Seasons is 1/4 done

[AmishMafia]

¼ way through the season.

Who would have thought?
Minny is in 1st place
Minny QB has a QBR more than 20 pts higher than Rodgers.
J.Jones has been our best receiver
Refs seem to hate us
Are offense is far short of their performance from last season
There would be so many good teams this season.
49ers beat us. Minny clobbers 9ers. Indy clobbers Minny. Its a weird season - tough to predict.

What We Know
Coaches are expecting big things from Cobb
Our defense seems to be either good or really bad.
MM is not afraid to take some chances.
We are not as dominating as I may have expected
Benson has some left in the tank


Going forward
We get Neal Back. I think B. Jones is gone.
The fake FG and Punt will pay unseen dividends throughout the season. Every team we play is going to have to keep some of their ST units at the LOS for an extra ½ second. May not seem like much but it is a game of inches. Our coverage units will be better because of this.
This may be TT’s best draft out of some very good ones. Worthy, Hayward, Daniels, McMillan, and Perry are all contributing and all look to be very capable of developing into ‘impact’ players. Other players, especially Manning, may have some impact down the road. You have to like Mannings attitude, sick as a dog all TC, but never complaining and sticking to it. The man has a HOF attitude - lets hope he develops.
Minny isn’t staying at #1 for very long

Expectations
Although I am always optimistic, I think it is warranted this year. I think we are growing and developing as a team every week. I think the bad call against Seattle will be a rally point for this team. We have some tough games coming up. So be it. Lets learn our weaknesses and then work to correct them early. I am still thinking 11-5 is about right for this team.

 

[Bensalama21]

You should add the fact that Tim Masthay has turned into a consistent probowl caliber punter. Other than that, I like the insight!

 

[Forget Favre]

At one point things looked hopeless for us in 2010 and then it was the Super Bowl, baby!
And in 2011 we were just so frickin awesome and unbeatable! And then we got beatable towards the end and in the playoffs.
And now this.
Every season is different. I hope that it's a repeat of 2010 yet it also has elements of 2011.
I dunno....
It is what it is and I'll enjoy every win even if it's a nail biter like the one against the Taints was.
Just be glad we're not the Browns or another cellar team.

 

[Brandon]

Our entire team on both sides of the ball appears to have no identity yet this season, and thus far has been schizophrenic at best. Last year you KNEW that offense was coming out to bring the boom, but you also knew that even the most lowly of QB's could rip our defense to shreds. This year... you really don't know what you're going to get next week. We might have a stagnant offense and an elite defense, or a ridiculously bad defense and an elite offense like yesterday.

I think I like knowing that our defense has the potential to step up versus last year knowing we were going to get torn apart, but obviously there needs to be a bigger change somewhere to get consistently good defensive play. I'm not too worried about our offense right now so much as I am the offensive line, although for whatever reason they did seem much more improved since the Seattle game likely due to an anemic Saints defense.

At any rate I very realistically see us finishing only slightly ahead of the Vikings this year, which I say swallowing my pride but it is surely appearing that way. We still win the division though and make the playoffs, and hopefully by then we'll be the hungry team and not the "team to beat" since, as of late, those teams end up meeting their end.

 

[Purplepeopleeater]

I don't know, I think the Packers always seem to get better as the cold weather sets in and teams have to go up to Lambeau. I do agree, unfortunately, that the Packers will finish in front of the Vikes. But, heck, I did not expect the Vikings to win more than 3 games this year, and they look like they might double that. I don't know why, but I still don't trust Ponder. I don't trust Peterson's knee to hold up. It's all good right now though, and my Vikes may actually give you all a good game this year. Nothing better than when Packer/Bears/Vikings are all good and the rivalries are worth hooting about.

 

[13 Times Champs]

I don't know about the Seattle game being a rallying point. Damn near lost yesterday.
I haven't seen much out of Perry. In fact Walden played most of the snaps yesterday. Other rookies I agree with.
Neal is back but he needs to show he is a player. We didn't see that from him last year.

 

[HardRightEdge]

I wouldn't say JJ has been our best receiver. Cobb, Finley, Jordy, JJ...pretty balanced, pretty even. If I had to pick, I'd say Cobb...18 catches out of 21 targets is impressive, leads the team in yards after catch, 10 first downs (one less than each of the other 3).

The defense has been good against offenses with some disfunction, not so hot against the more polished and disciplined opponents. It becomes increasingly clear with each passing season, each passing game (if it wasn't clear already in the wake of Jenkins' departure), that Caper's defense begins and ends with the pass rush, and so far we're not getting what we need from Perry. It's still an open book...lots of young guys there as you say.

The guy Neal replaces is an interesting question. Could be Jones...we've got 11 LBs, he's not seeing any time expect on ST, and he's the highest paid of the candidates. Could be Francois, though. Could be Sean Richardson.

"There would be so many good teams this season." Not sure what that means. I suppose if you only look at the NFC which is +6 so far, it looks that way.

