Umm, for the second season in a row the Packers were able to lay an egg and still win the ball game. The reason this year was the same as last year, Charles Woodson. He was responsible for three turnovers that allowed the Packers to control the ball game.
On offense the Packers looked disjointed all day long. The Packers offense was plagued by penalties by the offensive line, and those penalties were caused by a breakdown in technique across the board. Wells and Lang were the only offensive linemen that didn't receive a holding penalty. When they weren't holding in the first half they were allowing pressure from all directions which didn't allow Aaron Rodgers to find his usual pinpoint accuracy.
Rodgers didn't have a horrible day, but he missed several throws that he was expected to make. He flat out missed an open Greg Jennings two plays in a row, and then threw a back should pass to Jordy Nelson in the endzone that had no chance, it was thrown too wide and too low. He was able to make a great throw on Jenning's deep post for the touchdown and at the end of the game he hit Jordy on the skinny post that was caught in stride and was able to sprint to the endzone. One other thing that I noticed was on the Packers first scoring drive, the play before Kuhn's rushing touchdown Rodgers threw to Kuhn in the flat and Kuhn wasn't able to hang on to it. It seemed that Rodgers let him know about it, whether it was the drop, or if Kuhn ran the wrong route. It doesn't really matter but Rodgers' facial expression has that he seemed pissed off, and he had words with Kuhn after the play. To me, Rodgers allowed his frustrations to come through after that play, he may be a perfectionist, but he needs to keep his composure, and that is a lot to ask but it doesn't look good.
The running game was effective for the entire day. Starks and Grant make good team, neither one of them has any flash what so ever, but they move the ball up field. They catch the ball well and get the yards that are available. Both have to avoid tacklers better and not let the first guy bring them down in the open field, but Starks has the ability to get to the second level and right now is the more dynamic runner than Grant. Grant has always been better in the second half of the season, but he needs to shake the rust off otherwise I don't see a reason for him to be on the field instead of Starks unless it is to spell Starks.
Jennngs and Jordy were the biggest contributors as far as wide receivers go. Jennings was the only receiver that had multiple catches. Finley was Rodgers' main target throughout the game, along with several passes to the running backs.
On defense the Packers allowed another passer to put up over 400 yards on them. The season is only two weeks old and they have given up 900 yards passing. The Packers are getting nothing from Eric Walden, he is stiff in coverage and doesn't get to the passer when he is on blitz Mathews was active most of the day but the Packers need to drop him in coverage every now and then to keep the offense honest. I didn't think the Packers put enough pressure on Cam Newton. The Packers had no answers for Olsen and Shockey. If Newton focused on those two the entire game the score would have been different. Newton locked on to Steve Smith and the Packers took advantage of it with Woodson's two picks. Smith isn't a bad target for a QB to lock onto though, he is quick and gets open. The Packers need Tramon Williams. Shields isn't a starting corner in this league, and Woodson has to pick his spots against a receiver like Steve Smith. All in all outside of Mathews, the Packers linebackers were nonexistent in todays game.
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Originally Posted by Bretsky
