It was hard watching Allen Barbre get beat consistently last night, but at least we know they will correct the issues. However if we hear “pad level” mentioned by MM, then Aaron Rodgers is going to be in trouble. I hope it is just a case of nerves versus a top 15 DE.

The only team worth a crap vs the Packers was Ten. of course that was a nothing game. Buf fired their Coordinator on offense Cleveland is terrible and AZ is a one year wonder. We cant under-underestimate Lovie vs. the Pack he treats it like a playoff game, only now the Packers finally are matching that intensity. Woodson is had no film of the rookie Knox.
I will keep harping on the fact that this is the best Defensive backfield Capers has ever had. We always hear defense is ahead of offense at this time of year. The O will straighten out.

The year Balt. won the SB, they won it with their defense. Trend D. didn’t even get the most valuable player that day and was even released the next year.

What I’m trying to say is, “Let our defense help our offense out for a while.” We’re way too good on offense and have way too many offensive weapons to toss in the towel at this stage of the season.

It appears some are shocked at what happened in CHI game, why? As I recall only a few of us called a blowout and we’re the ones w/ egg on our faces; the majority were right in calling a squeeker. The exact concerns going in (ie; OL) played out and MM knows what he has to do. If he wanted outside help either at QB or OT TT would get it for him.
Our game was not unique for the first of the year; MIN down at half, PATs down w/ 3 to go, PIT by 3 over TEN, IND 2 over JAC, and SD(my gosh)24-20 over OAK.
Buckle up guys this is going to be exciting.

Great post, Al! Much of what you stated is why I think we are a 10-6 team. O-Line still is far from being dominant. Hopefully TT won’t piss around and will get Tausch or Runyan in here ASAP. My fear is that in not wanting to harm to his pet project (Barbre) they will be too slow in making this move which will cost them either getting the right replacement or end up getting AR on IR.

Plus Grant is not making any plays. I really think it is both an OL and RB issue, not exclusively the OL. Which is why it sucks they cut Sutton. He was far more elusive than any back they have on the roster…think the running game is going to struggle unless Grant has gaping holes to run through, which it doesn’t look too promising in that regard.

Also depth at safety is a concern, especially now that Bigby has a bum knee…

Lastly, you have to wonder if we are beginning to see the demise of our bookend CBs as well? Hopefully it is adjustment to a new scheme, but Devin Hester, Earl Bennett and Johnny Knox looked like all-pro wide receivers against our guys, and that was when they didn’t drop the ball or cut-off routes. If those goes had a clue and didn’t have as many drops or quit on routes, it could’ve been really ugly out there, fortunately they beat themselves alot, otherwise it would have been a much different game.

Overall, OL and secondary are my two biggest concerns, now that AR proved to me that he can pull a game out of his ass when needed. Hopefully he can bat .500 in close games this year. Loved seeing that!

I’m sure glad Matt & P_B are around to “keep it real”. If not for their keen insight, I’d be happy with a win over a bitter divisional rival and looking forward to a game versus the Bungles! Silly me…

brutus & iccy- we just have a bunch of folks who aren’t going to be happy unless we win every game 56-0 with 8 TD drives dominated by 7 yard runs and a few long ones, 100% completion rate, and 3-and-out by the D on every opponent possession.

Well, I am encouraged by the win. AR did a hell of a job doing just what we would hope he would do when it counted. When the chips are down and the game is on the line your best players want the ball in their hands, regardless of how the entire game has gone, if you have a chance to win, the good teams will win. This is a much improved team from last year. The Hester thing can hardly be blamed on Woodson, he had over the top help and Collins apparently had pulled a hammy so he was unable to get there. Even the announcers were perplexed by the fact that Collins didn’t get to Hester and should have. That one was on Collins, not Woodson. Our secondary did a great job both in coverage and tackling. They were flying around and everyone was near the ball. That is far more encouraging then last year. Last year Forte would have slashed and gashed us leaving the play-action wide open. The game was close cause the Bears defense is what we thought it was. They are better then average and we are a little weak on the rights side. This spelled the disaster we saw on offense. There were plenty of blown assignments on offense as well and dropped balls. They’ll get it worked out. I generally would have liked a blow-out of the Bears but I think I’ve been around long enough to understand that when the Bears play they almost always beat us using their defense. We can never say that the Bears are our barometer. They can be 3-5 and we could be 6-2 and they’ll give us the game of our lives and in many cases beat us on our own turf. It’s just different playing the Bears then most other teams. I’m thinking we can expect much of the same from the Viqueens as there will be a little something more for the Viqueens to play for then just the game or a statistic. You KNOW who’s gonna want those two games more then ever.

