AllGreenBayPackers.Com

Victor Cruz will be a lot for the Atlanta Falcons to handle

The Packers will face the Giants, Falcons or Lions on Jan. 15 in a divisional round playoff game at Lambeau Field. All three teams gave the Packers everything they could handle in regular season games, and lost.

Looking ahead to the divisional round, I expect one of these three teams to again give the Packers a helluva game…and lose.

All three teams present unique challenges for the Packers, but none have enough talent in the secondary to keep the Packers out of the end zone often enough to win.

But before we can focus in on who the Packers will face next week, the wild card round needs to be played. Here is a closer look at those matchups:

Saturday, January 7

AFC: 3:30 PM

Cincinnati at Houston (NBC)

Breakdown: Those of you that are sickened by the lack of defense in modern football should watch this game. Bengals QB Andy Dalton struggled in the second half of the season while the Texans were forced to turn things over to third-string QB T.J. Yates. Yates got the best of Dalton in an earlier matchup, but I think Dalton gets revenge this time around. The Bengals will win and snap the NFL’s longest stretch without a playoff victory (1990, wild-card round).

NFC: 7 PM

Detroit at New Orleans (NBC)  Read more... (559 words + 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

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Gregg Rosenthal of ProFootballTalk.com had a short post the other day arguing that passing yards have become the most overrated stat in the NFL.

Rosenthal is 100 percent correct.

After three weeks of play, there have been 33 300-yard passing games, by far the highest total through three weeks since 2009 (21).

I’ve Tweeted on a couple different occasions that every QB in the NFL might throw for more than 4,000 yards in 2011. My tongue was planted in cheek during those Tweets, but maybe it’s not that ridiculous of a statement after all. Every team in the league, with few exceptions, tries to throw the ball all over the field, even if their quarterback isn’t that good. And why not? You can’t touch a receiver past five yards and refs are always looking for a reason to call roughing the passer.

(Side note: How about the TEs in today’s NFL? You used to play DE or OLB if you were big, strong, tall and fast. Now you learn how to catch and play TE.)

Passing numbers are so inflated that you can no longer just look at a box score to determine if a quarterback had a good game. Even with Moneyball now a mainstream movie starring Brad Pitt, and the stats movement becoming more and more prevalent every day, it’s getting increasingly difficult to judge QBs on their passing numbers, specifically passing yards.  Read more... (713 words + 1 image, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

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World Champion Green Bay Packers. The Vince Lombardi Trophy is back home.

Here we are, nearly a few days after the Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 to win Super Bowl XLV and my feet are still nowhere near to touching the ground.

What a ride. After the 31-27 defeat at Foxboro to the New England Patriots that dropped the Packers to 8-6, things looked bleak. Aaron Rodgers was coming off his second concussion of the season and the defense, depleted by injuries, got burned in a shootout by one of the NFL’s best in Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Some fans had doubt as to whether the team could win its last two regular season games to just make the postseason, let alone win 3 road playoff games to make it to Dallas for Super Bowl XLV. It seemed like the Packers, while they fought gallantly all year, would finally succumb to the ridiculous amount of injuries and start preparing for 2011.

After that game however, something magical happened.

Rodgers returned and rode a hot hand all the way to the MVP of the Super Bowl. The defense buckled down and different players rose to make plays on different occasions. Mike McCarthy fell into a zone with his playcalling and suddenly could do no wrong.

I thought this season was special with the Packers just making the playoffs. Now that they’ve won the Lombardi Trophy, the season qualifies as legendary and epic.  Read more... (1566 words + 1 image, estimated 6:16 mins reading time)

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Since we took a look at the Packers offense and Steelers defense the other day, let’s “do the Favre” and flip flop.

In part two, we’ll be looking at the matchup between Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers offense against Clay Matthews and the Green Bay Packers defense. While to some it may not be intriguing as the opposite matchup, this battle still obviously play a big role into which team walks away with the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night.

Pittsburgh Steelers offense

Much like the Packers, most of the attention on the offensive side of the ball for the Steelers is focused on their quarterback.

Roethlisberger, who missed the first four games of the season due to a suspension for his alleged role in a potential sexual assault case, plays a game very similar to the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers.

Oh, and with a couple notable differences: Big Ben is a bigger player and more powerful. Where Rodgers will burn you with pure finesse, Roethlisberger will beat you sheer power and brawn. In a situation where Rodgers will slide, Roethlisberger will barrel over a cornerback to get those precious few extra yards.

When you throw in the fact that he is a relative accurate quarterback, you find that Roethlisberger is one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. He has won two Super Bowls already and will be trying for his third in seven years against the Packers on Sunday. I also don’t have to remind Packer fans that Big Ben is also the toughest in the clutch. If the Steelers have the ball down by less than a touchdown with only two minutes or so to play in the game, Packer Nation ought to be sweating bullets.  Read more... (1222 words + 1 image, estimated 4:53 mins reading time)

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Roethlisberger and Rodgers are too good to be contained in Super Bowl XLV.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers rank No. 1 and 2, respectively, in points allowed this season. So why do I feel that Super Bowl XLV will be a shootout?

The biggest reason I’m leaning toward a total score that easily surpasses the current over/under of 45.5 is the quarterbacks. Both have something to prove. Ben Roethlisberger is already known as a big-time quarterback, but wants to reestablish himself after rape accusations tarnished his reputation. Aaron Rodgers took the next step up the quarterback ladder this postseason, but wants to get all the way to the top. The only way to do that is win a Super Bowl.

The speedy Packers receivers thrive indoors (besides the Lions game) and create matchup problems for any defense, even a defense as stout as the Steelers. The Packers receivers are overshadowing a talented Pittsburgh group, led by the scary-good Mike Wallace.

Both defenses showed cracks in their conference title games, especially in the secondary. The Packers left a few receivers open downfield in the first half, but were bailed out by Jay Cutler’s inaccuracy. Then the Bears third-string quarterback led a second-half rally by connecting on long passes to Johnny Knox and Earl Bennett. Mark Sanchez finished with a QB rating of 102.2 and threw for about 175 yards in the second half against the Steelers.  Read more... (449 words + 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

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