Post Game Thoughts- Ravens

The Packers picked up a very helpful win to strengthen their playoff chances against the Ravens, 27-14, on Monday night.

Even though it was a win, it wasn’t a flawless win. The Packers broke their franchise record for most penalty yards in a single game.  All year long penalties plagued the Pack, especially in their losses.  The penalties were the biggest weakness for the Pack, but their special teams gave up too many big plays to the Ravens.

Besides the penalties and the special teams, the rest of the team looked like they were playing great playoff football.  The two things you have to do in order to win in the playoffs is run the ball and create turnovers.  The Packers could run the ball with efficiency and they intercepted three of Joe Flacco’s passes.

Like I said before, the Packers should need 10 wins to get into the playoffs so after the victory over the Ravens they only need two more wins out of their final four games.  I will look into their final four games in a later post and give my opinion on the Packers chances at getting into the postseason after a one year hiatus.

Post Game Thoughts- Cowboys

The Packers took a huge step forward after a huge win over the Cowboys last Sunday 17-7.  It’s definitely great to get a win over what was arguably a more talented team than the Packers.  I would say that the Cowboys have more great athletes than the Packers, but they Packers were able to overcome that.

One way that they were able to overcome some mismatches was their defensive  game plan.  I would say this was Dom Capers best defensively coached game since he has been in Green Bay.  It seemed like every play he was sending in blitzes to confuse the Cowboys.  I’m just hoping that Capers continues to bring that “Blitzburgh” game plan week in and week out.

On the offensive side of the ball, I thought that the offensive line played well.  There is still much room for improvement, but the line played good enough to give Rodgers adequate time and give Grant some nice holes to run through.

Penalties are still a concern.  If it wasn’t for the Cowboys matching the Packers in the penalty department, the game could have turned around pretty badly for the Packers.  The Packers must figure out which players are the future and play them now.  There might be some growing pains, but it will be worth it in the long run.  Obviously if their future lineman is going to be giving up 5 sacks, then they have to wait.  What I’m saying is that they shouldn’t rely on Mark Tauscher to save the Packers if he won’t be around next year, when T.J. Lang could benefit greatly with extra reps.

Post Game Thoughts

After losing to a winless team in the Bucs, there’s only one word to describe my post game thoughts:

Disgusting!…

Actually, there are some others like pathetic, embarrassing, and other words that I want to keep out of this blog to stay family friendly.

I don’t want to think about it anymore so my stomach stops aching.

Post Game Thoughts

The Browns game might be the game that people look back on as being the game that gave the Packers the confidence that they can win any game.  The Browns aren’t a good team, but the Packers did almost everything they were supposed to do.

Holding a team to 3 points is almost as perfect as it gets.  When your defense held its opponents to a combined 3 points in two weeks they must be doing something right.

Offensively, they played almost as flawlessly.  Aaron Rodgers makes you forget about Brett Favre.  Favre had at least 4 years with a championship team around him and he only managed to win 1 super bowl… oh yeah, but he won three MVPs.  I’d take 3 superbowl rings over 3 MVPs anyday.  I want to see what Rodgers can do when he has an opportunity in the playoffs.

Penalties were a problem for a consecutive week.  They are starting to clean up some, but the Packers are still committing too many.

The game next week against the Vikings will tell us a lot about this team.  If the Packers were to beat the Vikings they would be just a half game out of first place in the division.

Packers Post Game Thoughts

There were some positives that came out of the game against the Lions, but there were more negaitives.

Positives

Defense’s shutout… it says a lot about your defense when they can keep another NFL team from scoring any points, even if it was against the Lions.

Offensive production… Aaron Rodgers had a great game, he only made one bad throw that resulted in an interception. The running game wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible, it was good enough to get a win.

Negatives

Penalties… the Packers continued their struggles with penalties racking up 13 penalties for 130 yards.  Coach Mike McCarthy said over the past couple of weeks that his team needs to “clean that up,” it doesn’t look like they are doing much to fix the problem.

Offensive Redzone… The Packers drove the ball into the redzone a handful of time and came out with only a field goal a handful of times.  If they hope to compete with some of the better offenses in the league they are going to need to convert those drives into touchdowns.

Packers Post Game Thoughts

I have much to say about the game last night, here’s a couple random thoughts:

-Well it looks as if the Packers are going to have to do something about their offensive line. I’m not entirely sure how bad the offensive line is compared to how good the Vikings defensive line is, but I’m willing to bet that there are tons of players around the league that could block better than what the Packers did last night. With the Packers’ deep depth at linebacker, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of trade involving a linebacker for an OT.

-Brett Favre had a good game, but I wouldn’t go and say that he was the deciding factor.  If you would swap quarterbacks and put Rodgers on the Vikings and Favre on the Packers I don’t think the result would change.  Would I go so far and say that Sage Rosenfels could have won that game for the Vikings?  Maybe…

-Ryan Grant looked like he was running with heart for the first time in about a year.  Instead of running to the line of scrimmage and then falling over, he hit the hole hard and then actually tried to push his way forward.

-Will Blackmon was injuried during the game and it came out today that he will be lost for the rest of the year.  It doesn’t seem like there is much to worry about after seeing Jordy Nelson return a couple of kickoffs and punts.  However, Nelson did fumble the ball on one punt return, but it was recovered by the Packers.  I think the fumble was just a freak play and Nelson was trying to make a play before he caught the ball.

-The Packers rush defense shut down the best running back in the league, but they couldn’t put any pressure on Favre.  I don’t understand how that is possible.  I really can’t remember a time when Favre had to rush a throw.

Packers Post Game Thoughts

Chad Ochocinco keeps his "Lambeau Leap" promise

There is nothing positive that the Packers can take out of their 31-24 loss to the Bengals on Sunday.

The offense stunk.

The defense reaked.

And there was nothing special about their special teams.

It’s never a good thing when the Packers’ opponent does more Lambeau Leaps than the Packers.

If it wasn’t for Charles Woodson’s pair of intercepts that led to 2 touchdowns we would be talking about a 31-10 blowout loss.