Packerholic

Despite losing the football game you can’t be too upset with the Packers performance. The starters only played one series while the Titans played into the third quarter. Obviously the Titans were going to win. When the Titans starting receivers are facing our 7th and 8th CBs I wonder why they were able to move the ball. Since our backups had to face their starters you can pretty much only judge this game on individual performances. So here are the pros and cons as far as players performances go.

Pros

While only getting one play you can’t be disappointed with the Packers starting offense. If you only get one play and that play is a touchdown there is no way you can complain about the performance. Rodgers threw a perfect pass and Jennings made a nice catch. It didn’t hurt that the Titans defense totally blew the coverage though. The one thing I did wish was that Ryan Grant would get at least one run since he know has had zero runs this entire preseason. I hope he will be ready for next week.

Bishop, Hodge and White have all been great on defense. Thompson is going to have a very hard decision before him in the next two days. At this point all three players have played well enough to deserve a spot on the roster. With their performances I could possibly see the Packers keeping 7 linebackers even though it is too many linebackers in my opinion. I think the only way at this point we can let one of them go is if we get a good trade out of another team (preferably for a defensive tackle). I thought the linebackers would shine in this game and they sure have.

If Bishop, Hodge, and White’s performances weren’t enough we got some great performances out of Havner and Lansanah. Havner made two great special team plays. Lansanah made several nice plays on defense. At this point both have a very slim chance of making the roster. I don’t think Lansanah has a chance (hopefully he will make the practice squad) but I think Havner actually has a very slim chance. If Havner makes the roster it will be because the coaches think he is as good of special teams player as White is. The chances of that are pretty slim in my opinion.

Jon Ryan has had a great game. Ryan boomed punts and had great hangtime on all his punts. Jon Ryan also showed that he has pretty good running skills for a punter since he ran a bad snap 35 yards. Hopefully we won’t have to see that when the regular season begins. Hopefully Ryan can continue this consistency and learn how to punt in the winter.

I think Kregg Lumpkin earned a job on the roster with today’s performance. While he didn’t have any great plays he showed consistency. I also love that he refuses to go down. Usually it takes two to three players to take him down. You can’t not like a player that gives so much effort to gaining every last yard.

I thought Matt Flynn actually had a very good game. He struggled a little bit at the beginning of the game but he really picked it up later in the game. He ended up throwing two touchdowns and almost led the team to victory in the last two minutes. Flynn probably gained a lot of confidence from that drive and hopefully that confidence will help him this season since I think he won the top backup spot tonight.

Tramon Williams proved tonight why he is the number 3 cornerback. He had good coverage the whole game and made several nice plays on the ball.

Other surprises include Joe Porter (had some very nice breakups and has a chance of making the roster), Joey Haynos (had some nice catches and blocks), Michael Montgomery (he had a sack, some nice tackles, and got pressure on the quarterback), Jeremy Thompson (while he only had one tackle this was easily his best preseason game),

Cons

Our backup offensive line really needs some work. Especially the backup tackles. Breno Giacomini lost his chance to make the roster in my opinion. He really didn’t have much of a chance to make it in the first place but his performance tonight ruined that chance. I could see him making the practice squad though since he does and the size and phsycial ability to be a pretty good offensive lineman as long as he can learn the technique. Orrin Thompson also lost his job in my opinion due to tonight’s play.

Vernand Morency really blew it tonight in my opinion. He had the perfect opportunity to make the roster but he blew it in my opinion with his pretty poor performance. Herron and Lumpkin had a much better game in my opinion.

Brett Swain had a pretty poor game in my opinion. While he did have a touchdown reception he totally ruined that goodwill with the rest of the game. Swain dropped several passes and showed he is one of the worst punt returners I have ever seen. How in the world do you call a fair catch when no one is within 15 yards of you?

Scorpio Babers will not be making the team. He blew way too many coverages and he really didn’t have much chance to make the roster in the first place.

Other Observations

The Packers will probably be looking for a new long snapper since JJ Jansen was hurt in the game and it looks like he will be missing some time if not the whole season.

