"much" less? not that much, dude.

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Considering it's the first game, and the first two or three games of the year usually tend to be sloppy, I think it's less. We'll see how much less, but I think it will prove to be significantly less when the games have all been played.

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and there should have been at least one fewer penalty against us, but i won't go into that too much, since that thread has already been locked. so if my math is correct, 5 penalties per game is about 27% less than the 6.whatever average from last year. I'd say that's significant.

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Very good article, porky. Unlike you, I feel good about the next two games, though. I think the Vikings have a much better chance of getting tripped up, with a road game in Detroit followed by a game against San Francisco.

What I like about the Packer defense is that they bring pressure from so many places that they don't seem as susceptible to getting worn out late in games (or late in the season). And with Raji, we'll have a very solid DL rotation. There were some posters (I can't remember which ones) who criticized the Sanders defense for wearing out the D-linemen because they had to generate almost all of the pass rush. Those people are looking pretty smart right now. This would be a good time for them to stand up and be counted (no imposters, please).

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I think the national stage might have effected Barbre this week. He held up well during the preseason. I look for him to bounce back and be a player from here on out.
Remember, anything can happen against the Bares. Plus there is the Marinelli factor.

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The Journal Sentinel had a quote from Thompson about this the other day. The overall team age is young, but the starters are toward the top of the league in age (though a lot of that is due to Woodson/Harris).

"I will say this, I'm sitting here looking at (the Packers' internal list) of opening-day rosters, and the youngest is 26.2, which we have, and the highest is 28. That's the 53-man roster," Thompson said. "If you go with average age of starters, ours is 28.4, which is the eighth-oldest in the league. On defense we're 29.1, which is third-oldest."

The JS went on to look at the number of players over 30:

"The Packers have the fewest players 30 and older (four). Of the league's 31 other teams, 18 (42%) have double-digit numbers of players over 30. The league average is 10.6."

So based on the stats it looks like our starters are getting up there in experience, but with most of them still in their prime (under 30).

Great article, porky, many thanks.

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I see your point about the next two games. I'm confident it's accurate to say that Steven Jackson is better than Matt Forte. I know who I'd take between the two, Jackson.

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Porky is a fine writer.

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