I will agree in this respect. It is surely (and don't call me Shirley) better to win than lose, but there were several disturbing trends, which don't bode well for the upcoming season.
First, I didn't like Aaron Rodgers sitting this one out. The Packer offense was dysfunctional last year and Rodgers had a terrible season by his high standards. Everyone on the offense needs to play every game and Rodgers was the only offensive starter that wasn't injured that didn't play.
T.J. Lang, Josh Sitton, Ty Montgomery J.C. Tretter, Bryan Bulaga, Jared Cook, Eddie Lacy and Davante Adams all played, but Rodgers didn't. Brett Hundley also didn't play, but he has a good excuse - an ankle injury.
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| Joe Callahan Handing Off to Eddie Lacy |
Instead of Rodgers developing some rapport with his fellow starters we got Joe Callahan and Marquis Williams playing for a spot on the practice squad. In what world do you waste an entire game to see who you want to re-sign after they are cut in the final round. It's silly and wasteful.
Before I move on from this I want to make a prediction. Rodgers will also sit out the final exhibition game leaving him just two quarters or halves to get ready for the season opener against the Jaguars.
I don't care how much people say Rodgers is the best quarterback in the game, but even the other best quarterback in the game Tom Brady plays every game during the preseason so he is ready. Rodgers has proven that he need game time also, no matter what Coach Mike McCarthy seems to think.
Let's think back to the season after the Super Bowl. The Packers were 14-1 going into the last game of the season against the Detroit Lions. Ndamukong Suh was just beginning to be earn the title of "Dirtiest Player" and made some comments about going after Rodgers, so McCarthy blinked and sat Rodgers while throwing Matt Flynn to the lions. What happened was historic. Flynn wasn't touched and he threw a team record 6 touchdown passes (something Rodgers hadn't done up to that point).
Two weeks later the Packers lost to the Giants and were eliminated. Rodgers was ordinary with a 78.4 passers rating (26-of-46 for 264 with 2 TDs and 1 interception). McCarthy's philosophy is to rest his starters in the final exhibition game and the Packers rarely get off to a great start. Other coaches want their starters to get ready for the season opener. I think the starters need more work than the backups do.
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| Justin Perillo Put on a Show |
Now for the high points. Tight end Justin Perillo had a great game. He caught 5 of 7 passes thrown his way for 52 yards with a long of 18. He made some tough catches at clutch times. The problem with him is that he may have saved his job, but he will get hardly any time on the field during the season. Cook and Richie Rodgers are the starting tight ends and that's that.
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| Brandon Burks Making His Case |
Eddie Lacy played well (4-24-11L) in a limited time. Jared Abbrederis had a good game (2-23-12L on 4 throws). Running back Brandon Burks had a great game (9-45-17L) in the battle with John Crockett (6-17-6L) for the third spot.
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| Favorite Son Jared Abbrederis Continues to Shine |
Abbrederis was also the main kick returner. He returned 3 kickoffs for an average of 22 yards with a long of 34. He returned 2 punts with a long of 5.
The offensive line was ok. The starters started except for Corey Linsley at center. An injured Tretter was pressed into service (and a healthy Rodgers sat out and talked on the TV) because the rest of the centers (Jacob Flores (knee) and Jesse Schmitt (broken hand) didn't dress so Don Barclay was the only backup and he is a tackle with the other backup center Matt Rotheram playing at right guard on the second team line.
The second string line was (L-R) Jason Spriggs, Lane Taylor, Don Barclay, Matt Rotheram, Josh Walker). The announcers were glowing about this unit, but......... Walker was less than spectacular opening running lanes and newly re-signed with a raise Taylor got beat many times as did Barclay at center. I don't know about Rotheram. Third string tackles Kyle Murphy (concussion) and Josh James (hamstring, what else) didn't dress.
It looked like Spriggs played well behind David Bakhtiari. However, with both Sitton and Lang playing out their contracts neither Taylor, Rotheram nor Lucas Patrick are starting material.
