New Orleans

[pbmax]

FYI, New Orleans is ranked 21st, Green Bay is 3rd. It seems to be a rule that ST and Defense can't be good at same time. ST ranking falling as D picks up.

	TEAM	tDVOA	lstWK	DAVE	RNK	W-L	oDVOA	oRNK	dDVOA	dRANK	stDVOA	stRNK
1	DEN	48.7%	1	44.2%	1	5-1	31.4%	1	-18.2%	2	-0.9%	20
2	BAL	28.5%	2	26.1%	2	5-2	16.2%	4	-8.8%	6	3.5%	8
3	GB	26.1%	4	25.6%	3	5-2	19.9%	2	-4.4%	10	1.8%	14
4	SEA	22.7%	3	21.0%	4	3-3	15.5%	6	-8.1%	7	-0.9%	21
5	IND	19.4%	13	18.1%	5	5-2	8.7%	8	-5.6%	9	5.1%	4
6	PHI	14.5%	6	12.6%	7	5-1	-2.9%	18	-6.3%	8	11.1%	1
7	DAL	13.7%	10	12.2%	8	6-1	16.5%	3	1.3%	19	-1.6%	22
8	SD	13.2%	8	13.2%	6	5-2	15.7%	5	4.7%	23	2.1%	11
9	KC	9.9%	14	7.2%	9	3-3	6.6%	10	-1.4%	14	2.0%	13
10	MIA	6.8%	17	4.8%	11	3-3	5.6%	11	-11.1%	3	-9.9%	32
11	NE	5.7%	11	6.2%	10	5-2	1.8%	16	0.1%	16	3.9%	6
12	DET	5.2%	7	4.0%	12	5-2	-11.3%	26	-24.9%	1	-8.4%	31
13	CIN	2.7%	5	2.2%	13	3-2-1	1.9%	15	1.7%	20	2.5%	10
14	PIT	2.2%	20	2.0%	14	4-3	5.6%	12	7.4%	26	4.0%	5
15	ARI	0.6%	19	-0.5%	15	5-1	-11.2%	25	-10.0%	5	1.8%	15
16	BUF	-0.4%	18	-1.0%	16	4-3	-16.5%	29	-10.5%	4	5.5%	3

[pbmax]

	TEAM	tDVOA	lstWK	DAVE	RNK	W-L	oDVOA	oRNK	dDVOA	dRANK	stDVOA	stRNK
17	CLE	-0.9%	9	-3.4%	20	3-3	5.4%	13	5.8%	25	-0.5%	18
18	ATL	-1.8%	12	-2.6%	19	2-5	7.6%	9	16.0%	31	6.6%	2
19	CHI	-1.9%	16	-1.4%	17	3-4	1.5%	17	-1.8%	12	-5.2%	28
20	SF	-4.5%	15	-3.4%	21	4-3	-3.2%	21	-3.4%	11	-4.7%	27
21	NO	-4.6%	25	-1.5%	18	2-4	11.8%	7	17.7%	32	1.3%	16
22	NYG	-5.6%	21	-5.3%	22	3-4	-2.9%	19	1.0%	18	-1.7%	23
23	HOU	-9.2%	24	-9.1%	23	3-4	-4.9%	23	-0.3%	15	-4.7%	26
24	WAS	-10.3%	23	-10.7%	24	2-5	-3.0%	20	0.3%	17	-7.1%	29
25	CAR	-12.4%	22	-11.4%	25	3-3-1	2.3%	14	14.0%	29	-0.7%	19
26	TEN	-14.1%	26	-13.3%	27	2-5	-5.2%	24	5.3%	24	-3.6%	25
27	NYJ	-14.7%	28	-13.7%	28	1-6	-16.2%	28	2.3%	21	3.9%	7
28	STL	-15.7%	27	-12.9%	26	2-4	-4.6%	22	12.2%	28	1.1%	17
29	OAK	-22.3%	29	-21.4%	29	0-6	-16.0%	27	8.4%	27	2.0%	12
30	MIN	-29.2%	30	-23.7%	30	2-5	-29.8%	32	2.8%	22	3.3%	9
31	JAC	-29.8%	31	-27.9%	31	1-6	-28.7%	31	-1.4%	13	-2.4%	24
32	TB	-49.0%	32	-39.3%	32	1-5	-25.8%	30	15.0%	30	-8.2%	30

[pbmax]

Also of note, Football Outsiders has Miami ranked 10th overall and Advanced NFL Stats has described them this way:

Brian Burke @Adv_NFL_Stats · 11h 11 hours ago
Just peeked at the efficiency rankings. MIA #2??? But consider #1 pass D, #9 run D, #1 run O, and #2 least penalized. But pass O bad (#31).

[King Friday]

Man, I feel like I could cut up a couple minutes worth of evidence saying just the opposite from the Miami game. He wasn't the only one who was horrendous but he probably was the worst runblocker on the field.

But go back and watch that play where Starks picked up the 3rd and 10 on the last drive. Rodgers wiped out the DE...turned up-field and shielded off a LB from Starks when he first caught the ball...then got in the way of another LB or DB to give Starks a chance to pick up the 10 yards. Without Rodgers, that play doesn't get the 1st down.

TE is a far different position in the NFL than it is in college. Rodgers has the smarts to be an effective blocker...but it will take some time for him to get there. To me, he's looking better each week...but he's still below average at this point.

[Patler]

If you go to Twitter, Ty Dunne from JSO has some cutups on Vine of good Rodgers and bad Rodgers blocking in the Panthers game. Let's just say if he is better than Q, its a race to mediocre. But he seems very willing and likely will get much better.

