Packers and Giants -- In Search of a Defense and a Running Game

Whethere you're a Giants fan or Packer fan, you can't peg the Packers after one game that they played against arguably the best team in the NFL in this early part of the season.

The Packer defense underwent a major overhaul this off-season and there are a lot of rookies out there who are being asked to make an impact: Perry, Worthy and Hayward for starters. It is way too early to say that the Packers have basic weaknesses that are going to last throughout the season. The OL looked bad, the defense looked blah, and the tackling was bad. Neither you nor I have any idea how much improvement there is going to be by mid-season. Perry and Worthy are not comfortable out there yet by a long shot. It's obvious. That's the perennial problem with rookies. But to say that the defense we saw against the 49ers is going to be the WYSISYG for the rest of the season? Or that those players are a wash-out? I'll bet good money against that.

And most of all, the Packers were obviously not ready for the kind of play that SF brought last Sunday. Intensity, communication, general in-sync-ness were not there. SF just gave them a big wake-up call, a real big one. Don't underestimate what that will do to the psychology of this team.

Cheers, see you Nov. 25th in your house.

To the OP (and Forderick): you won't see any excuse-making from me, I'll give you that the Giants were the better team that day, and as a Pack fan, Matthews' recent comments absolutely embarrassed me, especially from a team that's been known to usually give teams their due after a game. And like our season, I'll give you that it's a little premature to write the Giants playoff chances just yet, though next week's game against Tampa Bay (and our Thursday Night game against the Bears, too, for that matter) should be a good indication of the probable direction of both our teams.

That being said, the 9ers are a much better team than the Cowboys (they're many analyst's fave to come out of the NFC for a reason you know; same great defense from last year and a much improved receiving corps), even with their supposed improvements in the secondary, so I think your loss stings a little bit more (a team that was one play away from making the SB last year and only got better vs. a team that has failed to reach the playoffs the last 2 years in a row, and has exactly 1 playoff win in 15 years under their belt). Again, it's only the first week of the regular season, so you can't write either team off just yet, I'm just sayin'.

EDIT: oh, and another thing, if you want to point to the scab refs calls giving us points in the GB-SF game (the blown flag pick up in the block-in-the-back on Terrell Manning on the RC punt return for a TD), the replacement refs were terrible on BOTH sides yesterday. I could just as easily point to the 3 straight SF false starts missed, which led directly to a 9er TD, and a phantom RTP call on Matthews, which led to another. A 49er fan friend of mine even said the refs missed/botched calls both ways yesterday. I never thought I'd say this, but man do I want the real refs back.

I should be at that game and am really looking forward to it.

The Packers only need a defense and we will be set... we just need to find a running game that will get us 40-50 yards per game and we will be good. The Packers didn't need a running game in 2010.

That was one helluva game.

Eli threw 3 ints in the firat half and them came out and lit it up for a total of 3INTS 3TDs and 510 yards.

Our run game improved but I am still concerned about the O line and our secondary is bad. .


Classless move by Bucaneers taking cheap shot at Eli on the kneeldown. No surprise cause Bucs have always been a classless organization.

A comeback win at home is real nice and we needed it. Next up is Carolina Panthers on Thursday.

Ahmad Bradshaw hirt his neck but he ran off the field so I am thinking it is not too serious. Brown filled in nicely.

It was a very entertaining game, I must say. Eli looked like Jay Cutler in the first half and in the second half he went crazy. Tampa Bay secondary was completely disorganized in the second half.

Things I learned from Week 2. #1. Eli still has his foot soundly planted on that clutch.