Bears’ Game Tells Us the Direction We’re Heading

Well, we have 10 days to ruminate over that nice win over Chi-town. That’s okay, because a lot went on in the Bears’ game that is worth mentioning, and perhaps pondering at length.

On the Upside

Blake Martinez, obviously. His first game was good, second one was better, third was fantastic, and this game was nearly as good as the last. After 69 tackles in his rookie year, he has 2, 5, 11, and 7 tackles this season – puts him on pace for 100 tackles on the nose.

Josh Hawkins took advantage of his opportunity. The guy looks like a gladiator out there – he had some strong and sure tackles (unlike several of his teammates) and tight coverage – five tackles, three (!) passes defended.

I don’t view rookie running back Aaron Jones as ever being a starter, unless due to injuries, but he was ready to play and did himself proud. It’s fill-in contributors like him that led the Green Bay Packers to the Lombardi Trophy in 2010.

Four guards manning the offensive line deserves some kind of salute. If not the seven blocks of granite, aren’t they at least the five rolling stones? The pass protection was just fine – you’ve got to single out Lane Taylor for making a seamless position change, and how about Lucas Patrick stepping in after paying his dues on the team’s practice squad all last year? I don’t think we ever heard his name Thursday night – that’s a good thing. All five guys played every offensive snap.

Aaron Rodgers was a little rusty to start the season, but his quarterback ratings have progressed like this: 86.5, 90.7, 102.6, and 120.0. He’s a keeper.

On the Downside

Looks like the pressure got to Damarious Randall, and he flipped out. The story seems to be that after atrociously loose coverage on that end-of-the-half touchdown, he got benched, and then used the excuse that someone else was supposed to pick up receiver Kendall Wright. It looked, though like typical Randall non-coverage to most of us. Anyway, it led to a sideline argument with an assistant coach, which led to him being ordered off the field. There’s also some confusion whether he left the stadium before the game ended. I’ll accept McCarthy’s approach: dealing with this as an “internal matter.” I think Randall’s self-confidence has been shattered.

How often do you see Jordy Nelson drop two passes, which ended two drives? Not a concern, but at age 32 – and unless it’s due to that quad injury – it’s detectable that Jordy has to uses all his wiles to compensate for the inevitable bodily slowdown. He’s as good as ever, though, on those third downs and touchdowns.

The play of Martellus Bennett bears more scrutiny, but until then I’ll just say the Packers, going back a decade or more, simply don’t know how to utilize tight ends. He’s played poorly, but he’s also being wasted, and it’s probably going to result in an explosion by this volatile personality pretty soon.

Miscellany

Oh those injuries! The Packers are up to seven on IR, but truth to tell they’ve so far avoided serious or year-ending maladies to skill position players and other key personnel. The seven (from least to most recent): Herb Waters, Demetri Goodson, Vince Biegel, Don Barclay, Jason Spriggs, Brett Goode, and Kyle Murphy. I feel especially for Barclay, who after four years of being regularly maligned (not counting missing all of 2014 due to injuries) had doggedly earned the reputation of being a trustworthy and versatile offensive line substitute.

What’s going on with the Ripper? It’s like a bad movie: Janis: the Sequel. Even when almost everyone else at his position is unavailable, Big Mike won’t give Aaron Ripkowski a carry. Is he really still punishing him for the fumble against Atlanta in the playoffs? What happened there is he was dragging so many tacklers with him that his right arm was pinned and he couldn’t cover up the ball with both arms. We need a genuine power runner like Aaron to change things up on occasion – and to be in there to present a run or block dimension on third and short.

On defense, the Packers employed the base 3-4 for much of the game. They were determined to squelch the Bears’ vaunted run game and force QB Mike Glennon to try to win the game. That strategy worked like a charm. Again, it was a group effort by the defensive linemen: Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, Quinton Dial, and Ricky Jean Francois all had at least 23 snaps. And to think that Dial only joined the team in early September – and Ricky was no longer on the team until seven days ago!

It doesn’t take long, usually no more than three years in the league, to attach the injury-prone label to some guys. You can add Ty Montgomery (broken ribs) to that list, joining the likes of Randall Cobb, Nick Perry, and Clay Matthews. Let’s hope rookies Vince Biegel, Jamaal Williams, Montravious Adams, and Devante Mays don’t continue on that same path. Or Davon House, Mike Daniels, and Jake Ryan.

We’re Heading ↑

Three and one, and a 10-day break to mend, plot, and practice. The Packers have an offense putting up 25.5 points per game and a defense allowing only 20.3 – nothing special normally, but given the injuries, it’s damn righteous. As TV broadcasters Jim Nance and Tony Romo kept repeating, this is going to be a much different-looking and stronger team later on in the season.

Despite an epidemic of injuries, Green Bay dodged two bullets in five days. Let’s enjoy the mini-bye, and how this team has fought through adversity during the first quarter of the season.