It's been a little over a week since the 2009 Green Bay Packers' season came to an end and some fans might still be disappointed for not seeing the green and gold make a run in the postseason. I think it's time to cheer-up because the future in Green Bay, on paper, appears to be extremely bright once again. Last year, at this time, it was foggy at best.

The 09 Packers, in my view, compare favorably to the 1995 Green Bay Packers. At the time, Packer fans may of been disappointed in how the Packers' season ended. A loss to the rival Cowboys in the third straight postseason left some Packer fans on edge. A year later, however, Green Bay hoisted the Lombardi Trophy for the first time in 30 years. The 95 Packers went from becoming a disappointment to just a piece of the puzzle. An important piece that was needed to complete the puzzle. .

If there's one call that has been scrutinized, and rightfully so, it has been the prevent call with 3 second left on the clock that cost us the game.

Or actually, the prevent plays throughout that drive.

We went up against an offense and offensive line that has had problems picking up pressure all season long and a QB who holds on to the ball way too long. Yet, we preferred to bring 3 on nearly every play instead of brining the standard 4 or blitzing with an extra guy or 2.

This problems on the Steelers' O-line became even more obvious when Jenkins went through nearly untouched and got to Ben, who broke out of the poor tackle and scrambled, only to have Raji cut of his escape route and having to throw it away.

Although I don’t like prevent defense, and I don't think that we would've been put in as bad a position as we where, had we blitzed a little more, a prevent call with 3 seconds left on the clock, isn't too bad a call. You zone out the end-zone and force the QB to dump it off and hope for a miracle.

Or, at least, that's the theory behind it.

Obviously, that isn't exactly what happened in our case.

Let's start with the personnel on this play.

We're playing a 2-3-6. Obviously, we're playing prevent.

On the D-line, we have Jolly and Wynn.

I'm going to assume that Jenkins and Raji where out of gas on this one. Can't imagine that Capers would want these guys out there over them. I'd like to think that your main pass rushers can toughen up and play this one last play, but they are 300 and 340 lbs, respectively, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

At LB, I think we're playing Matthews, Barnett and Poppinga. Cant see it very well. Matthews is on the TE, Barnett is on the RB and Poppinga is rushing the passer.

Williams, Bell and Bush are in man against the receivers. Woodson, Collins and Bigby are playing deep zone.

On the field, it looks like this.



If you added up the personnel tasks, you figured out that we're playing a cover 3 man. Most of our corners are giving the receivers quite a cushion and, thus, a free release. Only Williams is up close to the receiver.



Our guys can't get any pressure on Roethlisberger, who gets about 10 seconds in the pocket before throwing it in for the TD. Mike Bell was covering Wallace pretty well, but got no safety help at all.



On this picture Bigby is just running over to get into his regular zone (Marked as '1'). Had Bigby been there all along, Bell could've played underneath and batted the ball down. I assume that Atari made a mental mistake on this one, though, and got lured to the side where 4 Steelers receivers where running to, guessing that this play would be a hail mary. That resulted in getting Bell isolated on rookie WR Wallace. A match up that Ben had some trust in, apparently, as he threw it into some good coverage.

There is one different theory I can think off, and that is that the Packers where playing man all around, having double coverage on the Steelers' 3 best receivers in Ward, Holmes and Miller, which would result in an overload to the right, as Wallace was the only receiver going left.

If that's the case, Capers should throw that page out of his playbook. If anyone, you want Woodson in single coverage, and even then it's a weird play.

Lastly, Bell's play on the ball.

Personally, I think he did just about everything right for the situation he was in. He played close up against the receiver, not having any help over the top. He nearly made quite a play, as he did get his hand in between Wallace's hands while having to make that hard cut.



In hindsight, maybe he should've gone for a force out, but there's just a couple of corners in the league who bat that ball down or get the guy out of bounds.

Let's just hope that we won't 'prevent' another offense all the way down to our end-zone. This sequence of calls reminded me an awfull lot of Bob Sanders' vanilla defenses....

Yesterday we saw the Packers defense come out in a new formation. The 1-5-5.

Or "Psycho", if you will.

In this formation, the defense uses just 1 defensive lineman, while having 5 linebackers on the field, with 5 defensive backs behind that.

It worked to perfection. Out of the seven times that Capers called this formation on 3rd downs, the Bears converted only once.

The first and most noticeable thing about the Psycho package is the controlled chaos. The single d-lineman, Jenkins in our case, usually lines up over center. The linebackers pretty much don't stop moving. They keep going in motion, showing blitz, backing off, lining up as an OLB over the OT, then moving back further inside.

