Weekend notes: the Packers are rolling

I am surprised with how well the Packers' D has been playing this preseason.... They look fast and they look physical.

Big move bringing in Capers.

Brady was lucky that he didn't dislocate his shoulder with Fat Albert falling on him.

But, this will be classic BB this week... calling it a "bump" or some other bland word.

Now I really can't wait for opening night at Lambeau...

Cutler, Forte, Olson and Hester will be a tough challenge for that Packer D with two weeks of game planning.

Does it matter who is starting in Tampa.... They seem like a rebuilding team that is trying to pretend that they are a contender.

I hope Marshall sits the whole season

I agree with Da Coach that Cutler and Co. will be a good challenge for the Packers defense... but the Bears better bring their A game on defense, because if they can't get pressure on Rodgers then they're going to get picked apart. The Packers have a lot of weapons in the receiving game (Driver, Jennings, Jones, Nelson, an emerging Jermichael Finley), and Rodgers has been extremely accurate so far this preseason. Throw in a healthy Ryan Grant in the running game and this Packers offense looks like a well-oiled machine right now.

Can't wait for Sept 13.

Pack and Bear..... going to go down to the last week of the season...

Can't wait for NFC North football

It is about time that someone actually talks about the Cowboys with some sense.

Roy is a part of this offense, but we will win or lose depending on how we run the football. Look at those 3 backs--best backfield in the league.

The Packers defense still needs a lot of work. Woodson saved them with an incredible game, but they never came close to stopping the Cards offense conventionally. In fact, they barely ever even slowed them down. Runs... passes... Fitzy ran wild all day... I mean, their bottom line looks great because of the amazing amount of turn-overs they've gotten this pre-season (and, to be fair, those don't just happen by accident), but turn-overs tend to come in bunches, and, if they dry up, the D might have trouble getting off the field, which was our Achilles heel all last season.

So, that's a concern. We stack up well against the division, though. You can load up the box against the Bears & Vikings and be okay. ...at least until He Who Shall Not Be Named gets his legs under him and until Hester learns to walk and chew gum (er, run and catch, I mean) at the same time. ...which, hopefully both those things will take a while. In the meantime, stop the run and the short stuff and you stop the Bears & Vikes. And the Lions, of course, are still the Lions, so we should be good there.

So, we got a good shot at the division crown. After that, well... It's still just pre-season, so it's too soon to talk about anything else.

(Like, for instance, how the Packers are going to the dance, baby! WooHoo!)

What?? Who said that? Somebody quiet that man!

Breaking news from (of all the sources) Ocho Cinco: "Brady is fine."

So much for BB's probable intent to pull a Sun Tzu on the Bills (all warfare is deception).

Matt, Great analysis of that moss TD. Do you think Hall should have given up inside leverage? How can Landry be biting on pump fakes and ignoring a TD machine like Moss? If you're facing the Pats, isn't your prime defensive objective to prevent Moss from beating you?

This brings up the larger issue of the Skins defense, which the local media is touting as possibly the league's best. Sure haven't looked like ti so far. Is Blanche the right guy to be the coordinator?

"Cutler, Forte, Olson and Hester will be a tough challenge for that Packer D with two weeks of game planning. "

The game planning thing goes both ways though. They'll be able to gameplan for Cutler and Co. as well.

Dom Capers IS AMAZING. I also loved what he did back in his haydays in Carolina. Their D back then was also awesome. ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK WITH MASS CONFUSION TO THE ENEMY'S O BLITZING & DROPPING BACK FROM MANY POSITIONS. WHAT A POTENT COMBINATION.

It's still early but Capers has turned around that GB D in his 1st year faster than what my Niners' DC Manusky has done in the last 3.

I envy their damn NT's...Raji (6-2, 337 lbs), Johnson (6-3, 325 lbs), & Pickett (6-2, 340 lbs). Our starting NT is Aubrayo Franklin at 318 lbs max who isn't stout enough to 2-gap at the point. Our Fr Office is clueless....we're in our 5th year & we still don't have our 3-4 center piece anchor.

We'll see if GB is for real. Their Offense is. I'm a huge fan of Dom Capers & I'm sure he'll come through for Packer fans. You guys made the right hire!!!!!!!!!

Hey the DA Coach packers started game planning and install on the bears last week.
We will have a month of practice against that 4-3 look and your offense !
See you in lambeau !

For some reason, this wasn't posted earlier, but...

"Cutler, Forte, Olson and Hester will be a tough challenge for that Packer D with two weeks of game planning"

Now, no disrespect to the Bears as they should be even more competitve this year, especially in a division where record rarely matters in divisional games... But I doubt Forte and Olsen kept the Packers up nights last season... and I highly doubt Woodson and Harris are having scary nightmares of Hester and company.

