Week 12 and week 14. Home and home match-ups for the NFC North title.
Time for Chicago to give Campbell some minutes.
Jeffery is out with a hand injury on the TD catch. Looked like he was in an awful lot of pain, hopefully it’s not serious, he was coming on strong out there.
That was a pretty impressive second half by the Bears. I’d like to see the Bears score in the first half, but holy schniekey did they steamroll the Jaguars. Hopefully Jeffery comes out OK.
I’m getting pretty tired of watching this defense being fundamentally incapable of even beginning to slow down the better receivers on the opposing teams. Today, everybody and their dog knew that Luck was going to be going to Reggie Wayne again and again, particularly on the final drive. And, yet, the Packers never seemed to be able to get in between Wayne and the ball.
Not to mention the fact that the offensive line is leaky enough that Rodgers has got to be one big bruise by now…no wonder he looked pissed.
Wow, that was a bad day. The Packers pass defense was awful (again), they couldn’t get enough pressure against a mediocre O line, Rodgers was holding the ball way too long, Mason Crosby not only missed, but missed badly, some bad calls, and they lost three starters to injury. Not a good day at all. And that was against the rebuilding Colts, what should have been an easy win. It is not looking good.
What does look surprising good is the Vikings. Sure it was against a bad Titans teams and Ponder threw a couple of picks, but they got another convincing win. They are constantly surprising me with some nice play by their O Line and a defense that is quite solid. But Percy Harvin has been an absolute stud for this team. Out of the backfield, going deep, going over the middle, returning kicks, he’s been outstanding for that team. I’m not completely convinced they can do it against better teams, but they are a damn spot better than I had thought.
The Bears are the Bears. That defense has been electric in forcing turnovers and making it easy on the offense, which has struggled early in games. I still think they’re benefiting more from playing bad teams, but they’re sitting atop the division and they’re winning convincingly, so what more do you want?
Hey! The Vikings are sitting on top, thank you very much! (1-0 in the division vs 0-1)
I won’t be surprised now if the Vikings get to 8-2. But after their bye, they’ve got a home/away with Chicago and Green Bay, and games at St. Louis and Houston. I’m guessing that 10-6 is likely (there’s probably a loss I don’t see before the break, with losses in Chicago, GB, and Houston). That’s a very satisfying season, if things continue. Two other things: I’m glad I was wrong about Percy Harvin (with the squabble he had in the summer with management, I didn’t think he was worth the fuss) and Peterson looks as good as ever. It’s really amazing that he looks as strong and fast as he did prior to Christmas last season.
I don’t know what to make of the Packers. They’ve beaten Brees and Cutler, and lost to Wilson and Luck. With the Vikings and Lions d-lines and dome advantage, those will be two very difficult games for the Packers. There’s also a trip to St. Louis, but I think GB will win that. It’s still early, but 8-8 looks realistic (road losses @ Hou, Chi, Det, MN, and NYG). Boy oh boy, that blown call really could keep the Packers out of the playoffs.
I am looking at the Packers remaining schedule. There are two games that are very likely losses (@ Houston and @ NYG). I would say there are two very likely wins (vs Jax and vs. TEN). If they split the home and away with the rest of the division, that is 2-3. So there they are at 6-8. The other two games are @ Rams and home versus the Cardinals. A sweep of those two (a 50/50 chance) and is seems like 8-8 is a likely scenario for the Packers this season. Now, if they can crank up the offense and somehow get the defense tightened up, then they may be able to get to 10 wins. But the way they are playing I think they are more likely to get 6 wins than 10.
Even with their failings, I think they are a much better team than 8-8, let alone 6-10. Take out the screw job by the replacement refs, and they’re 3-2. The Lions, Vikings, and Bears are all sweepable, and the Giants are woefully inconsistent and their three wins were against bad teams the Panthers, the Bucs, and the Browns. Houston will likely be a loss (but I hold out hope), but I think the Cards were shown to be lacking this weekend and I’m not sold on the Vikings totally.
The Packers have dug (and had dug for them) themselves a hole, but I do think Rodgers will play better, the youngsters on defense will improve, and that the Packers will still make the playoffs.
Packers fan here. Something is wrong. That’s the only way to describe it. Something is just off and it seemed to have started after the loss to KC last year.
I don’t blame Capers, look at the first two games this year to see what his defense is capable of. I don’t blame McCarthy either.
There too often just seems to be a real lack of physicality and drive in all players both defense and offense. Not aggressive enough, not enough concentration. I’m hoping this loss will be the one to kick them into a higher gear than they have been.
If the defense can consistently play like they did earlier this season and if the offense can play like it did the first half of Sundays fiasco they should be a hard team to beat.
I have no problem placing blame on McCarthy. His play calling is way too one sided, he too quickly abandons the run, and he puts too much pressure on Rodgers. He himself has admitted he’s too slow in mid-game adjustments, and I don’t think he’s done a good job of building a team that plays hard.
McCarthy says Benson won’t be playing against Houston. How’s that turf toe, Mr. Starks?
I’m not sure why you think the defense had a good first game of the season, they gave up 186 rushing yard and had no turnovers. In fact the Packers defense has five turnovers this season, four against the Bears and then one yesterday.
Second and third games I should have said. Allowed an average of 12 points which is an improvement from last year. Then they went back to stinking up the joint the two games after that.
