Cardinals Week

I'm hoping for a Eagles win tonite forcing the Cards to play to win next week....time to see what the Packers really are.

Cardinals will be a really good playoff preview test.  Much like Seattle, they really don't have a lot of glaring weaknesses.  They play tough, physical D, their DBs are ballhawks, and they have a QB that has made a ton of big plays in the passing game.   

My main concern is our OL v their DL.  Our guys are banged up and it's a mismatch.  Rodgers might get killed in this one unless they commit to running the damn ball.  

 

 

 

 

 

Cardinals are the best team in the NFC, imo. If the Packers beat them in Arizona I'll eat crow

Great post cuq!

Hard to not be an iggls fan tonight... but still makes me

Tonight's game will determine whether or not the Packers are going to have a shot at a bye. Week 17 would be a meaningless game for the Seahawks if the Cardinals win tonight.

Pikes Peak posted:

I'm hoping for a Eagles win tonite forcing the Cards to play to win next week....time to see what the Packers really are.

Have you been taking old man naps during the game?

I'm running on pure irrational optimism and gifs!

Packers can beat AZ. My biggest concern is the long western trip, again, with Christmas to boot. Short weeks are killers prep-wise.

The Cards' win last night doesn't make any upcoming game meaningless at this point.  The Cards are still playing for the #2 seed.  The Seahawks are still playing for the #5 seed.  And that is important, because the #5 will get the NFC East winner.  

As for our upcoming, Arizona looks good.  Really good.  I don't see a glaring weakness on the field.  I'm not expecting the Packers to win this game.  It will be a good sign if this team can stay in the game for four quarters.  

Need Shields back. Need Quarless activated. Strong pass rush and DB coverage, and add in a solid running game and the Packers can win @ARI.

Terry Mathieu out for the season with a torn ACL.

Safety Mathieu out with a torn ACL- tough break for the Cards.

Beaten, by antiworst.

Also confirmed Carson Palmer did dislocate his index finger on his throwing hand  last night. Re-located it, taped it and he came back in. But it's an injury Im sure GB will be aware of. Brutal news on their starting safety..

Brak posted:

HEY, I saw him first.

Cards other starting safety Rashad Johnson missed last night's game with an ankle injury.

If both of the starting safeties are out of Sunday's contest the Packers should be able to pass for _____ yards.

Davante should have a field day.

SteveLuke posted:

 

If both of the starting safeties are out of Sunday's contest the Packers should be able to pass for ____77_ yards.

Offense is in a funk   Maybe after the season we will find out what it was.

Zero. If both safeties are out MM is running the ball 65 times. Everyone will expect the Packers to sling it.

MM knows things. 

Quarless will own the middle if their safeties are out.

Or, what Chilli said if they decide to IR Quarless, even though he has been practicing for 3 weeks.

Someone is bound to lose.

If the Panthers, Chiefs & Cardinals all win Sunday, it will be the 1st time in NFL history 3 teams are on active winning streaks of 9+ games

— Bill Smith (@wgsmit3) December 21, 2015

ARI vs GBP ?

CAR @ ATL ?

KAN vs CLE ?

antiworst posted:

Davante should have a field day.

Yeah, I like his chances one on one against Patrick Peterson.

SteveLuke posted:

Cards other starting safety Rashad Johnson missed last night's game with an ankle injury.

If both of the starting safeties are out of Sunday's contest the Packers should be able to pass for _____ yards.

0 YAC, however.

I honestly think the Cardinals are the best team in the NFL withe the Seahawks right behind them.  Yes you read that right I think I am the only person on the planet who thinks the Panthers can be beat.  Anyhow, I think the Packers are going to have to win this one with defense and special teams.  Scoring against them is going to be tough especially with how they are playing offensively.

You are very far from being the only one who thinks CAR can be beat.  In fact it seems anyone who claims to have any aptitude at assessing NFL teams thinks CAR can be beat, i.e. 3rd or 4th best in NFC.  I'm not so quick to join that group.  They've shown vulnerability this year (who hasn't?) but also a lot of grit in staying undefeated and a knack for making plays when needed.  I wouldn't be shocked to see them in 50, if not SEA.

The Packers were in the Panthers game till the end.  The Giants almost beat them yesterday.  Of course they can be beat.

