HarveyWallbangers
09-25-2007, 12:56 AM
Favre directs a spirited performance
Bob McGinn
Green Bay - They trailed early and they trailed late, but on this sunny Sunday at Lambeau Field nothing could prevent the Packers from defeating a motivated opponent that went 14-2 one year ago.
It was Green Bay's most significant victory since Week 15 in 2004, when the Packers went to the Metrodome on Christmas Eve and defeated the Vikings, 34-31, in the de facto NFC North Division championship game.
Here is a rating of the Packers against the Chargers, with their 1 to 5 football totals in parentheses:
RECEIVERS (4½)
The return of Greg Jennings balanced the receiving corps. He got seven balls, Donald Driver saw eight and James Jones had nine. That was the fewest for Driver since Week 10 last season but his six were worth 126 yards in another sterling performance. Man, he is tough. Not long after Brett Favre left him out to dry and FS Marlon McCree knocked his helmet flying with an illegal hit, Driver got his revenge. McCree missed three tackles against Driver, who broke eight in all in picking up 75 yards after the catch. He showed second effort, a north-south running style and innate open-field ability. Jennings had the speed to make SS Clinton Hart pay for taking three or four steps out of the middle of the field. That was just enough for Jennings to blow by Hart on the 9-yard slant that ruptured into a 57-yard TD. Jones, with 14 of his 79 yards after the catch, is fairly elusive but doesn't finish his runs. TEs Donald Lee and Bubba Franks offer little after the catch but continue to be a surprisingly major part of the offense.
OFFENSIVE LINE (4½)
Ted Cottrell, the Chargers' unimaginative coordinator, used a vanilla scheme all day long. Even after it became apparent that this unit was going to handle his predictable rushes, Cottrell didn't send more than five on even one of Favre's 50 dropbacks. His five-man blitz rate was 24%. LB Shawne Merriman must have gotten all his pub trashing TEs and RBs because he never got a sniff against Chad Clifton (65% of the time) and Mark Tauscher (35%). Tauscher pitched a shutout until LB Shaun Phillips got him for a sack and pressure on a pair of three-man rushes in the fourth quarter. On the 11 times that a back did carry the ball, the average gain of 3.7 was respectable against this formidable 3-4 front. Scott Wells stayed in front of NT Jamal Williams, kept lining up people properly and handled 41 shotgun snaps without incident. Daryn Colledge badly needed to play well, and did so. He played with more pop, especially on double teams with Wells. Making his second start, Junius Coston did some good things in space, gave up two pressures and drew a critical false start at the goal line.
QUARTERBACKS (5)
After a semi-slow start in which CB Antonio Cromartie dropped an end-zone interception, Favre directed the one-dimensional attack brilliantly. No coach has come close to giving Favre the freedom at the line that Mike McCarthy has given Favre. In response, Favre has reined himself in, perhaps not wanting to allay McCarthy's trust in him. Who needs a ground game? Certainly not Favre. Seventeen times Favre stood there in an empty backfield looking not lonely but comfortable with nary a running back beside him. San Diego coach Norv Turner brought up his 18-yard dart to Lee on third and 12 with the rush closing in. On the Chargers' first three-man rush, Favre waited for a lane and adroitly came forward for 2 on third and 1. He showed quick feet in the pocket, kept his eyes downfield and was accurate short and intermediate. With the game on the line, Favre came through in spades whereas youthful Pro Bowl QB Philip Rivers threw a terrible interception followed by an awful overthrow.
RUNNING BACKS (2)
Knowing they were going to use spread almost all day, the coaches basically put the zone scheme in mothballs for a week after a dreadful exhibition in New York. Ryan Grant (six snaps) showed some leg drive on three line bucks from power formations. Brandon Jackson (28) was OK. DeShawn Wynn (14) continued as the third-down back. Wynn doesn't appear to be as natural catching the ball as Jackson but his run skills have been better. Jackson, Wynn and Korey Hall (21) took turns helping Wells by chipping Jamal Williams on passes. Wynn really goes after rushers.
DEFENSIVE LINE (3½)
RT Jeromey Clary made the first start of his career for injured Shane Olivea and limited Aaron Kampman to two pressures. Playing all but three of 69 snaps, Kampman was pesky but never came close to dominating. On the other side, Cullen Jenkins (50 snaps) was in and out with various injuries and didn't get much done against LT Marcus McNeill. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila opposed McNeill on 41 passing downs, generating two sacks and one knockdown. It was the second straight week that the supposedly fresher "KGB" provided fourth-quarter rush, a critical element in the winning equation. Nevertheless, some of the Chargers' limited success on the ground came at the soft corner provided by "KGB." Ryan Pickett (35) hung tough against double teams. Starting for Johnny Jolly, Corey Williams (46) had two knockdowns. And Jolly (21) played well, holding firm at the point and repeatedly disrupting Rivers' vision with upraised arms.