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| Aaron Rodgers Delegated to Greeting Tramon Williams |
Callahan was ok. I guess he will be the third stringer. However, the problem the Packers had last year was throwing long and Friday they hardly threw downfield at all. I guess McCarthy was afraid of Tramon Williams. Besides wasting some good game time for Rodgers McCarthy wasted a game for the deep passing game.
Back to the running game. The Packers rushed for 151 yards, but averaged just 3.7 yards a carry. Besides Lacy and Burks the rest of the backs didn't do very well. Starks, Crockett, and Brandon Ross averaged 2.8 yards or less.
Besides Abbrederis, the rest of the wide receivers were ordinary as far as I could tell since they weren't used much. Trevor Davis was thrown to 5 times catching 2 for 23 (16L). Ty Montgomery was thrown to 3 times catching 1 for 7. Geronimo Allison 3 times catching 1 for 10. Herb Waters was targeted twice and Ed Williams once, but didn't make a catch. Adams started, but he was not thrown a pass.
In addition to Jordy "I'm good" Nelson being out with injuries so were Randall Cobb (calf) and Jeff Janis (broken right hand). Janis was having a bad camp and now this.
The tight ends were productive being targeted 14 times out of 37 attempts catching 11 while the wide receivers were targeted 15 times catching 6.
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| Jared Cook Makes His Packer Debut |
Beside Perillo's 5 of 7 catches you would have thought Cook had a great game the way the Packers announcers were gushing about him, but he caught just 2 passes with a long of 8. Kenneth Backman caught 3 of 4 passes for 28 yards with a long of 18 and Casey Pierce caught 1 pass for 6 yards.
It seems Friday wasn't a good day to be named Rodgers because neither Callahan nor Williams threw a pass to Richie Rodgers.
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| Peter Mortell Made It a Contest for the Punting Job Against the Browns |
After stinking up the joint the previous two weeks in practice hometown boy Peter Mortell had a great game. He punted 3 times for a net average of 42.7 and a gross of 44.0. All 3 were downed inside the 20 and he had a long of 62. Tim Masthay also punted 3 times averaging 25.0/39.7 with 1 touchback (not his fault) and a long of 43.
Mason Crosby was perfect as he had been all camp hitting two 54-yard field goals. He had 5 kickoffs with 4 returned for a 13.8 yard average (31L).
Finally, when Micah Hyde intercepted the pass and set the Packers up at the one I yelled "PUNT" because the Packers have trouble inside the 10. One play later it was 2-0. For some odd reason the middle of the Packers line didn't block the middle of the Browns defensive line. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Maybe I was wrong, but like my grand-nephew said once when he told he was smarter than me after I questioned that, "Maybe you are smarter than me". Then 30 seconds later he said, "But I am smarter than your". I was righter than McCarthy.
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| We Won! |
Without Rodgers the offense was ordinary against an ordinary team. However a win is a win and I hope with Rodgers playing at least a half Thursday against the Raiders we might begin to see a return to the offense we had two years ago, despite being without Nelson, Cobb and Janis.
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| Saintly John Kuuuuuuuuuhhhhhn |
In case you were wondering. John Kuuuuuuuhhhhhhn had 1 rush for 3 yards and 1 catch for 7 yards for the Saints; James Jones had 3 catches for 27 yards (12L) for the Chargers; Jarrett Boykin had 2 catches for 26 yards (22L) with 1 TD and Blake Annen had 2 catches for 26 yards (13L) for the Bills; Scott Tolzien went 12-23-140-1TD-0int for the Colts; Jeremy Ross had 3 catches for 51 yards (20L) and 1 kickoff return for 51 and Brandon Bostick had 1 catch for 6 yards for the Jets; Charles Johnson had 1 catch for 49 yards and a TD for the Vikings; Dennis Parks didn't have a catch for the Browns; Myles White didn't have a catch for the Giants; Matthew Mulligan didn't have a catch for the Lions; and Jake Stoneburner didn't have a catch for the Dolphins.
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