Obviously, it makes for a defense that is very hard to read for the QB.

Secondly, it gets a lot of speed on the field. Your 320 pound o-linemen will obviously be stronger than most LBs, but with all that speed and confusion, you can easily miss an assignment or just get beaten out by a quick speed rushing move.

Of course, the package has some downsides, as well. First of all, you take out your own big guys, leaving those same speedy LBs to battle those big guys up front. Now, like I said, when you beat them quick with a speed move or confuse them enough to make them miss an assignment, you're getting to the QB quickly enough. When you don't, though, you won't have the guys there to keep battling and still get to the QB. Often, your LBs will be overpowered by the linemen.

Secondly, it's very susceptible to a draw, or regular run play. When an offensive line can already get you 4 yards deep into the defense, the back doesn't have to do that much. Of course, this is a pass rushing formation, so this is one con that you usually don't have to worry about.

Before we take a look at the pictures, look at the personnel that we're using in the Psycho.

First of all, we get our best pass rushing d-linemen in with Jenkins.

Behind him, we come out with Clay Matthews, Nick Barnett, A.J. Hawk, Brandon Chillar and Desmond Bishop.

No Brad Jones at all in this one.

We play the regular secondary, with Charles Woodson, Tramon Williams, Jarrett Bush, Nick Collins and Atari Bigby.

This gives us a great balance in a mainly pass rushing situation. Obviously, you have the 5 nickel defensive backs on the field, but we get a great coverage LBer out there in Chillar, a decent coverage ILB in Hawk, two good blitzers in Matthews and Bishop and finally Barnett, who can do it all.

Lets take a look at the first picture.



Yes, great editing, I know.

This is all pre-snap motion, but timed just perfectly before Cutler wants to snap the ball. We change from a regular cover 1 formation, into a cover 2 and overloading the right side of their O-line. Because of the perfect timing, Cutler doesn't make any adjustments.



Like you can see here, we have an overload to the right. This is a second or so before the ball gets snapped. All the guys on the right side are going to blitz, with A.J. Hawk and Brandon Chillar playing in a shallow zone.



The Bears O-line shifts to the right quite effectively, but with Jenkins commanding a double team, used to spreading the line out, and the RT having to kickslide more than 5 yards in a short time, they completely fail in blocking Woodson, who gets around the edge and gets the quick pressure.

The play ends in Cutler getting rid of the ball quickly, throwing it incomplete, as Hawk has the coverage on Bennett.

This is one of the ways in which Dom Capers dials up some big pressure, while only bringing 5, defeating 6 blockers.

I hope, and think, that the Psycho package is here to stay.

So, I've been on the season ticket waiting list since I've been 10 years old. 26 years later, I'm still getting my postcard in the mail telling me how many spots I've moved up. Now, obviously since I've been waiting for so long I don't move up much each year.

Take a look at the image. These are from the last four years. 2006 & 2007 seasons (still Favre years) the amount I moved up was pretty minimal. This has been the case the entire time that Favre was a Packer (except for the year the renovations and additional seating was in place). 2008 & 2009 seasons (Rodgers' era) there is a considerable decrease (or increase depending on how you're looking at this) in my position.

Either a bunch of people died and forgot to put their season tickets in their will, or Favre was the attraction. As we all know, Packer fans are not 'fair-weather' fans, so I think the change is due more to my good luck of not having to wait as long for tickets...plus a few drunks who lost their privileges.

But, by my calculations I'm gaining about 65 seats per year (since I've been 10) and I'll be 74 years old when I receive my season tickets! On the positive side, at least I'll be old enough to get a handicap parking space at the stadium!

I'm hoping that the current trend of 100+ movement continues...that'll help lower that wait. Or, maybe they'll add onto Lambeau again. Just not too much though, I want it to remain just like I remember it.

Now, some of you may be wondering how a guy from Oregon is going to afford to get back and forth to every home game. Well, probably won't happen every game. I may be having family and friends I didn't even know I had coming out of the woodwork.

Anyone else on PackersHome on the waiting list or have current season tickets?

OFFENSE
I'm beginning to think that Aaron Rodgers wants the record for most 300 yard passing games in a career. Whether he does or not, if he continues on this path, he's going to have it. Rodgers was 32 out of 45 with 2 touchdowns and 344 yards. Pretty damn good numbers. The Packers are a spoiled franchise when it comes to quarterbacks. If you don't believe that, ask any Bears fan after watching Cutler throw worse than my High School quarterback. Rodgers maintained a more consistent follow through Sunday which resulted in more accurate passes.