So I’m encouraged by the win and I think our team now believes they can win the close ones. That’s huge over last year.

NE – last second win over the lowly Bills.
SD – last second win over the lowly Raiders.

The best teams always pull out the close ones. I guess the Packers are in good company.

Pete H says: “I haven’t yet seen someone post on the poor play of Rodgers. That game is a blowout if Rodgers connects on the 3 deep passes that were all wide open.”

I agree it wasn’t his best night. I personally cut him some slack because he was under alot of pressure most of the game and he did have quite a few drops that weren’t his fault. He took a bad safety, but didn’t have any turnovers and hit the big one to Jennings and had a couple Bears closing in on him on that play. When you end up winning the game, the underthrows and overthrows tend to get forgotten.

Al gets an A for his C rating of Pack. I’d give the D a B plus and the O a D, so I guess that does comes out a C. Sure, I’ll be a little more cautious with this Bengals game. I know the O-line had problems, but I’ll be interested in how MM calls the next game. I can’t really rate his play calling given the O-line play, but there never seemed to be a real rhythm to the game. Maybe it was because of a better Bears defense than I thought it would be. I sure thought they could take advantage of the Bears secondary more than they did. As they say, we gotta get better.

Even with some of the spectacular performances from some of the players I agree that overall they get a C. They need to improve going forward. They got the talent they just need to put it together now.

Al – Good observations and assessments. Thanks again for hosting this great web site and blog. If anyone wants to feel just the teeniest bit better about the Packers, stoll over to the Chicago news sites and read what their sportswriters are saying about the pre-season NFC North favs, Da Bears. The truth is that the Packers and Bears were pretty evenly matched teams playing their guts out. I loved every second of this game, even when I feared the Pack might not prevail. Smashmouth football at its best. And, finally, Air Aaron saves the day. I love the stuff he said in the huddle to get the guys going in that last drive. Some big plays in th egame … AND some big stuffs and stops. The new 3-4 D is looking pretty good for this first true test. Damn, I am PUMPED about this season! Barbre had a bad game against an seasoned, inspired player, mostly because of Barbre’s lack of experience and poor technique. Those are BOTH correctable. Do not give up on him; the coaches have not. (IMHO, the O-Coord should have helped him out sooner with TE and RB chips on the DE, but what do I know?) GO PACK, GO!

Well I disagree with a lot of this article, and a lot of the people responding to it.

First off, a lot of credit goes to the Bears’ front four. They’re playing like they did in ’06, largely in response to Marinelli’s coaching and a lot of health. The O-line sucking wasn’t them just collapsing against a mediocre pass rush, it was, in fact, a very good Bears pass rush. You have to remember that when the Bears and the Packers play, intensity goes way up.

That isn’t to say that the O-line performed well. They were absolutely terrible. And it wasn’t just Barbre. However, the run blocking was actually a lot better than the pass blocking. A couple of blown assignments that led to backfield penetration, to be sure, but it’s week 1. What you should really be looking at is the revamped strong side of the O-line. Their power game is much improved,and you can see the push that they get against a very good Bears D-line. Once the blown assignments are fixed, the running game will improve.

Grant looked just fine. I don’t know what game you were watching. He had a couple of very nice power runs, with 3 to 4 defenders hanging off of him as he powered an extra 3-4 yards to get first downs. You have to remember that we were in 2nd and 3rd and long for much of the game.

