Family Night Summary

[Greg C.]

Just watched the Family Night scrimmage. Here's my take on it. Additions, corrections, and differences of opinion are welcome as always.

Note: First, the #1 offense played against the #2 defense, then the #2 offense played against the #1 defense. Then the #1's went against each other in a two-minute drill. Then the #2's went against each other in a two-minute drill. Then the #3's went against each other. In between, there was some punting and kicking.

Brett Favre--Looked as good as ever. Masterful in the two-minute drill.

Donald Driver--Looked like a big-time player. Caught three or four passes from Favre, including a long one and a TD.

Greg Jennings--Took the field opposite Driver with the #1 offense, but I didn't see Ferguson all night, so Fergy must be hurt. Jennings did nothing for awhile, but he made a couple of very nice catches in the two-minute drill. Caught a two-point conversion but blatantly pushed off. Returned one kickoff but got no blocking. Interviewed after the game and was well-spoken and humble.

Samkon Gado--Looked pretty good. Had a couple of decent runs. Did a great job following Colledge's block on a TD run, and finished with power as he dove for the goal line.

Noah Herron--Looked decent. Had one long run.

O-line--Hard to tell. Some good plays and some bad ones. The O-line play tends to be kind of messy in scrimmages, so I didn't get a really good take on it.

Junius Coston--Looked shaky at left tackle, and seemed to be getting a lot of help out there. KGB destroyed him on one play and knocked the ball out of Favre's hand.

Donald Lee--All over the place. Caught several passes from both Favre and Rodgers.

Aaron Rodgers--Looked pretty good early, although his receivers weren't getting open much. Good pocket presence and throws the ball with some zip. Threw a nice deep pass to Ruvell Martin and a TD pass to Marc Boerigter. Threw a horrible flare pass way over the head of Vonta Leach. In the two-minute drill, wasted way too much time with short throws in the middle of the field.

Marc Boerigter--Two catches, one for a TD.

Rod Gardner--Looked okay. Don't remember if he had any catches.

Ruvell Martin--Made at least a few catches and looked very good. May be a dark horse candidate to make the roster.

Cory Rodgers--Looked very good. Had one long punt return, one long kick return, and caught a slant pass that he took for about 50 yards before Carroll caught him from behind. Showed a great burst of speed on all three of those plays, which is just what you look for in a return man.

A.J. Hawk--Invisible.

Abdul Hodge--Made a couple of VERY good plays. Looks fast and tough.

Ahmad Carroll--A couple of good plays and a couple of not-so-good plays. Nothing disastrous, but did not stand out either.

Marviel Underwood--Made a couple nice plays, including an interception of a long pass by Rodgers.

Punters--Ryan punted one about 65 yards. He looked better than Sander. They only got a couple chances each.

Kickers--They each tried about five field goals, from various distances, and they each missed two, all hooked. Rayner's hooks were worse than Cundiff's. Not encouraging. Rayner's kickoffs were a little deeper than Cundiff's, but both were adequate.

FOX 11 did several interviews during the scrimmage, which was annoying because I just wanted to watch the action and get some commentary on it. But the interviews were sometimes not bad. Here are some highlights:

George Koonce had been in Canton earlier in the day for Reggie's induction into the Hall of Fame. He's working for the Packer organization in some capacity. He seems like a great guy.

Najeh Davenport made an interesting comment when asked about the difference between McCarthy and Sherman. He said that McCarthy makes everbody much more relaxed. He said that "you always felt a little antsy" around Sherman.

Brady Poppinga was very well-spoken and witty. He may end up as an analyst after his playing days are over. He said that he will begin practicing with the team on Monday, just non-contact stuff, and he expects to be in the lineup for the Cincinnati game on August 28th.

That's about it. It was kind of strange to watch an intrasquad scrimmage. I kept thinking, "When is the OTHER team going to get the ball?"

