With their stunning loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday combined with explosive performances by the Cowboys and Giants the Packers all of a sudden are faced with winning their last two games to make the playoffs. The Giants whipped the lowly Redskins and the Cowboys get the same opportunity to do so next week. The Giants then have the 6-8 Panthers in New York and the fading fast Vikings in Minnesota the final week of the year.
Our best hope is beating the Seahawks next week and hoping the Eagles can win the NFC East by beating the Cowboys in Dallas the final week of the season. All of a sudden the Cardinals are in the hunt for the No. 2 seed in the NFC so they will likely play their starters against the Packers to close out the season, and we all know what a good passing team can do to the Packers.
The Packers’ problems are obvious. They can’t run the ball on offense when they need to and pass protection, while better lately, is still not good enough. On defense they can stop the run effectively but can’t get home on the blitz regularly enough and outside of of their two starting cornerbacks can’t cover anybody. Yes I’m talking about Jarrett Bush and Josh Bell. Opposing tight ends have also given the Packers fits this year. How the Packers are still number two in defense after getting “debacled” in Pittsburgh is beyond me (thanks Emmitt).
I do think yesterday’s game was a great learning experience for the young Packers, whose best years are yet to come I think. They do need to get a taste of the playoffs this year though to keep that edge sharp. Aaron Rodgers is improving game by game and it would benefit him to get a playoff game or two under his belt. It’s a learning process for a QB and Rodgers is well ahead of the curve.
The Packers lost a heartbreaker, that is sure, but they did show a lot of heart in the fourth quarter and should have gained some confidence in what was a furious comeback until the final play. Not to mention they were playing the defending Super Bowl champions fighting for their lives.
Confidence is medium. I would rather the Packers just win out and be done with it, but it would also be nice to locked in next week. The Packers should be fired up for the Seahawks after such a tough loss and Lambeau will be rocking. Go Pack! Go Panthers! and Go Redskins!
LarryTex Says: “Finley interview: is there “a safety or linebacker that can cover him one on one.” Response: “Not that I’ve seen”. He has some merit in his boast if he (and others) can hang on to the ball.”
You wrote yesterday that Finley had two “drops” versus the Steelers, now this comment. I don’t recall Finley having any “drops” and the articles I read indicated he had a career high nine catches on ten targets. 9 for 70+ with a TD = Pro Bowl Numbers! What’s your beef with Jermichael?
You’re right Iccy, Carroll did make a few plays while he was with us. I was at the Monday Night Game that marked Favre’s 200th consecutive start and he had a big interception or fumble return in that game. Thanks for jogging my memory.
I guess my larger point, though, wasn’t that they were identical twins and played the same way. Carroll’s problems were with the PI’s, not so much the blown coverage’s. But I think both of them never could get “coached up” to use LT’s term, and much like Carroll I doubt Bush ever amounts to anything as a DB in this league. If it were just his skills as a DB being considered, there’s the possibilty that we would never have matched his offer sheet this past off season to begin with.
Is there a good special teams coach in the NFL? I mean if your place holder is now getting blamed for bad kicks…and not just in Green Bay…I think Nobel Peace prize nominee PB or Al, or God forbid even me could get a job in the NFL.
Man, thats a stretch, iccy. I think, quite possibly and potentially, he is the best TE we ever had. I’d bet he is the next Shocky, Gonzalez, Gates, or Witten. For over fifty years we’ve had some good TEs but they were usually blockers and red zone types who never split, flanked, slotted, or lined up in the backfield like Finley does.
You didn’t read far enough; of the seven he had at least one, but I believe it was two.
Nevertheless, you missed (probably on purpose) the entire meaning of the post which was; a good offense, including short pass and run ball control, can eat up the clock and keep the ball out of the other teams hands.
Quote from Bill Huber’s Packer / Steeler Report Card article:
“The athletic and unstoppable Finley (targeted 10 times, with a career-high nine receptions for 74 yards) has overtaken Jennings (five catches for 118 yards) and Driver as Rodgers’ most reliable target as the season winds down.”
There’s my source so he couldn’t possibly have had two. What did I miss which led you to believe Jermichael Finley had any drops; you said I didn’t read far enough?
As for my question being a “stretch”, words and phrases like “boast” and “merit if he can hang on to the ball” struck me as negative. I was legitimately curious as to if you had a beef with Finley, possibly left over from last season when he was a punk.
the Packers have scored a whopping 37 ponits in the 3rd quarter……seriously?
I can’t find where Finley dropped any against PIT, I must have gotten him mixed up with Jones. Here again, you purposely miss the point just to put a barb in my saddle – won’t work.
The context was, plenty of blame to share for the loss.
I believe this all started over my exuberant unabashed support for my favorite team, which you seem to object to.
If you don’t understand the applicable verbage I use, please use your dictionary, you’ll learn something. Heh, heh, heh, so much fun debating the “Fairs”.
