Some Thoughts From Week 7

Some Thoughts from the Weekend

You’ve got to hand it to the Green Bay Coaching staff…they seem to be accomplishing what they set out to do, improving every week, and firing on all cylinders. Before we pen them in for the Championship, lest we forget their wins on this 4-0 stretch came over the Bears, the Vikings, the Dolphins, and the Panthers, four teams that barely have have a prayer of window shopping at the jewelry store this season.

Keeping that in mind, here are some things that really stood out in the weekend game that ought to give you some reason to be excited:

• Open-field tackling. As bad as it was against the Seahawks, a fan would expect the Packers to be far from where they’re at now. Tramon Williams, Morgan Burnett, and even Ha Ha Clinton-Dix are wrapping up and putting licks on running backs and wideouts. Jonathan Stewart is no Marshawn Lynch, but it was nice to see great run support when it needed to be there.
• Solid cornerback play in the absence of Sam Shields. I always like Davon House, but he admittedly is a step down from Shields. I think the way he played yesterday was a testament to how much he bolsters a defense that often relies on one-on-one coverage on the outside.
• Utter domination. This is what Green Bay fans expected at the beginning of the season: a balanced attack, lots of points, a backup quarterback seeing a lot of mop-up duty, a much-improved pass rush (despite the Easter Egg sack from Peppers), and turnovers. I realize Scam Newton (Can I trademark that or put it on a shirt?) isn’t anywhere close to some of his counterparts in the league, but the Packers did well. I’ll talk about Scam in the future…save the hate for another date (another shirt!)
• Richard Rodgers is awesome. He’s a tight end…great. He’s a big guy…great. Fans have to be thrilled about the downfield block he threw in the Carolina game to spring Randall Cobb for an additional 20 yards.
• The RBBC approach. I think seeing Eddie Lacy get the yards and notoriety he’s received has really pushed James Starks to a higher level. He’s getting his shoulders square and heading up the field hard. Actually, it would be nice to see Lacy do a little bit more of that.
• And…Davante Adams looks to be a nice addition. He reminds me of Cobb two years ago, when he was breaking out. Or, he’s a Jarrett Boykin now, even though Jarett is in his third year in the league already. I like the fact that this guy can catch in traffic, find seams in zones, and even get some separation on the outside. Being rewarded with two touchdowns is also great (two more than Boykin.)

Next week, it’s the Saints. Lay the points. NO -2. They’re Carolina with a better quarterback, better receivers, and a better corps of running backs. The New Orleans defense might not be as stout, but their offense will more than likely expose any remaining weaknesses the Packers have in their own D.

Other games:
Minnesota Gophers -6.5
Nebraska -17
Minnesota Vikings +3

Is This Preseason?

Let’s be honest here. The Packer game against Detroit stunk. The loss is one thing, and the injury to Clay Matthews we knew was inevitable, but the whole contest was just boring. When the vaunted Green Bay offense has fewer total yards than Melvin Gordon had rushing the previous afternoon for the Wisconsin Badgers, there is a serious problem. (Gordon had 253 yards rushing in the game against Bowling Green. Meanwhile, Green Bay had 223 TOTAL yards against Detroit.)

Here are some other questions:

Why can’t Eddie Lacy just hit the hole when he gets the ball? The Packers offensive line isn’t that great: sufficient, but not great. When a hole opens, the whole stadium knows it’s only going to be a fraction of a second before it closes again. So, why dance and pick in the backfield? Take the ball, hit the hole, and do the same damage you did last year.

Was Ben McAdoo that valuable to Aaron Rodgers? Rodgers is notorious for holding the ball too long, but has gotten modestly better in the past couple seasons. This year, it appears he’s not waiting for a good opportunity downfield, but certainly the best one. That’s caused undue punishment to him and the team with hurries, knockdowns, and sacks. After being Rodgers’ quarterback coach, McAdoo went to the Giants to be the offensive coordinator and now we have Alex Van Pelt, who was a perennial clipboard holder when he was a player.

Why is Rodgers so reluctant to run? Perhaps it’s age. Perhaps it’s coaching. Perhaps it’s a better arm. In the Superbowl year, Rodgers had 64 rushes for 356 yards. Since then, his rushing attempts and yards have progressively gone down. Last year, Rodgers had 30 rushes for 120 yards (understandably an injury-riddled year). Currently, Rodgers has 6 runs for a total of 28 yards, which puts him on pace for the same total he had last year, anyway.

Why does the Packer secondary have to lead the team in tackling? That’s horrible. It shows that running backs are either getting into the defensive backfield before they’re brought down or opposing teams’ passing attacks are robust against the Green Bay secondary. As of Monday morning, Morgan Burnett, Micah Hyde, and Tramon Williams have more solo tackles than Mike Neal, Datone Jones, Julius Peppers, Nick Perry, Brad Jones, and Jamari Lattimore combined. As a matter of fact, Morgan Burnett is the second-leading tackler on the team, behind AJ Hawk. Tramon Williams is third on that list. By the way, Bobby Wagner of the Seattle Seahawks has 35 tackles to lead the NFL, right now. Hawk has ten fewer.

Where is the quarterback pressure? After the addition of Julius Peppers, believed to be a free-agent savior for the defense, the Packers have a mere five sacks for the year, so far. That places them 4th from the bottom in the league for total sacks. Matthews has one and he’s injured. Clinton-Dix has one. Two of these came yesterday. Again, one can recognize this is early in the season, but the teams leading the NFL have twice the number of sacks the Packers do, at this point.

When is Dom Capers getting fired? It gets old, I understand. If the Bears are healthy, and Green Bay can make Matt Stafford look like a pro-bowler, wait and see what Cutler does with a better offensive line, better running backs, and better aggregate corps of receivers. Ted Thompson has done a remarkable job of continually shoring-up the weak spots on the defensive side of the ball, and Clinton-Dix is an upgrade from Burnett. As a fan, one would expect more turnovers, more sacks, and giving up fewer yards per play (from a post two weeks ago).

Games this week:

Northwestern +11.5
Virginia Tech -24.5
Michigan -10
Chicago -1
Philly +4.5
Atlanta -3