Official Game Day Thread: Packers @ Bears - 9/25

[7thFloorRA]

I thought Hawk played better against Forte in the receiving game than I thought he would.

Peprah looked bad and that surprised me as he looked decent last year.

Why wasn't Hester ejected for that punch to the helmet?

 

[slaughter25]

Why wasn't Hester ejected for that punch to the helmet?

i'm glad he wasnt actually, just one more thing for bears fan to complain about. I think he would have got tossed if he would have hit the ref a bit more when he swung.

 

[FrankRizzo]

Things I got excited about:

Jermichael Finley.
Run defense. Forte got 2 yards, and Cutler was the leading rusher with 11 garbage time rushing yards. Reminds me of when Fritz "The Blitz" Shurmur held Barry Sanders to -2 yards in a playoff game.
Aaron Rodgers. On target as usual, barring an Urlacher interception, which I expected coming into this game anyway. 297 yards, 3 TDs, nabbed us the win.
Execution on 3rd down. Packers converted on key 3rd downs, including one at the end of the game to keep the Bears off the field.
Randall Cobb. You could've sworn he was going to break out for another TD, and he's great receiving, too.
Ryan Grant. Got back to 2007 form, at least for this game. Shredded the Bears run defense with a 100-yard game.

No Morgan Burnett?

 

[7thFloorRA]

Burnett was money today. Another excellent draft pick.

 

[Kitten]

I don't remember Starks ever losing a fumble in a game before. Has he ever? He sure seemed to have a bad hair day today.

Starks had an off day, no doubt about that. The question is why. It could be several things. I have a funny feeling the Bears game planned for him knowing we'd try to run him. They must of done their homework. They knew we'd be passing all over them and maybe they knew they couldn't stop us in the air so they concentrated on stopping us on the run. I am loathe to admit they were quite effective at stopping our running game. They had Starks stone cold and even troubled Grant to some degree. This is of course, hypothetical. I'm not in Lovie's head, nor is that a place I'd want to be. I think their ability to shut down our running game is part of the reason they stayed within striking distance. We would of put more points on the board if we had more positive running yards and I don't want to take anything away from Grant's day.

Back to Starks. I'm starting to wonder, and I hope this isn't the case, if his (non) injury or whatever occurred last week is perhaps more serious than we know. He was certainly not his SuperStarks self today and I'm not willing to concede the Bears D with full credit. Starks was off his game and the Bears D took advantage of it. I'm going to be watching him next week. He's a big part of my fantasy team and I am unwilling to part with him unless it's something really serious.

 

[7thFloorRA]

Starks was dancing alot today. Grant just hit a hole and plowed forward. I'm not sure there was a hole for Starks.....it's like he was looking for the cutback lane and it didn't exist. He will be fine next week. The Bears were prepared to defend his style of running and the only thing that annoyed me was that MM kept beating that dead horse after it failed time and time again.

 

[cheesehurdler]

I just thought Starks was off, today, and nothing more serious than that. Every player has their bad days. I'm sure he'll be giving Denver's run D hell next week.

No Morgan Burnett?

Oh, yeah! Totally forgot about him! Had a huge game today, with 2 Cutler picks. Was his normal physical self, today.

 

[Pat4DaPack]

Really liked the win today! Being a Packers fan from Chicago, this game is always stressful. But there was a lot of good and I'm excited for next week.

 

[dieautobot]

i was actually getting disgusted with the continued gives to Starks. it was clear early on that the Bears had him locked down. nobody wants to be one dimensional, but come on!!! like posted earlier, even Grant got stuffed a few times. i'm more than willing to chalk it up to a bad day for the already suspect Packers run game. i think the schedule gets easier and we can afford for Starks not to "show up" a few more times

 

[Forget Favre]

I'm just glad they won.
No complaints from me.
They found a way to do it and they just did it.

 

[Forget Favre]

This deserves both a "like" and a repeat.

We are the best team in football. Remember that. For all of our mistakes, we are still better than our competition. We won the game, sure there are things we need to work on but we have 3-0. This team is VERY strong. Not perfect, there is no such thing, but we are the best. I'm damn proud of the Packers and their win over the Bears. This always seems to be a close game no matter how good the Packers are playing. As long as we come away with the win, I'm a purring little kitten. We have much to celebrate, we are well on the way to a repeat SB!

Congrats Packers!!!

 

[Croak]

The good thing about the "stark" poor performance was it gave Grant a chance to show why he should be the starter. When healthy he was a work horse in the past. Now, with Grant stepping up, maybe Starks will worry about being relegated to the bench (where he belonged yesterday) and compete on a higher level to try to take that starting spot away from Grant.

Grant is a put your head down and run through the pile guy. While Starks likes to run to daylight. Chicago's linebackers are good at stopping "daylight" running. Apparently yesterday their d-line couldn't stop put your head down and bull through running.

 

[Croak]

You know, I was just thinking. I'll bet this is all a big plot by the powers that be. Green Bay keeps letting the other teams hang on in the game, so more Packer Backers have heart attacks, thus freeing up season tickets and shortening that incredibly long waiting list! That sends the faithful with weak hearts to paradise and those who have been waiting a long time get their shot at a heart attack. What an ingenious plan!

 

[bozo]

I can't believe anyone dissen Grant's performance yesterday...sure he got stuffed a couple of times, BUT he ripped off several big runs, especially in the 4th Qtr.

Here’s a rundown of his key runs:

Two carries for nine yards apiece on the second scoring drive that put the Packers up 14-0.

A 13-yard run on a field-goal drive late in the second quarter.

Runs of 14, 11 and 10 yards in a span of four plays on a field-goal drive in the third quarter.

And an 11-yard run early in the fourth quarter prior to Finley’s third TD.

Grant finished with 17 carries for 92 yards in all

That's a damn good day against one of the best rushing D's in the league

 

[FrankRizzo]

Frank Rizzo's Stars of the Game:
http://PackersInsider.com/

It really is hard to narrow it down to 5 !

 

[c_mac]

I sure would have liked to have seen Peprah play a little better. Seems like a lot of those big plays were a result of him blowing coverage or not tackling well. However, glad to see Morgan Burnett playing so well. If we can shore up some of our pass coverage issues, watch out, no team in football will be able to hang with us.

 

[VolvoD]

Grant and Finley killed it!

What's crazy is we needed this win JUST to keep up with the lions! Every single game is important this year...and that's scarey when looking at some of our weak spots (in pass rush etc).

 

[FrankRizzo]

So this is not a penalty? Guy is in there throwing jabs and straight rights, well after the whistle.... ???

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[SoCalPacker]

^ Yeah I didn't get that either. I thought it would of been called a penalty but it was just ignored

 

[ThePerfectBeard]

Told you grant didn't look that bad in preseason.... He's definitely not done.

 

[TJV]

I heard Wilde interview Rodgers yesterday. He told Wilde he got a negative grade from Clements for his performance against Chicago. Rodgers told Wilde that a grade of 90 and above gets a passing grade, anything below gets a negative one although there have been exceptions when an 89 gets elevated to a passing grade. Anyway, Rodgers said he was graded on 72 plays and 8 of those plays were negative and 64 of 72 rounds to 89%. No doubt Aaron’s first INT of the season prevented it from being elevated to a passing grade.

He also said Finley screwed up his assignments a couple of times in the game – on one of his TD catches, Finley thought it was a run – but obviously adjusted in time…

 

[Powarun]

Packers won! <- had to get that out of my system.