I’m not going to go looking up stats, but just watching games, it seems that our receivers have had a lot of drops lately. I wonder if it’s more timing related. Rodgers seems to be trying to get the ball out more quickly; perhaps that’s got them out of synch just a little. It’s easy to forget how little NFL playing time our QB actually has.
I forgot just how young Finley is too.
Four paragraphs and four deflections / misrepresentations. I thought we agreed to quit with the name-calling and insults; I haven’t written anything today which is overtly antagonistic, unless you have incredibly thin skin. In closing, Jermichael Finley is playing great ball…
Funny thought crossed my mind as I read some of the Play-off scenario hubbub – if the Vikings lose one more game and the Eagles continue their reign of terror the Vikings will lose their first week bye and if the Packers continue to win and lock the 5th rounder seed we could very well be playing the Vikings come the first round of the play-offs… I know, I know, I’m looking too far ahead right now for the Packers, but sometimes it’s fun to play into all the potential hype of the NFL and what COULD happen…
If Collins can’t play against Seattle I’m alot more worried…we’ll need the 200+ yards from Grant again like two years ago to eat up clock. Also Hbeck playing from behind is a pick waiting to happen.
I really can’t explain the Q3 drought….although I’m thinking that MM tries to run more in Q3 to make up for the lack of it in the first half. I would still like to see some hurry up O…maybe we could change it up a little for Q3…like snap the ball before there’s 2 seconds left.
We’ve talked alot about a number of DB’s but haven’t touched on Bigby…I’m a believer there’s an upgrade out there in the draft…I like the way he hits but Sunday I didn’t hear his name called alot and I swear he closes his eyes when he tackles do to the number of whiffs. Always seem to see and hear Collins name.
Larry – I can’t recall the details but there was an article about Bigby on the main page within the last several weeks. It explained that Atari wasn’t thrilled with his perceived “lack of production” but it was due primarily to his role in the Dom Capers defense. I found it odd since preseason articles were suggesting he’d be in the Troy Polamalu role…
Sorry I can’t be more specific; possibly somebody else remembers the article…
Reed, Polamalu, Sanders he isn’t!
Its the difference between free and strong, that simple. Bigby was last year’s Bush.
Larry, Bigby cannot play Collins’ position, hence we’ll get the FA starting.
LarryTex Says:
“Its the difference between free and strong, that simple.”
It’s not “that simple”.
Atari Bigby, Troy Polamalu & DeWan Landry are 3-4 Strong Safeties;
Nick Collins, Ryan Clark and Ed Reed are 3-4 Free Safeties.
It’s pretty evident that Capers is not utilizing Bigby in the same role LaBeau assigns to Polamalu, yet they’re both technically the strong safety in very similar defenses.
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LarryTex Says:
“Bigby was last year’s Bush.”
Bigby was injured in 2008 and didn’t play up to the standard he set in 2007;
Bush has been consistently substandard;
There’s a substantial difference.
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Interesting comments from MM regarding Jarrett Bush at today’s press conference:
“Jarrett is definitely a player that his primary responsibility has been on special teams, and now he has a primary responsibility on defense. It’s always easy to be critical of a player when you see a big play go over the top of his head, but I also take those opportunities to look at myself and how are we using him. Are we asking him to do too much? Those are the type of things that you look at through the course of a game plan because at the end of the day we’ve got to make sure we’re giving our players the chance to be successful, whether it’s 10 snaps or 40 snaps.”
Are they asking him to do too much? They want to make certain to put him in a position to be successful, whether it’s ten or forty snaps? It sounds to me as if they’re desparately hoping somebody in the trio of Bell, Ford & Underwood can step up and play the nickel!!!
Good grief!
Bridges in for Gandy will make watching ARI interesting this week. Its a good thing for them they have STL at home.
Just checking in….I see LarryTex is still spewing BS. Merry Christmas!
Priceless, zacks last post “Lol Al, aware on the MarlinM quote. Nice. ???????
Zach was positively acknowledging admin’s use of Marilyn Manson lyrics in a response. There was a relatively obscure Manson side discussion underway, prompted by a PB analogy.
Merry Christmas all – I’m off to a candlelight service…
Merry Christmas to all! Go Pack Go on Sunday!
Meanwhile, back in the NFL, I’ll take Pickett over Haynesworth. I remember the TENN game last year and even Harrell outplayed him. One of his slumber games I suppose, and now this after the 100M and 45 guaranteed. Makes one wonder if he was so dedicated to winning why did he sign w/ WAS in the first place.
Contrast with Pickett comments after Raji was in camp and how he was going to help the “nice kid” all he could. Pickett’s a man!
L-T, you may be right about Pickett but he’s going to be a free agent and Raji is his replacement if TT doesn’t get him signed.
That being true, Mark, I would hope at 30 and a 9 year vet he wants to stay. I would like to keep the option of Raji inside or outside in rotation. He seems to be the kind of FA that most on this site want to bring in – I’d give him a raise, I think he has earned it.
nahh, Pickett will be retained. He’s too good and he’s a gamer!