OFFENSEFor 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.
DEFENSECharles 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 TEAMSWhen 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!
ZEROs PRATTLEMcCarthy 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. [url=index.php?name=Pro_News&aid=121]full article[/url].