Packers Giants
OK, I realize many here are over it already. Congratulations for being more psychologically fit than I am. But I am a man with a DVR and sitting on it like a cancer was both the pregame show and the Jan. 15 game itself. I went back over to the dark side to see if I could learn anything. Feel free to ignore, ridicule or gloss over these observations:
--In the pregame show, Bradshaw (who, like all but Strahan, picked the Pack to win) was talking about Rodgers not playing significant downs for almost a month. “If he’s rusty early, you’ll see the ball sailing high.” Kind of like on the missed TD pass to the wide open Jennings on the first drive. That would have put the Pack up 7-3, and I think it’s a completely different game.
--Announcers said early they expected to see trap blitzes used against Eli forcing him to throw right into coverage like Charles Woodson. Didn’t happen much. Bishop and Hawk sometimes, Bush a time or two, but not much.
--Before the game, Troy insisted the Giants running game was going to be the difference, but other than that moronic run right before the Hail Mary TD, the Packer D stuffed them.
--MONSTER game from Desmond Bishop, and pretty good from Ryan Pickett. So did Driver, though getting covered by a linebacker helped.
--Bad day for the refs. 12 men in the huddle not called on that first third down despite MM’s rantings, the Jennings fumble in regular motion looked like his cheek was down, the other replays were inconclusive until they found that ONE camera angle that sure made it look like the ball came out. They missed a forearm to the helmet of Finley that was an obvious early call. I thought the roughing call on Rodgers was legit as their helmets did hit.
--The Pack played like a team so overconfident that they thought they merely had to show up to advance, kind of like that Packer team in the Super Bowl loss to Denver. Giants were going to hit him hard and let the chips fall where they may. No sense of urgency on offense. “We’ve got this.” No they didn’t.
--Packers can’t play zone pass defense with current personnel. We were rushing three and inexplicably dropping our LBs into a shallow zone. Did they think ELI was a running threat? Trying to take away the crossing routes? Not sure what the thinking was.
--Woodson is done. I know I’ll get torched for this but all season long he was responsible for missed tackles, coverage mistakes, slipping on the field, etc., and he laid a big egg here. Everyone wants to blame Peprah, and his lame armless tackle attempt on the first TD as well as pathetic misplaying of the play on the Hail Mary surely made him a goat, but Woodson had his worst game as a Packer.
--Bradshaw’s blitz pickup was awesome. Starks is awful.
--We had several opportunities to seize momentum, but as the mistakes piled up (Kuhn fumbled, forced not by an opponent but by running into Beluga?) it seemed almost everyone was pressing, most notably Rodgers. He’s usually a cool customer. But for all the publicity about the receiver drops, sometimes the balls weren’t put where they needed to be. He had Nelson open deep and usually throws it to hit him in stride. Instead the ball is shot, Nelson has to stop and play DB to prevent an INT. After the blocked field goal, I thought we’d get the upper hand. After the Burnett INT, I thought we’d take it. After the first score in the second half, I thought we’d go up. But it was always something.
--Crabtree’s drop of that first down pass was an absolute killer. We were marching to the end zone.
--MM was off his usual game. Not adjusting to the Bradshaw run revealed just after he called time out with 15 second left in the first half was a more boneheaded play than the onside kick attempt. Once the time out was over, they were still in the three man DL. Matthews lost backside contain on that play. To negate the pass rush, more rollouts and screen passes might have helped on offense.
--Newhouse wasn’t too bad when subbing for Clifton, though Jason Pierre Paul kept griping about being held, and I think Cliffy did get away with a few.
--Starks was horrible at the start, missing blitz pickup, dropping passes, even not taking the ball from Rodgers on a running play. He was a big part of the failed drive in the last two minutes of the first half. He later lost what would have been a running TD by letting a CB who didn’t have the angle on him force him to the middle of the field instead of sprinting down the sideline.
--Shields needs to learn to tackle. But he had a lot of company.
I don’t recommend this form of therapy for the faint-hearted, but it has put me at peace. I am still boycotting the Super Bowl, however, and hope the Patriots STOMP the Giants, if only to keep them from winning their fourth Super Bowl and tying us in that category.
Original Post