He gets Kuechly in one of them.

https://vine.co/u/951004048419647488

Thing is, the good blocks are very good blocks. The kid barely has his feet wet as a pro, and he has some very good blocks on tape. That puts him light years ahead of Finley, Quarless and every other TE the Packers have had as rookies recently. He appears to have made huge strides from what he looked like most of the preseason. Inconsistency is to be expected from a rookie at any position, especially in blocking by a TE who apparently did little blocking in college.

[KYPack]

I was going to post about that play in the Fin game, King.

P is right, I don't JMF made a block his rookie season.

One of you TE's, make the jump, a TE threat is all we need to make this O unstoppable.

[George Cumby]

Thing is, the good blocks are very good blocks. The kid barely has his feet wet as a pro, and he has some very good blocks on tape. That puts him light years ahead of Finley, Quarless and every other TE the Packers have had as rookies recently. He appears to have made huge strides from what he looked like most of the preseason. Inconsistency is to be expected from a rookie at any position, especially in blocking by a TE who apparently did little blocking in college.

A coach's kid. He's willing, if not yet able. JMike was able but lukewarm, although I do recall him decelerating someone early in his career.

[pbmax]

A coach's kid. He's willing, if not yet able. JMike was able but lukewarm, although I do recall him decelerating someone early in his career.

He got quite good at chipping. If he got to a guy already engaged with a lineman, the Dline guy was in trouble. But he was less interested in one on one blocking.

[Fritz]

It'll be interesting to see a couple things: one, how this D does indoors on a fast track, and two, how Bulaga does indoors, on the road, on a fast track.

[pbmax]

Advanced NFL Analytics has the Packers at 4 and New Orleans at 15. Interesting, according to their efficiency ratings, Packers D ranks higher than Packer O (6 to 10) which is good because New Orleans has the 2nd ranked offense, but 28th rated D.

RANK	TEAM	LAST WK	GWP	Opp GWP	O RANK	D RANK
1	 DEN	1	0.68	0.53	1	1
2	 MIA	4	0.61	0.49	14	2
3	 IND	15	0.61	0.52	4	7
4	 GB	9	0.59	0.51	10	6
5	 SEA	3	0.58	0.56	6	16
6	 DAL	6	0.57	0.50	3	22
7	 DET	7	0.55	0.48	21	3
8	 KC	14	0.55	0.56	22	14
9	 BAL	11	0.55	0.47	9	9
10	 WAS	12	0.54	0.48	5	10
11	 SF	5	0.54	0.52	18	5
12	 CIN	2	0.54	0.49	8	17
13	 SD	10	0.53	0.47	7	15
14	 CLE	8	0.51	0.48	11	19
15	 NO	13	0.51	0.45	2	28
16	 NE	16	0.50	0.49	17	11
17	 CHI	18	0.49	0.50	16	26
18	 HOU	21	0.49	0.50	13	27
19	 CAR	17	0.48	0.50	20	18
20	 TEN	19	0.48	0.53	24	23
21	 PHI	24	0.48	0.50	25	12
22	 PIT	20	0.47	0.47	12	21
23	 BUF	23	0.47	0.51	28	4
24	 NYJ	25	0.46	0.53	27	13
25	 NYG	22	0.46	0.49	23	25
26	 ARI	26	0.45	0.52	26	24
27	 JAC	31	0.43	0.52	31	20
28	 STL	30	0.42	0.48	15	30
29	 MIN	27	0.41	0.48	32	8
30	 OAK	29	0.38	0.51	29	29
31	 ATL	28	0.36	0.47	19	32
32	 TB	32	0.33	0.46	30	31

[Bossman641]

Under Payton (meaning excluding the Bountygate year), Saints have won 19 straight at home and are an insane 17-1-1 against the spread. We absolutely need to get off to a fast start Sunday night.

[pbmax]

Ryan Wood ‏@ByRyanWood 36m36 minutes ago
#Packers Insider blog: Secondary less than full strength with Morgan Burnett, Sam Shields not practicing. http://www.packersnews.com/story/spo...cing/17722699/ …

I apparently missed something regarding Burnett's status. Anyone got an idea?

[rollo]

Saw something about Burnett's injury being related to his calf, no other info though.

[Guiness]

Any information on the severity of Shields injury? All I've seen is 'knee'.

[QBME]

Saw something about Burnett's injury being related to his calf, no other info though.

Yep - calf is all they're saying.

[rollo]

Looks like McCarthy brought up the injuries during his press conf today but I didn't see anything specifically mentioned or asked about Burnett. Maybe there's another report out there that is more in depth than the one I just read though.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Hey, most people should be thrilled. Last summer, lots of people were calling for Wunderkinds Micah Hyde and Clinton-Dix to start ahead of Burnett.

Guess Burnett has showed you idiots.

Actually, I think I was one of the people hoping Burnett would get beat out. He really has been a pleasant surprise. Maybe the competition lit a fire? More likely, he was better than we thought all along, and his shitty partner at safety last year put more pressure on him.

[Fritz]

He has a calf.

I have two.

[mission]

Under Payton (meaning excluding the Bountygate year), Saints have won 19 straight at home and are an insane 17-1-1 against the spread. We absolutely need to get off to a fast start Sunday night.

Sounds like they hired some hackers to get in on the visitors' radio signals.

[Tyrion Lannister]

Hey, most people should be thrilled. Last summer, lots of people were calling for Wunderkinds Micah Hyde and Clinton-Dix to start ahead of Burnett.

Guess Burnett has showed you idiots.

Actually, I think I was one of the people hoping Burnett would get beat out. He really has been a pleasant surprise. Maybe the competition lit a fire? More likely, he was better than we thought all along, and his shitty partner at safety last year put more pressure on him.

Not I.

Burnett is no Darren Woodson but he's 100 times better a saftey than Micah "Hands of Steel" Hyde.