Green Bay Packers Thread

Brendan Bendar

ScummyMan wrote: »

Josh Jones making serious waves as a hybrid LB/S in training camp apparently. Really excited to see him in action.

That's good to know.

Any 'plus' in that area is to be welcomed.

Joe Thomas showing up well too by all accounts.

Montgomery not doing too well it would appear

O-line #1 mashing D-line #1 !!!

Not great news :eek:

ScummyMan

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Montgomery not doing too well it would appear

All the running backs having issues with pass protection and blitz pick up. To be expected with rookies, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us roster two full backs this year. Pass pro is a priority, even over a running game I think

Brendan Bendar

ScummyMan wrote: »

All the running backs having issues with pass protection and blitz pick up. To be expected with rookies, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us roster two full backs this year. Pass pro is a priority, even over a running game I think

Don't think they will do that, they have three TEs .

Think Kendricks likes the auld blocking .

nasty_crash

Also dont forget Rip is there - he can go in for extra protection at fb - or even as rb

Apparently O-Line is strong again this year - dont know if that speaks to the strength of the oline or a Defensive line that was suspect last year

Billy86

I'd say the offensive line - they're young, we've only lost Lang and replaced him well with Jahri Evans as a stopgap, they're already an excellently cohesive unit, and TT really has done a great job over the last five or so years drafting there with a 'next guy up' mentality. So long as whoever is backing up has had about 2+ years to get used to the system, I actually don't really worry too much about anyone going down when watching, unlike a few seasons back (though Bakh would be an exception because he's simply awesome, possibly the best LT in the game right now after Tyrone Smith in Dallas).

ScummyMan

The waste of space knucklehead Letroy Guion has been cut.

Billy86

Looking forward to hearing how this is why it isn't capers fault when we give up 60pts against [insert team here] come January.

raze_them_all_

Billy86 wrote: »

Looking forward to hearing this is why it isn't capers fault when we give up 60pts against [insert team here] come January.

It'll be the browns or 49rs

Billy86

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

It'll be the browns or 49rs

Luckily the Browns are in the AFC, so we get to avoid that unstoppable juggernaut until the SB if we were to make it.

Pherekydes

Billy86 wrote: »

Luckily the Browns are in the AFC, so we get to avoid that unstoppable juggernaut until the SB if we were to make it.

Au contraire, week 14!

Billy86

At least it's before January then, we might be in the clear!

Brendan Bendar

ScummyMan wrote: »

The waste of space knucklehead Letroy Guion has been cut.

Always liked Letroy, myself.

Pity he did a Johnny Jolly

Billy86

We might just have speed and danger on returns this season! Only preseason but it's been two years since we've returned a punt for a TD so that's nice.

Billy86

Half time and off to bed, but great to see Joe Thomas and Blake Martinez at ILB both making plays and forcing turnovers, and I believe it was Kevin King who forced the fumble on Martinez' recovery (making up for a big play he gave up shortly beforehand)! Between those two and Jon Jones if they work out as planned/hoped, that could make a huge difference in the middle of our defense. Work to be done and inexperience showing as expected in week oen of preseason but we seem to have added a lot of speed which is always welcome.

Very poor INT from Hundley at the end there, but end of the day it's always going to be Rodgers or broke for this team. Hopefully the injuries picked up are not too serious.

Brendan Bendar

Looks like we don't really have a run game-yet!!

On the plus side impressed by the 3rd and 4th string QBs

But hey- it's the pre season.

Hope Duprey come out of the injury he got.

Randall injured again and defence on that showing seem a bit porous.

Don't know if that LS - H - K combo will work with a 48 yarder to win with 4 ticks on the clock!!!

Anyway it's pre season.

OldMrBrennan83

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ScummyMan

So Rodgers played one series tonight..15 play 75 yard drive ending with a TD fade pass to Marty B. That looked real good.

Barney92

Hundley looked good for the time he was on the field. Lovely run by Hill for the touchdown as well.

Billy86

Former all pro LB Ahmed Brooks picked up on a free, continuing the heavy investment of the last several years in defense and a good replacement for Julius Peppers.

digzy

Billy86 wrote: »

Former all pro LB Ahmed Brooks picked up on a free, continuing the heavy investment of the last several years in defense and a good replacement for Julius Peppers.

Why didn't the 49 ers keep him? Surely he's past his best

Billy86

digzy wrote: »

Why didn't the 49 ers keep him? Surely he's past his best

Oh yeah at 33 he would be, but the depth and experience should still be a big benefit (and allow Clay to move about the LB spots and cause havoc like two years ago). Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and it will work out as well as it did the last time we signed a former all pro linebacker who had just been let go from by a poor team and was also past his best and approaching his mid 30s.

ScummyMan

It's a no lose situation really. Worst case scenario he is well past his best and we are on the hook for $5m that wouldn't have been spent anyway.

The hope would be that he will fill the Peppers role, add experience to our linebacker corps and chip in with 6-7 key sacks.