LINEBACKERS (3½)
Nick Barnett gave up the go-ahead TD on the 21-yard screen to LaDainian Tomlinson. Barnett absolutely must go over the top of C Nick Hardwick's block and force "LT" back inside to his help. As costly as that mistake was, Barnett's great interception made people forget it. Barnett didn't just gamble by cutting in front. He attacked "LT" first, made contact and then went for the ball. It was an extraordinary play. The Packers plugged up the Chargers' bread-and-butter counter plays by running Brady Poppinga and Barnett through the middle on seven or eight crossing strong-side run blitzes. Poppinga was really firm at the point. Barnett missed two tackles and had a face-mask penalty, but his no-nonsense approach is rubbing off. A.J. Hawk played off the lead blocks of FB Lorenzo Neal a few times and got a piece of Tomlinson. He had problems trying to cover Antonio Gates.
SECONDARY (3)
The Packers will have to consider Will Blackmon or Frank Walker at nickel back if Jarrett Bush doesn't improve. Bush isn't bashful and has ideal size, but his speed isn't great and he has missed five tackles in three games. He played Buster Davis too passively on his 9-yard TD pass. In all, he gave up five completions for 72 yards. Charles Woodson was much more physical than in Weeks 1 and 2. Al Harris yielded four completions for 62 yards, including a 27-yard TD in which he lost a footrace to Vincent Jackson after not getting any jam at the line. Atari Bigby stayed square against Tomlinson and delivered five punishing tackles, missing once. His body snap might start intimidating some opponents.
KICKERS (4)
Mason Crosby made his only FG attempt (28) and had three touchbacks on six kickoffs, averaging 73.3 yards and 4.02 seconds of hang time. Jon Ryan had his best game in a month, averaging 44 (gross), 43 (net) and 4.26 (hang time). All three of his punts were inside the 20.
SPECIAL TEAMS (3½)
Tramon Williams looked to be one block away from returning the opening kickoff 93 yards. He definitely has the speed, the weave and the nerve to break one. Losing bruising Tony Palmer (neck) as the hub of the wedge hurts. He was replaced by DT Colin Cole. Although one of Mike Scifres' punts rolled 20 yards, Woodson was smart to stay away from it. A blocking breakdown put LB Tim Dobbins in perfect position to block Crosby's first extra point; Dobbins just missed. There never was a doubt with Driver on location to recover an onside kick.
Bob McGinn
Green Bay - They trailed early and they trailed late, but on this sunny Sunday at Lambeau Field nothing could prevent the Packers from defeating a motivated opponent that went 14-2 one year ago.
It was Green Bay's most significant victory since Week 15 in 2004, when the Packers went to the Metrodome on Christmas Eve and defeated the Vikings, 34-31, in the de facto NFC North Division championship game.
Here is a rating of the Packers against the Chargers, with their 1 to 5 football totals in parentheses:
RECEIVERS (4½)
The return of Greg Jennings balanced the receiving corps. He got seven balls, Donald Driver saw eight and James Jones had nine. That was the fewest for Driver since Week 10 last season but his six were worth 126 yards in another sterling performance. Man, he is tough. Not long after Brett Favre left him out to dry and FS Marlon McCree knocked his helmet flying with an illegal hit, Driver got his revenge. McCree missed three tackles against Driver, who broke eight in all in picking up 75 yards after the catch. He showed second effort, a north-south running style and innate open-field ability. Jennings had the speed to make SS Clinton Hart pay for taking three or four steps out of the middle of the field. That was just enough for Jennings to blow by Hart on the 9-yard slant that ruptured into a 57-yard TD. Jones, with 14 of his 79 yards after the catch, is fairly elusive but doesn't finish his runs. TEs Donald Lee and Bubba Franks offer little after the catch but continue to be a surprisingly major part of the offense.
OFFENSIVE LINE (4½)
Ted Cottrell, the Chargers' unimaginative coordinator, used a vanilla scheme all day long. Even after it became apparent that this unit was going to handle his predictable rushes, Cottrell didn't send more than five on even one of Favre's 50 dropbacks. His five-man blitz rate was 24%. LB Shawne Merriman must have gotten all his pub trashing TEs and RBs because he never got a sniff against Chad Clifton (65% of the time) and Mark Tauscher (35%). Tauscher pitched a shutout until LB Shaun Phillips got him for a sack and pressure on a pair of three-man rushes in the fourth quarter. On the 11 times that a back did carry the ball, the average gain of 3.7 was respectable against this formidable 3-4 front. Scott Wells stayed in front of NT Jamal Williams, kept lining up people properly and handled 41 shotgun snaps without incident. Daryn Colledge badly needed to play well, and did so. He played with more pop, especially on double teams with Wells. Making his second start, Junius Coston did some good things in space, gave up two pressures and drew a critical false start at the goal line.