I think even the first half against Indy was an improvement over last year. Granted they were playing against a weak team.
Outside of motivation I think the lack of a consistent running game and a horrid O-Line are the biggest issues.
Congrats to Peanut Tillman for making the NFC defensive player of the week.
The NFC North goes 2-1 this weekend, with the Packers looking very good against a very good team, the Lions looking bad against a team playing bad, and the Vikings lose to RGIII.
The Lions get to 2-3, but until the 4th quarter it was ugly. Luckily, the Eagles and Michael Vick kept them in the game with a couple turnovers and the defensive line actually played well (albeit against a not so good O Line) with a huge series at the end of the game and in overtime. But 16 penalties for 132 yards and a still leaky secondary would have meant a loss against a better playing team. Still, a win is a win, a dick of a coach is a dick of a coach, and the NFC North team getting a win against the NFC East is always nice.
The Vikings take a tough loss to the Redskins. To me, it appeared they didn’t play as poorly as the final score indicated, but they gave up too many big plays to RGIII, had too many penalties, and a couple of bad interceptions by Ponder cost them. Percy Harvin had another great game, they stopped both the traditional running game and the passing game pretty well (it was those 138 yards from RGIII that killed them), and they have a great young kicker in Blair Walsh, so it wasn’t all bad. As far as bad games go, this wasn’t the worst and they continued to fight to the end. I had reservations about Leslie Frazier, but he seems to have a team that will play for him (although his play calling in the redzone wasn’t the best). Arizona next will be an interesting challenge.
The Packers get a huge, much needed win, against a very good team. While Rodgers was very, very good, the defense finally got turnovers, and they actually stopped the run, these injuries are going to start piling up. They lost 3 starters during this game, and with the injuries to other players, it’s taking it’s toll. I think TT has done an excellent job building the depth on this team, but there’s going to be a dropoff. Two starting MLB’s, starting NT, starting RB, starting CB, they’ll have to fight through. It gets tiring after awhile.
But they played a great game, didn’t get screwed, and Rodgers played angry … and under control. They’re only 3-3, but the Packers needed this game. And they got it.
Hopefully the Vikes learned that you can’t keep settling for FGs. At least 2 of the first 3 were really close the end zone. I’d imagine things could have been different with a 17-0 lead after the 1st qtr rather than 9-0. And of course, if even 1 FG was converted, everything else being the same, it’s a 1 TD game with a minute to go rather than hoping for a miracle.
That RG3 run for 76 was a great call by Washington, great execution all around, and perfectly timed against a Vikings blitz. I missed the 2nd and 3rd qtrs, but for the most part, and the announcers mentioned this a few times, the Vikings actually tackle on defense. What a concept! I can handle RG3 going for 76 in a perfect situation. Seeing guys wide open and breaking tackles, like in the past couple years, is what kills me. At least I’m not getting killed this year.
Congrats to GB for playing a lights out game. Now imagine if they’d settled for a bunch of FGs instead. That’s the next step for Minnesota.
90% good from the Packers last night, especially impressed with the run defense. I do still have concerns about our pass defense. Yes we got the turnovers that have been missing, so that was good, but Texans WRs seemed to have too much space on many occasions. I am not sure if it is the scheme or the personnel, but it is a worry in my opinion. Rodgers was deadly and James Jones is having a stellar season (Randall Cobb playing excellent as well). Our ground game is certainly not great, but it was good enough, I guess.
It was very nice to see McCarthy calling running plays though. There has to be at least a reasonable threat of a running play to take the pressure off of Rodgers, the O Line, and to stop the blitz. Too often McCarthy just ignores that part of the game, it was nice to see they actually had 25 rushes.
Alex Green looked good, not great. I’m sure it will take him a bit to get up to NFL speed, but I’m not sure I see that amazing burst to help him get to the second and third levels. He’s got some nice wiggle, but he needs to be in space to make it work and I’m not sure he has the breakaway speed to really be great. I do think he’s better than Benson though.
He’s also pretty good in pass protection (although he missed getting a good shot at least once), and might be a help in the passing game (hard to tell because Rodgers was pretty clearly throwing downfield and not dumpoffs). He did miss one huge hole (Rodgers actually pointed it out to him after the play) which would have been very nice, but hopefully his vision will develop.
I like him more than Benson and he’s much more versatile than Starks. If he shows a bit more speed and better vision in the future, he’ll be fine. I think.
DJ Smith is out for the season. First, they lose Desmond Bishop for the year, last year’s leading tackler and second in sacks, in preseason. They replace him with DJ, who, while good, was certainly a drop off. He fills in admirably, second leading tackler on the team, second highest (after Clay Matthews) in sacks. Now they lose him.
They also lost yet another running back, this one Brandon Saine, who they put on IR. Meanwhile, their first round draft pick 2 years ago, their backup TE, and their part time starting OLB last year are all on the PUP.
Add in Greg Jennings, their pro bowl #1 WR, BJ Raji, their starting NT missed the last game and may be out longer. And a starting CB and their first round draft pick and starting OLB are injured too.
I’m pissed with all the injuries the Packers suffer, especially looking around at the rest of the NFC North. But I think these injuries are often overlooked simply because Thompson has done such a good job of building depth.