Cardinals at Packers

[edave]

Game Day
http://www.packers.com/gameday/game/2012/regular9/

Dope Sheet
http://www.packers.com/news-and-even...1-0be30523e82e

It's a national game and I get to see it live. Yay!

McCarthy says they're going into the bye 6-3 or else. The or else is that the bye is going to start late and everyone is working on Monday.

If you haven't seen McGinn's grades from last week you might not want to look. They were bad for everyone. PFF had the OL positive across the board for pass blocking. Not so much for run blocking.

Lang is battling some kind of elbow injury and wearing a brace. It popped up a couple places over the last week or so but hasn't been discussed much.

This the last game at Lambeau until week 13 and the first meeting with the Cardinals since the wild Wild Card game to end the 2009 season.

Out:

Jennings
Kuhn
Perry
Shields
Woodson
Worthy

Questionable:

McMillian
Nelson

And Frank Zombo has moved onto the active list.

[edave]

Rodgers was erratic, receivers were still dropping balls, Nelson left early with a twisted ankle, Starks and Driver both tried to give me a heart attack but the Packers win partly on the back of the running game.

Lang did a nice job at RT after Bulaga left with the hip injury. Dietrich-Smith looked pretty good at LG too so we didn't get to see him working as a TE and motioning into the backfield this week.

Finley did extend his hands and to make a catch at least once. Something I'm looking for after all the talk this week.

The Cobb TD on a slant behind Driver was a gift, but the team was due.

J. Jones had a couple amazing grabs, especially on the long TD down the left sideline. Great play.

I love Cobb but he has to hold onto the ball when getting rolled on his back. The pick was on him, not Rodgers.

Twitter blew up after Bush couldn't bring down Stephens-Howling in the backfield for a 3 yard loss and he beat B. Jones to the corner for a TD. Bush almost makes an amazing play and people are cursing him. I need to unfollow some people.

Starks as the starter with Green on 3rd would be my pick. He runs over people, Green doesn't yet.

Driver got a nice spot on the play when he tried to kill me. +2 for Donald this game from the refs.

Walden wasn't entirely consistent but he had a pretty nice game.

Matthews perpetually ailing hamstring is back. He needs the bye badly.

I'm very glad our punter is not Zastudil. Shank, 65 yards, shank, 55. Eek.

Williams had a really bad tackle attempt on the Fitzgerald TD through about 6 Packers. Just not in the right spot.

Hayward was up and down all day. An early long reception to Roberts and then Housler turned him around in circles, shortly afterward Roberts again. He made a lot of positive plays too.

The crowd got too quiet near the end of the third as if sensing the game was slipping away. Isn't that when the crowd is supposed to get into it?

Two plays after I wrote that they needed something good to happen Crabtree slips out of the backfield and Rodgers finds him all alone for a 72 yard TD.

Goode keeps showing up in punt coverage. That's awesome when your center is right there in the thick of it and can corral someone like Peterson.

Peterson has his second muff of the game, Bush tries to swim into the end zone and I am laughing uncontrollably. Game over.

[packa7x]

Twitter blew up after Bush couldn't bring down Stephens-Howling in the backfield for a 3 yard loss and he beat B. Jones to the corner for a TD. Bush almost makes an amazing play and people are cursing him. I need to unfollow some people.

I'm more mad at Jones on this one, the miss by Bush is forgivable. Jones could have prevented a TD by changing his angle. You let the runner get outside, you cut off your support. Give up a couple yards and make your angle more parallel to the stripes. Force Howling back inside where your help is.

I'd also like to point out some positive signs...Dezmon Moses, Davon House, Mike Daniels, and Mike Neal had positive games.

This is a battered squad (what else is new) and we almost let this one go here. The Tommy Crabtree TD allowed us to take a sizable lead late, but it ws closer than that. The offensive line is killing me. Rodgers makes some amazing plays, but they scare me so much!

[mikesteelnation1]

Good step up by Cobb today.. he had a great game. Nelson killed me in fantasy today..

@Packa Cmon bro. It's part of the game being battered. Most teams are missing key guys. It's all about who weathered the injury storm mixed with who had the deepest roster come sb time!!

[packa7x]

Lol of course it's about being battered, I'm just saying that's nothing new for us. It's when guys get battered or start sucking that allow things like the 72 yard TD to Crabtree to happen. Like the Steelers, Pats, and Giants, our reserves are hungry!

[edave]

About the touchdown everyone blamed (blames?) on Bush, here's a breakdown. I saw the problem on Sunday night and figured I might as well try an experiment here.

2Q13:31

TE Jeff King motions from the up back out of the backfield to the weak side (right) and everyone shifts to cover the imbalance. Then Sherman comes inside from the left side wing back to just about the same location vacated by King and at the snap he also goes right, blocking ahead of Stephens-Howling.

That's Burnett's side. Maybe Hawk too.

When Burnett and Hawk crash inside the Cardinals have lots of open field on the right side and numerical superiority.

Jones did get a step deep, but they were only a yard away.

I'm content to call it getting out coached but if blame must be assigned I'm gonna have to give it to Burnett.







More pictures in the next post...

[edave]

And here are the rest...