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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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Last preseason @ Indianapolis

The Packers preseason opponents were announced by the team yesterday afternoon. The schedule for the 2012 preseason is as follows:

Aug. 9 @ San Diego Chargers (ESPN)

Aug. 16-19 Cleveland Browns

Aug. 23-26 @ Cincinnati Bengals

Aug. 30-31 Kansas City Chiefs

After being snubbed by the NFL and missing out on the season opener against the New York Giants, the Packers get the first primetime, national televised preseason game outside of the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 5.

Due to it being a national televised game, the Chargers game is the only game that has a specific date and time. The dates and times for the other games will be revealed in the coming weeks.

When the team released the information, some players took to twitter to express their frustration with having to play a West Coast preseason game. Josh Sitton tweeted, “that’s terrible. West coast preseason games suck. Especially early [in] pre season!” When asked why, Sitton claimed the long flight and time change.

While the players may not be happy, it presents the Packers a chance to open their training camp before most other teams. According to NFL rules, teams can begin their camps 15 days prior to their first preseason game. The Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints will be the first to open because their Aug. 5 meeting.  Read more... (390 words + 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

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Packers QB coach Tom Clements is drawing interest from Penn State University.

Success in the NFL breeds opportunity, and two offensive coaches for the Green Bay Packers are drawing interest for head coaching jobs around the football landscape.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, offensive coordinator Joe Philbin will interview for the Kansas City Chiefs head coaching position on Wednesday night.

Quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, who earlier interviewed for Penn State’s coaching vacancy, will get a second interview in person sometime this week, according to the Pittsburgh Press-Gazette.

Philbin has been the Packers offensive coordinator since 2007, when he was promoted from offensive line coach to coordinator after Jeff Jagodzinski left to be Boston College’s head coach. Philbin started in Green Bay as an offensive line assistant in 2003.

Clements, a 15-year NFL coaching veteran, has been the Packers quarterbacks coach since 2006. He is credited for helping groom both Aaron Rodgers and Matt Flynn during his time in Green Bay.

It’s no coincidence that the success of the Packers, who won 15 games this season after capturing a win in Super Bowl XLV last season, has coincided with interest in their assistant coaches, especially on offense. The Packers offense set numerous franchise records this season on their way to becoming the NFL’s top ranked scoring offense in 2011 and second-highest scoring offense in NFL history.

It was reported earlier this season that Philbin was drawing interest from Tulane Universtity, his alma mater, for their head coaching vacancy. Philbin denied those rumors and Tulane later hired New Orleans Saints receivers coach Curtis Jackson.  Read more... (503 words + 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

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Rodgers and QB coach Tom Clements likely not talking about the Wildcat formation. (Photo: Evan Siegle, GBPG)

We may have witnessed the birth and death of the Green Bay Packers “Wildcat” formation, or at least a certain Packers quarterback made it sound like it yesterday.

Before we talk about its potential mortality, let’s document the birth of the Wildcat in the Packers offense.

On Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Packers lined up Randall Cobb, a former college quarterback at Kentucky, in the formation on the second play from scrimmage to start the second half.

Cobb took the direct snap and ran off right tackle for a gain of four yards.

(For those who don’t know, the Wildcat is a single-wing formation in which, more recently, a skill player lines up in the shotgun with some kind of pre-snap motion. Once the ball is snapped, the runner has the option of running directly, handing off to the motion man or throwing, with the latter being the rare exception. However, that player usually has some kind of throwing experience or prowess in order to keep the defense honest to the pass. The Miami Dolphins, with Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, ran the formation successfully during portions of the 2008 season. There are different variations of the formation, but the one listed above is which most fans are now familiar.)  Read more... (947 words + 1 image, estimated 3:47 mins reading time)

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Is this really happening?

The Packers lost to the Chiefs on Sunday in a complete trainwreck of a football game. Receivers dropped passes, the pass rush never entered Kyle Orton’s zip code and more Packers limped off the field with injuries.

It was a horrible way to end an amazing run. Just horrible.

There’s probably going to be some people that say it’s good for the Packers to lose a game. They’ll say that the ultimate goal is the Super Bowl and losing will build character and force the Packers to correct mistakes… or something like that.

Ignore those people. Tell them to go away.

Losing sucks. No team ever says, “Hey, lets lose this game today to build some character and increase our chances of going to the Super Bowl.” That’s not how it works.

If this Packers team goes 18-1 and repeats as Super Bowl champions, it’s going to be amazing. I’m going to be just as happy as I was for the other Super Bowl titles the Packers have won in my lifetime.

But there’s always going to be a small part of my green and gold brain that reminds me the Packers could have been 19-0 — undefeated — but they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.

THE !$*?!#%! KANSAS CITY CHIEFS!!!!!!  Read more... (524 words + 1 image, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

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Photo: MCT

The Green Bay Packers (13-1) lost for the first time in 364 days—a stretch of 20 games—as the Kansas City Chiefs pulled off the upset of the season Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, 19-14.

Five observations from the Packers’ first taste of defeat since Week 15 of last season:

1. Playing perfect to end perfection

I said before the game that Kyle Orton would have to play a perfect game for the Chiefs to have a chance. He was about as close to perfect as you could ask for on Sunday, completing 23-of-31 passes for 299 yards. The key stat, however? Zero turnovers. Orton made all the easy throws and avoided that one game-changing giveaway.

The Chiefs offense did a fine job of hurting the Packers in the screen game early then picked apart the Packers’ zone after Dom Capers was forced to adjust. But even with the Chiefs’ offense rolling, there was anticipation for a turnover from the defense that could turn around the game. It never came. With the Packers offense struggling for the first time all season, not getting that one momentum-shifter was huge.

2. Dropping the rhythm

The issues on offense went deeper than just drops, but it was painfully obvious how those missed opportunities in the first half stymied the rhythm of the Packers’ offense. Jermichael Finley saw a couple of easy ones go right through the hands, but he also had a handful of opportunities to make game-changing catches, which admittedly were tough plays, and couldn’t convert. Aaron Rodgers called the drops a “physical mistake” after the game, but it’s mental for Finley. He’s clearly pressing, and dropping the first ball that came to him Sunday only snowballed the mistakes.  Read more... (881 words + 1 image, estimated 3:31 mins reading time)

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Packers vs. Chiefs.

Green Bay Packers vs. Kansas City Chiefs:

Here is my unfiltered game day blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.

The Packers limp into Kansas City today with five starters on their inactive list, including their #1 receiver and their #1 running back. Greg Jennings and James Starks will watch from afar today while the Packers offense looks to adapt in an attempt to keep their undefeated season on track. Kansas City comes in after a tumultuous week that saw them fire their head coach.  in-season coach replacements are a funny thing in the NFL. Sometimes the team will come out looking lost and confused, other times they will ride the emotional wave to an over-achieving effort. Which will be see from the Chiefs today? I’m banking on the former.

Early reports from Arrowhead Stadium before the game indicate that there may be more Packers fans than Chiefs fans there. The #OccupyArrowhead movement appears to be a blazing success!

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Inactive for the Packers today are:

Graham Harrell, Brandon Saine, James Starks, Desmond Bishop, Chad Clifton, Ryan Pickett, Greg Jennings

A.J. Hawk returns to full strength this week. While active last week, he never made the field as there was no reason to risk further injury with the Packers blowing out the Raiders. He wasn’t happy about it, but too bad. It was the right thing to do.  Read more... (1283 words + 3 images, estimated 5:08 mins reading time)

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