 

[PackerLegend]

I didn't see Ferguson all night, so Fergy must be hurt.

Wide receiver Robert Ferguson did not participate in the scrimmage for personal reasons, the Packers announced. With Ferguson missing, Jennings started with the No.1 offense.

 

[dannychau22]

hawk didnt do anything??

 

[Packersfan43084]

not too much anyway. He had few tackles but thats about it. I'm not too concerned though because the Qb's couldn't be hit and I think that may have changed up the d a little bit.

 

[yourout]

I thought Farve looked good. The offence as a whole showed alot more motion and combination routes than with Sherman. Gado and Herron suprised me a little. The other tailback.....Brown I think it was ....not so good.

I thought Rogers looked very shaky. Even the completions to wide open recievers were well off the mark.

The D as a whole looked weak. Hopefully the addition of Woodson will help.

 

[cyoung]

I thought Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre both looked very good and looked like they felt comfortable.

Abdul Hodge: my favorite Linebacker in the NFL (I'm a Hawkeye fan) made some very good plays and some hard tackles, so I'm sure he is very pleased.

Samkon Gado: well I thought he did a great job he wuld burst his way throug hthe defense and push his way through.

Noah Herrom: I was impressed with his style he would put a burst of speed on early and did a great job.

O-Line and D-Line - I thought both did good sacks came through and some Defense couldn't get through. It was a little hard to tell but I thought they did real good.

AJ Hawk - I saw a tackle or two but I didn't see a lot of him.

WR's : I liked what I say from Cory Rodgers and Donald Driver and even Donald Lee got hot hat one point. I think the Wide reciever corp will do very good.

Kickers I saw some good and bad they made some but few of there Field Goals were shanked big time.

 

[pyledriver80]

My take on the scrimmage.

Hodge is best suited in the middle. The hit he had in the backfield was more because of a missed block by Cooper. I liked Hodge's agressiveness. Definitely best suited in the middle.


Brett looked good. Rodgers is definitely improving but looked real anxious. Martin looked uncomforatable and awkward to me. Wrobel was a mess.


Gado struggled with the zone blocking scheme. The TD run should have been blown up in the backfield. Herron looked much more comforatable and actually really impressed me.


DD is awesome. Jennings really did not impress me much. I think the standout was Rogers. He looked really nice to me. Ruvell Martin also seems to be a playmaker. Boerighter made a nice catch in the end zone.

Lee looked really good. Martin stunk.


The O-Line was so-so. I actually thought the 2nd team O-line looked better than the first.


The Defensive line was invisible for the most part. I thought Montgomery and Peterson did a great job and after that everyone else was struggling to make plays.


Hawk did nothing. Barnett was active.


Carroll had nice coverage on the Ruvell Martin deep route. He also had good coverage on the Boerighter TD but Rodgers threw a strike in about the only place he could have put it.



Culver was the star of the Scrimmage. Took me by surprise. The guy was all over the place. Underwood saved his scrimage by intercepting that pass. Other than that I thought he looked terrible.


I like Ryan over Sander. We also better find a Kicker who can put the ball between the uprights. Cundiff and Rayner both looked bad. I did like Rayners kickoffs however.



Just some early observations that I had noticed.

 

[all about da packers]

Well here is another fan's take:

- Agree with the above on Favre looked great.

- Contrasting to some of the above, I thought A-Rod was terrific. Couldn't ask more form a two year old. He has presence, which is impressive for someone at the age of 22. He has strength. Above all else, he isn't afraid to get in the face of team mates. Has good field awareness.

- Colledge needs work on pass protection. His running protection is decent, but he is breaking down in pass plays.

- Gado dissapointed me, I expected to see something more from him. To be honest, IMO Herron looked better, more exlposive, and seemed to have a better understanding of the zone scheme.

- Rodgers has sick speed, and seems like he can end our search for a KR. Also has great potential as a WR.

- Hawk didn't do anything to stand out.