I think there's still gas left in the tank anyway!

cosatron

teddy boy has opened the purse strings and brought in brooks and dial. both vets of 3-4 scheme so here's hoping they are able to ball. I always liked brooks when playing with willis and bowman but he will be as effective. Bulaga trained yesterday so he could be ready to go. Looking forward to sunday. go pack go.

OldMrBrennan83

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Billy86

I'd say there is definitely the talent there to win a SB, though two question marks are the running backs and cornerbacks due to inexperience. I'm going to say the same thing I do every year which is that the defense will cost us a playoff loss either by way of blowout or giving up a lead with seconds left on the clock despite repeated heavy investment, but if the RBs and CBs get up and going there are very, very few teams that should be able to keep up with us.

raze_them_all_

Probably the best team since we won the sb tbh

OldMrBrennan83

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Billy86

One of my favourite things about the NFL is you never know how good or not the teams without star QBs will be, but to be honest I'd be quite disappointed with 10-6. I expect the Lions to regress as they squeaked out a lot of games with a fairly average roster last year and think we should be looking for 5-1 in the division (I could take a loss to the Vikings, I expect them to keep building). We always seem to get a tougher schedule than other perennial 10+ win teams outside of our division (though that could be a case of 'grass is always greener on the other side') but we really would want to do better than 5-5 there.

I don't see many holes myself to be honest - QB, OL, WR and TE (plus FB I guess) are absolute class, our DL is pretty solid and our safeties are among the very best combos in the league. At OLB we've got three quality guys in Perry, Brooks and of course Clay (even if the latter two are a big past their peaks), and I'm genuinely excited to see how our ILB play as well as how Jones will assist with coverage over the middle and possibly in the slot (and I want to see some of Clay moving inside from time to time to keep QBs on their toes). For me it's down to the RBs and CBs... RBs we could even do well without as Rodgers & co have before, CBs we need a lot more than we got last year but I like the addition of House, King may be raw but is a freak athlete who did some class stuff in preseason at times, Jones as I said in very interesting due to his versatility, and then Randall/Rollins... if they play like 2015 we have no excuses, and as poor as they were last year they were playing with injuries and having Capers seem to actively work against their strengths at time.

OldMrBrennan83

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Billy86

Big win and a huge improvement in the second half by the offense after a putrid first half (first time held out in first half at Lambeau since 2004 when Longwell was still our kicker!), a mix of adjustments for more protection and improved individual play. We barely used our first string in the preseason which looks a poor choice now because the rust showed, but Rodgers did what he does best, drew the offsides and 12 man calls, the free plays, and Nelson was the same wriggling in for some key short yardage first downs and some fairly big plays plus the TD. That Seattle defense could well be back to their best though, which might skew how we looked, but in the second half it wasn't as crisp as we're used to at home, but it was extremely effective - we looked a lot more like the Pats and a lot less like the Pack (though both are good things to be of course); pragmatic and doing a great job just hitting the yellow line. RBs need some work but it's Seattle, and Monty got 19 carries (prob would have had a few more if he didn't get a knock late on) which I think is his most to date?

Randall Cobb had the quietest nine-catch game I can remember. Not a complaint, just got a bit of a surprise when I saw that when checking now... I would like to know how many were firsts because now that I think of it, he did seem to pop up with a good few catches of under 10 yards to keep the chains moving.

In a weird one, delighted to see Martellus Bennett draw a foul. KJ Wright, scumbag that he can be, went in for a cheap shot on Rodgers which Bennett responded to by marching across and absolutely mauling him to the ground. We all know what happened against Seattle in times past, and SF before that - we looked like kids getting the sh*t beat out of us in a physical sense and despite the skill and experience just got beaten up and down the field. We've got Clay on defense, and it's good to see the same on offense - someone who doesn't give a f*** what flags get thrown if someone takes a pop at one of our guys. Genuinely might give the game ball to him for actually drawing a penalty, mad as that sounds - and then he went and got the first to end the game.

Defense... again hard to tell if it was Seattle or us, but the pass rush looked intense and we stuffed the run throughout, with one or two plays as exceptions. Most importantly though, the secondary very much impressed with the every-damn-week exception of the last drive of each half, but Haha showed why he's overtaking CMIII as 'the man' in this defense and why he's an all pro with an incredible hit to prevent a TD late on as Seattle had to settle for three. Randall, Rollins and House all looked solid out there because what we do know is Wilson is top class, Baldwin is one of the most underrated WRs in the whole league and the rest of their corps 'sync' very very well with the QB a bit like Brady and some of the guys in NE... and we held him to 158 yards (5.7ypa), 70 of which came on that nervy drive late in the game.

Trevor Davis looked a bit dodgy in his selection to catch, fair catch or leave it especially in the first half (though he had a great PR TD in the preseason so there's potential) but overall special teams looked very solid.

There's a lot to improve on, but the defense throughout and the offense in the second half were very reassuring. Now let's get Bulaga back ASAP!

And you know what? Yeah, the calls fell for us. F*** you Seattle, it's about damn time.