Name one player on defense and offense that could really be a factor in the game and one player that could be the weak link on each side of the ball.

Offense:

Winning Factor: Finley ... I think his going to play a major role in this game and if his ready he shall be a major factor.

Weak link: Grant ... If he doesn't find the holes and makes good runs / decisions we would be going on dimensional which is not to ideal.

Defense:

Winning Factor: Woodson would be my top candidate cause his been the player of the year on D. but since we know his all ready a factor for the 16 games I'm going to go with Collins if his on his game his going to have some big plays.

Losing Factor: Dom Capers ... Even tho we have the lead we might pull one of those late moment (pitsburgh) / viking game moment which could cost us. *For the record I'm not complaining on Capers work I think he did a great job.

What about your opinion fellow fans.

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Offense

Winning Factor : Sitton and Wells. These guys have manhandled Tommie Harris. Especially Sitton has been great. If Dockett lines up against these two guys, we maybe could contain one of the best DTs in the league. You won't totally stop him, but if they could just give Rodgers some time and open some holes against him, that'd be a big blow to their defense and a boost to our offense.

A second winning factor would be Jones and Nelson. The Cardinals DBs behind McFadden and DRC are so bad, that they prefer to play base defense against 3, and sometimes even 4, receiver sets. That's something that we could easily exploit with our talented receivers.

Weak Link : 3rd quarter Aaron Rodgers. I know, Rodgers has been great, but if Warner and Fitz get hot at the same time, we're going to have to put up a lot of points. 10 a quarter is very realistic. Rodgers has had some problem finding his rhytm out of the locker room. In a shoot out, we're going to have to put up a lot of points throughout the game. We can't outscore the Cards if we fail for an entire quarter.

Defense

Winning Factor : DTs and OLBs. I think we'll be playing a lot of 2-4-5 against a team that likes to spread it out. If Jenkins and Jolly can take on those 3 interior linemen, it will leave Jones and Matthews in 1 on 1 match-ups. Something that's a big advantage to us, as their tackle play has been absolutely horrible.

Losing Factor : CBs. I know, it's been said way too often by now, but if there's anything that'll hold us back, it's having to use Bush and Underwood on legitimate receivers. The injury bug has bitten us hard on this position and it's amazing that we're as good as we are, but there's quite a drop-off from our starting guys to our nickel and dime corners. That said, having Boldin out is a huge boost for us. I feel a lot more confident in Bush lining up accross from Doucet or Urban than I do when he'd have to cover Breaston.

I like this post. It's fun.

O - winning factor & losing factor - the health of our OTs. They stay strong throughout the game, we win. We got a better D. Both teams have Os that can pound points.

D - Winning factor & losing factor - our blitzing. Warner has football smarts. Not the brightest guy when it comes to IQ, but he's got football smarts. He's going to recognize a lot of our blitzes. Capers needs to do some shifty thing and outsmart Warner. He can. I think Capers has even more football smarts than Warner does, and that's a pretty dang big compliment.

Our DBs will be fine as long as Warner's not given too much time. I already know we're going to shift Woody around so Warner's not going to have the luxury to just ignore the guy Woody will be covering.

So the execution phase comes simply down to time. Give Warner time to throw and the Cardinals can keep up with our high octane O. Limit his time and we generate a key turnover or two and win this one easily.

Rock sees it as our DBs for a losing factor but if we limit Warner's time, he won't have time to exploit the mismatches. See '07 Giants. Yes, they were mediocre. Our current DBs are much, much better than they were.

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And that's exactly why I said that our DTs and OLBs are the winning factor. If we manage to not give him any time, our DBs don't have to be that good.

I don't think that we should blitz Warner. Teams usually get burned badly when they blitz Warner. That's why it's so important to get pressure with just 4 guys and that's why our rushers are the key to victory this week. In my eyes, that is.

Great thread!

