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The Packers will have a busy offseason.

We’ve seen how Super Bowl winners and losers both get plundered for spare parts after they win their championships.

Jonathan Vilma and Jammal Brown were lured away from the ’09 Saints. Bryant McFadden and Larry Foote left the ’08 Steelers. Anquan Boldin, Antrel Rolle and Karlos Dansby all eventually departed Arizona. The Packers will have to deal with eager suitors for Cullen Jenkins and James Jones, among many others.

Re-signing Jenkins should be the priority for this club in the offseason, depending on how effective they think Johnny Jolly can be. It’ll be interesting to see how much money they’re willing to give Jones, as well as how much he’ll be offered by clubs that saw his big plays against Atlanta and his big drops against Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

There’s no indication that Donald Driver will hang up his cleats, but if he does (or his $5 million salary is deemed too high for a No. 3 WR) and Jones leaves, the Packers will be forced to take a receiver high in the draft.  Read more... (780 words + 1 image, estimated 3:07 mins reading time)

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Hooooooly Crap….. We’re Almost Here

Whew. It’s Friday afternoon-journey-into-night as I’m typing this, and we are almost at kickoff. Or close enough, anyway. Maurkice Pouncey is out, Aaron Smith is out, Erik Walden is questionable and Frank Zombo is probable. I’m going nuts over here. (Before I forget, here’s two good links for information.)

THREE THINGS THE PACKERS HAVE TO DO TO WIN THIS GAME

1. Protect Aaron Rodgers. Pick up the blitzes, account for Troy Polamalu, give him time to find the Packers’ receivers downfield against the Steelers’ average corners. The Packers will run just enough for the play-action fake to have some credibility, so use it when it’s there. The Steelers have three men on defense that can make the game-changing play on any given snap: Polamalu, James Harrison and LaMar Woodley. Shutting down two of them is damn near impossible, but if the Packers can minimize their impact, they have a solid chance here. Rodgers will have to be as elusive as he was against Atlanta or New York, and more so.  Read more... (596 words + 5 images, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

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Despite the records of the Packers’ and Steelers’ defenses and how spectacularly stingy they’ve been in giving up points (Pittsburgh was best in the NFL, allowing just 14.5 PPG; Green Bay trailed them by half a point), this could be closer to a shootout than everyone is predicting.

The Packers have been the best team in the playoffs at just 17 points/game, while Pittsburgh allows 21.5, but these two defenses are built in the same mold. Pittsburgh has better safeties and a better ROLB, Green Bay has better corners and ILBs, but both these teams are built in the Pittsburgh style.

When Dom Capers was remaking the defense in summer 2009, the popular term for his efforts was that the Pack became Pittsburgh West. Capers served as the Steelers’ defensive coordinator in 1992-1994, when Dick LeBeau was first coming up with his fire-zone blitzes.

The bottom line is that, for all of Capers’ creative blitzing and zone drops, the odds are that Ben Roethlisberger has seen most of the material. There aren’t many secrets here. Expect Big Ben and Rodgers to have an easier time with the defenses then they had last week.  Read more... (870 words + 5 images, estimated 3:29 mins reading time)

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I know a lot has changed from Week 1 till now, but there’s still stuff to glean from watching the Packers vs. Eagles film from that time and seeing some of the general tendencies of the teams. Here’s what I saw.

I hope the people who study film at 1265 Lombardi Ave. are seeing some of these things (certainly they’re massively more qualified to say if they are ‘things’ or not) and acting on them.

-Clay Matthews was unstoppable, as we know, but matched up against Brent Celek he was pretty much transcendent. Whether the Eagles’ No. 1 tight end was chipping him or assigned to block Matthews one-on-one, he trashed him nearly every time, including on the game-ending sack of Vick on fourth and one. If Capers can get Matthews matched up on Celek, look for him to make plays.

-Mark Tauscher and Chad Clifton were awful against Trent Cole and Juqua Parker. Both Parker and Brandon Graham (since placed on IR) were able to blow past Tauscher with speed, or bull-rush him with power, or chop his hands down at will. Bulaga will have to be much better then Tauscher was in pass protection.  Read more... (875 words + 5 images, estimated 3:30 mins reading time)

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