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Surviving Sundays With No Packers Football

I was watching the Minnesota Gophers play the Michigan Wolverines in the Big 10 tournament on Friday night and somehow the end of the game made me think about the NFL.

It was one of those down-to-the-wire college basketball games that makes the sport so exciting, or at least should make the sport so exciting. Unfortunately, whenever the intensity got ratcheted up to 10 and you were getting to the edge of your seat, a timeout would be called. Or the refs would need five minutes to review a play. Then another timeout. Then another review. And so on, and so on…

The end of what should have been a memorable game was ruined by meddling coaches and refs who relied too heavily on the crutch of instant replay.

So what does this have to do with the NFL? I guarantee you if a similar problem existed in the NFL, it would do something to correct it. The NFL isn’t afraid to innovate, even if it means upsetting some people in the process.

If I was in charge of college basketball, I would ban timeouts in the final two minutes. Actually, I would still allow timeouts, but only to stop the clock. Once a timeout is called, the clock would stop, the team that called the timeout would get the ball out of bounds, and play would resume. There would be no long break as the players wandered over to the bench, listened to their coach draw up another play, then wandered back onto the court.  Read more... (1123 words + 1 image, estimated 4:30 mins reading time)

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Desmond Bishop joins the rising category this week.

Packers Week 6 Stock Report: The Green Bay Packers improved to 5-0 by beating the Atlanta Falcons 25-14 on Sunday night. The Packers overcame a 14-0 deficit and the loss of Chad Clifton to get the win.

Last season at this time, there’s no way the Packers win that game. But Aaron Rodgers is so good right now that the Packers are never out of a game.

It was tough finding candidates for the falling category this week. It was equally as tough limiting the rising category to three players.

Rising

Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers is the best player in the league right now. The Packers probably lose Sunday night if their quarterback is merely good. But Rodgers is great, and he played great once again on Sunday.

Desmond Bishop
Bishop keyed the defensive turnaround by slicing through a gap and bringing down Michael Turner early in the second quarter. From there, the Packers D controlled the game and looked like the defense from last season.

Greg Jennings
Jennings typically hovers between steady and rising, but there’s no doubt where he belongs after five games. He’s one of the best route runners in the game and he’s been making plays in every game this season.

Steady

Mason Crosby
Crosby is a perfect 9 for 9 on FG attempts, including a huge 57-yarder on Sunday. Can’t be much more steady than that.  Read more... (621 words + 1 image, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

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Aaron Rodgers needs to get rid of the ball quickly in empty-backfield formations.

Whenever the Packers lined up in an empty backfield formation last season, I got nervous.

Could Clifton and his creaky knees keep a speed rushing defensive end out of the backfield? Could the Colledge/Wells/Sitton interior combo handle a middle blitz without the safety net of a running back? Could Aaron Rodgers make his reads quick enough and get rid of the ball ontime? Could the ancient Mark Tauscher or the young Bryan Bulaga hold up the right side?

These are thoughts that raced through my head whenever Rodgers broke the huddle and set up behind center, all by his lonesome.

“That’s the franchise quarterback standing there all alone,” I would yell. “Somebody go stand next to him and protect him!”

If Julius Peppers or Ndamukong Suh broke through, there’s nothing Rodgers could do besides curl up and hope no major bones shatter while he’s driven to the turf. I resumed yelling: “Do we really want to alter the course of the franchise just so we can get Brett Swain in the game or line up a running back as a receiver?!”

Turns out, I shouldn’t have worried so much. The Packers were good in empty backfield sets.

Football Outsiders charted each team’s success in empty backfield formations last season. The Packers used an empty backfield 11 percent of the time (second most often in NFL) and averaged 5.5 yards per play (11th overall). Their DVOA with an empty backfield was 29.6 percent, ninth best in the league.  Read more... (411 words + 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

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