Amazing what a win over the scumbag Minnesota Vikings will do for your mood and outlook. Am I right?
The Green Bay Packers got that and got back on the winning track after a brutal three-game stretch that featured one debacle after another.
Sunday’s win also put the Packers back in the driver’s seat in the NFC North, after ceding the Vikings a one-game lead with their loss against Detroit. Although the teams are equal in the standings, the Packers have the head-to-head win.
They’ll see these Vikings at Lambeau Field again in week 17.
So let’s get on with this.
Datone Jones provides the spark
We’ve been largely down on Datone Jones since the Packers drafted him in the first round. He just hasn’t made that many plays. Except for this year, but then, for some reason, the Packers barely played him. In very limited action prior to Sunday’s game, Jones was showing the ability to generate consistent pressure on the quarterback. The Packers moved Jones to outside linebacker last week. They actually gave him some substantial playing time this week. Look what happened. Jones registered two sacks, knocked down a pass and had four QB hits. That’s being disruptive. It looks like that’s the spark the Packers’ pass rush needed. After not registering a sack for three straight weeks, they had six on Sunday.
Too much pressure, huh?
During the middle of last week, Randall Cobb talked about what was ailing the Packers offense. He said guys were putting too much pressured on themselves. We can only assume he was referring largely to himself. In what was a fairly decent day for the passing offense, Cobb went out and laid a turd. He had two catches for 24 yards, one of which was a touchdown, but he was targeted nine times. A number of those seven non-catches were drops. That’s not the type of day you need from your No. 1 receiver when your offense isn’t firing on all cylinders.
Oh, those tackles…
Another terrible game by the Green Bay Packers tackles, David Bakhtiari and Bryan Bulaga. It seemed like every time the pocket collapsed on Aaron Rodgers it collapsed in exactly the same way. The two defensive ends ended up right in Rodgers’ face. That’s because Bakhtiari and Bulaga consistently got pushed backwards. Manhandled. This is nothing new with Bakhtiari. He’s been below average all season. Opposing teams know he cannot stop a bull rush to save his life. As for Bulaga, we’ve never been high on him and you’re really starting to see why. He isn’t athletic or quick and now he’s also getting shoved around. The Packers’ No. 1 offseason priority has to be to find a left tackle. We know they won’t do anything about right tackle, since they just gave Bulaga a ton of money before the season. Bakhtiari is still on his rookie deal, so there’s no such commitment there.
The refusal to play Jeff Janis has reached idiotic levels
We really don’t get the Packers’ refusal to play Jeff Janis. When the guy gets on the field, he just makes plays. He had a 70-yard kickoff return on Sunday and he would have caught a huge pass if Rodgers wouldn’t have overthrown him on a deep ball. Not ready? Doesn’t do this or that right? Doesn’t have the experience? The Packers and the local beat writers can take that narrative and stuff it. Find a way to get this guy involved. He’s the only legitimate deep threat you have. Use him.
Okay, Mason…
We’re not really into patting kickers on the back, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t say something about Mason Crosby’s day. Five-for-five on field goals with a long of 52. More impressive, it was cold out there. The guy accounted for more than half of the Packers’ points. So, way to kick it, kicky!
I can hear the bandwagon filling up again as we speak.
You know who you are, gentlemen.
Nice summary Monty. I predicted AP at 130 yards, but the defense stuffed him, great job. Overall, the defense played great, 6 sacks and kept the pressure on all game long.
This team has to blitz like that, that’s this defenses identity. Its not the 85 Bears but its good enough. They have to do that every game from here on out. Dom has to bring the heat and stick with it, no sitting back bull shit.
One more thought: QB1 still has some very shitty, uncharacteristic throws. Is it the sore shoulder? Not on same page with WR’s? Not sure, but there were some drives that ended in 3 vs 6 pts because of it. He showed flashes finally of his old self. Still looks a bit “scared” in that pocket compared to other years (I would too if I had my O-line’s ass getting pushed back onto my nuts all game).
Bulaga either is done or he’s seriously injured because literally every play he’s being pushed back into the backfield.
Yeah, I reckon he’s still not 100%. He’s a good player.
All the issues are fixed and were back now because they beat a not that good Vikings team, god I love Packer fans. Ill believe it when they beat Carolina at Carolina in the playoffs.
Farmer Fran,
Jus’ cus’ you fat, stupid and wear overalls don’ make you no farmer.
“It proves nothing because they didn’t win a big Playoff game on the road yesterday.” -Farmer Fran
If you read the comments here last week, you’d see that many thought the Packers were going to get stomped by the Vikings. The opposite happened. Some of us expected the Packers to turn it around and start winning again, while others proclaimed the sky had already fallen. No, all of their problems were not magically fixed yesterday, but this team has the time and talent to improve.