Rodgers, Jennings, Driver, and Finley may keep Lovie and the Bears up though...

Will people stop whining about the alleged lack of depth in the Cowboy WR ranks? We'll be just fine, thank you. Roy Williams and Patrick Crayton are solid, if not spectacular. Miles Austin and Sam Hurd are coming on strong behind them. And Kevin Ogletree may end up outshining all of them. I don't think Orlando Scandrick makes this team... Ogletree has beaten him out. Hurd and Ogletree and Williams had outstanding camps.

Add to that an all-World TE in Jason Witten, and not one, but two very, very good backups in Martellus Bennett and rookie John Phillips. Witten is your #1 or #2 receiver in ANY case, and Bennett may be your #3 or #4.

And then you can start talking about the 3-headed monster at RB. All of which can catch the ball, too...

What's different this year is that the Boys won't have to contend with an egomaniac who demands the ball be thrown his way, and then drops it at least a fifth of the time. The ball will be spread around a lot more this year - to who is open, not to who whines the most.

"but they never came close to stopping the Cards offense conventionally. In fact, they barely ever even slowed them down. "

True, but the Packers didn't rush more than four very much. As often as Woodson blitzed, he was still usually just the fourth rusher. The preseason is for the guys to get comfortable adjusting to their new responsibilities in the 3-4. Capers likely has plenty more up his sleeve that we haven't seen yet, and you can bet he's going to make sure we get more pressure on the QB.

Also, I don't think there's too much shame in giving up alot of catches to the best WR in the game. Whenever Jennings has a huge game, we chalk that up to Jennings playing well, and not to poor CB play.

MikeinMD. That Johnson guy you mentioned on the Packers D-line sounds impressive. Unfortunately, there is no such guy named Johnson on the Packers D-line, let alone their entire defense.

I'm guessing Mike in MD meant to say Johnny Jolly. He's listed as 6-3, 325 at NFL.com

And Capers was their 3rd choice at DC. He has turned teams around in the first year and one finished at #4. He likes the players he has.

They have 6-7 LB'ers that are playing well right now.

That's what you said last year that Packers had a potent offense.......where was it? Three preseason games doesn't make a season. Let's talk when December rolls around. They have one of the easiest schedules so should do well til they meet Dallas, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Seattle, Arizona in Nov/Dec. Rodgers is good but gee look at the receiver corp he inherited. Brett could have used them earlier in his career and would have attained his records a lot earlier. Rodgers has no excuses but to be good with those guys. Would he be as good say he was in Detroit or Oakland?

Gwinn,

You do realize that the Packer's offense was ranked at like #4 statistically last year right? Did you know that even though the Packers had a losing record they outscored their opponents? Have you paid attention to most commentators, scouts, and fans have said that the main reason the Pack did horribly last year was the defense?

So where was the offense last year? They were trying to carry the team all by themself. You know, two recievers with thousand year seasons. A running back with a 1200 yard season. A QB with over 4000 yards passing and a double TD to INT ratio. That's where the O was last year.

Gwinn,
You sound like one of those Favre apologists. With the Jets last year, Favre got to play 8 games - half the season - against the two worst divisions in the NFL, the AFC and NFC West divisions. Of the 8 teams in those divisions, only one posted a winning mark and that was 9-7. The other division winner was 8-8. How could Favre not possibly have led his team into the playoffs facing opposition that weak? Could it have anything to do with leading the league in interceptions once again?

dan - don't forget that some of what you're seeing with the Packer defense right now is by design. Because of the newness of the system, Capers is calling a very limited game focused on getting the players to master the core plays of his system. Some are estimating that fewer than one third of the entire system is being used thus far. Also, a big emphasis of his design is disruption of the offense, as opposed to stopping the offense.

What I'm really loving at this point is what they're doing with the front seven, the way they're mixing things up. Everyone always says the 3-4 is about the line taking up blockers and letting the LBs make the plays but the linemen have also been making quite a few. Also, great to see Kampmann get a score - loved his comments after the game about first time he had a chance to score since high school. I love the excitement that the players have for this system.

Dan's analysis is pretty good regarding the Cards. But caution be damned, you gotta look at the big picture. Last year, what are the same players looked lethargic and inept. This year you can't recognize them. They are playing with speed, tempo and aggressiveness in a brand new 34 defense, which is reputably very difficult. No observer would possibly guess only a few games of practice. It's the upside that has me optimistic. I hoped that they'd be a better defense. My bar was too low. This can be an outstanding defense. They stuck with a base package vs the Cards. Imagine. Further, this has been a defense without Raji, Barnett and Mathews. The second-teamers are as good as the first. Only concern is saftey depth. Smith has been outplaying Bigby, who does not look 100% yet.