Seahawks @ Packers – This will be one of those semi-sloppy type blowout games, Lambeau will be rockin no matter what. Packers 31 Seattle 13
Vikings @ Bears – Since its a meaningless game for the Bears, this is the game ESPN has built up the Favre/Childress story as much as possible….so who knows how accurate/significant it is…Slightly bad weather and this will be a serious spin game for the Vikings. Otherwise the Bears just roll over. Bears 22 Vikings 16 (or if weather is fine and Bears don’t show up Vikings 28 Bears 3)
Lions? Why bother.
Published on December 27, 2009 7:49 am.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Lambeau Field, NFC North, Predictions Tags: Bears, espn, Favre, seattle
Let’s play out this scenario, let’s say Charles Woodson keeps playing the way he’s playing, the Packers end up like 11-5 or 10-6, and their D ends the season ranked top 5. Would the below tackle be his signature play? Perhaps even the play they show over and over when he goes to Canton someday? It is insane….This is from the December 7th, 2009 Packer / Ravens game. After leading 17-0 and a couple major miscues, Green Bay is suddenly clinging to a 10 point lead, 24-14. Lambeau field is in a state of shock. The Ravens just got a pass interference penalty putting the ball on the 1 yard line. Both teams are fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive…Baltimore brings in their huge defensive tackle, Ngata, to block for Ray Rice. He swings it to the outside, perhaps thinking for a split second that he’ll be able to score untouched. Then this happens..
Watch the replay at the end of this video, its insane! This is one of the craziest tackles I’ve seen in a while. Especially one that hasn’t really been talked about much. He jumps through the offensive line blocks and stretches out to make the tackle, loss of three. Now instead of having an easy chance for a TD at the 1 foot line, they are now backed up. The Ravens go with a pass instead of pounding it in and Flacco ends up throwing a pretty careless INT.
So this single play that doesn’t show up in the stats sheet ensures the Packers are still in the lead for the final Wild Card spot. Simply amazing.
Published on December 10, 2009 11:16 am.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Game Summary, Lambeau Field, Videos Tags: charles woodson, goalline, ngata, playoffs, ravens, ray rice, tackle, video, woodson
J Finley scores a big TD and gets a quick drink
Some notes on last night’s game, which has left me all wired and crazy…
1. Clay Mathews! Like a dream combo of Kampman and Hawk.
1a. BJ Raji! Like a man among boys out there at times–a slightly less beastly Haloti Ngata.
2. And speaking of Hawk, who knew that he was born to play in a 3-4? I just about pooped myself when he picked Flacco in the fourth quarter. I think we saw his last INT live at KC.
3. Jarrett Bush gave up a big play–good to know there are some absolutes in the NFL world.
4. Another guarantee–a momentum-swinging botch by the GB special teams. Shawn Slocum should hit the road.
5. The hometown refs (or at least the game they called) really favored the Packers last night. Tramon Williams is a total thug, which is a compliment…and also sort of NOT a compliment.
6. John Gruden, with his constant molasses drip of a voice and bottomless bag of Sterling Sharpe references, is growing on me. But the line of the night came from Tirico, when he was told that the game had the second-highest penalty yards ever: “That’s a memory we’ll all cherish.” Or something like that.
7. “Jerry Rice Fumble! Jerry Rice Fumble!”: overheard while Steve Young led the Aaron Rodgers postgame circle jerk.
8. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the Pack’s D is totally legit. They need a better corner, but the rest of the guys are solid. Happy trails, Kampman–you were one of the good guys.
9. Woodson’s tackle of McGahee on the 1 was a thing of beauty.
10. Rodgers on third down. What an assassin. But his run up the middle was probably my favorite play of the night.
11. Hope you get well for Pack-Bears at noon on Sunday. Thinking of doing up some barbeque or something.
12. Matt Bowen’s scheme analysis of the game is sweet.
Feel better, yo. This team is starting to take over too much of my spare time. Seattle’s looking great.
