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Around the NFC North in week 9

Week 9 brings us to the start of the 2012 season’s second half.  Quick trivia:  Which is the NFL’s only division with three teams over .500?  You’re correct if you guessed the NFC North.  Let’s dive into the matchups around the division this week.

Chicago Bears (6-1) at Tennessee Titans (3-5)

The Bears are rolling, the Titans are not.  About the only thing in Tennessee’s favor this week is that it’s a home game.

The Bears narrowly escaped with a home win over Carolina while Tennessee came up just short against the Indianapolis Colts in overtime.  As the saying goes, good teams find a way to win and Chicago keeps doing it week after week.  They find themselves alone in 1st place atop the NFC North.

Tennessee has had solid play from backup QB Matt Hasselbeck in place of injured Jake Locker.  Hasselbeck will start Sunday against the Bears.  Unfortunately, Hasselbeck is the only Titans player who has played well consistently and the team has not been able to string consecutive wins together.

Titans RB Chris Johnson has flashed some of his vintage self lately, but not enough to put the team on his back.  The Bears are giving up a stingy 77 yards/game rushing and Johnson will be the focal point of their defensive game plan.  Read more... (1779 words + 3 images, estimated 7:07 mins reading time)

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While reviewing the game book and watching the film of the Green Bay Packers’ 24-15 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, I noticed something strange. Well, it’s not strange from a football standpoint, but it is very much out of the ordinary for Mike McCarthy’s offenses. He added backup C/G Evan Dietrich-Smith as a sixth offensive lineman on four running plays.

Someone will have to let me know if he’s done this before, but I don’t ever remember McCarthy adding an offensive lineman as an eligible receiver for the running attack. He came to this team with the idea of implementing the zone blocking scheme, and it’s been nothing but a point of contention among fans ever since. Our fearless leader, “Jersey” Al, pointed out the fact that he’s been pulling guards lately, making this new development a rather interesting expansion of the running game.

Here are the four plays where Evan Dietrich-Smith (#62) reported as eligible against the Jaguars:

This is the only time in the first half where EDS plays as eligible. My guess would be that, before going back to it, McCarthy wanted to get a look at not only the execution, but also how the Jaguars would respond to it.

In this instance, the Packers are lined up in a Unit Wing formation before EDS motions left and puts them into a formation that I’m not sure what to call. He’s playing a wingback role, but lined up inside behind the tackle and guard.  Read more... (950 words + 1 image, estimated 3:48 mins reading time)

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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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The Packers offense and Aaron Rodgers should keep rolling against the Jaguars

The Green Bay Packers seem to be on a roll.

One week after their statement victory over the Houston Texans, the Packers followed it up with a 30-20 win over the improved St. Louis Rams.  Aaron Rodgers continued his recent hot streak, going 30 of 37 for 342 yards and three touchdowns.  The offense seemingly has emerged from doldrums it was in early in the season.

This week, the Packers go into a game that by all signs appears to be a cakewalk against the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The Jaguars very likely will go into the game without their star running back Maurice Jones-Drew and their improving but still struggling starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert.   In their places will be Rashad Jennings at running back and Chad Henne at quarterback.

The Packers come into the game without Greg Jennings and perhaps without Jordy Nelson, who is nursing a hamstring injury.  This would leave a receiver group of James Jones, Randall Cobb, Donald Driver and Jarrett Boykin.  The Packers will also not have Charles Woodson on defense who will be out for six weeks with a broken collarbone.

Scouting the Jaguars

On paper, it looks like the Jaguars don’t have a fighting chance against the Packers but it’s still the NFL.  They still have to play the games and anything can happen.  Read more... (957 words + 1 image, estimated 3:50 mins reading time)

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Around the NFC North in week 8

Week 8 is upon us which means the season is almost half over!  Let’s take a look around the NFC North and at the matchups to come.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-4) at Minnesota Vikings (5-2)

This game kicks off NFL’s week 8 as the Thursday night matchup.  It’s a rare meeting between these two teams since the Bucs left the old NFC Central and became part of the NFC South.  Tampa has won the last three with the most recent being last season.

Minnesota comes in a surprising 5-2.   They beat the Arizona Cardinals behind a good defensive performance and with the continued contribution of RB Adrian Peterson.  Tampa had seemingly pulled off a last-second TD by QB Josh Freeman for the win over the New Orleans Saints but the catch was later ruled invalid.  Tampa dropped to 2-4.

Anytime a team is working on a short week, it adds an additional challenge for teams to prepare and for players to get past the bumps and bruises from the week prior.  Both teams are fortunate that they are not dealing with many health issues at the moment.

The Vikings have been winning with defense this season.  They had nine sacks and an interception returned for a touchdown this past Sunday by their top rookie S Harrison Smith.  And having struggled offensively over the past few weeks, Minnesota was able to muster two scores on a vintage run by Peterson and a Christian Ponder pass to Percy Harvin.  Harvin leads the NFL with 53 catches.  The Vikings lethargic offense may get a jumpstart this week as they face a Tampa defense that ranks 25^th overall.  Read more... (1676 words + 3 images, estimated 6:42 mins reading time)

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Around the NFC North

We head into week 5 and thus begins the 2nd quarter of the 2012 season.  A season that has already brought plenty of interesting story lines in the NFC North.  There’s the 3-1 Minnesota Vikings who have decisive wins against San Francisco and Detroit Lions on the road to at least raise the question of whether or not they can contend.

The Chicago Bears continue to roll with a big win on Monday Night at Dallas and not-so-surprising are the antics of Bears QB Jay Cutler on the sideline.

The Lions, who were thought by many to be strong contenders in the division have underwhelemd so far and limp into their bye week on a 3 game losing streak.

The reigning divsion champion Green Bay Packers seemingly turned things around last week with a tough win at home against the still-winless New Orleans Saints and evened their record at 2-2.

With the Lions off this week, let’s look at the upcoming games for the Vikings, Packers and Bears

Tennessee Titans (1-3) at Minnesota Vikings (3-1)

The Vikings return home to face the Tennessee Titans after handing Head Coach Leslie Frazier his first divisional win since taking over the team late in the 2010 season.  Hard to fathom:  1^st divisional win in almost 2 years!  But that’s how much the Vikings had fallen off since their NFC Championship game appearance after the 2009 season.  Read more... (2170 words + 3 images, estimated 8:41 mins reading time)

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