Observations from watching family night game

[GBRulz]

I was gone all day yesterday so didn't watch the scrimmage, but have been catching up on alot of articles. Of course, the ones the fans post are always the best. I like what i'm reading about Favre, Rodgers, Driver, jennings & Hodge...but not too much was mentioned about Hawk anywhere. Did he not participate in alot of the plays or just not do anything too spectacular? How did he do overall?

[CaliforniaCheez]

It was a good night for all.

[ny10804]

Can someone clarify that Nick Collins is perfectly alright after his supposed fall onto concrete

[woodbuck27]

Some observations I had:

Clifton needs to get better....fast. The back up LTs need more reps and lot of work. I know they just switched Coston, but we are thinner then thin at LT and the entire tackle position.

Fergie....Personal commitment? What? Whoa? Somethings smells fishy here.

I noticed Chris White was playing LG on 2nd team and Lucier playing center....first I heard of this. After all the hype last year about White...why isn't he playing center? Is Lucier better? Maybe they were just trying something.

Carroll...well, at least he's not holding.

Underwood.....DAM, I was impressed....he was always around the ball. Manuel better get on the field soon or he's gonna being playing behind him.

I really wanted to see Bubba... I don't know why, but I did.

I felt that Chad Clifton - fell off alot last season. I am hoping it was a lack of concentration, due to never knowing who would line up to his right. His knee is a concern.

Marviel Underwood is a player. Solid in College, and I've been hoping for big things from him. He was last season's Abdul Hodge or certainly Will Blackmon.

[Scott Campbell]

He's (Rogers is) fighting for the 5th spot.

I think they'll keep six now. I thought Woodson would be the 6th receiver, but with him skipping the voluntaries I don't see him getting an opportunity to play receiver. So far it sounds like the vets are going to make easier for the rookie receivers to stick.

[Joemailman]

I was pleasantly surprised with the play of our WR's last night. Driver, Jennings, Rodgers, Boerigter and R. Martin all made good plays. This is just pure speculation, but could Fergy's absence due to "personal reasons" mean the Packers are working on a trade?

By the way, could someone please show Nick Barnett a film clip of how Hodge blew through that seam in the blocking to nail the ball carrier? I haven't seen that from a Packer MLB in a long time.

[Scott Campbell]

By the way, could someone please show Nick Barnett a film clip of how Hodge blew through that seam in the blocking to nail the ball carrier? I haven't seen that from a Packer MLB in a long time.

Funny how quickly 40 times, height/weight and other "measurables" become non-issues after the draft. Maybe Sherman was on to something when he fell asleep at the Indy Combine.

[CaliforniaCheez]

I read the packers already plan to use Hodge in short yardage and goal line situations.

It has to be hard these days getting through airport security with the name
Abdul Hadj

[packrulz]

I was gone all day yesterday so didn't watch the scrimmage, but have been catching up on alot of articles. Of course, the ones the fans post are always the best. I like what i'm reading about Favre, Rodgers, Driver, jennings & Hodge...but not too much was mentioned about Hawk anywhere. Did he not participate in alot of the plays or just not do anything too spectacular? How did he do overall?

On one play Rogers scrambled and Hawk was there to touch him, no tackling QB's, but other than that it looked like he was thinking a lot about where he's supposed to be. Hodge was very instinctive and hard hitting. Nick Collins is ok, just a sore back thank God. They need to cover tha concrete in the corner with some foam padding.
Some players I give a thumbs up are:
Ingle Martin: Good arm, nice spirals, confident, a good leader.
Herron & Gado: Both played well, didn't fumble, & Gado pounded in a TD. Ben Brown & AJ Cooper are also interesting. Watching a zone play develop is weird, I keep looking for where the hole is supposed to be & it just develops somewhere.
Johnny Jolly: I love the 93 on him because he plays like a young, healthy Gilbert Brown. He had some push goin' on.
Jason Hunter, Michael Montgomery, & Jerome Nichols: All are high effort every snap.
Punt returns: Both Rogers & Jennings had a nice return. Improving.
Ruvell Martin & Chad Lucas: Both Showed some skills, should make the team.
Overall effort & intensity was very good: lots of chatter out there, better communication, & it's nice that McCarty isn't staring at a stupid laminated script, we watches what's going on & talks to the players & coaches.
Favre: the man's still got it and was communicating well as a leader.
Thumbs down:
Kicking: I'm a little horrified by the kicking game. I guess we were spoiled by Longwell, but both kickers really sucked. Kick offs were improved, but they were missing 39 yarders. Awful.
Catching the ball: A lot of WR/RB/TE's dropped balls that hit them in the hands. Driver & Jennings are good but the other guys need to step up too. I've about had it with David Martin, I want to see more of Zac Alcorn & Tory Humphrey. However, some of the passes were off too, the QB's need to be more precise.
Offensive line: It's going to take awhile, but no glaring issues, they have good players, they need more reps.