- McCarthy will establish the run, to open up pass lanes. He is heck bent on establishing the run.

- Culver can hit, definitely made a name for himself.

- Underwood is young, and will make mistakes. However he has some big potential. Showed flashes.

- Hodge is a beast. Very instinctive, if Barnett is moved, it will be because Hodge earned it.

 

[all about da packers]

pyle, I believe there were players from the 1st string O-Line that also played as part of the 2nd string O-line. I agree about 2nd string > 1st string. White looked good.

 

[all about da packers]

Tromadz view:

* The Kickoffs by Cundiff and Raynor were VERY good. Whoever kicks off should get the job dnoe easy there. Raynor had a kick off go THROUGH the endzone!

*A-Rod ....looks great. When did this happen? He was hitting guys perfectly and they would drop them (thats why you have to look beyond numbers,etc). He looked calm in the pocket, and made GREAT decisions and some really good throws. I was very surprised to see him do so well.

*David Martin still looks crappy...Donald Lee seemed to catch almost everything close to him though.

*Jason Hunter, a backup DE, made some really good plays, he blocked a pass, and he forced a fumble. You like to have a guy like that on your team. Ive said it before and will one more time: Our Dline depth is great

*DB Fontenot(NFLE) is not very good. He had a penalty, and got beat a couple times. Just a poor showing.

*Driver was double teamed, Favre threw it anyway, jump ball, Driver catches it. I think we will see that a lot this year.

*Corey Rodgers caught a simple slant, and turned it into a 40 yard(ish) gain! It was cool. Wishom brought him down though.

*The offense had a lot of motion, and a lot of tight, cluster packages. NOt a lot of spread out sets it seemed.

*Gado looks to have added like 15 pounds, but he looks good. So did Herron, who broke a couple good gains. Gado\Herron will make really good backups to Ahman\Najeh.

*Hodge made some GREAT stops, even better stops than HAwk. Hodge is a monster.

*On an A-Rod to Martin deep pass attempt, Carroll interfered(not called, I will have a clip of it shortly, nonbelievers)

*UNderwood had an int, and an allaround good night. I heard his name a bunch(in a good way)

*Jennings was interfered\held, caught it anyway, and went 20 more yards!

*Pass D doesnt look too good though

*Field goal kicking is going to give us all heart attacks. 20 bucks says Edinger is signed before wednesday.

*Gado had a great TD run, and a good block by jennings on it.



Thats basically it. I am gonna get some clips (dvd recorded) and put them up or something.

 

[all about da packers]

Yeah trom, Gado looked to have added weight, but I was really unimpressed.

Carroll impressed me, but that has happened before...

Good call on Hunter, but I was looking for Tollefson to step up... still hoping that happens.

Depth Chart for Scrimmage:

FS - Collins
SS - Manuel
CB - Harris
CB - Woodson

LB - Hawk
LB - Barnett
LB - Taylor

DE - KGB
DE - A-Kamp
DT - Ryan Pickett
DT - Kendrick Allen

 

[tromadz]

Carroll didnt bring down Rodgers on the slant, it was #41 Wishom. AC cleaned it up and sealed it. If wishom wasnt there, theres no tackle. If AC wasnt there, there still woulda been a tackle.

He also pass interefered on his great coverage play on ruvel martin(sp).

I will have a video of it tomorrow. I have to record the one at 2am, cuz i messed up at dvd recording, cuz i suck at it.

 

[Raider Pride]

This is why I love this forum.

I feel like I was just at the scrimmage, but I was not.

Great feed-back.

This may be the perfect thread.

Thank You all.

R.P.

 

[Anubis]

Thanks for all the reports. Sounds like we are off to a good start! 8)

GO PACK!!!

Robert C. Hedley

 

[arrowgargantuan]

This is why I love this forum.

I feel like I was just at the scrimmage, but I was not.

Great feed-back.

