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James Jones and the Packers are NFC North champs. (Photo from the Associated Press.)

What was your favorite head-scratching moment from Sunday’s Packers win over the Bears? Here are your options:

• Dropped passes from Randall Cobb and Jermichael Finley on the first drive. Tough catches, yes, but catchable.
• Aaron Rodgers getting sacked three times in the first half.
• Cobb dropping a touchdown pass in the second quarter. The pass was slightly off, but it was catchable.
• Mason Crosby whiffing on two more field goals.
• Mike McCarthy going for it on fourth and 6 in the third, then trying a field goal on fourth and 1 in the fourth. Why not go for it both times?
• McCarthy calling a throwback on a punt return up 11 points in the fourth that resulted in a turnover. Ugh.
• Rodgers launching a bomb to Greg Jennings on third and 3 late in the fourth when a simple first down would have been fine.
• Ryan Grant’s fumble.

That’s a lot of head-scratching moments to choose from. Oh, and by the way, the Packers won 21-13 and are NFC North champions.

The Packers have made me scratch my head a lot this season, but they keep winning. Through all the injuries, all the missed field goals, all the stalled drives and all the weird playcalling, the Packers are NFC North champions.

It’s amazing what this team has been able to accomplish so far.  Read more... (393 words + 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

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Packers Mike Daniels Fumble Recovery TD

Chad, Kris and Marques get together on this podcast to review the Lions game and get you ready for Bears week.  With the Packers winning their 22nd straight regular season home game against the Detroit Lions and the Bears losing, they are in sole possession of first place in the NFC North. A win against the Bears will clinch the division for the Packers

Yes, it’s Bears week!

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Join the writers at AllGreenBayPackers.com for a fast hitting discussion of all things Packers for the current week. There will be plenty of talk about the previous game and a look towards the next. Some regular features are “Game Balls and Lame Calls” and the “Packers Stock Report.”

Tune in for this expanded coverage of the original Packers Stock Report and Game Balls and Lame Calls posts.

Listen using the player below or download the podcast from the Packers Talk Radio Network on Itunes.

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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Packers CB Casey Hayward played his way onto the rising list this week.

Since the Packers handled the Lions on Sunday, they should be able to handle the Bears this week, right?

Think about it. The Lions have:

• A talented but erratic QB
• One dominant receiver
• A tough defensive line
• A cover-2 strategy designed to contain the Packers

Sounds very similar to the Bears. The main difference is the Lions have a better offensive line and the Bears have a better secondary and running back. The Bears are also beat up.

That’s my preliminary analysis, anyway. Very in-depth, right?

We’ll see if my perception changes later in the week, but I don’t see many reasons to pick the Bears, especially when you factor in the hopeful return of Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson and (maybe) Jordy Nelson.

It was good to get the Lions out of the way. They annoy me for multiple reasons.

On to the stock report:

Rising

Casey Hayward
For some reason, Tony Scheffler was giving the Packers some trouble on Sunday. So the Packers called on Hayward and soon Scheffler wasn’t a problem any more. The rookie played all 84 snaps and had another strong game despite dropping another interception late. Now if he could only get home on blitzes like Charles Woodson used to….  Read more... (823 words + 1 image, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

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Packers T Marshall Newhouse has been solid so far this season.

Regular readers of this site know that we like to cite Pro Football Focus (PFF) metrics when talking about the Packers. I wouldn’t call any of us football sabermaticians, but PFF does some excellent work trying to make football analysis as objective as possible.

Too often, people either treat sites like PFF as the be-all and end-all of analysis, or dismiss their work entirely. I do neither. PFF is another tool in the toolbox as we continue to try and understand this complicated game called football.

Anyway, PFF had a doozy the other day: Marshall Newhouse is rated as the fifth-best pass blocking offensive tackle in the NFL. That’s according to PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency statistic.

I’m not kidding. Marshall Newhouse. The guy who was supposed to be the weak link on the Packers offensive line. The guy who PFF rated as one of the wort tackles in football last season. Yeah, that guy.

Don’t believe me? Check out the story for yourself. In addition to all the rankings, you can see exactly how PFF comes up with its pass-blocking efficiency (PBE) stat (also check out their pass-block rating stat because I’ll be talking about that later on).

