How Did They Do?

The Packers survived its opener at Soldier Field, 31-23, while the Chargers came back from a 21-10 halftime deficit to beat the Lions, 33-28, and the underdog San Francisco 49ers manhandled Adrian Peterson and Vikings, 20-3 Monday night. Can you say, "First place, baby."

 

Like I said in a previous post there are 30 ex-Packers on the active rosters of 20 teams and while a former ex-Packer did very well in his first game with his (new) team the others were quite ordinary on the whole.

 

Welcome Back, Jones

 

James Jones in his second Packers coming was spectacular catching all four balls thrown his way for two touchdowns. However, our favorite ex-Packer (sorry Brett Favre) Raiders strong safety Charles Woodson (I remembered his first name-remind me to tell that story sometime) was injured in the third year of his second Raider coming suffering a dislocated shoulder with 1:16 left of a 33-13 loss to the Bengals. Before he was hurt he had 3 solo and 2 assisted tackles.

Thoughtful Thoughts: Bears Game

The perks of beating the Bears being interviewed by Erin 'I Love My Ass' Andrews

 

Contrary to what Ask Vic (Vic Ketchman) from Packers.com says we can enjoy the win, but still realistic that we were lucky to win. So I think I will analyze the game, instead of putting on Vic's rosy glasses and ignore the Packers have serious problems trying to live up to being one of the two Super Bowl teams at the end of the season.

 

Offensively, the Packers scored on five of its seven drives that didn't end the half or the game against the Bears. There was one throw-back series when the Packers defense made its second of three stops on eight drives that left the offense at the two-yard line. The calls were safe, but except for the first play weren't designed to make a first down. Coach Mike McCarthy doesn't take chances, but with punter Tim Masthay and the rest of our un-specials teams not being an asset I would say punting from the end zone is taking a chance.

Quick Takes From Chi-Town

The quickest take from the win over the Bears was same old, same old. Aaron Rodgers threw three touchdown passes and no interceptions and Jay Cutler threw an interception at a crucial time. Result: Packers 31, Bears 16, oops I mean 23 (more on that later).

 

The next quickest take is the win snapped a three-game opening game losing streak. If you've been reading I was worried about this game and being down 13-10 at the half didn't give me much confidence.

 

Now for some slower takes. Rodgers and the offense was rusty. Rodgers and the offensive line hadn't played together since the second pre-season game. I don't care what you pampered, over-paid prima donnas say pre-season games do mean something. Football is the ultimate team sport that depends on 11 men (so far) playing in rhythm to be successful. One game (as our Mr. Rodgers wants) is not enough to develop that rhythm and today's game proved that in spades. The second half was when Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood started to click.

James Jones finds the endzone not once but twice

Speaking of rusty James Jones wasn't. The old rapport with Rodgers was there and it resulted in the first two of what I hope is many touchdowns. He caught all four balls thrown his way (two with spectacular catches) for 51 yards with a long of 34.

Predictions

I am totally split on the opener at Soldier Field. Or maybe I should say I don't have a clue who will win. I know that is sacrilege for a game against the Bears, but there are too many question marks coming out of the pre-season.

Packerbacker Bikini Girls

OFFENSE:

1. The offensive line hasn't played together since August 13. Will the Fab 5 be together? That is the big question mark heading into the game.

The Offense Has Been Anything But Offensive

While Dom Caper's defense has been iffy at best and the Mike McCarthy/Ron Zook special teams completely un-special the Tom Clements/Edgar Bennet offense have provided the only shinning moments in a somewhat dismal pre-season.

 

Which Aaron Rodgers will play? I don't know either

QUARTERBACKS: Like I said in an earlier post I can't really say how Aaron Rodgers is playing after playing just 18 minutes and 15 seconds in the first two pre-season games and sitting out the final two. He took 46 snaps (plus one 2-pt. conversion), throwing 24 passes (completing 15), one run (for 8 yards) and suffering 3 sacks (including one for a safety). He finished with a quarterback rating of 84.4 a good 21.6 points below his career average. He also suffered a bruise to his throwing arm on the safety three weeks ago.

Can the Packers Defense and Special Teams Turn It Around?

Well the clock is ticking as I write this Friday morning (2 DAYS, 3 HOURS, 41 MIN, 25 SEC) to the opening kickoff of the 2015 season. The memory of the Packers last game still haunts me and despite Brandon Bostick being 1,921,04 miles away on the Cardinals practice squad I have a lot of doubts about two of the three units.

Watch the return of Clueless at noon on Sunday

NO-DEFENSE: The last time the first-string defense played it was dismantled by four future Hall of Famers (tongue in cheek) Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley and Tim Tebow (who isn't even in the league anymore).