The offensive line is credited with giving up two sacks (bringing the total to 43 for the year), although one of them can be faulted on Rodgers. The other was a design roll-out off a play action pass. There's not a lot you can do when the defender is in your face thanks to Mark Tauscher. During his post game conference Rogers said that Tauscher surely thought he had help on the inside.

In what I thought was the call of the game occurred when Rodgers made a pre-snap change. It was visible he was changing a route and had that look on his face that said, "You screwed up and now you will pay!". Sure enough, he hits Greg Jennings on a ten yard slant and who breaks it for 64 yards and a score. The intentional grounding call was a good call too. The ball fell three or so yards short of the line of scrimmage. I was curious about that call as FOX failed to adequately display a reasonable replay. Rodgers showed great awareness on his 10 yard scamper too. What does 274 mean to you? To Rodgers it means a career first half in passing yards.

Ryan "Where The Hell Have You Been?" Grant rushed like I thought he could rush when I was on his bandwagon a month ago. I spoke words like "he needs more carries to be effective". Then after I seen him run straight into his own offensive lineman against the Browns (where he could have bounced it for 70 plus yard score), I quickly jumped off. I might have to go aboard again.

Grant ran with menace yesterday and I do say it was great to see. I was most impressed with two plays specifically. Grant took the hand-off, bounced outside ran up the side line and what does he do? He steps into the defender, knocking him backwards instead of sliding out of bounds. That's what I like to see out of my running back. Make damn sure they know you're here all game and there's more where that came from. The second one came on the final drive on (I believe a halfback dive up the middle) with Grant running into a pile, kept his legs churning and bounced it to the left for a 21 yard gain and new set of downs. More impressively regarding Grant's last two performances is who it was against. Eighth ranked rush defense, Cowboys and 3rd ranked rush defense 49ers Grant combined for 40 carries with 205 yards and a score. I'm hoping Grant can keep this up. If he does, it's perfect timing for the Packers.



DEFENSE
Mike McCarthy called for a challenge with just under seven minutes to go was a good call. It might not have netted a reversal, but it gave the defense more time to rest than a time out would have. The defense played lights out in the first half with consistent pressure on Alex Smith so heavy he was wanting to chuck the ball up to avoid getting hit. [Straying off topic a bit: When you compare fundamentals between Smith and Rodgers, Rodgers wins hands down across the board. It's hard to believe these two came from the same draft and harder to believe that Smith was selected over Rodgers.] The Packers defense applied loads of pressure during the first half but backed off in the second half as both Aaron Kampman and Al Harris fell to season ending ACL injuries.

B.J. Raji netted his first sack of his young career. Johnny Jolly and Ryan Pickett both had tipped passes. Kampman and Cullen Jenkins both registered a sack a piece. Nick Collins made an athletic reach to his toes for an interception that assisted in a short field in which the offense took advantage of.

It has been said that the Packers run defense is not as good as their rank suggests. I say, bull. The Packers played Frank Gore and a Dallas trio of Felix Jones, Marion Barber and Tashard Choice who are very talented and did very well early on against them. So good that their respective coordinators stopped calling their numbers. Is that the defenses fault? No, in fact it's a credit to the defensive play to urge pass instead of run.


SPECIAL TEAMS
Mason Crosby didn't miss a 50 plus yard field goal this week, something to cheer for. Please note, he didn't attempt one either. Coach McCarthy had an opportunity to kick a 56 yarder, but decided to send Jeremy Kapinos out to punt instead. Smart play as Kapinos pinned them down at the one yard line with the gunner stopping the ball. The ensuing play was an interception by Nick Collins. I think it might be time to continue punting when the ball is beyond the 32 yard line.

I've read that some claim that Packers fans shouldn't complain about the special teams play because, hey at least we're not the Pittsburgh Steelers who have given up a touchdown on special teams eight straight games. I'm going to say that's not completely accurate. A special teams score on a return is sometimes better than giving them a short field. Reason being, as a defense you don't like playing with your back against the wall time after time. Plus with a short field the offense gets to eat up more time on the clock and if they score it's demoralizing to the defense. I'd rather trot my offense back out to eat up the clock and control the tempo of the game than pit tired defense against the wall. Especially a defense that just lost two pro bowl starters.