Speaking of Carolina, the Packers played like absolute garbage against them, yet had a chance to tie the game at the end. A marginal improvement in play by the Packers would have led to a different outcome. Eddie Lacy is finally looking healthier, and I think that was a big factor in yesterday’s game (as compared to the Carolina game). Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens in the Playoffs.
Yes, we can, can’t we. You can’t say that about Montey though.
He’s just a fucking hater thru-and-thru. Keep’ on spewin’ shit and hatin’ hater.
In the words of Snoop: “Mu-tha-fuck-in’ balls in yo’ mouth.”
Now that the formalities are aside, great win for the Pack! The defense was able to shut down AP and a hot Queens offense. There was great tackling out there and they punished Bridgewater. It was nice to not be on the receiving end of that for once.
Eddy started showing glimpses of himself. And yes, the news is in, he was and is hurt. That’s why his production has been so low.
Great to see Jones make that tip-e-toe catch in the end zone. I thought the Pack forgot how to do that sans Jordy.
That was the number 3 defense (if I’m correct) that the Pack just went against.
Maybe that wasn’t Carolina they beat out there, but it was a great win for us. It’s something the team can build off of going forward. Detroit was rock bottom and they needed to hit that to get going again.
Go Pack!
I’ve been critical of only 3 players because they are no good when they are even fully healthy. Palmer, Hyde and Bulaga. Palmer is physically and mentally slow. Hyde is physically too slow and Bulaga is athletically challenged. He’s just a wide body.
In fact, Palmer is new Hawk, Hyde is the old Bush, and Bulaga is Bulaga.
The rest of underperformers out there are suffering injuries that linger and build rust so they can eventually shake it off.
Cobb is one of the top paid players on the roster and he is struggling. Adams looks like he’s still dealing with ankle problems. This week Rodgers and Janis needs to get a lot of reps together. We can’t rely on Adams and Cobb is a question mark. Maybe his shoulder really never recovered.
Oh and please everybody stop beating on Richard Rodgers. The guy just catches any ball thrown to him and can stay healthy which is more than I can say for any TE we had in a long time including Finley. He caught a lot of critical touchdowns for us last 2 seasons. All of our other tight ends in AR tenure have kept getting hurt or dropped balls. We finally have a guy who has reliable hands and stay healthy and we have to bitch.
First of all I loved that GPG and Kuuuuhn in the V’s venue.
Seems like coaches saw the same thing as I last week: thoug Randall makes playes he’s rather stupid / bad in coverage so they targeted him a lot espessialy in the beginning.
Rodgers should be fined for every TO he takes.
It’s driving me crazy by now.
I had two more thoughts but I forgot cause I’m drunk from happiness and some, well a sixpack, beer by now.
O I remember one. We stopped Peterson, but how about stopping running QB’s ?
What happened with Nick Perry? Did anybody saw him in game?
Crosby is trying to make everyone forget that wounded duck of a kick against the lions that wasn’t blocked by anyone, and would of won the game. Wah-wah-wah…. What a rollercoaster of emotions that was.
My game ball go`s to Sam Shields, He set the tone for the game early and noticable there after. I`am starting to wonder if Janis isn`t seeing game time because he wasn`t a high draft pike.
they could sorely use a alternate punt returner for the banged up Cobb… but i wonder if they are worried about rushing Janis into additional ST/”Hands” duty until they find out if/how fragile he is???
if Janis passes the durability test, then we could have a double vertical/speedster WR threat next year if Jordy returns. that would really open the mid-range passing game up, and AR might rack up QB rating numbers like his record stats of the MVP years.
You got it, Stickman. TT must play his high picks
or admit he got it wrong. It’s all about him. I said
last week that Datone was a better OLB than Perry. I said in September that James Jones never
should have been traded. I was on record that
Jayrone was a game-changer, and so was Janis.
On each point TT and the coaches were resistant.
Jones was only signed because he was cheap.
Elliot winning the fucking game against Seattle
was ignored. Janis kept on the bench, and Datone
at DE, when he obviously is quicker and more
agile at OLB than Perry. I love the smell of my
recommendations in the morning; they smell
like…victory.
Datone is a high pick, JJ was a relatively high pick, Perry is a good player, and Jayrone got his chance when Perry got hurt, the defense went on to have an historically awful 3-game stretch. I like Jayrone, but he got a shot to start and didn’t do a whole lot with it.
This just in from the Department of Slow The Fuck Down.
Two of Datone’s sacks were the result of the Vikings tackle deciding to assist the LG with a double team, leaving 95 unblocked to the QB.
Jury’s still out.
Janis: Even if the Packers don’t like the way he runs all the various routes that the offense requires, if he can run just a handful of deep routes and provide a THREAT to get past the secondary, the defenders have to come out of putting all their defenders right up on the line of scrimmage.
That is a great point. Usually lost however by the Packers brain trust . . .