Marshall Newhouse? For Real?

I’m not questioning PFF’s work, but my immediate reaction upon hearing that Newhouse has been the fifth-best pass-blocking tackle in the league so far was to snort and laugh a little.  Read more... (1005 words + 1 image, estimated 4:01 mins reading time)

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Is Packers CB regaining his 2010 form?

The cameras focused on Clay Matthews destroying Jay Cutler, the announcers raved about Tramon Williams shutting out Brandon Marshall, and fans cheered as the Packers took a 10-0 halftime lead on the Bears after a surprise field goal resulted in a touchdown.

Meanwhile, Sam Shields kept silently plugging away.

Shields spent most of his time tracking Alshon Jeffry, helping to limit the rookie to one catch for seven yards.  Shields never did anything flashy — the Packers had Matthews, Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams to make the big plays. The third-year CB just did what the Packers needed him to do: Be fundamentally sound in pass coverage and get physical if needed.

The physical part started against San Francisco, as documented by Rob Demovsky here and highlighted in the video below.

In case you don’t believe what you just saw, that was Shields going hard after the ballcarrier (Frank Gore, nonetheless) and stopping him short of a first down. We didn’t see Shields stick his nose in there like that last season, and it’s a major reason why Shields had to fight to get his job back this season.

Shields played 60 of 63 snaps against the Bears and was only targeted once (on a pass to Devin Hester). After catching three passes for 80 yards in the season opener, Jeffry never sniffed the ball with Shields on him.  Read more... (485 words + 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

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Erik Walden celebrates. Jay Cutler cries.

Before the season started, Jersey Al posted this about Packers outside linebacker Erik Walden. Jersey Al said the following about Walden early in the post:

Erik Walden can flat out rush the passer. When Walden is turned loose to pursue the red meat known as NFL quarterbacks, he performs like a hungry lion.

I wasn’t as high on Walden as Al, but I wasn’t ready to boot him off the team like most everyone else. After getting arrested Thanksgiving Eve last season, Walden’s play fell off a cliff. He was decent before the arrest, though.

More importantly, the Packers decided to re-sign Walden in the offseason. Ted Thompson and the Packers see something in Walden. Why would they bother bringing back an average to below-average talent with a domestic assault arrest on his record? You can easily find average to below-average guys without arrest records off the street if you need to.

But the Packers obviously think Walden has the talent to be more than just average.

Thompson knows a lot more about his players than I do. If he thinks a guy like Walden is worth bringing back, then there’s talent there, folks.

Walden and Perry vs. the Bears

Walden showed why he was given another opportunity on Thursday against the Bears. Cutler was the hunk of red meat, and Walden was the hungry lion (who had gone a week without a good meal after being suspended week one).  Read more... (731 words + 1 image, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

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Packers rookie S Jerron McMillian

There’s no way around it–the Packers’ defense dominated the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.

Tramon Williams caught as many Jay Cutler passes (two) as Brandon Marshall,  the Packers nearly doubled the Bears in total yards, and Clay Matthews had his arms wrapped around Cutler as if he were a certain cast member on Laguna Beach. If not for an ugly miscommunication between Aaron Rodgers and James Jones, the Bears may not have scored more than three points all night.

Just four days prior, Alex Smith and the San Francisco 49ers sliced through Green Bay’s defense for 30 points, spoiling the Packers’ season opener at Lambeau Field. Predictably so, much of Packer Nation reached for the “Panic” button.

But the Packers’ performance on Thursday night couldn’t possibly have been more different. The Packers held the Bears’ talented offense to just 10 points and 168 total yards, while intercepting four of Cutler’s passes and sacking him seven times. Suddenly, the Packers defense doesn’t look all that bad.

Matthews (3.5 sacks) and Williams (two INT) will surely continue to receive the bulk of the credit for Thursday night’s surprisingly dominant display of defense, and rightfully so, but it took a total team effort for the Packers to embarrass the Bears the way they did.

And while there were a handful of “unsung heroes” in Week Two, safety Jerron McMillian may top the list.  Read more... (712 words + 1 image, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

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