ZERO’s PRATTLE
I like the physical play from this team which was shown again when Jordy Nelson leveled 49ers cornerback, Reggie Smith on Jennings 64 yard touchdown reception. Touching more on the physical play, I really hope Dom Capers doesn't scale the aggressive nature we've seen the last two weeks because of the unfortunate losses of Harris and Kampman.

Losing Harris is going to hurt us more than most realize. I hear a lot of "Harris will be replaced by Tramon Williams". That's true, to a degree. Tramon has played in over 60% of the plays on defense already, that means Jarret "Who Burnt Me Last" Bush and/or Brandon "I'm A Black Pencil Wearing A Uniform" Underwood will be on the field much more in our sub packages. I can only hope for a lot of base defense blitzes. I believe that's reasonable considering we don't play too many teams that have multiple receiving threats.

The tears in Kampman's eyes as he was being carted off the field left me feeling bad for the guy. He has one of the most relentless motors I've seen in my young life. Kampman's next contract most surely will be a one year deal with a team that plays a 4 - 3 ending a solid career as a Packer. I'm confident Harris will return with a chip on his shoulder to prove to everyone even at his age (he'll be 35 in December) he is able to come back from a serious injury, again.

Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick, please find your way to the unemployment line. It's nothing personal, I just prefer the announcing crew to not have their lips firmly planted on all 90 active players asses when calling the game. And is it too much to ask for an announcing team to do some homework and study the teams playing? Routinely this announcing duo from made gaffes no professional should.

I lost respect when I heard something about the Packers offensive line has done well all year except for the 41 sacks. I damn near scratched my ears out. I think the NFL should hire a crew of announcers for every team for every game. And you have the announcing team that's watched your team play all season. At least they would get the players names coincided with the large numbers on the jerseys. Since that won't happen, as it's not feasible (and makes sense) I would urge all announcers to review game film of the last couple games of each team and take notes on it.

The Green Bay Packers have had a pretty good season so far, going 6-4. Yes, we lost against the Minnesota Vikings twice, but that team is currently in a different league. A Super Bowl favorite, much like the Saints and Colts. They dropped the ball big time against the Buccaneers (1-9) and lost another game against the Bengals, who are currently 7-3.

The start of the season showed us some positives and negatives about our beloved football team. Our biggest problem became painfully obvious very fast. Pass protection. After passing on tackles and guards on the first day, all the help the Pack got up front was from 4th round pick T.J. Lang and 5th round pick Jamon Meredith. Who was put on the practice squad and nabbed away by the Bills. Duke Preston was also signed, someone who couldn’t hold on to a roster spot in Buffalo. Yes, Buffalo. He was cut before the season started.

To make it clear how big an issue this is, Green Bay is on track to get Rodgers sacked 69 times. That's getting scary close to David Carr's 76 sacks. A single season record. And 7 sacks over the Packers all time record.

Of course there are some excuses. Rodgers holds on to the ball too long. Although that's true, hasn't the O-line failed if Rodgers has to run for his life after 2 seconds, regardless of how long he holds the ball after that?

Injuries have been a big part of the problem, as well. They showed us how unprepared we are if Clifton and Tauscher will retire. Or can't walk on the field anymore. Both can happen as soon as next year.

Any bright spots? Sure. Lang, the 4th round rookie who was projected at guard at the start of the season has been (one of the) most impressive guys on the O-line this season at tackle. Right now, it looks like we might've found our RT of the future. He won't be an elite blocker, but he's a good, all-around right tackle. I don't care about the short arms, either.


Furthermore, Sitton has been playing very well at RG, Tauscher appeared to be stabilize the line as soon as the got back in the line-up and Spitz was looking like our long term option at center before he got injured.

Now, on to the future. How will we handle this? I can't imagine Thompson passing up on a first round tackle if he's there. Maybe even trade up to get Donald Brown. One of the more impressive tackles in this draft with a great amount of athleticism. Little bit of a Jason Peters type if you ask me. Both are athletic freaks for their weight and size and both are converted TEs.

But what if we won't trade up? Or Brown will be gone by pick 10, making a trade-up very unlikely? Well, there is always the option of Bryan Bulaga. A solid, but not great tackle. Kind off like buying a second hand car for new-car-money. I guess you don't have a choice when you've dug yourself into the hole that we have at the position, though.

And lastly, trading down. We could easily trade a mid-first round pick for a late first and late second or early second and early third. In that case, we could take one of the best guards on the board and go with a decent tackle with our second pick. Assuming someone will be there, of course.

