AllGreenBayPackers.Com

I still can’t believe I will be in the stadium for this game. It hit me really for the first time as I was taking a shower this morning. Holy cow!

Met up with a plethora of great Packers fans last night. I will write about it during the week, after I’m none basking in the glow of yet another Packers Championship.

Packers 24, Steelers 20.

GoPack!

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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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By the time you read this post, I am hopefully on my way to Dallas – God and Mother Nature willing. As such, it may be quiet around here for a few days. Perhaps one of the fine writers who grace this site with their work may have something they want to share with you (if they can overcome that nervousness and excitement we’re all feeling).

As for myself, while I will bring a computer with me, I don’t plan to spend my two days in Dallas in front of one.

I plan to revel in this experience, which could very well be a once-in-a-lifetime for me. I will surely be depositing more money in Jerry Jones’ wallet, as much as that thought displeases me. I want to meet as many of you great Packers fans as I can, including some superfans who will be there, like St. Vince, Steve “The Owner” Tate & a host of others. I want to share Packers stories with you and eagerly listen to yours. For those of you in Dallas, PLEASE be sure to make the Cheesehead TV Meetup at Sherlock’s in Lincoln Square Mall, Arlington, TX. Saturday at 8:00. Please stop by and say hello.

This has been a special two weeks for me here in NJ. I actually hear, on a daily basis, the Packers being talked about on the local  TV stations.  For someone who goes back to pre-internet days, when the only Packers news I could get was from an already one week behind Packer Report that was delivered to my house every Tuesday, my head pops up every time I hear “Packers” on the TV. It’s just surreal, when all you’re used to hearing is “Giants” and “Jets.”  Read more... (438 words + 3 images, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

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Scott Wells needs to help contain the Steelers interior blitzes.

While everyone talks about how Aaron Rodgers and the Packers wide receivers match up against the Pittsburgh Steelers secondary, don’t forget about Brandon Jackson, Scott Wells, Daryn Colledge and Josh Sitton. If the Packers put up big passing numbers, chances are these four guys had good games.

I think rushing attempts by both teams will be few and far between, especially after the first quarter. Once both teams go to the air, Rodgers and the Packers wideouts have an advantage over the Steelers secondary, but that advantage can be negated by the Steelers pass rush.

That’s where Jackson and the interior offensive lineman can come to the rescue.

As the crew at Football Outsiders points out in its Super Bowl preview, the Steelers like to send crash blitzes up the middle, which allows outside linebackers to either come through the wreckage on a delayed blitz or jump back into pass coverage and mess up the quarterback’s hot reads. The theory is that by crashing the middle, you’re attacking a team’s worst pass blockers (center and guards) and forcing the running back into the middle of the chaos (which means he’s not a dumpoff option in the flat and he’s in the quarterback’s throwing lane). It also forces your tackles to win one-on-one battles on the outside.  Read more... (458 words + 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

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As part of my preparation for Super Bowl XLV, I decided to take another look back at last year’s game between the Packers and Steelers. Ah, memories… I’m sure everyone remembers how the game ended, but do you remember how it started?

It was week 15 of the 2009 season. The 9-4 Packers with a red-hot Aaron Rodgers came  riding into Pittsburgh with a 5-game win streak following their incredulous loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the now-famous Monday morning “Come to Jesus” meeting. The Packers’ secondary, however, was missing Al Harris, Will Blackmon and Pat Lee, forcing the likes of Jarret Bush and Josh Bell into emergency duty.

The Steelers, on the other hand, had lost five games in a row, and at 6-7, their chances of making the playoffs were in sure-fire jeopardy. The defense was giving up too many big plays and the turnovers were not coming as was the norm.

Based on all of these facts, the game started just as you would have expected. The Packers came out throwing and the Steelers, knowing they would, went right after Rodgers with an obvious attempt to intimidate him and cover up for their under-performing secondary.

