If you let a bad team hang around till halftime, you can make up for it by blowing them out in the third quarter. And that's what the Packers did.
Why the lull in the second quarter? My best guess is that the Packers were caught a little off-guard when the Bills decided to run the ball on almost every play. In the end, though, the Bills only had that one 80 yard TD drive, and a couple of 20 yard drives that ended with punts. So no harm no foul. If the offense hadn't stagnated, the game would've been put away by halftime.
I think the 3rd down reception by Quinn Johnson on that opening drive was big for him. In the preseason, he caught just two out of four passes that were thrown to him, and to have his name dialed up on a third down on the opening drive, and to make the catch and pick up the first down, has to make him feel good and has to make the coaching staff and other players feel better about him. He's more than just a human sledgehammer after all.
Morgan Burnett made a big league play on that interception, ripping the ball out of the receiver's hands before he could secure it. I can only think of two other Packer DBs in recent years who might make that play: Charles Woodson and Leroy Butler. It was probably no coincidence that on the play just before that one, Burnett tackled a ballcarrier for a loss. It was maybe his first good tackle of his career, after he had looked timid as a tackler last week. I bet that gave him a confidence boost that carried over into the next play.
Lost amid Clay Matthews' six sacks is the fact that Cullen Jenkins has had a sack in each game.
Is it just me, or is Brad Jones not really doing a lot out there? He's not screwing up, but so far he looks pretty average.
B.J. Raji continues to impress (see go.pack.go's B.J. Raji thread).
The TV people seemed to be a day late and a dollar short all day long. Examples:
1. The announcers failed to point out when Bulaga replaced Clifton in the second quarter, and when they finally did (only because Bulaga got penalized), they made no attempt to explain why Clifton had been taken out.
2. At least three times, the play-by-play guy referred to the Packers' offense as the "vaunted Packers offense." That got a little old, to say the least.
3. The color commentator got into this big theory about "hidden yards." I didn't know what he was talking about at first, then I realized that he was just talking about how the punting game affects field position. No need for a big theory to explain that.
4. They never showed a replay of James Jones' TD, in spite of the fact that when it happened, one of the announcers had confidently informed us that Jones had pushed off and the TD would be called back.
One final thought: If the Bills had won, I wonder how many Packer fans would be saying that they "knew" the Bills were going to win? I bet there would be at least a few.
What did I miss? (or what am I wrong about?)