I remember the Packers coming from 37-14 down in the 4th to AR missing an open Cobb for a touchdown with the possibility of tying the game with a 2 pt. conversion.  Also if my memory is correct the panthers went to OT to win against the Colts after a big lead in that game.  I respect what they have done so far but they will lose once in the Regular Season and out early in the Playoffs.  AZ in my opinion and Sea. are playing the best.  I am hoping that the Packer Off. will wake up in time.

   

Pikes Peak posted:

The Packers were in the Panthers game till the end.  The Giants almost beat them yesterday.  Of course they can be beat.

The Carolina defense is good. Their ILBs are as good as any recent duo that I can think of and their DBs are good. One could only imagine what they might look like if Greg Hardy (the POS that he is not withstanding) was still on the roster rushing the passer.

Cam Newton is a lot like Michael Vick and Kaepernick. He can change a game with his legs, but keep him in the pocket and force him to read defenses and he'll make mistakes. If Ted Ginn catches the ball they'll be tough for anyone to beat because he's their one WR that can get open. Otherwise, it seems Cam defaults to throwing to Greg Olsen.

Keep the game close and make Cam beat you through the air. Once that happens you have to have the DBs to cover a great TE.

I think Seattle takes them out.

Cam is perceived to be like Vick and Kap,  I think it was a couple of weeks ago where every one of his over 300 yds passing came from the pocket.

How good is Carolina's defense if the Giants with Marshall "turnstile" Newhouse playing right tackle can hang 35 on them?

Pikes Peak posted:

Cam is perceived to be like Vick and Kap,...

Dang, I always sorta liked Joe Kapp!

(especially when he punched that other old bastard)

No matter how they finish, winning 14+ games in the NFL is a very difficult feat. And I think they probably end up 16-0.

But has any team ever played a season facing only 2 winning teams all year? That in itself has to be as rare as a 14+ win season.

Green Bay — The following is a summary of coach Mike McCarthy's press conference on Monday:

(On Andrew Quarless) He’s a veteran player. He’s played a lot of football for us. It’s good to have him back. … This is a good addition for us.

(On Ty Montgomery) Ty Montgomery going to IR, his injury is different like everybody’s. We tried everything leading up to this point. Just didn’t get to where we needed to get to. The specifics of his injury, really those are questions that Ty should answer. It’s unfortunate, especially the way the young man started the season.

(On Tretter starting over Linsely) JC has played good football for us. Corey, in the long-term interest, I thought it was the best for our offense. We’ll see where Corey is Wednesday and he’ll continue to work through it. … There’s no controversy. It’s a medical situation. Corey is not 100% out of the woods. … JC got banged up a little bit, but I’ll know more Wednesday.

(On David Bakhtiari) He has an ankle problem. Looked better today than he did last night.

(On this week’s schedule) It’s a very important game, there’s no doubt about it. There’s always an amount of work that needs to be done through the week of preparation. … Every man in the football operation will be with their family on Christmas. That’s where they should be.

(On Sam Shields) He’s still in the protocol. He looked good today in the brief time that I saw him. We’ll see how the week goes. This is a big week. This is a big-time offense we’re playing.

(On progress of special teams) Special teams played really well yesterday. We knew going in that our coverage unites would be challenged, and they were. … The defense was outstanding in the fourth quarter. Offensively, obviously we started slow, but we did what we needed to do.

(On the identity of the team) I agree with the statement of us being a balanced football team. … I think when last year’s season concluded and it was time to set the direction of the 2015 opportunity, it was clear what I was looking for: I wanted a more balanced football team. … Clearly based off of job responsibility and how things were laid out, the goal was to be a balanced team.

Green Bay — The following is a summary of Dom Capers' press conference on Monday:

(On Clay Matthews) He did a nice job rushing. I don’t know if you saw there were a few times he walked guys back and bowled them over into the quarterback. It was an interesting game because we did not pressure as much as we normally do. … I think three of their big plays came with five-man pressures when we were one on one with Cooper.

(On the best statistic) I think it’s a scoring defense. I think that’s our best stat. When you start the season, you always want to be No. 1 in scoring defense. … It’s within striking distance with two games to go.