QUARTERBACKS (5)
After a semi-slow start in which CB Antonio Cromartie dropped an end-zone interception, Favre directed the one-dimensional attack brilliantly. No coach has come close to giving Favre the freedom at the line that Mike McCarthy has given Favre. In response, Favre has reined himself in, perhaps not wanting to allay McCarthy's trust in him. Who needs a ground game? Certainly not Favre. Seventeen times Favre stood there in an empty backfield looking not lonely but comfortable with nary a running back beside him. San Diego coach Norv Turner brought up his 18-yard dart to Lee on third and 12 with the rush closing in. On the Chargers' first three-man rush, Favre waited for a lane and adroitly came forward for 2 on third and 1. He showed quick feet in the pocket, kept his eyes downfield and was accurate short and intermediate. With the game on the line, Favre came through in spades whereas youthful Pro Bowl QB Philip Rivers threw a terrible interception followed by an awful overthrow.
RUNNING BACKS (2)
Knowing they were going to use spread almost all day, the coaches basically put the zone scheme in mothballs for a week after a dreadful exhibition in New York. Ryan Grant (six snaps) showed some leg drive on three line bucks from power formations. Brandon Jackson (28) was OK. DeShawn Wynn (14) continued as the third-down back. Wynn doesn't appear to be as natural catching the ball as Jackson but his run skills have been better. Jackson, Wynn and Korey Hall (21) took turns helping Wells by chipping Jamal Williams on passes. Wynn really goes after rushers.
DEFENSIVE LINE (3½)
RT Jeromey Clary made the first start of his career for injured Shane Olivea and limited Aaron Kampman to two pressures. Playing all but three of 69 snaps, Kampman was pesky but never came close to dominating. On the other side, Cullen Jenkins (50 snaps) was in and out with various injuries and didn't get much done against LT Marcus McNeill. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila opposed McNeill on 41 passing downs, generating two sacks and one knockdown. It was the second straight week that the supposedly fresher "KGB" provided fourth-quarter rush, a critical element in the winning equation. Nevertheless, some of the Chargers' limited success on the ground came at the soft corner provided by "KGB." Ryan Pickett (35) hung tough against double teams. Starting for Johnny Jolly, Corey Williams (46) had two knockdowns. And Jolly (21) played well, holding firm at the point and repeatedly disrupting Rivers' vision with upraised arms.
LINEBACKERS (3½)
Nick Barnett gave up the go-ahead TD on the 21-yard screen to LaDainian Tomlinson. Barnett absolutely must go over the top of C Nick Hardwick's block and force "LT" back inside to his help. As costly as that mistake was, Barnett's great interception made people forget it. Barnett didn't just gamble by cutting in front. He attacked "LT" first, made contact and then went for the ball. It was an extraordinary play. The Packers plugged up the Chargers' bread-and-butter counter plays by running Brady Poppinga and Barnett through the middle on seven or eight crossing strong-side run blitzes. Poppinga was really firm at the point. Barnett missed two tackles and had a face-mask penalty, but his no-nonsense approach is rubbing off. A.J. Hawk played off the lead blocks of FB Lorenzo Neal a few times and got a piece of Tomlinson. He had problems trying to cover Antonio Gates.
SECONDARY (3)
The Packers will have to consider Will Blackmon or Frank Walker at nickel back if Jarrett Bush doesn't improve. Bush isn't bashful and has ideal size, but his speed isn't great and he has missed five tackles in three games. He played Buster Davis too passively on his 9-yard TD pass. In all, he gave up five completions for 72 yards. Charles Woodson was much more physical than in Weeks 1 and 2. Al Harris yielded four completions for 62 yards, including a 27-yard TD in which he lost a footrace to Vincent Jackson after not getting any jam at the line. Atari Bigby stayed square against Tomlinson and delivered five punishing tackles, missing once. His body snap might start intimidating some opponents.
KICKERS (4)
Mason Crosby made his only FG attempt (28) and had three touchbacks on six kickoffs, averaging 73.3 yards and 4.02 seconds of hang time. Jon Ryan had his best game in a month, averaging 44 (gross), 43 (net) and 4.26 (hang time). All three of his punts were inside the 20.
SPECIAL TEAMS (3½)
Tramon Williams looked to be one block away from returning the opening kickoff 93 yards. He definitely has the speed, the weave and the nerve to break one. Losing bruising Tony Palmer (neck) as the hub of the wedge hurts. He was replaced by DT Colin Cole. Although one of Mike Scifres' punts rolled 20 yards, Woodson was smart to stay away from it. A blocking breakdown put LB Tim Dobbins in perfect position to block Crosby's first extra point; Dobbins just missed. There never was a doubt with Driver on location to recover an onside kick.