Ok, being that there's no football for now, I've decided to go back again and watch all the games. I'll write some comments here for discussion. Maybe that will be at least more interesting than the latest Bleacher Report.

WEEK 1:
This game was a solid victory. The Packers went out there and pretty much dominated the entire time. The offense was a little tight at first, Arodge was missing some throws, but overall they buckled down and did a solid job.

Jody Nelson was the KO returner. He had a couple really good returns in the second half. A 51 and a 40 yarder. Still, he looks a little bit stiff, and doesn't seem to have that extra gear. Iirc, he eventually gets benched after fumbling like 3 KOs in one game or something. Looked ok here, though.

Grant actually looked good. He still doesn't get around the corner, but he was getting through the LoS and picking up some yards. It's a shame he was lost for the season like that. It would have been very interesting to see if he had overcome his penchant for running up the back of his blockers. Guess we'll find out this year. Definitely seemed to be seeing the hole though, when there was one. I'd like to see a larger sample size to see if he keeps that up.

The offense started slowly, but got on track. They were trying to force it to Finley. Another thing I noticed is that Arodge was still getting blows to the head and faskmasks that were uncalled. I think after being the SB MVP, they'll start protecting him much more. They actually started enforcing those rules for Arodge last year.
-At 8:25 in the 1st, Rodgers tried to force it into triple coverage to Finley. The ball got tipped up in the air and INT'd. That one was Rodgers' fault.
-At :35 in the 1st, Rodgers had to waste a timeout to prevent a delay of game penalty. I think time management becomes an issue at times for the Pack. Certainly did in the Patriots game, although that wasn't Rodgers.
-At 11:29 in the 3rd, Rodgers threw a hard slant that was very nearly jumped for an INT.
-At 9:20 in the 4th, Rodgers overthrew DD, iirc and was picked off. Apparently the ball slipped out of his hands, because it was wet. Wasn't even close.

Cliffy and Tauscher looked a bit rough in this game. Especially in the first half. They were giving up sacks and pressures.

Harrell got hurt in this game. Pity. It was a play that could have happened to anyone. With the lack of depth on the Dline this year, he might get another shot. Wasn't his back that went out this time.

Mathews pretty much dominated this game. He knocked out Kolb and stuffed Vick on a 4th down conversion to seal the game. How many times did the defense come up big at the end of games this year? Wow. The very opposite of the Bob Sanders defense.
-There were a number of very closely missed INTs by the defense. They were ball hawking all day.
-At 5:22 in the 1st, Tramon very nearly picked off Kolb. Looked like he was baiting him on the play.
-10:51 in the 2nd, Tramon tipped the ball up along the sideline and Woody very nearly came down with it. It required a replay, iirc. Cradled it against the ground. Woody was making open field tackles like a MLB.
-1:37 in the 2nd, Kolb threw one right to Clay, but he couldn't hold on. Don't think he was able to react quite fast enough.
-In the 3rd, Woody stripped the ball and Tramon recovered.
-:34 in the 3rd, Vick came very close to being INT'd when he threw behind Jason Avant.
-10:55 in the 4th, Zombo got a sack on a beautiful delayed blitz. Unfortunately, Shields got turned around on the next play and the Eagles scored. Shields was pretty good, but this was his first game as a rookie, so he did give up a couple.

The Packers had very few penalties in this game. This is one thing that MM said he would clean up and did. Credit where it's due. Overall a solid game for MM. They went out there, consistently showed they were the better team and won the game.

Oh yeah. Crosby bounced back from the previous year, when he struggled at times. Hit a personal and franchise record 56 yarder. And Masthay looked good too.

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Nice post. MUCH better than the Bleacher Report. Thank you.

I wouldn't call it a solid victory, but they definitely outplayed the Eagles. Winning in Philly is never easy, and if you do it, it's probably not going to be pretty. This game really set the tone for most of the season, as the Packers looked very talented on both sides of the ball, but they still struggled for long stretches. This was a subpar game for the O-line and Rodgers. I think they would've won by a couple of touchdowns if Vick hadn't come in and created so much chaos in the second half.

One thing that was a precursor to the Super Bowl was the defensive stand at the end of the game. One thing that did not last at all was the kick return game. This was their one game of the season (the one game of the past several years, actually) when the kickoff return team looked like they might actually be pretty good. I'm not going to get my hopes up this year, although who knows, maybe Cobb could be the difference.

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I remember how frustrating it was watching Rodgers continually try to force the ball to Finley.

Also remember Matthews catching up to Kolb and burying him.

Nice write-up nerdmann.

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Cobb's the real deal as a return guy. Jordy was a square peg in a round hole.

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