The Green Bay Packers didn’t have their A game, but it was still enough to beat the Atlanta Falcons 25-14 Sunday night, proving once again the Falcons are pretenders.
The Packers erased an early 14-0 deficit behind the passing of Aaron Rodgers, who threw for 396 yards and two touchdowns. His counterpart, Joe Montana… I mean, Matt Ryan, threw for only 167 yards and was intercepted twice.
It should be noted — mostly because some dickbag Falcons fan noted it to us before the game — that Matty Ice is now 22-3 at home. This record only counts regular season wins of course, since Ryan has never won shit in the playoffs.
Anyway, after looking like they were going to get pounded in the first quarter, the Packers defense stemmed the tide and turned in a solid effort, especially in the second half, to shut down the overrated Falcons offense. In addition to making Ryan look like Curtis Painter, the Packers also bottled up running back Michael Turner, limiting him to 56 yards.
Although they still rarely put pressure on the quarterback — Desmond Bishop had the team’s only sack — defensive coordinator Dom Capers seemed to open his defensive playbook for the first time all season in the second half. The result — the Falcons put zero points on the board after jumping out to their 14-0 lead.
While the defense was shutting down Johnny Unitas… I mean, Matt Ryan, Rodgers was spreading the ball around, hitting 12 different receivers. The bulk of the damage was done by James Jones and Greg Jennings.
Jones had five catches for 140 yards and a touchdown and Jennings had four for 82 and a touchdown.
If there was a dud on the Packers, it was tight end Jermichael Finley. One week after bitching about not getting the ball enough, Finley dropped at least three passes that hit him right in the hands, including one in the end zone.
Maybe Rodgers should have hit him in the mouth.
Nonetheless, the Packers still did enough to handle a mediocre Falcons team to move to 5-0.
Not that we want to get your hopes up, but each time the Packers have started 5-0, they’ve won a Super Bowl or NFL Championship.
3 passes? I thought he dropped 4. Oh, well, everything is magnified when I’m drinking.
GO PACK GO!!!!
LOL Monty, great article!
The Packers are no joke, what a fucking organization! God its good to be a Packer fan.
The Lions are the only team on our schedule that concerns me. Who’s going to beat this team?
look at their upcoming schedule. they will NOT last forever. and besides –The Pack plays em ;)
yeah, maybe a little less talking and a little more catching out of Finley. maybe that-ll shut his ass up
To Fineleys credit, he had an amazing catch on that on that 3rd down play en route to a field goal to make it a 2 score game. J mikes drops, reminded me of J James drops last year. drop the easy ones, catch the tough ones. The O line is gonna be a problem, alot of teams have a better pass rush than Atlanta. It’s a concern.
Now may be the perfect time to resign Finley if its going to happen. he morale is down and he probably isn’t too full of himself and realizes he still isn’t an all-star TE…yet.
SD on the road could be tough. I’ll never doubt this team again, at least not this year. Whatever Capers did after the second score was enough to convince me. This game looked like a blowout loss after the first quarter. Turner only gained 56 yds? Sure looked like he got more, but oh well.
I agree, SD is going to be tough but luckily they are coming off their bye which I think will be a good plus. P-Riv hasn’t been amazing so far, but Gates should be back by then
Offensive line needs to get healthy. Could be some problems down the line. The defense did a complete 180 after those first 2 scores.
SD away might be tough and the Giants for some reason worry me.
And yes Finley hopefully will shut up now. Really blew 2 scores for the Pack.
A-Rodge nearly single-handedly willed this team to a win when so many others were having terrible nights.
Finley, Sitton, Lang, and Woodson were so bad that someone should check their bank accounts to see if any money has been wired from ATL.
The Packers were almost burned by sitting Bulaga for another week. Our OL was like a chinese firedrill out there at times.
Props to Capers for finally turning the blitz loose in the 2nd half and stopping the ATL in their tracks.
Props to Desmond Bishop for playing well the entire game.
Props to James Jones, who apparently LOVES playing against Hotlanta. Big game.
Props to Greg Jennings for just always being a superstar. Amazing effort for the TD.
Props to Sam Shields for turning Julio Jones into much adieu about nothing. Best game by Shields this year.
Props to Eric Walden and Clay Matthews for finally getting some pressure in the 2nd half. No sacks, but the pressure caused an INT and a couple punts.
Most of all, props to A-Rodge for being the most unstoppable SOB in football right now, and props to MM for instilling an “overcome adversity” mentality to this team. Shit happens. This team just keeps rolling.
Most impressive win this year considering the Pack didn’t even play that well.
Get Bulaga back and our line should be fine. Newhouse has been solid.
Considering the circumstances, the OL didn’t play all that bad. Moving Newhouse to LT and inserting Sherrod in the middle of a game with few practice snaps there was a huge gamble. Seemed like they held their blocks for the most part, just some mis-reads on blitzes led to a couple sacks. For a rookie and a guy with one start they held their ground.
Biggest credit for this win gotta go to the following:
Aaron Rodgers- Played so well, but when doesn’t he? His sheer will to win and command over the team is unbelievable. There was just no way this guy was leaving that pitch with a defeat and it resonated with me. Unbelievably good leadership.
Mike McCarthy – He recognised we’ve got the best player in football right now, let’s put it on him. Kudos for some excellent calls too.
Dom Capers – That’s the defense we remember.
Greg Jennings is as good a Receiver as there is in football, he’s right there with the two Johnsons.
Sam Shields looked like a legit CB for first time this season. Julio who?
Clifton is going to be out for awhile if not the rest of the season from what i read. Who is the back up after sherrod? i’m assuming bulaga will be back to play next week and newhouse will take clifton’s place. but the pack is definitely running out of depth on the O-line. they might have to bring someone in.
Nice to see the Pack come on strong after Falcants started fast. Happy to admit I was wrong, Packers were more emotionally up for this game and have better talent, coaching, fans, beer, food, toilet paper than Atlanta.
Can’t stand all the “Matty Ice” shit. Guy does nothing but wilt under heat and fold up his tent when the lights are bright.
Sure hope FInME shuts the fuck up now and just goes out and plays. N
Please talk about the AJ Hawk penalty flop. That was disgusting
Wow, dropped a few passes in 1 game and everyone is jumping on Finley. He’s better than what he showed last night, everyone knows it, dislike the knee-jerk reaction. He caught 4 of 7, and one of the incompletes was drilled out of his hands. The TD dropped doesn’t get much easier than that, but I am not worried going forward.
From Nov. 14 (Monday) Nov 20 (Sunday) to Nov. 24 (Thanksgiving Thursday), We play 3 games in an 11 day time period…that will be tough to take down the Detroit Kittens on their field. Hopefully Chad Clifton will be back by then…GPG