I thought Brian Brohm had his best game yet. He didn’t play great but I think that was at least partially due to the poor offensive line play. Brohm just needs to develop in my opinion. He also needs to work on holding onto the ball.

Pat Lee once again had an up and down game. He made some nice plays but also blew some coverages. At this point I don’t think he will be anything more than the fifth cornerback but I do see the potential to be a very good cornerback in this league.

I think Aaron Rouse really needs to replace Nick Collins as the starter. Nick Collins totally blew a coverage tonight. Some people think Aaron Rouse shouldn’t start yet due to mistakes in coverage. This preseason I have seen Nick Collins blow more coverages than Aaron Rouse has.

So who did you think had a good games and who had bad games? Who do you think won or lost a starting job with today’s performance? Also be sure to check back tomorrow when I have my final 53 man roster predictions.

The game could have gone a little better but Packer fans should be really happy that last night was not a repeat of last week. The Packers offense rebounded nicely and I hope they can continue to play that well into the season. The Packers defense is another story and I think there were a couple things that lead to their poor performance. Since I am in a good mood after last night’s game I have decided to start with the positives from the game.

Positives

Aaron Rodgers had a great game in my opinion. There is no way you can possibly complain about 18/22 for 193 yards. Tack on a passing and running TD as well. Rodgers rebounded from last week. He might have only had one of two mistakes in the whole game and the rest of the game was flawless. If we see more games like this than against the 49ers I think Rodgers will have a very successful season this year. As long as the line give Rodgers time I think he will quickly develop and overcome these mistakes that he has made so far this preseason.

The wide receivers redeemed themselves tonight. There was only one noticeable drop in my opinion (James Jones) and other than that the receivers did their job. This week they were finally able to get open so Rodgers had somewhere to throw the ball. I think McCarthy really needs to think about using a lot of the short passes this season since Aaron Rodgers and the receivers played much better with the short passes than the intermediate to long passes of last week. Finally it was nice to see Greg Jennings back since he really opened up the passing game in my opinion.

Kregg Lumpkin might have earned himself a spot on the roster with his play in yesterday’s game. While his stats might not show a great game I think he showed the potential to be a good RB in the league. While I personally don’t think he is currently worthy of a roster spot on the team I think the Packers are going to have to keep him on the roster since there is no way he makes it to the practice squad. This is one of those times that I wish the NFL had a developmental league like the MLB. While I wouldn’t guarentee that he makes the roster, I will say that he improved his chance last night.

The offensive line did a very good job pass blocking in today’s game. While it has been said that the Broncos defensive line is pretty weak, that doesn’t really matter to me. It doesn’t matter since the offensive line did their job in the game. They could have been challenged more but they weren’t. If there defensive line was better we don’t know what would have happened. We could have given up many more sacks or we could have continued to block well. There is really no reason to debate what would have happened since we will never get to see what would have happened.

Jason Hunter had a great game at defensive end. I have been a critic of Jason Hunter for a while now and for good reason. He never seemed to get any pressure on the QB. He didn’t have a problem with that last night. He had several good pressures on the QB (would have had more if the Broncos offensive lineman didn’t hold several plays in a row) and even caused the Tracy White interception that won the game. Hopefully next week the Packers can give him some time against the Titan starting offensive line since I want to see what he can do against better competition. If Hunter continues to play like he did last night he could be a future pass rusher in this league. I think last night’s performance at least guarenteed him a spot on the roster especially since he has always been a great special teamer.

Desmond Bishop had a very good game in my opinion. This battle between Bishop and Hodge for the final linebacking spot is getting really heated. Both are playing great and there is a very slim chance that we can keep both of them. One of them will probably have to go. Someone is likely to either be able to sign a very good LB or make a final roster trade to acquire one of these linebackers with a lot of talent that we just don’t have room for.

Will Blackmon made the roster last night in my opinion. Not from his defensive play (even though that wasn’t terrible) but from his returning. Blackmon probably won the punt returning job after last night’s performance and has finally given the Packers a returning threat which we haven’t had for a very long time.