But that leaves a gap at what is our next big problem. DE/OLB. We've been getting some pressure as of late against the Cowboys and 49ers. Both had O-lines decimated by injuries, though, and I don't know if sacking Alex Smith is something to be that proud of. Especially when he holds the ball too long.

Problem is, we don't have that one OLB that can get pressure on the QB. The Shawn Merriman, Demarcus Ware or James Harrison that a 3-4 needs. Sure, we have Kampman, but despite of what the coaching staff says, it's obvious that he's not an OLB. He's a 4-3 DE. I'm afraid that it'll become painfully obvious just how little he added to this defense now he's out for the year.

Assuming we either trade or release him, we'd need a new body at this position, as well. This injury is not going to get his trade value up, but he should still be worth a third rounder.

That extra third would give us some room to draft a DE (thinking Von Miller, Sergio Kindle or Arthur Jones here) on the first day and still hold on to a pick for a CB.

Yes, CB. With Harris out, I think that we'll struggle a whole lot more in the nickel and dime packages. Take Woodson out as well and you have Jarrett Bush starting. Yes, Jarrett Bush. Starting. And take in mind that that doesn't mean that Woodson will retire, but when cornerbacks hit the wall, they usually hit it hard. We might still use him at safety, but that’d leave a hole at CB. A huge hole.

Now, I know that Tramon Williams will be good enough to be at least our nr. 2 guy, but who else will we put out there? I don’t think that Pat Lee will ever be starting material. Especially not in a 3-4 zone scheme. We need to find someone to play opposite of Tramon.

That extra third will come in mighty handy right there. Perrish Cox and/or Kyle Wilson should be available around that pick. They're quite raw, but both have some potential if you're willing to develop either one of them behind a good corner.
Here are some scenarios that I would like, and I think are very plausible, to happen.

The 75th pick is a third rounder for Aaron Kampman. Little premature, maybe even wishful thinking after the injury, but it's one of two outcomes I see as most likely right now. Other would be a release and getting signed somewhere in August.

Scenario 1 – We stick with what we have.

• 20th – OT - Bryan Bulaga
• 52nd – DE/OLB - Von Miller/Sergio Kindle
• 70th – G – John Jerry/Mike Johnson
• 84th – CB – Perrish Cox (KR, as well)

Would give us some nice picks on our positions of need, while still getting some depth at the corner position. A safety would be an option, as well, although I’d prefer a veteran in the off-season.

Scenario 2 – We trade up.

• 12th – OT - Donald Brown
• 70th – DE/OLB – Eric Norwood
• 84th – G – John Jerry/Mike Johnson

One of my favorites. We don’t get the cornerback here, but we’d get a franchise LT, a good DE/OLB and someone who might be able to slide in at LG immediately, if Colledge struggles yet again.

Scenario 3 – We trade down

• 29th – RB – CJ Spiller
• 52nd – OT - Gabe Carimi
• 61st – DE/OLB - Sergio Kindle/Eric Norwood
• 70th – CB – Kyle Wilson
• 84th – DE/DT – Tyson Aluala/D’anthony Smith – G – John Jerry/Mike Johnson

This one is pretty interesting. Carimi is not an immediate starter, but he is one hell of a prospect. We'd have to lean on Clifton for yet another year, though. Spiller gets compared to Reggie Bush. He'd be the perfect back to complement Grant.

The 2010 It's quite deep at a lot of positions. Especially the depth at tackle should work in our favour, although the guard pool is a little shallow. Whatever we'll do, this should be one great draft.

OFFENSE
For the first time since week one of this season, Aaron Rodgers was held under 200 yards passing while completing a modest 25 passes for a solid 69.4% completion percentage. He did continue his streak of throwing at least one touchdown in a game with a one yard pass to Spencer Havner and also racked up another score with his feet. Speaking of his feet, Rodgers kept a drive alive on 3rd and 5 showing no fear and a tad of athleticism on an 11 yard run to move the chains. In my review of the game, I seen very few passes that were in the air for 20 or more yards. Drastic change from what we're used to seeing. Head Coach Mike McCarthy stated he gave Rodgers a heavy dose of responsibility on his plate for this game. I reckon, he continues to do so. Rodgers will only get better. Two of the most impressive throws I've seen in weeks came on the same drive. One was 3rd and 11 to Greg Jennings for 14 yards and the other was soap on a silk rope to Donald Lee for 17 yards when it was 3rd and 13.

