, How can you now defend TT? $65,000,000 for Rodgers. What the ef? He will be worth it if we win ONE superbowl in the next 3 years…..65,000,000. That is more than Chuck Norris made in his lifetime….that one is for you Reid (smile)

  • AllAboutThePack

    Paul, dude, I really don’t think he’s defending TT, I just think he’s calling it like he sees it. And I really liked the “Same as it ever was” dig, that was funny….

  • paul

    I really was not implying that iccy was defending TT. It was just a rhetorical question. And 65,000,000 for Rogers, NOW, is a bad move and that is how I see it… Along with Terry, Howie, Jimmy.

  • Reid

    paul – AR doesn’t get $65M if he doesn’t perform so stop acting like they just wrote him a check for $65M last week. The kid in Atlanta got that much and he hadn’t even played a down. Pro Athlete salaries are illogical, in every sport. And Chuck could have that much money if he wanted it.

  • Larry

    Earlier someone said T-H-J called TT an “idiot”? Recognizing the way long term contracts are written insofar as what it takes to comply with the terms and conditions (parenthetically, none of you know the terms) in order to collect; just what is it about that contract that you are objecting to? I thought TT was being described as a penny pincher!

  • iccyfan

    paul – I defended TT in last week’s thread (Packers will end Titan’s streak) and the week before that and probably the week before that. If you want to see my rationale, it’s in the last ten posts in the prior thread (responding to RayL’s “proven incompetent” statement). Suffice it to say, I think he’s doing a fine job, including the Aaron Rodgers’ contract extension….

    Also, I’d be willing to wager Chuck Norris has brought in more than $65M over the course of his long & storied career! I hear he’s a fine counselor as well, helping Christie Brinkley thru her divorce with some full body workouts! Sorry Larry, I got carried away and off topic again! Christie Brinkley – Packers – Christie Brinkley; I’m out (in best Kramer voice impersonation)! Later…

  • http://Orlando Mark

    I haven’t had a chance to see the game but from what I read I’m encouraged with the effort and opening game plan as well as the improvement in the O-line. Going for it on 4th down was stupid and desparate. This was a big game but the season is going to be decided this week and the two games against Chicago. This isn’t about TT, there is enough talent to win the devision but MM has to improve as a game day coach. Good job by the punter.

  • Larry

    iccy you’re too much. Chuck lives about 15 miles from here on a beautiful ranch and tho I’ve not met him I do know people who have. From what I’ve been told you couldn’t meet a nicer guy. I hope he’s a Packer fan, but probably roots for the ‘BOYS. Yeah, I deserve the crack about “topic” I’m just as guilty of veering off as the next person.

  • RayL

    Nice game for Justin Harrell. He really made an impact in that run defense. He is the “real meal” LOL Iccy – TT is incompetent, IMO you can take him I will leave him….

  • Pete H

    AATP…I am sure they were willing to run out the clock, but when they get 8 on first, its pretty easy to get the last 2 and run it out if so desired. Thats my problem. If thhey had them to less than 5 even I could see it, but why not give the D a blow…just in case you don’t win the toss??? Like I said I see MM being aggressive in situations like this, ut then very complacent in the red zone or with any type of lead.

  • iccyfan

    Ray – Justin Harrell had the same number of tackles as Albert Haynesworth, a perenial All-Pro and former high first round draft pick. Obviously the Titans wasted that pick and all the money they’ve thrown at him over the years (based on the results of this one game)! C’mon, give the kid a chance before you bury him.

    As for selling your TT stock, I’m buyin’ and advise you’re exiting the market at the wrong time. Of course, I’m in this for the long haul and don’t expect immediate and spectacular returns on my investment. I’m the Merrill Lynch of Packer fans (win titles the old fashioned way, you earn it), while you apparently day-trade with Roger What-his-name and his fancy helicopter (psst…buy Gonzo for one year at $12M; it’ll be a great investment). To each their own; we both love the Pack!

  • Devil’s Advocate…

    I’m a bit disappointed in MM…….. I kept waiting for a reverse, flea flicker, hurry-up or anything to get that offense rolling, and it never happened!!! With yards and points at a premuim, he needs to get creative. And it’s not like they’re a power team anyway, they need to use a little finese. Otherwise, glad they went toe-to-toe w/the Titans at LP Field. They’re getting there. Let’s hope this a is a bitter pill for them and drives them on to bigger and better things for the rest of the season.

  • Reid

    DA – I agree – reverse, flea flicker, hurry-up or anything to get that offense rolling, and it never happened!!! Maybe saving that for Vikes & Bears?

  • Devil’s Advocate…

    Yeah Reid, in the grand scheme of things, I guess those would be more important games at this point….. Hard saying how the wild-cards will fall. I still expect to see them in the play-offs, though.

  • Larry

    MM must have been inovating; I read somewhere that on a 3rd and 8 late that he called a screen even tho on three previous occations a screen didn’t work. How would TENN ever expect that? PS: It didn’t work! Lot of hours in the film room these next two weeks. I always think of Vince’s comment about the “PACKER SWEEP”. “I don’t care if they do know its coming; if executed properly they can’t stop it”. So, maybe, it just comes down to execution and not everybody is in the right place at the right time yet. Practice, practice, practice.

  • Reid

    It’s easier to execute it properly if the other team doesn’t know it’s coming and they aren’t already positioned to stop it. The element of surprise is always helpful.

  • Devil’s Advocate…

    They should add a repetore of mis-direction plays and a trick play or two a game. But if they wanna play w/the big boys………. they can’t be kicking field goals from inside the 5 yard line. I’d almost rather see them go for it on 4th down. Dis-heartening if you don’t get any points after getting that close but it’s also dis-heartening to get that close and settle for a FG.

  • Roy Jamison

    A road game against an unbeaten team. Woulda been a nice win. But, it just shows how close the NFL is. Now the Pack needs to win one of those games on the road, starting next week.

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