Addison
Published on December 8, 2009 2:30 pm.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Game Summary, Lambeau Field, NFC North Tags: gruden, jerry rice, ravens, rodgers, sterling sharpe, woodson
More later on the big win by the Packers last night (27-14) but wanted to give some credence to the awesome Packer fans last night during ESPN’s post game show. This was about 30 minutes after the game, ESPN returns to the post game crew in Lambeau. Stuart Scott, Matt Millen, and Steve Young were reviewing the game when a very loud chant started from the fans who stayed. It wasn’t audible but all of a sudden Steve Young started laughing. Then he interupted Scott and said, the Packer fans are saying, “Jerry Rice fumbled!”. Of course he knew exactly what they were referring to, the 1998 49ers – Packers playoff game when Young threw a game winning TD pass to T.O. as time expired to beat the previous year’s NFC Champs. Then Millen and Stuart Scott laughed. And Scott was like, ‘they are still bitter over a playoff game from over 10 years ago, that’s awesome’. The ESPN cameras panned over to the crowd of about 100 rabid packer fans chanting…
“JERRY RICE FUMBLED”
“JERRY RICE FUMBLED”
“JERRY RICE FUMBLED”
“JERRY RICE FUMBLED”
I was loving that, almost some sort of retribution to that ugly loss which ended the Holmgren era in Green Bay. (And the Max McGee / Jim Irwin era) A few plays before the legendary (lucky) pass to T.O., Steve Young completed a short pass to Jerry Rice in the flat. Craig Newsome (or maybe it was Doug Evans) stuck him in the chest. Right before Rice fell to the ground the ball popped out. The replays clearly showed that it was a fumble. But this was a year before instant replay was brought back, so the Packers were hosed.
Another awesome part of this game was when Gruden spoke of the history of great receivers at Green Bay. He showed some old film of Sterling Sharpe catching a TD pass in one of the coldest games played at Lambeau. He highlighted the fact that Sharpe was sleeveless and everyone else was bundled up. Then Mike Tirico showed a picture of Gruden as he was the Packer’s QB coach at the time. For veteran Packer fans this was very entertaining coverage by ESPN last night.
Published on December 8, 2009 7:58 am.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Game Summary, Lambeau Field, Old Packers Tags: fumble, jerry rice, ravens, sterling sharpe, steve young
This is the point where my predictions and reality diverge.
Gulp!
So I’ve been titling the past few posts with “Favre Lambeau Beatdown”….for what I thought would be a painful day for Favre…turned out to be quite the opposite. What a diss! I guess the young Packers aren’t ready for big games yet, they seemed surprisingly tense and scared until they were down 24-3. What is driving me nuts is how long do Packer fans have to keep saying this? When will this team either mature or pay out for some veteran players!? I feel for Woodson and Al Harris…
Still digesting this game a bit, but here’s a good story to keep an eye on. As painful as it seems to us Packer fans, this whole situation worked out for both sides. The immediate needs of the Vikings have been met by FINALLY getting a legit QB. And the future looks bright for Green Bay’s QB needs…
It will be interesting to see how it unfolds. Two different philosophies…TT’s building for the future and Zygi’s win now. Unfortunately for Green Bay, it seems most teams have adapted the latter strategy. I’m starting to see why….things change and are too unpredictable to try to build a team with the draft and then after a few years bringing in some veterans to put you over the top. The thing is, with Green Bay being such a small market team, I don’t think they have any other option besides building for the future.
Ten years from now, if the Packers haven’t won a Super Bowl I’m sure fans will look back to these past couple years. And how management squandered the most talented player they’ve had by trying to build through the draft….I mean TT easily could have traded for Moss, signed like Julius Peppers, and picked up a couple solid offensive lineman. But would it have worked out?
I’m thinking no…Favre had his run here and going to a different team has sort of rejuvenated him.