Of all the points made, the biggest surprise in my mind (more than our inconsistent offense) is Ponder's QB rating and the fact he has not thrown a pick this season. That they beat JAX or DET or lost to IND I don't find particularly surprising. But beating SF is the upset of the year to date. I guess we should conclude SF looked past them.

I don't see the Fail Mary as a rallying point. The fact they could put it behind them in short order and get on with business without a hangover is encouraging.

 

[GeeDogWarrior]

Our defense feels like the 2009 defense - elite for several games - average a few games - then downright garbage against Good to Great QBs... only difference being the depth we've got in the secondary and in the Dline compared to 09 when all we had was Collins/Woodson/Tramon after Harris went down. Our offense feels like the early 2010 "Why's Rodgers struggling?" offense...

idk, It's better to stumble a little early - then catch people off guard by elite play in the middle of the season - ride that hot seat to the playoffs and give it a shot at the big one. Hoping we get the Superbowl this year.

 

[AmishMafia]

idk, It's better to stumble a little early - then catch people off guard by elite play in the middle of the season - ride that hot seat to the playoffs and give it a shot at the big one. Hoping we get the Superbowl this year.

That is the path of the last 3 SB winners. Packers barely made the playoffs in 2010. I know Packers have an employee whose job is to analyze NFL trends. Maybe this is one they believe in. I doubt it.

 

[Wood Chipper]

The Falcons are on the hot streak we had last year.

 

[Jules]

The Falcons are on the hot streak we had last year.

Kinda seems that way so far. First seed again in the Falcons future? I'll say this. If they can't get at least one playoff win this year with the weapons Ryan has and all this hype then I don't want to hear it anymore.

To be fair, Peyton Manning also started out in the playoffs 0-3. Ryan is no young Manning though but that gets thrown in my face a lot when people criticize his playoff performances.

 

[TJV]

On the Packers/Colts thread FrankRizzo quoted Pro Football Focus.

The quarterback mold that has seen success against the Green Bay secondary is the extremely accurate quick passer (e.g. Alex Smith, Drew Brees) and inconsistency plays right into the Packers’ hands (e.g. Jay Cutler).

IMO this is an important point going forward. But what defense wouldn’t struggle against an “extremely accurate quick passer”? The answer IMO is one that can press receivers at the LOS to disrupt timing routes those QBs depend upon. But there’s risk in that strategy because if the receiver defeats the bump at the LOS, there’s a chance for a big play and that’s one of the things that killed the Packers D last season.

But defenses shouldn’t be viewed in a vacuum – the field position and points provided and surrendered by a team’s STs and the proficiency of the offense (or lack thereof) have a large impact on the performance of the D. IMO the Packers D has been aided by the STs this season perhaps slightly more than last season but the struggles on offense have had the largest “outside” influence on the D, and of course it’s been a negative influence. In addition the PFF article cited above makes the point that the Packers D has “lived” on turnovers since the arrival of Woodson. But look at the Packers D at the conclusion of the first quarter of the season: They have played well enough to win 3 of 4 games. In fact the bad calls in the Seattle game took away an INT in enemy territory, added to the passing yardage total surrendered, and added a TD. So the Packers D stats should be better. Even so, as I type this before the Colts game the Packers are 10th in the league in points per game surrendered. And they have done that in an out-of-character way: They are tied for 14th in INTs with 4 (while the leading Bears have 11) after having been first or second in each of the last three seasons. And they are one of four teams that haven’t recovered a fumble (except for another ref screw-up).

What this means to me is the defense has improved even more significantly than many of us realize: At this point in the season the Packers offense is the worst its been under McCarthy; the struggles on offense has increased the burden on the D, and the turnovers the Packers D has relied upon for the past several seasons are few and far between. Yet the Packers are 10th in scoring D and would be higher except for incompetent refs.

Back to those quick-throwing accurate QBs: I hope as the season goes on as the offense returns to form and puts more pressure on opposing offenses, and the youngsters on D get more acclimated, Capers will play more bump and run man coverage against them.

 

[JBlood]

I won't be surprised if we beat Houston. We're 5.5 pt dogs today. The team will play like it has something to prove, which it does.

 

[rodell330]

I won't be surprised if we beat Houston. We're 5.5 pt dogs today. The team will play like it has something to prove, which it does.

They had something to prove against Indy and that was we are a far superior team and we are going home with a W. Well my friend that was their mindset the first half of the football game. Unfortunately they forget in the NFL you have to play four quarters and blew a what 18 point lead and now they get to travel to houston to face who many consider the NFL's top team. Good luck. They are going to get their you know what kicked if the o-line can't block and the defense can't defend because Houston is superior...Indy is not.

 

[JBlood]

Agreed. For some reason the Packers seem to think the opposition is going to wilt when they see us trot onto the field. If you can't control the line of scrimmage, you have trouble winning--even in today's game.