You know the drill by now. It's time to recap some winners and losers from Week 3 of the preseason. While the games don't count, the perceptions sure do.....
WINNER -- If there's one NFL team that's thrilled to see September finally arrive, it's the Green Bay Packers, who are finally almost in position to stop wasting such dominating performances on the preseason.
They don't hand out shiny trophies for exhibition games, but if they did, the biggest one would be going to the 3-0 Packers, who were the closest thing in the league to a juggernaut in August.
The perfect record, of course, isn't the important part. The stuff that makes you sit up and take notice is the 38-10 halftime lead at NFC defending champion Arizona on Friday night, when both teams were playing their first-team units, the NFL-best 151.1 passer rating of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and the whopping plus-10 turnover ratio (also the league's best) compiled by Green Bay's new-look 3-4 defense.
And did we mention that in 12 drives of work, the Packers first-team offense has produced nine touchdowns, one field goal and nary a punt? On defense, Green Bay's first unit has played 12 series and surrendered only 10 points and 15 first downs.
To say that it's all clicking for Green Bay right now is the understatement of the young season, but the best news is the Packers have a great shot to keep their mojo rolling in the first two months of the regular season. In fact, I predict Green Bay will be no worse than 5-1 when November arrives, with a favorable early schedule that starts with back-to-back home games against Chicago and Cincinnati, and is followed by at St. Louis, at Minnesota, a fifth-week bye, then Detroit and at Cleveland.
All the hype in the NFC North so far this year has been centered on the high-profile quarterback changes in Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota. But that's about to change. Green Bay is clearly the team to beat in the division, and the Packers are about to force us to pay attention.