Anways here are my complaints on the Packers in this game…
1. jolly’s head butt
2. zero short pass or fluid offense
3. kicking to percy harvin
4. kicking that FG instead of going for it or punting it
5. not challenging second to last favre TD
6. not capitlizing on first turnover by vikings
7. that tipped pass where it was up for grabs and nobody caught it
- jolly’s head butt – what a dumass, this took the air out of the D’s momentum
- Zero short pass or fluid offense – why no West Coast Offense in the first half? And what’s with the crazy almost trick plays? Who is calling these plays? Why not just throw short quick passes to stop the pass rush?
- Kicking to percy harvin – seriously this is inexcusable, he should not have seen the ball after that first 80 yard return.
- Kicking that FG instead of going for it or punting it – So your team is down by five with over eight minutes left facing 4th and 8 from the Vikings 35…And you decide to kick a 51 yard FG knowing that your kicker is worthless from beyond 50? Why not at least punt it and for once put the Vikings deep in their own territory? This is by far the worst decision of the year.
- Not capitalizing on first turnover by vikings – You are at home facing your bitter rival with Favre at QB and they gift you a chance to take all the momentum and go up 7-0. McCarthy’s game plan was horrid.
- That tipped pass where it was up for grabs and nobody caught it – The Packers had cut the lead to 24-20, Favre gets hit as he throws and the ball is up for grabs…Like 10 players are around it and the ball falls to the ground.
In summary, the football gods are on Favre’s side after all. I was so so wrong…
Published on November 2, 2009 1:34 pm.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Favre, Game Summary, Lambeau Field Tags: diss, Favre, young
The Ghosts of Lambeau await the return of the star who betrayed them
So this game is now only 13 hours away! Wonder what is going through Favre’s mind right now? There’s no way he’s sleeping? What about Ted Thompson? He’s probably sitting in his basement bar having a scotch or something..taking some Zantac and maybe even some Xanax at this point. Ok maybe he made the right move by not taking Brent back, but tonight…he has to be just dumbfounded that he has to sit in the box S and watch this all play out.
I bet this is a waaaay bigger deal to Packer fans than the actual players in this game. Players all know this is a business and how many have actually sat though countless Sundays screaming at your TV as you watch your team win or lose? Or have rituals on how you watch your team on TV because you actually think your actions have an impact on a football game? And, for some real hardcore fans the outcome of Sunday’s game pre-determines how the week will go…angry and remoreful or happy/awesome.
So that makes me think, its just after midnight in Green Bay…its Halloween and daylight savings time grants an extra hour of drinking in the several dive bars around Lambeau…I wonder how many fights have already happened? Or how many crazy ass packer fans are plotting their actions for the game. From seeing it first hand at run of the mill Packer games,I can only imagine the level of drinking going on tonight. I mean overall, most Packer fans are pretty normal, and wouldn’t resort to physically harming the opposing fans. But jesus, its Halloween and Brett Favre is suiting up in a purple freaking helmet in like 13 hours!
Anyways, the Packers better be insanely pumped up for this game! The D needs to beat the shit out of Favre today since he made fools of them last time.
Here are things to watch during one of the strangest sporting matchups in recent history, even for non-Packer/Viking fans.
- Farve – If he’s wearing long sleeved shirt, they’re done.
- Packer Fans – Really this whole game is about redemption for Packer fans. I mean the guy we all loved for 16 years is now playing for the Vikings! And he dissed us pretty bad the first game. Is this for real? I mean imagine if Vince Lombardi left the Packers only to come back to Lambeau coaching the Bears? No way, never happen.
- TT (Ted Thompson) – Maybe he’ll show some sign of life today every time he’s shown and the announcers talk him up or totally trash him…how about blink twice for once or something?
- Ryan Grant – Besides the Packer D, this is the key to the game for the Packers.
Besides all the star players in this game…IE Kampman, Jennings, Adrian Peterson, Sidney Rice, Favre, Rodgers, Jared Allen, etc….in games like these there’s always some no name or other not-so-famous player who comes up HUGE!