Offense --
1. Key factor - Rodgers. Will the other guys figure out a way to get to him and, especially, stop him from moving right out of the pocket to pass/run.
2. Weak link. Sorry, Mrs. Colledge, but your hubby is half of it. The other half is Clifton. Despite the stats foster has provided, and absent injury, I'm much less worried about the RHS of the OL as I was two months ago. But I've still got this apprehension about the LHS.

Defense --
1. Key factor -- NT. If Pickett/Raji do their magic, Matthews and Jones should have big days and Warner will be shell-shocked by half-time.
2. Weak point -- Bigby. If the Packers lose on defensive side of ball it will be because Whiz-hunter and Warner have found a way to exploit the safeties.

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No, Warner can be blitzed. It just has to be disguised. Like I said, Warner is football smart but Capers is even more football smart. He can be fooled, but only by someone who's better than he is.

Warner is a human being and as tough as he is, he still doesn't like taking hits. He kind of knows when the pressure is coming and will get rid of it. If we generate enough pressure, he'll throw it away. Incompletions in certain situations are just as good as sacks.

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I don't know. There's no blitz that can't be read by the QB. I think that Ben did quite a good job showing us that.

If Warner milks the clock and uses some different snap counts, he'll dissect our ILB Cross blitzes, our corner blitzes and what not quite easily, I think. Just like Ben did. And Roethlisberger is nowhere near Warner in football smarts.

Dom might dial up some special things, but this isn't Cutler we're playing. When you overload the right side and show that you're doing it with 5 seconds left on the clock, because the QB uses a different snap count, you're going to be screwed with Warner. With Cutler, not so much, as we saw.

Then again, who knows what Dom still has to throw at the Cards. Maybe that same overload play, but when the ball is snapped, 3 of the 4 LBs on that side drop back, while there's a corner and LB coming from the other side for instance.

I'm still not too confident about blitzing Warner, though.

Hate to say it, but look for a lot of 2 and 3 man lines on defense, 49r's manhandled Cards twice using these schemes.

Now that doesn't mean Capers won't be blitzing, but Warner is experienced and does exploit opposing defenses when they blitz.

Key factors on both sides is our big guys up front. They do their jobs and Packers should win.

Packers need to shut down the run game, something The Cards have found a little in Wells. A one dimensional team is a team that can be beaten.

The biggest negative is not a player or position, it is playoff experience, it's been said forever, the playoff are a different animal, experinced guys will bring their play up to a level they rarely do in the regular season.

I still think we have enough experience and talent to move on, damn IS IT SUNDAY YET?????

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The problem for us with the 3 man front is we don't produce any pressure on the QB. I don't know if the 49'rs did but we haven't been able to. I think a key matchup in the game is mathews vs. their left tackle. They lost their starter a couple of weeks ago and the guy in there now is not to good.

I would at least want to see us go at them with 4 and put Jenkins over there where he could raise havec with that weakness they have on their left side.

The thing the Cardinals do the best defensively is sacks. The rest of their numbers on defense are quite pedestrian. For a team that has gotten as many as they have you would think their pass defense numbers would be better but they do have a lot of INT's.

I think the #1 key is to control the game offensively using the run, screens, passes to RB's/TE's to offset their rush and keep Warner off the field and out of sync.

We have been excellent at winning the Time of Possession battle and equally as good at converting 3rd downs and as long as we continue with that Sunday we will be playing again the following week.

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Great thread. Unfortunately nearly everything is mentiond after 10 posts. ;)

I'm with you all thinking that too much blitz packages will cost us the game, but if a 4 man rush puts enough pressure on Warner, we're in a solid Position. That's why I love to have Pickett back. You can't have enough quality and fresh DLinemen to rush the passer in rotation.

If there's a possibility to set up the run and go with play-action afterwards, this will be a great day for the Packers. The mediocre cornerbacks (besides DRC, of course) will look horrible against DD/Jennings/Finley on the outside in one-on-one situations with the safeties supporting the run or with 8 Cardinals in the box.

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