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I meant to do a post on this topic earlier in the week, but work got the best of me and I also got sucked into this documentary about the White family of West Virginia on one of my free nights (I could not decide if it was sad, disgusting, fascinating, or all of the above).

Anyway, I have been thinking about the Packers approach on offense in Sunday’s win over the Bears. It initially bugged me that the Packers did not stick with the short passes that moved the chains so effectively in the first Bears game, and appeared to be working fairly well early on Sunday. The Packers also showed brief flashes of a competent run game, so I also wondered why they didn’t stick with it a bit more, especially with James Starks in the second half.

I am usually not one of those people that nitpicks at playcalling (unless it’s the fullback dive), but I do like to try and look at the big picture after each game and decide if I liked the approach or not.

In the week three loss, the Bears were content to sit back, let the Packers move down the field, and wait until drives imploded via penalties, turnovers or other miscues. Under no circumstances were they going to let the Packers start connecting on their trademark deep passes.

This is what the Bears do and they do it well. They do it well against almost every team they face, but especially against the Packers.  Read more... (598 words + 1 image, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

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Bryan Bulaga is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs almost 320 pounds. But the Green Bay Packers’ right tackle probably felt like the smallest person in Lambeau Field after each of his four penalties in Sunday’s must-win game against the Chicago Bears.

Bulaga committed two holding penalties that negated Packers’ first downs. He was also guilty of two false starts. The Packers failed to pick up a first down after each of Bulaga’s penalties.

It’s impossible to give Bulaga a passing grade for Sunday’s game because of those drive-killing penalties. You simply cannot afford mistakes like that when the season is on the line.

But lets be as fair as we can to the big guy and examine the plays where Bulaga was not committing a penalty. In my opinion, he actually played decent.

Bulaga’s brightest moments came in pass protection on the two long Aaron Rodgers to Greg Jennings connections. The fourth quarter connection is especially highlight-worthy.

Aggressive at the line
Bulaga is matched up against Israel Idonije (I think it’s Idonije. It’s difficult to see on Direct TV’s camera angle). Idonije hesitates for a bit on the play-action, then tries to get up field and force Rodgers to move out of the pocket. Bulaga stonewalls Idonogie, which allows Rodgers to stand tall, go through his reads, and deliver a perfect strike to Jennings.

 Read more... (792 words + 1 image, estimated 3:10 mins reading time)

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In poker there is a psychological phenomenon called tilt; basically tilt occurs when player becomes too emotionally invested in the hands that he plays. Usually this occurs after losing a big hand, and instead of taking it as “losing the battle but not the war” the player adopts a more aggressive and less optimal strategy in order to make up for the loss.

Unfortunately this almost always backfires, being on tilt often results in making bad decisions; which then loses more hands, which then snowballs until players make incredibly stupid decisions on the chance that one hand can bring them back.

What does this have to do with football? Lovie Smith went on tilt with the Chicago Bears against the Green Bay Packers and lost, and it might cost them more than just this game. (If you know nothing about Texas Hold’em I recommend checking out this wiki article or none of this allegory is going to make sense)

The Deal: Lovie Smith gets dealt a pretty bad hand, his team has already qualified for the playoffs and with the Atlanta win against Carolina in the morning, they are also locked into the 2^nd seed in the NFC, essentially making the Packers game a meaningless one.

The only reason to even play is that the Packers happen to be the bitter rivals of the Bears, and knocking them out of the playoffs would be a little bit of vindication after getting swept by the Packers last year.  Read more... (1282 words + 1 image, estimated 5:08 mins reading time)

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The Green Bay Packers defeated their arch rival Chicago Bears on Sunday to lock up a wild card berth and the number six seed in the NFC.

To steal a line from Jim Mora, “PLAYOFFS?! PLAYOFFS?!”

Yes, the Packers are playoff-bound for the second consecutive year. This one, however, seems to be a little more special because of the injuries and adversity the Packers had to overcome. With 14 players on injured reserve, the Packers refused to feel sorry for themselves and find themselves in the middle of a wide open NFC playoff field.
Can the Packers win three straight on the road? That remains to be seen, but for now let’s take a look back at Sunday’s game in another edition of Game Balls and Lame Calls:

Game Balls

LB Erik Walden

WHO?

In yet another example of why general manager Ted Thompson’s system works so well, Walden came out of nowhere and sacked Bears quarterback Jay Cutler twice. Replacing the injured Frank Zombo, Walden gave all he had yesterday and contributed big to the six total sacks Cutler suffered yesterday.

In such a close defensive struggle, any tackle for a loss is huge and Walden got to Cutler more than most. His tremendous and hustle and surprising power helped turn the tide of the game in the Packers’ favor.

P Tim Masthay

I think it’s safe to say the Packers have finally found the punter.  Read more... (917 words + 1 image, estimated 3:40 mins reading time)

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The Packers and the Bears met for the 181st time today. As would only seem appropriate for these two long-time rivals, defense ruled the day, with the Packers pulling out a do-or-die 10-3 victory. Yes, they’re in the playoffs. Bring on Michael Vick.

Oh, and thank you Lovie Smith for playing the game to win. The Packers had to beat your best to get in and that’s the way it should be.

My game day impressions:

PREGAME:

As tweeted by Mike Vandermause, this is first time in history of Packers-Bears series that both teams enter game with 9 or more wins.

MY KEY TO THE GAME: If I had to pick JUST ONE thing, it would be this: Protect Aaron Rodgers.

The Bears come in with one of the best front sevens in the league.  As I said in a previous article:

They’re not going to dominate the Chicago DL, but they don’t need to. Like last week against the Giants, they just have to hold them off long enough to give Rodgers some clear looks in the Bears secondary.

My 1A key to the game: This could be a toss-up between avoiding Devin Hester and harassing  Jay Cutler. Assuming the Packers meet the goal of my #1 key, there won’t be many punt return opportunities for Hester, so I’ll go with pressuring Jay Cutler. Make him uncomfortable and the mistakes will follow.

Inactive for Green Bay on Sunday:  Read more... (1128 words + 3 images, estimated 4:31 mins reading time)

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