For various reasons I couldn't watch worth a damn until halfway through the 4th quarter. Some questions, for favor?

Did anyone get a leg up in the punting competition?
How did Burnett look?
How did Harrel do?
During what little I did catch I saw Underwood making plays. Was he that good the rest of the game?

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In order:

- I still think it's a pretty even competition. Both punters were solid, although both had 1 punt where you'd like to see more (Masthay: 1 touchback, Bryan: last punt was a about 43 yards, but only in the 3.9 range of hangtime). Other than that, both were solid... like Trom said we should have a decent punter this year.

- I missed the beginning stages of the game so I can't give you an adequate answer. I do know, based on what Nick Collins said after the last practice, Burnett was going to be handling making the calls for the DBs in this game to get some real-game practice at doing it.

- Harrell looked like he belonged, actually. Had a couple of moments, obviously is a big guy that can occupy blockers. Has some quickness / size combination to him that can cause problems. A couple of times he did give the opposing G / C problems. Huge positive is that he is still injury-free (knock on wood).

- Underwood, from my perspective, had some speed to him. Also, he is athletic. Looks to have better ball awareness than he did his rookie year (you'd expect that to be the case). He was solid. You certainly could do worse (see Bush, Jarret) at the Nickel.

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The game calling seemed less than plain vanilla at times. (Unflavored would be closer.)

I understand it is the first game of preseason and all but it just seemed like the coaching staff made no effort at all to win the game especially in the 2nd half.

They sort of turned Rodgers loose when he was in the game but were limited for the rest.

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I believe in Ryan Grant he just had bad luck in that game he knows hes good and I do too I really believe in him.I bet he'll turn around next game

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Overall, I'd say it was kind of a crummy preseason game for the Packers, but not disastrous.

Aaron Rodgers was the standout. He made all the throws, and made them look easy. He's so smooth out there. Some nice plays by the receivers too, especially Jennings and Finley.

Matt Flynn made a couple of big-league throws but was otherwise mediocre. Threw a couple of checkdowns on third and long when he had more time and looked uncomfortable when flushed out of the pocket.

Graham Harrell was awful. Wormburners.

Ryan Grant fumbled, but he only fumbled once all last season, so no worries for now. Bummer to see him stagger off the field after receiving a blow to the head on his third carry.

The starting O-line was no good on running plays but decent in pass protection. Bulaga was in there for at least one of the two TD drives.

Lumpkin and Porter both looked very good. Quinn Johnson looked very good blocking for them and also made a good tackle in punt coverage.

The starting defense had no pass rush. They were not doing a lot of blitzing, but still, it is apparent that if Clay Matthews is not on the field this defense will not be able to generate much pressure. Personally, I have had my doubts from the beginning about Ryan Pickett starting at DE. He's not a pass rusher. I think there is a big dropoff from Johnny Jolly to him in this regard.

Mike Neal made a good play, sniffing out a screen pass and tackling the ball carrier near the line of scrimmage.

The announcers praised Justin Harrell on one play for getting a good push, but I didn't see it. He did seem to be holding his own out there, though I think he looks more like a nose tackle than a DE. Combine this with my concerns about Pickett at DE, and I would like to see Mike Neal get more snaps there, if he's up to the task. Neal is sleeker and more mobile than either of those guys.

Didn't see any mistakes by Morgan Burnett, and he made a nice tackle to hold an RB to a short gain. Wrapped him up good.

Jarrett Bush made a few nice plays on special teams and as a CB, then made a big mistake near the end of the game, allowing a long completion to a TE down the seam.

The special teams looked as bad as ever, but that's no surprise. Every training camp, McCarthy says they are going to improve, but I stopped believing him a year or two ago.

The punters each had some good kicks, but there was one awful one by Bryan. I'm still not convinced that either of them will be any better than Kapinos.

Sam Shields bobbled a kickoff and fumbled away a punt. The punt was a tricky situation, trying to field a short kick in traffic. What concerns me most is how it could affect his confidence.

I have an idea for a drinking game: Take a drink every time color commentator Rich Gannon says the word "atha-letic" or any variation of it ("atha-leticism," "atha-letically"--he even said "atha-lete" once). Get this idiot out of the booth please.

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I think you have to remember that the Packers weren't aggressive defensively this game. Not like last year. It was apples and oranges with the way Dom Capers called the game. I don't think he wants to show much this year because they know the system.

With that said, I'm concerned about the LBs. There wasn't a pass rush without Clay Matthews and Brandon Chiller didn't impress me rushing the passer from the OLB position. They also gave him a long look there. He was out there in the fourth quarter. The inside backers, once again, struggled in coverage. A.J. Hawk got smoked by Ben Watson.