How often do you think that a West Coast offensive coach is going to call a run play, against one of the best rushing defenses last year, on 2nd and 13? His rushing average was obliterated by that holding penalty and tackles for losses that had absolutely nothing to do with his running ability.

The defense did not look bad at all. I don’t know if you understand how a 3-4 defense works, but that’s what they do. They force turnovers, they bend but don’t break, and they do give up big plays once in awhile. That’s the risk-reward of heavy blitzing. You also have to realize that this is the first game that these guys have played in the scheme. They’d basically have to try to not improve. We held the Bears to 15 points (two of which can’t be blamed on the defense) and just over 300 yards of offense. That’s not that much to be ashamed about.

The rest, you’re right on. Mason needs to hit those kicks. The receivers dropped too many passes. The offense looked like crap, especially on film.

But the team that deserved to win, won. You can’t say that a team that was -4 in turnovers “deserved” to win.

what do you mean the pack had no business winning the game, they had four interceptions, held forte to 55 tards rushing, we should have killed bears.

Oh, check it out, another gloom and doomer:

“We can say we’ve done this offensively in the past, we’ve done that, we have this talent and that talent,” offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said Monday. “But right now we’re not a very good offense. That’s a fact. That’s what our performance on film in the game shows. Until we get another opportunity, that’s where we are.”

Being realistic isn’t being negative, just fyi.

Sorry, packer_bob, but they are going to say that whether they’re doing good in our eyes or bad in our eyes cause they (the coaches) expect perfection… I’m optimistic that the things he is talking about is the missed assignments, dropped balls and the blocking by Barbre… They ARE a good offense making stupid mistakes. Mistakes are correctable, bad talent is not and we’re not short on talent by any stretch of the imagination.

I believe Lovie Smith and Brad Childress are in the process of cutting their throats. On defense the Bears are an aging team and now they dont have the draft picks to replenish that D. In about a week Cutler will be complaining that his receivers are hot trash.
Childress has jumped out of plane with no backup parachute. MN gets by with the motor city kitties this week, but week 3 they face a team that has already shut down Peterson once with the best MLB in Football Mr. Pat Willis. I just want to witness when the debacle happens then you know who grabs the mike and leads the Metrodome to drink the kool aid.
Meanwhile steady Teddy has a defensive juggernaut. Defense can take you anywhere. I was concerned that Jenkins ,Pickett and Jolly were getting too many snaps and that might cause an L but they rose up and forced a FG and that help put the game away. BJ makes his debut next week against a poor Cincy Oline.
For the Cincy look for the Pack to attack Roy Williams in coverage this should be a good game for Lee & Finley

I predicted the Bears would win, and we came one pass away from that being the truth. I have always stated the fish rots from the head down and Thompson is the head and for the most part cannot see the forest for the trees. He had to have known that Barbre was not good during preseason but did nothing to properly address that problem. I think that Rodgers is as good a QB as there is in the league, but he cannot throw passes lying on his back. Currently he is one step away from being injured, then our season is done. We don’t have an Adrian Peterson to run the ball so it is up to Rodgers to be given the time to throw it. Which is something he simply does not have. Naturally all of you assume we will maul the Bengals, don’t count on that, think back to last Sun when they came within a frogs hair of beating Denver. Where oh where is there a Ron Wolf when we need him. The only bright move that TT made was picking up Capers….

pb65, I wish I went to the optimist club you go to… “If Harrel would pan out and Raji turns out good we might have a super defensive line.” This is year three of the Harrell mistake and hopefully the last. His back is a wreck. Our scouts screwed up. And, it’s time the train left the station on that one. On the other hand, Raji is going to be alright once he gets in there. No chronic problems with him. Sometimes people think the Raiders were stupid in getting Seymour. But, I’d much rather give up a pick and get a proven player than spend three years and a ton of bucks and no return.