Rodgers wasn't golden Sunday, silver, yes. For instance, two (maybe three depending on how you view it) of the four sacks fall onto the young quarterbacks shoulders. He also missed two underneath receivers on poorly thrown passes. Once again, the throws were procured from poor footing and failure to follow through. His pocket awareness appears to be getting worse and that worries me. When a quarterback is moving out of the pocket, he needs to keep the ball closer to his chest. These criticisms are nitpicking, but they need to be improved upon. Rodgers has tremendous upside and once he locks down consistency and obtains pass protection, he's going to make the 23 teams who passed him up in 2005 regret it more and more.

Ryan Grant quietly had one of his best games of the season when you look at how he ran the ball. He had his head up more times than not and made several one cut runs for good yards. For the season he has 700 yards with a 4.2 yard per carry. How he's doing this with the offensive line we have, is beyond me. After Sunday I've taken one foot out of the "start Ahman Green" wagon and put it on the brink of the Grant wagon. Mentioning Green makes me point this out. I believe Grant carries the ball in his left arm substantially more than his right.


DEFENSE
Charles Woodson roped eight Cowboys, had two forced fumbles, one interception and sack. My only gripe on his game took place on his sack/forced fumble play. After hopping over Cowboys running back, Felix Jones he started celebrating while Clay Matthews III was chasing down the ball. If Woodson had been paying attention, he could scooped up the ball and scored. Five minutes off the clock later in the game, Woodson would make up for that boneheaded gaffe with a goal line interception with less than 7 minutes to go in the game was the (Wayne Larrivee) dagger for sure. Woodson, please, play through the whistle next time.

Brad Jones played well (7 tackles) in place of the concussed Aaron Kampman. Jones showed good awareness on the Razorback play and grit when he tackled the Tashard Choice from behind and threw him down.

Cullen Jenkins had a good game and his most impressive play came on a screen where he started rushing then realized it was a screen and immediately changed direction to make the stop. Johnny Jolly had two tipped balls and a rough tackle for loss. Nick Barnett punked out Cowboys quarterback, Tony Romo for two sacks and a tipped pass. Nick Collins should have had three interceptions, but dropped all three. Someone, put Collins in front of a jugg's machine for an hour or two every day! He consistently drops three passes before getting and interception. (I said two in the chat, because I was hoping someone would catch me as I've said this several times last year). A.J. Hawk tackled hard, Jarret Bush blitzed well and provided pressure, and B.J. Raji is starting to come into his own.

All in all the Packers defense was aggressive, punishing and relentless. Hopefully this excellent performance continues for a few more months.


SPECIAL TEAMS
When will McCarthy learn that Mason Crosby can not kick a field goal with any accuracy when its over 49 yards? Let's play this on a level playing field, shall we? There's only three kickers who have attempted five or more field goals from 50 or more yards. Josh Scobee (6 - 2), Ryan Succop (5 - 2) and Crosby (5 - 1). When you view it like that, it's not as bad as one would think. It's still bad though.

Jeremy Kapinos is not helping matters either. If Kapinos could corner kick, perhaps Crosby wouldn't be requested to kick 50 plus yarders so frequently. Kapinos needs to improve. I'm starting to wonder if these two are getting dead leg from kicking too often during the week?

Tramon Williams did a far better job returning kicks and punts this week and theres no question it was because he ran north instead of east and west. I think he's played too much Tecmo Super Bowl. The zig zagging is not going to get you anywhere in the NFL, kid. And how do you let the punter knock the ball out of your hand? Man up!


ZERO’s PRATTLE
McCarthy appeared to be fired up for this game as displayed on the sidelines from time to time.

Al Harris' face mask call was wrong. Flat out, wrong or the rules for face mask are too touchy. Harris had his hand graze the face mask, no grabbing, just graze. Looked like a weak call. The Packers had 12 penalties for 100 yards, unacceptable. Havner's unnecessary roughness penalty near the sidelines against unsuspecting Cowboys defensive end, Marcus Spears was phenomenal and capped off by him turning his back and simply walking away.

This may only interest me. Name the two boldest acquisitions Packers General Manager Ted Thompson has brought on board. Boldest free agent signing, Charles Woodson. Boldest draft selection (considering what was given up to select him), Clay Matthews III. Both are taking over games with their persistence on dominating the enemy. Woodson generated two fumbles in which Matthews recovered. The fact that Woodson and Matthews are working together has to be giving offensive coordinators headaches.