Offensively, Ryan Grant had a rough day. First carry, he fumbles and then the next carry, he gets knocked out of the game. You know, the running game is what it is. By now, we know it'll probably be average. That's what it's been under Mike McCarthy and it's always slow to develop.

I'll have to watch the DBs more closely to see how Burnett did. He did come up and make a great tackle in run support.

Bulaga vs. Colledge. I give the edge to Bulaga. He looked like he belonged out there. I saw Colledge get beat a couple of times and right after one of Colledge's guys pressured Flynn, the next play Bulaga stonewalled him. Only saw Bulaga get beat once and it wasn't in pass protection. It was in run blocking.

Justin Harrell looked pretty good. Kinda like the fourth best defensive lineman. He definitely occupied blockers like a space eater, which is what a 3-4 DE does. But he also pressured the QB at least once and made a nice stop in the backfield I believe too. Just sayin'

Also impressed with Toribio.

Matt Flynn is going to get a lot of hate, but he wasn't bad. He made one throw to James Jones that took some balls because he took a big hit when he delivered it. Jordy Nelson was interfered with on one throw, but it's normally a catch he usually makes too. So Flynn's numbers could have been better.

Sam Sheilds will make the team as a CB before he does it as a return man, which brings me to the awful special teams. The Browns had a couple of nice returns. The return team couldn't catch the ball. It was a mess.

Rodgers looked even better than last year at this time. He made one throw that was amazing and actually, I'm talking about the first-down completion to Donald Lee. Why? I've never seen him get rid of the ball so quickly. I was shocked to see him make a read that fast. Just me speculating, but I bet he worked on that part of his game this offseason.

I'm probably going to watch the game again and maybe I'll change my tune on some things. Overall, I'd say not as bad as some downers will say, but it wasn't pretty either. Really concerned about special teams.

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Thoughts:

No serious injuries = good.

The game = absolutely meaningless.

I know there will be those that say, "I know its only preseason, but..."

No, there is no , "but."

Its preseason. It means absolutely nothing. The end. 🙂

Reading through the thread, I see most of the same opinions. I feel if Jonnie Jolly where in camp, Harrell would have to seriously compete for a job. I hope the coaches are going to play this kid much more. To me...he held his own against the Browns second string, but that first string packer defense got their asses whipped.

No pass rush,couldn't stop the run, so I can't really say I feel Justin Harrell nor Bush had games where I would feel great about either player. Justin may make the team b/c there really is no depth @ his position. Let's see if he can stay healthy for a whole season.

I'd like to see Sam shields make the team over Bush. Breaking up a play like bush did against a reserve player is nothing special to me.

Like to see a rookie, or UDFA RB challenge Ryan Grant for his starting spot.

If GB makes the playoffs, and has a great season, I think it will be largely b/c of A-Rod play.

I think you can definitely mention 2010 MVP and A-rod in the same breath.

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I was impressed with Underwood last night. For such a tiny guy, he can hit hard. I saw at least one tackle that was picture-perfect form: wrapping up, driving through the ball carrier, all the way into the turf.

We can't read too much into Graham Harrell's performance yesterday. He's the third string QB, he's working with the scrub line. Rodgers once looked awful in the preseason too. I hope Harrell sticks. He was one of the most amazing quarterbacks in NCAA history. Putting him through the quarterback school and beefing him up in the weight room in the offseason will surely help. No one's really given him a serious chance.

We need Quinn Porter on this team. I'm a little nervous that Lumpkin might have looked too good yesterday. I don't want to see him on the roster come Week 1. ;)

As long as our offensive line and defense hold up, Rodgers has to be one of the top three preseason MVP favorites. He was nothing short of stellar last night. Not that preseason statistics are all that revealing; Sage Rosenfels did, after all, throw for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns yesterday.

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Cleveland was blitzing in that game.

The line held, which makes Rodgers and our receiving corps simply unstoppable.

Offensively, that is what we lacked far too often. I don't give a shit about our running game if that is what is going to happen when a team blitzes us. Hell, you can trade away all those bums at RB for all I care.

Harrell looked good to me. I'm taking back my smart-ass comments about him--again--for now.

Our base defensive package without blitzes will be good to go if an opposing team opts to start his 2nd string offense instead of the first.

Why does it seem that every hot and cold QB in this league is invariably "hot" when they play the Packers... Jake is the classic example, and he looked all-world against our D

Shields can't be doing that shit, or he'll be working at Walmart soon.

I'm gettin' me another Aaron Rodgers jersey, lol-- He is friggin' scary with protection.

I thought Matt was fine, but that deep ball was rather tragic. I hope he was rushed or something, because that arm strength (or lack thereof) was not reflective of the minimum requirement for an NFL QB
--there seemed to be something screwy with the body position, ever so slight, and on some subsequent throws it seemed pretty obvious he has a much stronger arm than that POS girly-throw would indicate.

Is it Slocum? One has to wonder.