Nose tackle Mike Pennel made the Green Bay Packers roster as an undrafted free agent. Then they made him one of their inactive players for week 1.
Turns out they could have used him. Turns out they probably realize that now.
The Packers went with Letroy Guion — a guy who had virtually no action in the preseason — as their starting nose tackle against Seattle. Guion was one of the weak spots in an all-around craptacular defensive effort that saw the Packers get gouged for 200-plus rushing yards.
Throughout the week, we’ve heard people saying one of the reasons the Packers defense doesn’t work in its current form is because Guion is too small to play nose. He’s 6-4, 315, while the guy he replaced, B.J. Raji, is 6-2, 335ish.
You see, Guion’s ass isn’t wide enough to take up enough blockers and then blockers get out on the Packers god-awful inside linebackers, who would have a better chance of being armless and getting out of a pit of quicksand than shedding a block.
But you know who’s ass is wide like Raji’s? Mike Pennel’s.
That boy’s 6-4, 332.
And the Packers next opponent, the New York Jets, are coming to town with a formidable rushing attack of their own. They gouged the Raiders for 200-plus yards in week 1. So why not throw the wide-assed rookie out there?
“Mike had a good week of practice. I think he’s ready to go,” defensive line coach Mike Trgovac said. “Obviously, you have to make decisions on who you bring up and who you bring down. You’d like to have them all in the game, but I think Mike’s earned a chance to play.”
Certainly couldn’t be any worse than Guion. So, yeah, let’s see what the hell Kelly Hayes’ boy Mike Pennel can do.
Good deal
That’s a Lotta man for some woman to love!
heard brad jones isn’t gonna play, good news
Yeah, I read that too. So now the bullshit excuse from the organization about Jones’ play is that they brought him back to early from a hamstring (no surprise) for the opener. Well fuck me sideways, I guess that instead of being held accountable for starting shitty players the coaches will shift the blame to injuries.
Back to the Mike Pennel story, about fucking time. If DC would have actually came up with a coherent game plan he might have realized Guion is an oxygen thief. But hey why change course now, we start shitless layabouts year in and out at ILB so why not continue the trend…you know ’cause there veterans…
Pretty obvious Guion and Brad Jones were not ready to go. They were not the only problems but it would help to have 11 game ready players on the field.
Or when we had 10 on the field for that 1 Lynch run, it would have been great to 11…PERIOD hahahahaha
It was inconceivable that Pennel was not active against Seattle. How do you only activate 4 bigs against a power running team. I could not believe it when I saw the inactive players before the game. Pennel looks fairly stealth for someone that weights 335 or so.
I don’t want by nose tackles to be stealth, I want the entire opposing D-lines talking about brick houses and Amazons and shit.
Well let me put it this way Pennel does not look like a fat, slow, oxygen sucking slob for being 335 and that is a good thing. He has some muscle definition vs a lot of fat definition.
THAT, I can get behind.
Looking good. Pennel in and jones out. Now if capers can rotate guys more to give hawk and burnett more breaks that would be ideal. Richardson should not be on bench when he is out best tackler.
It is obvious that the Packers planned on playing the nickel for most the game. Yeah, that seems bizarre considering Seattle’s ability to run the football. However, apparently DC was more concerned with Percy Harvin working from the slot than he was about Lynch.
The ironic thing is that the Packers stopped neither. One would think that playing the base, with regular substitutions on the defensive line, including Pennel, and allowing Micah Hyde to cover Harvin, would have been a reasonable option. Apparently not. In fact, even when the Packers played the dime in obvious passing situations, Morgan Burnett was the one who came down and covered Harvin, to use the term “covered” very lightly.
So, the only logical conclusion I can reach is that DC didn’t think Hyde was up to it.
“craptacular”
I like Monty’s ramblings again, all the sudden.
Like Barrington, Lattimore, and Eliot. Just play them damit. What’s the decide???????
Uncle Ted and Coach Dom are getting too old to evaluate younger guys. they’re too vulnerable to the ass kissers.
Pennell was impressive at the St. Louis preseason game, so I’m thrilled LG was non-existent last week, but wasn’t most of the D?