In just the first minute of the game, the Steelers blitzed Rodgers 4 times and on their first  and only offensive play of the first minute, the Steelers victimized the decimated Packers secondary and Jarret Bush in particular.

Lets relive that first minute:  Read more... (1349 words + 3 images, estimated 5:24 mins reading time)

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Enjoy all the Packers' talk while it lasts. Soon all we'll be hearing about is an NFL lockout.

Normally I tune out all the Super Bowl hype about three days before the actual game, but this week I wish life had a pause button so Super Bowl week could last as long as I wanted it to. The Green Bay Packers are in the Super Bowl and I am soaking up every single interview, feature story and TV segment about my favorite team.

I’ve noticed a few Tweets already expressing fatigue from all the Super Bowl hoopla, and it’s only Tuesday. C’mon people! Enjoy this! Do you really want to go back to the real world so quickly? The real world means sports coverage that consists of midseason NBA trade talk and debating who will be the Yankees setup man. I don’t know about all of you, but I’d much rather hear about the Packers in the Super Bowl for 24 hours each day.

I was 14 the last time the Packers were in the Super Bowl. Obviously, I remember everything about the game, but I don’t remember much about the buildup. I wasn’t able to process or comprehend just how amazing having your favorite team in the Super Bowl is because I was only 14 (and the Internet, Twitter and 300 ESPN channels weren’t readily accessible yet).  Read more... (480 words + 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

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As a resident of Pittsburgh and a native of Wisconsin, I have been indoctrinated as both a fan of the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. My father’s side of the family prays nightly to St. Lombardi, while my mother’s side of the family wear their black and gold with the utmost pride.

Luckily for me, these two teams play in different conferences and rarely meet, so I can almost always root for both teams without much contradiction. They have only played each other 27 times dating back to 1940, and Super Bowl XLV will be the first time they ever meet for the NFL Championship. (My personal dream come true.)

In my relatively unique situation, I have come to realize how similar these two franchises have become. In fact, the Packers have much to owe Pittsburgh for their recent success, especially on the defensive side of the ball. And no matter how much you’ve read this past week, there is a lot more to this story than just Mike McCarthy being a “yinzer.”

FROM “TITLETOWN” TO “SIXBURGH”

When you look at the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s hard not to think about their reputations as championship teams. After all, both teams have set some historic precedents with their past dynasties.  Read more... (2297 words + 1 image, estimated 9:11 mins reading time)

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Despite the records of the Packers’ and Steelers’ defenses and how spectacularly stingy they’ve been in giving up points (Pittsburgh was best in the NFL, allowing just 14.5 PPG; Green Bay trailed them by half a point), this could be closer to a shootout than everyone is predicting.

The Packers have been the best team in the playoffs at just 17 points/game, while Pittsburgh allows 21.5, but these two defenses are built in the same mold. Pittsburgh has better safeties and a better ROLB, Green Bay has better corners and ILBs, but both these teams are built in the Pittsburgh style.

When Dom Capers was remaking the defense in summer 2009, the popular term for his efforts was that the Pack became Pittsburgh West. Capers served as the Steelers’ defensive coordinator in 1992-1994, when Dick LeBeau was first coming up with his fire-zone blitzes.

The bottom line is that, for all of Capers’ creative blitzing and zone drops, the odds are that Ben Roethlisberger has seen most of the material. There aren’t many secrets here. Expect Big Ben and Rodgers to have an easier time with the defenses then they had last week.

The performance of Rashard Mendenhall against the heralded Jets defense last week-27 carries, 121 yards and a TD-would seem to be worrisome against the Packers’ middling ground game.

However, the Packers’ run defense has actually improved in the playoffs, holding LeSean McCoy (Eagles), Michael Turner (Falcons) and Matt Forte (Bears) to a combined 155 yards on 39 carries, or 3.97 YPC. This represents a vast improvement over their per-carry average of 4.5 in the regular season.  Read more... (870 words + 5 images, estimated 3:29 mins reading time)

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