To judge the OL on one game versus DA BEARS is ludicrous. But this is always the reaction of the typical fan and even more, the story-hunting media. If Barbre can’t do the job then he’ll simply be replaced. Thompson has little if nothing to do with how a player responds to coaching. A GM acquires players, if he can, based on information provided by the coaching staff.

Wanting to go back to the Ron Wolf days is like wanting to go back to the Brent Faver days.

No thanks.

Jack in Columbus, did you really say, “I am about as excited as I was in ‘96 as the seaosn started, and it looked bleak for a while that year (I witnessed the season turn for the better in the 2nd half at St. Louis, 11/24/96).”????

That is a bizarre comment. The Pack started out 8-1 that year and there avg margin of victory during those games was 20! Granted they lost 2 games in a row prior to the St Louis game you mention, but that year felt like theirs from Day 1. At least to ‘true’ Packer fans.

Sorry, had to throw that out. Sounds retarded doesn’t it? If someone takes the time to post here, they are obviously a true and passionate Packer fan.

I think it is silly to rip on ARod for that game. Wasn’t his best, but came through in the clutch after getting the shit beat out of him. Barbre needs to go. Someone made the comment that it is experience and technique that is lacking and these are correctable. Wow. IT IS HIS 3RD YEAR. If he doesn’t have it by now it would likely be due to a lack of TALENT. And the reason for not having expereience was evident on Sunday, wasn’t it? He is not good enough, but I will try and trust in MM having a short leash. I just pray that this is not something we are discussing all season like our lack of guards was the last few years.

Everyone has to be encouraged by the defense and special teams. Not sure how many of you were at the game, but I was and it was a hell of a loud crowd despite a fair amount of Bears fan. People are excited and rightfully so. Lets get the o line fixed and roll

Someone wrote a while back, nine months to fix our right tackle problem and Barbre is the best Ted could do? Yup youve all written if they dont fix the right tackle spot there wont be 4000 yards and 30 touchdowns and perhaps 10 wins……I cant believe it, Ted has had FIVE YEARS to get our O-Line in shape and we still are struggling. AFter seeing the replays of Barbre, it is like he wasnt even there, its like they lined up only 4 guys. The bear end (cant spell his name) just pushed out of the way faster then OJ does with his blonde gf. I dont know if Taussher is healed up enough to be ready to come back…plus Ted would have to eat crow and he hates crow. I was looking at this week’s 2007 draft choices…Vikings got AP, Bears got Greg Olsen, we ended up with “Oh My Back” Harrell. We could have picked Olsen with the 16th pick..but noooooo, Ted had to have Harrell. To this day I think all the fans that were at the stadium that day and booed him for the pick were right on. He wasted four high picks, Harrell, Lee, Jackson and Brohm. Yeah he hit with Rodgers and Jennings but come on just think where we would be if he hadnt wasted those picks…and dont tell me those guys will ever make a serious contribution to the history of the Green Bay Packers. Well here’s hoping they find someone to play right tackle…or its the Vikings year.

Like dogs with their favorite chew toy, it always seems to come back to the same thing over here.

Look, the buck may stop with the G.M., but amazing how many people here seem to take the attitude of “Why bother to place any responsibility on the players, coaches or opponents when we can just blame Ted Thompson for every little thing?”

Barbre got blown up in the first half? All on Thompson.
Rodgers overthrew a couple of receivers? Damn you, Thompson.
Stadium bratwurst a tad undercooked? You’re on notice, Thompson.

Are most of you (and you know who I’m talking about) so intellectually shallow that every problem in a Week One game has to devolve into yet another referendum on the G.M.? Do you people rage against our president when the street you live on has a pothole?

I hate to provide any more ammunition for the Albino Barn Owl crowd to howl about, but the “surprise” cut of Anthony Smith is starting to look hurtful. Darn Atari Bigby is making old Mike Brown of the Bears look durable. Anthony Smith played pretty well in the preseason – here’s hoping Aaron Rouse is ready to step forward…