Negatives

These injuries are starting to get ridiculous. How our luck is going as far as injuries are concerned I wouldn’t be shocked if our whole roster is hurt by the end of the season. If the injuries weren’t bad enough we had five injuries in yesterday’s game. It appears that James Jones’, Nick Collins’, and Charles Woodson’s appear to be nothing and they won’t miss the opener against the Vikings. Atari Bigby’s injury is a little more serious since there is a chance that he might not be able to play the opener. Finally Sitton’s was probably the worst he hurt his knee and had to have his leg wrapped. He will have more tests today but the one positive is that he didn’t need to use crutches to walk. At this point I think we need to wait to see what the test reveal.

We really need help on the defensive line. Injuries are decimating the defensive line. In particular we can’t keep a good defensive tackle from getting hurt. I think most of the problems from last night can actually be attributed to the defensive tackle position. First the defensive tackles did nothing to help in the run game. They couldn’t hold their spot and they couldn’t get any push. The defesnvie tackles also hurt the passing game since our defensive ends got some pressure from the sides but it went to waste since we could get absolutley no pressure up the middle. The Packers really need to either add a defensive tackle or hope that Pickett and/or Harrell get back soon. I think Packer fans saw last night why Pickett is so valuable to this team.

Our offensive line is really letting the running backs down. All night the offensive line struggled at opening holes for the running game. The offensive line needs to start opening holes for the running game or we will be in some trouble this season since we will have to focus on the pass and defenses will do the same. This week the offensive line improved their pass blocking. Hopefully this week they will improve their run blocking.

The Packers really need to add a veteran QB. Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn are just not ready to start. If we don’t add a veteran and Rodgers gets hurt we might as well throw the season away since at this point Brohm and Flynn would never be able to win a game. I think Thompson was pretty stupid not adding a veteran earlier. I don’t know how he expected two rookies to be able to fill in if Rodgers got hurt. I am not giving up on either QB since I think either or both could have a pretty good future as long as they are given some time to develop.

Other Thoughts

Jon Ryan had a really good game punting but I wouldn’t put too much stock into it since the game was in Denver after all. Denver’s high altitude has always helped kickers and punters in the past with the distance on their kicks. At least Ryan didn’t shank a punt in this game.

Mason Crosby finally missed a field goal. I guess it was about time that he would miss one since he has been pretty much perfect this whole training camp. The snap and hold were also not great which could have lead to the missed field goal.

The running back battle is as muddled as it has ever been. At this point I can’t really tell you who win will either the one or two open spots on the roster. Each running back brings their own strengths and weaknesses and the decision will come down to what the coaching staff wants most out of the third running back.

Danny Lansanah might have earned himself a spot on the practice squad with his play last night. He is definently a raw player at this point in his career but he showed potential (exactly what you want out of a practice squad player). Lansanah needs to learn from his stupid roughing the passer penalty though since every player should know better than that.

I hope Joey Haynos makes the roster over Tory Humphrey. While Tory Humphrey makes some good plays we balances those with some terrible plays. Add in the fact that he can’t stay healthy and you should know why I want to finally cut him loose. The reason I like Joey Haynos is because of his measureables. You don’t find many 6′8″ TEs in the league. Just think how that height advantage could be used in the end zone with jump balls. Joey Haynos also has good hands and showed last night that he can block as well.

Jarrett Bush really needs to develop some consistency. Last week he played terrible and this week he played pretty good. If Bush wants to have any chance of making the roster (he is the CB looking in at this point in time) he needs to have another solid game against the Titans and show that he has some consistency between games.

I am excited about Pat Lee’s future. While I don’t think he will have much impact this season (fourth CB at best) I think he could be a very good player in the future. Pat Lee has shown a knack for the football. He also seems to be getting better every single week that he plays. He is a little raw but I think with some development he could be a very good CB.

Sometime this week there will be a roster cutdown to 75 players. When I find the exact date I will write a post about who I think is on the bubble. When the cuts are released I will also write a post about whether I thought they were the right choices or not.

So what did you think about last night’s game? What went well and what went wrong in your opinion? Are you more optimistic about the season after last night’s game?