For the Packers it could be:
- B.J. Raji – They say his ankle has limited his burst but man..come on you’re a top 10 pick! He is a impact player waiting for a big setting to show off.
- James Jones – With J Finley and J Nelson out, he needs to step up. I said at the begining of the year that he was going to have a breakout year. Well, ya he was hurt, but time’s a wasting…He has all the physical tools to be an awesome receiver.
- TJ Lang – Can he hold up the redneck?
- AJ Hawk – showed some life last week, can this continue?
And for the Vikings:
- Paymar – He’s the corner stepping in for the injured Wingfield. For sure, Rodgers will test him early.
- Loadholt – The Vikings rookie right tackle could make a name for himself if he can hold off a pissed off Aaron Kampmen.
- Benard Berrian – Yes he is well known, but he’s been relatively quiet this season. Maybe he’ll burn Al Harris or find a seam against Bigby.
I’m still thinking that the Packers will prevail, they HAVE to! The football gods say so! Hopefully the Refs stay the hell out of this game. McCarthy better not have his head up his ass either. This is by far, the biggest MUST-win game in his career.
And, no matter if they win or lose, will Favre be crying afterwards? What are the odds on that? At least 50/50.
Published on October 31, 2009 10:53 pm.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Favre, Lambeau Field, Predictions Tags: berrian, Favre, kampmen, lambeau, packers, raji, ted thompson, tj lang, unknown
So there’s lots of good articles out there today and this week concerning the upcoming arrival of the mercenary QB. I have mixed emotions since I watched him play QB from when I was a sophomore in High School until I was married and having a baby. In 1992, after Favre had solidfied himself as the starting QB, I custom ordered a #4 Packers jersey and paid someone in Duluth,MN to etch in the name Favre. I have worn that jersey to over 15 Packer’s games since…Now it is folded up and put away in my closet forever. Today I probably don’t live for football as much, lots of bigger things in life to live for besides a football team! Anyways, a lot has changed in the past 18 years.
Luckily for Brent, the weather looks to be a non-issue Sunday. Maybe the ghosts of Lambeau will come calling…In my view this is a monumental game for this year’s Vikings, the future of the Packers, and personally for Brent.
I think if the Vikings can pull of this win, their confidence will go sky high. Similar to the 1998 Vikings after their MNF delousing of the Packers, 37 – 24. Vivid memories from that game still today…I recall the 3rd or 4th quarter shot of a shocked Lambeau crowd. After that game the Vikings rolled big time. They were unstopable and opponents feared them. This year’s Vikings team hasn’t come close to that level yet. But a win at Lambeau might just propel them for a Super Bowl Run.
On the other hand, if the Packers win…this could be the game that people look back on a couple years from now. Winning this game might be the boost this young team needs to becoming a solid playoff contender for years to come. They have a good young nucleus but are short on confidence. This team, since Favre departure, hasn’t won a big game. Sure, they beat the Bears in the opener but this is a BIG, mid-season game. And it might also suddenly boost Aaron Rodgers notoriety. To no fault of his own, he’s been unable to escape Favre’s long shadow. I bet he never thought it would be this difficult to get Favre out of his view. He probably thought it would take a long time to win over fans and be compared to him. I’m sure the farthest thing in his reality was playing against him at Lambeau….
All things being fair, the Packers should win this game. Favre already had his revenge game…now its time for a little payback for Packer fans.
Packers 34 Vikings 17
Published on October 30, 2009 11:01 am.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Favre, Lambeau Field, Predictions
High of 43, Low of 31 and maybe some snow!
So with the Viking Favre coming to Lambeau this Sunday, I did a little weather check…Looks favorable for the Packers so far….cuz we all know that Viking Favre doesn’t like inclement weather!
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxdetail/USWI0288?dayNum=5
Published on October 27, 2009 9:58 am.
Filed under: 2009 Season, Favre, Lambeau Field Tags: Favre, lambeau, vikings, weather
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