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Terrell Manning

Green Bay Packers vs. Cincinnati Bengals:

My unfitered game day recap and blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.

Inactive for Packers today:

Shaky Smithson, Du ‘ane Bennett, Davon House, Brandon Saine, Jon Hoese, James Starks, DeMarco Cosby, Desmond Bishop, Frank Zombo, Johnny Jones, Ray Dominguez, Andrew Datko, Derek Sherrod, Andrew Quarless, DJ Williams, Jermichael Finley

Notes:

The Packers travel to Cincinnati for the first time since 2006; Mike McCarthy’s first season as Packers’ head coach.

Most memorable game in this series was 1992, when Brett Favre came in for an injured Don Majkowski and led the Packers to a 24-23 comeback win. Favre completed a 35yd TD pass to Kitrick Taylor with 13 seconds left to earn the win.

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Mike McCarthy Pregame Show on 620 WTMJ:

Dress rehearsal game:  It’s not just the game, it’s really the whole week leading up to the game. You have a set schedule, how you breakdown your opponent, run meetings…    The actual game, you have objectives to hit… play first group for a half and then let the competition begin in the second half.

Getting first team reps:  Hopefully we can six possession in the first half. Finley is not with us…   This is a chance for us to get in a rythm and practice the things we want to do when the season starts.  Read more... (985 words + 3 images, estimated 3:56 mins reading time)

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This time, RB Cedric Benson will be suiting up in Green and Gold.

The third week of the preseason is upon us, which is also known as the “dress rehearsal” for the starters before the real games begin in earnest.

That means we will get to see a full half of Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers’ starting offense tonight as they face off against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium.  The starting offense showed some signs of life last week against the Cleveland Browns, but still struggled in some areas.

Same goes for the Packers’ starting defense.  Tackling seemed to be improved, but the defense still was swallowed up in coverage by rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden.  This week, they face off against Andy Dalton and a Bengals offense that struggled at times in the 2011 season.

As for the backups, this is a big game for Graham Harrell.  Confidence in him as the backup behind Aaron Rodgers hit an all-time low after the 35-10 loss to the Browns in which Harrell failed to lead the offense to a touchdown in roughly three quarters of action.

Here’s what to look for in tonight’s game:

Turnovers

It’s starting to sound like a broken record, but the Packers must start taking better care of the football.  Read more... (905 words + 1 image, estimated 3:37 mins reading time)

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To quote Vince Lombardi; “What the hell is going on out there?”

Carefully read between the lines of this quote by Aaron Rodgers after the Cincinnati game: “We need to have a good week of practice. Offensively, our two weeks of practice have been average. We haven’t practiced the way we’re capable of practicing. Young guys and old guys alike need to focus in a little more in practice and practice like a professional. I’m including myself in that sentence, but we’re two weeks into the season now and it’s time to grow up and be a pro and practice and play like it. Charles Woodson played his butt off today and kept us in the game, but we need to have eleven guys on defense and eleven guys on offense playing and wanting it as badly as Charles does. We have to follow his example.”

Maybe Aaron Rodgers should be coaching this team. Or maybe Charles Woodson. Because Mike McCarthy is not getting it done. That’s really what Rodgers is saying. Sure, he’s putting it on the players shoulders, but who is responsible for the team being focused in practice?

Mike McCarthy is a lousy motivator and does not hold his players accountable. He makes excuses, laments the things that were done wrong and promises to fix it in practice, but it doesn’t happen. We just see more of the same.

This isn’t a new complaint from me. I’m not jumping down his throat after one bad loss. I’ve been saying this since his first season as Packers coach.  Read more... (796 words + 1 image, estimated 3:11 mins reading time)

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