This may be the perfect thread.

Thank You all.

R.P.

yeah i second that...and i actually saw the damn game. :doh:

 

[Packnic]

seriously.,.. i didnt see a stitch of the game and i feel very informed preciate fellas...

now lets get some video TROM... jeez its been like 2 hours hurry up


also.... lets not freak out about AJ not doing anything special yet. he will be good and as long as he doesnt screw up we shouldnt jump his case. The more pressure we put on him, the harder its gonna be for him to live up to it. but im very excited to hear that Abdul "The Butcher" Hodge is doing spectacular. Nothing would make the transition from the Favre era easier to accept than a solid, renowned linebacking crew. THanks again im gettin retarded excited

 

[tromadz]

I wont have it till tomorrow. I have to record the replay which is on in an hour (2am) cuz the first one didnt work, cuz im a dvd recording noob.

just soak up the info we gaves ya, till i can get some video up.

 

[all about da packers]

While trom will get some videos up, I'll be buying a laptop with a tv tuner in about a month or so, then I will attempt to try and upload the entire thing on here.

 

[Packnic]

im just messin man. if you can do it in under a week id be impressed. i have all the info i can digest for tonight anyway.

 

[all about da packers]

yeah i second that...and i actually saw the damn game. :doh:

Whats with the :doh: at the end?

Actually wouldn't mind seeing your opinion..... once you actually get through that jokester, you have some damn fine insight. That is of course if you were sober enough to remember what you saw...:lol:

 

[all about da packers]

One last thing:

A commercial aired with Dan Marino starring, and by God was it terribly. It talked about "eating what you want, when you want" and loosing weight, and loosing weight helping your sex life.

Turned away from the commerical, and turned back later to here "MY SEX LIFE HAS IMPROVED LEAPS AND BOUNDS". Whats so bad about this? Well maybe that my volume was REALLY high, and my neighbours were listening. To cap it all off, somehow that commerical started to rewind on my box, and it went through the "IMPROVE YOUR SEX LIFE" stuff again. I wanna now punch Dan Marino, and the person who came up with that stupid commercial...

 

[arrowgargantuan]

yeah i second that...and i actually saw the damn game. :doh:

Whats with the :doh: at the end?

Actually wouldn't mind seeing your opinion..... once you actually get through that jokester, you have some damn fine insight. That is of course if you were sober enough to remember what you saw...:lol:

:doh: <----that guy always looks ashamed to me.

i'm with the camp that thought A-Rod's performance was sub-par. it seemed like the majority of his throws were off the mark, or to WR's that were covered too closely. to his credit, i noticed quite a few drops, but that might refer back to the "covered too closely" point.

personally, i thought Gado did fine. i can't figure out why some thought he struggled today.

Herron was really impressive. i didn't really care for his play last season so i was taking the raves of his TC performance with a grain of salt. dude can run though.

Martin angered me.

Brett played well. i would like to have seen more of a fluid offense since he was playing against the second string. he's still got the fire though. i loved how he picked up the ball that KGB stripped and chucked it...

o-line performance was a mixed bag, there were some successes though.

it's hard to get upset or excited from an inter-squad scrimmage. they were pairing the 1st string against the 2nd for god sake. we can get a more realistic look at this team in the preseason.

 

[4packgirl]

i knew y'all would have some awesome summaries of the scrimmage this morning - you did NOT disappoint!! thanks a million guys!!

 

[yooperfan]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the scrimmage info.
I couldn't wait to get on the puter this morning to read everyones take on it.
I didn't see Woodson mentioned at all. Did he not play?
The kicking game does not sound good at this point which is pretty much what I expected. I can't help but think it is going to hurt us this year.
I did see an interview with Hawk and got the impression they were keeping him on a leash at least till they play San Diego. Hopefully we will start to see him show up more from then on.

 

[cyoung]

yeah Woodsen didn't play and I'm sure the kick game will get better.