(On Arizona’s offense) Well, they’ve got a veteran quarterback that’s probably having a career year. He’s thrown for over 4,000 yards. He’s very smart. He knows where to go with the ball. They’ve got a veteran offensive line. They’ve got big, physical tight ends. Their wide receiver skills are outstanding.

(On Quinten Rollins playing the outside) The more you can do. I always tell these guys that your value goes up the more that you do. … As we go through the course of a game, you’re going to be playing different positions. … I thought Rollins played well for us. He got his hands on a number of balls. He had a legitimate chances for a couple interceptions.

(On playing against Bruce Arians) He has a scheme and you can see a lot of the same things that he did in Pittsburgh. He’s an outstanding football coach. He knows that the balance of the run game, the pass game, making them look the same, the physical part of the game and how much it helps the quarterback play. They aren’t afraid to take shots and they have people who can make big plays.

(On Damarious Randall vs. Amari Cooper) Cooper is one of the top young players in the league. … I don’t care who you leave out there one on one, there’s going to be a lot of close calls. Randall made some nice plays, like that interception return for the touchdown. And then there will be a couple that he learns from.

(On outside linebacker depth) I think that being able to roll those guys in and give Julius some breaks, I think the goal is to have Julius playing his best football this time of year. I thought yesterday, the 2.5 sacks and the way he played is a result of not having to play every down. It was nice to have Nick Perry back. He gives you a physical presence in the run game. … And Jayrone, he made a couple nice plays. You saw him make a run down from the backside.

(On the defense pulling its weight) Well, to do what we want to do I think you have to have a balanced team. Every step you take when you’re playing the real top teams, I think you’ve got to be able to win with any phase of your team. We’re always searching for more consistency. … I like the way the first six games went in terms of scoring defense. Then we had a couple games where we were inconsistent. Then we’ve come back and played some very good games. … We’ve got a tough challenge this weekend.

antiworst posted:

Terry Mathieu out for the season with a torn ACL.

I don't think it can be understated how much he means to the Cards defense.  The Cards blitz a lot because they are having trouble generating pass rush from their DL and OLBs. He was their best blitzer.  He's also a good cover guy, despite his size.  And he's the heart and soul of their defense. 

Their defense is still pretty good, but it is probably the Cards biggest weakness.

I don't think Cam is anything like Vick or Kap. Cam has already proven to be a superior passer to either of them, although I wouldn't call him a consistently elite passer. He has limited his mistakes this year and took advantage of opportunities, that's why he's already better than Vick or Kap. I think he's a more mobile version of young Ben Roethlisberger...big stature, tough to bring down, not always a polished passer, etc. Current Ben R. is a much more polished passer, but early in his career he had some rough outings.

The more I think about it, the better comparison for Cam may be Russell Wilson. Cam is a bigger, faster version of Russell. I think you still want to make him stay in the pocket and make him beat you throwing it down the field.

The key for the Panthers may be whether Ted Ginn consistently catches the ball. He's prone to a lot of drops, but this year he has basically as many receiving TDs (10) as he did the first 8 years of his career (11).  Without Ginn playing well, the Panthers WRs are very pedestrian - basically the same situation as the Packers WRs. The obvious difference being that the Panthers have a top 5 receiving TE and we have a bottom 5 TE.

Don't look now but Russy is throwing pretty well lately in SEA.  May not have talent to be an elite thrower but knows his strengths and he/they play to them.

The Vikings probably should have beaten AZ a couple weeks ago.  They had 3 turnovers inside the Arizona 40 yard line.  If the Vikings can hang with them the Packers definitely have a chance.  

They can't afford another defensive debacle though like they had against Carolina and Denver.  With the offense struggling the defense will probably have to play its best in order to win this one.

Initial tests showed #Packers long-snapper Brett Goode tore his ACL during Sunday's win in Oakland. Wanted to play through it

— Weston Hodkiewicz (@WesHod) December 22, 2015

Goode injured knee in first quarter and played through it. Wanted to play w/ brace, but instead will undergo surgery next week #Packers

— Weston Hodkiewicz (@WesHod) December 22, 2015

The #Packers have placed long-snapper Brett Goode on injured reserve with a knee injury and signed Rick Lovato. Crazy

— Weston Hodkiewicz (@WesHod) December 22, 2015