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Morgan Burnett tackles Cecil Shorts

Green Bay Packers vs. Jacksonville Jaguars:

My unfitered game day running blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.

Inactive for Packers today: CB Sam Shields, WR Greg Jennings, S Charles Woodson, WR Jordy Nelson, RB John Kuhn, LB Nick Perry

Inactive for Jaguars today: RB Montell Owens, RB Maurice Jones-Drew, DE D’Anthony Smith, S Dwight Lowery, DT Jeris Pendleton, CB Derek Cox, WR Laurent Robinson

Game Notes:

Packers roster takes a hit today in the defensive backfield and the wide receivers corps. Youth shall be served…

Today’s captains are WR James Jones, LB Erik Walden and LS Brett Goode.

Wow – 44% of #Jaguars offense since 2010 has been from Maurice Jones Drew

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Mike McCarthy Pregame Show on 620 WTMJ:

Noon game at home: Love it. Get up early, smells like football. ..

Woodson loss: We’re talking about someone who has been an impact player every year here. When you lose a guy like Charles, you have to use the next group of players to their strengths. I’m looking for our defense to generate turnovers, create fumbles.

Replacing Woodson: Charles plays in a lot of roles. We’ll individuals focus more on ione position in as opposed to charles playing one, tow three, sometime four

Jennings, surgery: We’re all hopeful it’s going to go well. They don’t think it’s a major issue.

Cobb: He’s a playmaker and gives us versatility. He doesn’t just line up in one spot.  Read more... (1037 words + 3 images, estimated 4:09 mins reading time)

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Packers running back Alex Green

Alex Green finished last Sunday’s game with 35 yards on 15 carries, not exactly setting the world on fire. Soon after, Packers fan panic set in.

“We have no running game with Benson hurt”

“Green hesitates too much and is indecisive…”

“We need a faster, shiftier back…”

Alex Green is fine, people. In fact, less than 12 months off of ACL surgery, he’s damn fine. While we all want instant gratification, Green deserves more time to get fully healthy and another offseason to get stronger. Green is better than Cedric Benson in all but one category, pushing the pile.

The problem with the Packers’ running game is the offensive line. There just aren’t a lot of clear holes there for the Packers running backs. There also isn’t much of a downfield push, either. In fact. the opposite is often true; opposing defensive linemen spend a lot of time on the Packers side of the line of scrimmage.

Take a look at this video of the first running play of the game:

Unknowingly, this play would set the tone for the Packers running game against the Rams. I’m not picking on TJ Lang here, although he admitted himself on twitter he did not have a good game. Lang was abused by rookie Michael Brockers most of the day (Brockers was the DL I was most hoping the Packers might get in last April’s draft). But Lang had plenty of company. The entire offensive line, even the usually reliable Josh Sitton looked a step slow and unable to contain the Ram’s young and talented front four.  Read more... (724 words + 3 images, estimated 2:54 mins reading time)

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In this week’s edition of “Tuesday’s with Aaron” with Jason Wilde (a must listen if you are a Packers fan), Aaron Rodgers tried to describe what is a “rhythm offense”:

“I don’t know… I think a rhythm offense is an offense that operates best in favorable down and distances and making consistent plays and not having negative yardage plays, whether its a negative run, sack, penalty…and making the plays that keep you on the field”

Rodgers is always insightful during his interviews so his response took me a little by surprise; I’m not entirely sure Aaron Rodgers knows what really is a rhythm offense because no one really knows what a rhythm offense is.  Teams either are in a rhythm or they aren’t; some teams (typically with great quarterbacks) tend to be in rhythm more often than teams that don’t have great quarterbacks, but conversely having a great quarterback doesn’t necessarily mean the offense will be in rhythm.  As far as I can tell, it just happens.

If you’ve watched any Packers games at all this year, it should be pretty apparent that the Packers weren’t in a rhythm in beginning of the season and maybe have “righted the ship” with a 6 touchdown demolition of the Houston Texans last week.  To me this seemed a little odd since the Packers managed to start off hot during the 2011 season, and that was without the benefit of having an offseason due to the CBA lockout; so if anything the 2012 Packers should have been even more ready than the 2011 Packers.  Read more... (1406 words + 2 images, estimated 5:37 mins reading time)

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If you’ve ever listened to the Green and Gold Today Podcast, I’m sure you’ve heard co-host Bill Johnson complain about the “soft underbelly of the defense”, by which he is referring to the fact that the Packers defense always seems to give up yardage in the middle of the field.  This “soft underbelly” was supposed to be fixed from last year but in the last two games, every time the Saints or Colts offense needed a big gain (often on 3rd and long) it seemed like all they had to do was throw the ball in the general direction of the middle field and one receiver would catch the ball without much trouble.  Marques Colston lit it up with 153 yards and a touchdown in week 4 and Reggie Wayne come out of last weeks game with 212 yards and a touchdown, which is especially disconcerting since the majority of those yards came in large chunks and in the middle of the field.  So what exactly is going on with the Packers defense and why are they giving up so many yards up the middle?

The situation: It’s the beginning of the 4th quarter and the Packers hold a 2 point advantage at 21-19.  The Packers were just forced to punt the ball and punter Tim Masthay pins the Colts at their own 15 yard line.  While the Packers appeared to have the game in the bag with a strong showing in the first half, the tide of success has definitely turned to the Colts as the Packers appear to have a lapse of concentration and accomplish nothing in the 3rd quarter.  Read more... (1504 words + 5 images, estimated 6:01 mins reading time)

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Graham Harrel finished with a perfect passer rating vs Chiefs

Green Bay Packers vs. Kansas City Chiefs:

My unfitered game day recap and blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.

Inactive for Packers today:

Inactives tonight: Charles Woodson, Davon House, James Starks, Robert Francois, Jeff Saturday, Andrew Datko, Ryan Pickett, Donald Driver and Tom Crabtree.

Notes:

The Packers have finished the preseason against the Chiefs the last three years.

Mike McCarthy started his NFL career with the Chiefs in 1993.

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Mike McCarthy Pregame Show on 620 WTMJ:

Starters: Our starters will play one series, maybe 6-7 plays.

Last week’s game: We felt good coming off the field and even more so after the film study.

Roster: A lot of cometetion throughout the whole roster, not just at the bottom, but for starting jobs also.

Can someone win a job tonight: Absolutely, I’m counting on it. Ted & I have discussed this – it’s the beauty of having a 4th preseason game.

Graham Harrell: GH is just like every other football player competing – he has to play well and he has to earn that opportunity. I don’t really agree with the opinions outside the building. No need for us to address it. GH brings a lot to the table. If we were to play a game tomorrow with GH, our offense wouldn’t need to change… People need to get their facts straight.

   Read more... (702 words + 3 images, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

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Full video of the scrimmage portion of the 2012 Packers Family Night (no sound):

Follow Jersey Al:

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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.

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Stephen A. Smith, Rob Parker and Skip Bayless debate Brett Favre, The Packers and whether it’s time to mend the fences. Entertaining in a train wreck sort of way…

Follow Jersey Al:

          Follow @JerseyAlGBP           Add to Circleson

Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.

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