Ahhhh yes, the ever present "pad level", LOL! Oh, and don't forget "we'll look at that on the tape and get it fixed". And silly me for leaving out "good tempo".

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You just remember this, my fine young lad.. I've seen and heard all influences upon you as you hone your expertise...

This game is won and lost in the trench, both offensively and defensively. Shit happens on the oustide, but it is mostly, ultimately...shit.

Inside out, inside out. Not flashy, not fun, and really hard to do. Madden has to suck if that is what you are looking at. It is, however, the thing that makes great teams great.


imo

You can make up for weaknesses. Like we did in 2008. And 2009. Our offense has never been the problem. Yes, the O-line was horrible last year, but we still had one of the best offenses in the league.

And I know, the best way to build a team is from the line back. If you can get your QB some time, you can have the Bears' WR corps, the Colts' running game and Tarvaris Jackson at QB and you'll still look somewhat decent.

Thing is, there are so many combinations to get your offense going. There's so much you can scheme to relieve some pressure from your O-line.

What's Bulaga going to do, anyway, that's going to make this O-line that much better all of a sudden? He's not beating out Clifton just yet, he's going to play LG. The big knock on Charles Brown was his body, his size, that he wasn't ready to play LT from the get-go. In essence, we're giving Bulaga the year of grooming, as well.

And you have to consider OLBs in the 3-4 as DEs in the 4-3, which makes it a trench pick, as well.

You have to bring some very, very exotic blitzes if you want to get pressure with one overrated OLB and another one who, regardless of who it's going to be, is just not very good at getting to the passer. This forces you to throw either go the vanilla way and get your behind carved up by good QBs or blitz all day and get your behind carved up by good QBs.

And after that whole rant, I still have no idea whether we agree or disagree here, but hey, I had fun typing it.

It's great that Bulaga is doing well and it's probably due to his own skill and talent, but the fact that through all of TT's reign as GM we have not had a more solid option at LG is really sad.

I could respond to the drivel set forth herein above. But it would be a waste of my common sense.

Heretofore.... I will just type.

Make it a great tomorrow True Packer Fans on PackersHome.com

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How is Clay Matthews overrated? I know there are plenty of others here who share your opinion, but I'm not one of them. He played great last year as a rookie, and he should only get better. I also think it's a little early to write off Brad Jones and Brandon Chillar. Jones showed some pass rushing skills as a rookie last year, and Chillar has looked good at OLB in practice. There is plenty of hope for our pass rush this year. Why all the gloom and doom after one preseason game?

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I don't think the doom or gloom is coming from any pre-season game. I think it's coming from how the team played last year.

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I have been critical of how some, mainly media types and some portion of the Packer fan base does overrate Matthews at this point. And that doesn't mean he isn't a fine player that played well last season.

IMO, he is a one dimensional pass rusher at this point that relies on raw speed and power only... more speed than anything.. and a number of times I have stated that I hope he continues to develop and build a set of pass rushing moves to expand his game. And the context of such comments are based when I heard him openly state that he needs to come up with more post sack celebrations.. I would rather have him focus on expanding his game over celebration routines..

For a first year player he was outstanding.. but IMO, he has a ways to go before some loft him into an elite pass rusher.

On that note.. I think Brad Jones is going to take a giant step this season.. and if Poppinga can play similar to game one of the preseason.. we should have solid rotational depth at the OLB... Chillar should be able to supplement that as well.. although I think he lacks natural pass rushing skills.

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Brad Jones did next to nothing when he actually got some RTs on him. He has the raw speed to run by them, but one push and he's way off his trajectory to the QB. Once he gets engaged to RTs, he's lost.

Apparently, Poppinga is looking really good. And when our coaching staff is talking Poppinga up, something not right. Don't get me wrong, he actually could've improved all of a sudden, but Poppinga hasn't wowed me in anyway, besides his pile-jumping skills.

And I agree with Pack93 on Matthews. He's one sided. He ran by LTs last year, LTs totally whiffed on him, got hustle sacks and got bad blocking TEs on him earlier in the season.

Now I know that, when an O-line executes their blocks perfectly and the QB gets it off in time, you can't get a sack, but out of all his 10 sacks last year, he used some real pass rushing moves on just 2 off them. He did somesort of a bullrush on a TE, who he then backed off from and ran around and he made a KGB-like spin against the Bengals.

I'd love for him to prove me wrong. I'd love for all of our OLBs to prove me wrong, but I just don't see it happening.

Most positive sign for me so far on defense has been Mike Neal. I'm still not convinced that Raji is the better NT than Pickett. I understand wanting both of them on the field at the same time, but I don't think either of them is a DE. Even a 3-4 end.

And like Rock, I'm not quite as confident with the OLBs as most seem to be. Heck, I'm not particularly confident about our LBs in general.

Pittsburgh and St. Louis exposed some pretty serious cracks in the defensive armor last year. Maybe its because I remember the Lynn Dickey era, but it's not enough to have the best QB in the league and one of the best receiving corps.

You have to be able to keep good teams under 25 points when it matters, too. You have to be able to say to the other team's offense in the fourth quarter, "Fuck you. It ain't going to happen." And come through on what you say, with regularity.

I remember in 1995/1996, it would be late in the game. And it was like Reggie White would look at Sean Jones and say, "First one to the quarterback wins." And sure enough, a sack or two at the perfect time. It was like you knew the D was going to come through.

I want that feeling again.

I want Aaron Rodgers to be the next Bart Starr. I don't want him to have to settle for being the next Lynn Dickey the way Lynn Dickey had to do.

Lynn Dickey would be a Hall of Famer now were it not for the DL (and, lesser extent, the OL) the team had. I want Rodgers in the Hall where he belongs. One great quarterback left outside is enough for a team.

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