Cutdown to 75 Had Some Surprises

It was cutdown day in the NFL when all 32 teams had to get down to 75 and end of the day there were a few surprising moves by the Packers.

Hometown Boy Peter Mortell Was Living The Dream Until Monday - His Grandfather Hunting With Vince Lombardi And With His Dad At Lambeau Field

First, General Manager Ted Thompson cut Green Bay native Peter Mortell. I thought Mortell had won the battle with Tim Masthay for the punting job. He seemed to be a gamer and I was ready to move on from Masthay, who has been mired in a year and a half slump. But what do I know?

Sad State of Affairs

As Always Aaron Rodgers is the Key to Victory

The Packer season has at least two games left with the Packers assured of the third seed or the fifth seed in next week's playoffs.

If the Packers win then they host the wild card playoff game against the sixth seed, which would be against the Vikings if the Seahawks beat the Cardinals or against the Seahawks if Seattle loses. If the Packers lose then they hit the road against the fourth seed Washington.

The best scenario might be to lose and go to Washington that hosting either Seattle or Minnesota. It's sad to think about how far the Packers have fallen under Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy when it would be better to play a road game than play at Lambeau Field.

Offensive Offense and Sublime Solutions

Aaron Rodgers looking for answers

The last two weeks haven't been pretty for the high-powered Packer offensive machine. Aaron Rodgers threw his first interceptions x2 at Lambeau Field since 2012 and, for good measure, lost a fumble also for three turnovers. The Packers averaged just 17 points against the woeful 49ers and the Rams, but still managed to remain undefeated with a little help from their defensive friends. I hope the offense took the defense out for dinner for their titanic efforts.

Dodged a Bullet

T. J. Lang added to injury list

The Packer injury train keeps chugging along with three new players getting on boards. Right guard T. J. Lang went down on the last drive on the second quarter when he was rolled on a screen pass. Nose tackle B.J. Raji hurt his groin in the second quarter when his foot got caught in the grass and tried to play in the third quarter, but the pain was too much. These two injuries seem to be not serious and the coaching staff has to make the decision whether its worth the risk to play them against the Chargers with the bye week coming up.

Focussed Thoughts From a Random Mind

The Packers were in Beast Mode on MNF

I got up Wednesday morning starving to death (still suffering from the after effects of food poisoning) and wanting to avoid making my picks for this week's prep football games for my newspaper, because I have dropped four back of the new leader after making a terrible mistake in last week's picks during my first day of food poisoning picking a team that had no hope of winning, so I was so bummed that I didn't even open Saturday's paper to see the scores.

 

But life goes on and today is the deadline for the picks, so I made a cup of coffee (which hasn't slaked my hunger) and made my picks and without thinking about it too much (which I do most of the time) put them in stone (clicked) and sent them off.

 

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.

Panic Room

Panic Room

You can look at the re-signing of wide receiver James Jones in two ways. The first is that a valuable resource was on the market and General Manager Ted Thompson jumped at the chance to upgrade a now weak position. Or it could be seen as a panic move bringing in a one-year solution at the expense of a couple of promising young players.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART CINQUE

THE SUBLIME: 

The pre-season is over and we're in the week before the 2015 regular season opens at noon at the Chicago Bears. The roster has been set (well almost because I haven't seen who got cut with the signing of James Jones) and it is time for us fans and/or pundits to get ready.

 

Packersbackers #4 (L to R-Me, Timmer, Andrew, Avery)

Like I've mentioned before it is now six days before the unscrewing of the inaugural batch of Mann's Bootleg Brew. I haven't decided whether I open a bottle first to see if it's good or just let the Packerbackers (Timmer Freeman, Therese (Melot) Foltz, Andrew Freeman and Jared Avery) and myself try it the first time when the "Pouring of the Beer" occurs at 1 p.m. I'm leaning towards unveiling it for the first time to all with the "Pouring".

The Time to Retool Your Roster is Now

Let the Lady Packerbackers make the call-Steve Weatherford
 instead of Tim Masthay?

The final cuts were not unexpected although I missed on four (running back Rajion Neal was cut instead of Alonzo Harris; defensive end Christian Ringo instead of defensive tackle Bruce Gaston; inside linebacker Carl Bradford instead of outside linebacker Nick Perry and safety Jean Fanor instead of Chris Banjo).

 

Now let's look at the best free agents now available and who Packers General Manager Ted Thompson might be interested in or should be interested in. The Giants cut punter Steve Weatherford in a cost-cutting move and I think he should be signed immediately before someone else gets him.

 

Tim Masthay is in his second year of struggles and Weatherford's stats last year were better than Masthay's. You just can't have an erratic punter or place kicker. Being patient with Mason Crosby when he lost it three years ago worked, but it hurt in between. Masthay lost it the second half of last season and is still in his "slump". A good punter is now available and I vote for signing him.

The Injury Report:

"Yes, Virginia there is a silver lining"

 

Jordy Nelson down and out

It was made official. Jordy Nelson will miss the entire season with a torn ACL suffered on the opening drive of the second pre-season game against the Steelers.

 

This will be the second time Nelson will have suffered a lost season although not quite as bad as this time. After having his breakout season in 2011 when he earned the starting job (played in all 16 games starting 9) he caught 68 passes for 1,263 yards and 15 TDs. Then in 2012 he suffered through lingering ankle and hamstring problems all season long finishing with 49 catches for 745 yards and 7 TDs.

 

Actually not only did Nelson have an off-year, but Greg Jennings was also hurt dropping from 67 catches for 945 yards and 9 TDs to a career low 36 catches for 366 yards and 4 TDs because of a groin injury he suffered before the season limiting him to only 8 games and 5 starts.

The sad fall of James Jones

I checked this morning on whether former Packers wide receiver James Jones had found a new team after being cut by that offensive powerhouse the Oakland Raiders after just one season.

 

I found not only has he not found a new team yet, but, apparently, the NFL decided that he won't find a new team, because he has been totally removed from the players stats page on NFL.com as an active player, instead of being designated as a free agent. The NFL powers that be must know something, so that doesn't sound good for Jones finding a job.

  

James Jones One Handed Catch

Jones had a checkered career with the Packers after being drafted out of San Jose State in the third round (#78) of the draft as the 14th wide receiver taken out of a total of 34 drafted. He was drafted behind Calvin Johnson (#1-2-Lions), Ted Ginn, Jr. (#1-9-Dolphins), Dwayne Bowe (#1-23-Chiefs), Robert Meachem (#1-27-Saints), Craig "Buster" Davis (#1-30-Chargers), Anthony Gonzales (#1-32-Colts), Sidney Rice (#2-44-Vikings), Dwayne Jarrett (#2-45-Panthers), Steve Smith (#2-51-Giants), Jacoby Jones (#3-73-Texans), Yamon Figurs (#3-74-Ravens), Laurent Robinson (#75-Falcons) and Jason Hill (#3-76-49ers).

 

Of those guys only Calvin Johnson (643-10,405-74TD) and Dwayne Bowe (532-7,155-44TD) have had better careers than Jones. When Jones left the Packers he ranked 9th in career catches (310), 10th in touchdowns (37) and 11th in career receiving yards (4,305). Since then Jordy Nelson has passed him in all three categories.