[red]

ok, my turn. i didn't get back from the thing until real late, so i didn't do this last night

first off, it was a blast. for the price of going to a movie, this was 50 times better.

second. i agree 100% with that the dude said about jennings looking like a DD clone, those were my thoughts exactly. he's built like driver, he works hard like driver, he plays hard like driver, he makes things happen, and you know you can count on him. you could tell he's going to be a fan favorite in the near future, he did all he could to get the crowd pumped up and he couldn't waid to do the leap. i think he ended up in the stands a couple times on other guys scores. i think he'll be staring by that start of the season. he's ready folks, he sure doesn't look like a rookie

Hodge should be our starting MLB by the end of the season. i think its time to start getting barnett reps at Mike to get him ready for the change. everytime hodge was in and it was a running play it seemed like he was making the tackle, and they were tackles at the line or behind it (at least it looked like it from my view). and holy hell, that hit he had was big, and loud. he deserves the "hitman" title. as for his lower body being kind of small, yeah to me they looked small when he was standing next to hawk, who has giant legs, but when he's near barnett they look about the same size. and even if he does have stick legs, he sure knows how to get everything out of them.

nick collins going down scared the hell out of me, i think i was the only one in my half of the stadium that saw him go down because the wave was going through. everyone is cheering and having a good time, and i'm standing there, OMG OMG OMG OMG. it was a hard fall, but he walked off like he was alright

i thought we were getting rid of the long passes? i think there were 4 or 5 bombs from favre down the field. 2 i thought were bad, the one to gardner wasn't that close, the defender came closer to catching it. and the one to driver was a very good play by driver. and yes, it was against carroll

IMO ingle looked alot better then the other guy, but thats not saying much. what is it worbel had one pass to rodgers where corey turned it into a huge play. other then that the guy looked very nervous and scared, and i can't remember one other pass he completeted

aaron rodgers looked ok. that int was a bad pass. from where i was sitting you could see his field of vision, and as soon as he let the ball go, our whole area was kind of going, what the hell is that. you could tell as soon as it left his hand that it was an int

Green looks like he's in great shape. i would have thought that if you have a massive leg injury that at least that leg would be out of shape. but his legs looked huge and cut

lets see, what else. kampman looks huge, he's been doing a lot of work on his upper body. woodson looks very small. that guy from GVSU is a freaking giant

lets see what else

for those who weren't there, there was a real nice tribute to reggie before it all got started. and for those who don't know it was because he was enshrined today in the nfl HOF.

the wave was going almost non stop it felt like, all night long, and there were beach balls everywhere

TT and MM were standing together quite a bit discussing things

the kickers both suck, TT started to walk of before the rest of the team right when both kickers started missing. the joke by me was that he was running to his office to find a new kicker. but it might not be a joke

fergy being gone is a little odd, i was wondering where he was. was pickett there? i couldn't find him

one of the biggest non favre cheers came when edgar bennett was announced and came out of the tunnel

i think thats all i can remember for now

it was a fun night

[mraynrand]

Guys I liked:

Colledge - he was a road grader on run plays. He just plain fork-lifted a few guys right off the field. Embarrassed Kenny Peterson

Culver - THis guy did something really interesting - twice. He was in double coverage due to his recognition and going to help. Not even Al Harris and other veterans do this routinely. Guy had great recognition, solid tackling. Is playing off (soft) in coverage right now though.

Carroll - Guy competes on every single play. If he can just lear to judge properly what he can get away with regarding contact, he'll be a tough guy to beat. Had perfect coverage on a go to Boerichter and also had solid coverage on same when A-rod threw a perfect bullet for a TD.

Coston - not too bad at LT. Played better staying on his feet and staying in the path of the defender. Gave up a lot of ground to DE push, but kept the DE off the QB. Decent power in the run game.

Tauscher - Absolutely solid. Stoned the DE all night

Hodge - good instinct for stuffing the run, filling thehole. Coverage is another issue

Jennings - smooth as a moutain lake at 5 AM.

Driver - solid solid solid

--------------

Worrisome

Kenny Peterson - has no leverage

Brett Favre - was trying to steer passes. Was lofting passes he would have fired in before. Threw late into double coverage. Chucked one up to Driver

A-rod - see above. Looked OK except for a lot of dropped passes but also threw late into double coverage. At least he was able to fire strong passes for the TD to Bo, and for the sideline pass where AL Harris blew the coverage. Also, threw accurate slants, but overall, a little disappointing

Al Harris - a pro who wasn't wasting energy, Harris blew some coverages and looked like a guy who didn't care much

Gado - ran away from the natural hole. looked fat

[Bretsky]

Fergy hasn't shown up the past six seasons; why should he there there on Family Night as a tribute to the fans. Let him walk.

[mraynrand]

Fergy hasn't shown up the past six seasons; why should he there there on Family Night as a tribute to the fans. Let him walk.

Sometimes, when you move into a new house, the previous owners leave something behind that looks pretty good. But once you start to use it, you realize it doesn't work al that well, it doesn't match your stuff, and you end up getting rid of it anyway.

[wist43]

I was gone all day yesterday so didn't watch the scrimmage, but have been catching up on alot of articles. Of course, the ones the fans post are always the best. I like what i'm reading about Favre, Rodgers, Driver, jennings & Hodge...but not too much was mentioned about Hawk anywhere. Did he not participate in alot of the plays or just not do anything too spectacular? How did he do overall?

Hawk was pretty invisible for the most part. He looked tenative and slow to react. Two plays come to mind:

1) Hawk came on the blitz and was easily shut down by Coston - forget about his 9 1/2 sacks last year at OSU, he's simply not a pass rusher.

2) On Herrons run off RT, Hawk did not take the proper shoulder and was easily sealed inside. The play was designed to go over LG, and there was a hole there, but Herron saw that Taylor was going to fill it, so he cut back right. The middle was clogged, and Hawk should have seen that he had to contain the play inside, instead he took the wrong shoulder and was taken out of the play.

I taped the scrimmage, and went back and looked pretty closely at Hawk... He is clearly behind where he should be, and clearly behind most of the other LB'ers.

Missing most of the mini-camps and OTA's explains some of his tenativness, but even making that allowance, I'm still somewhat concerned.

[esoxx]

Colledge - he was a road grader on run plays. He just plain fork-lifted a few guys right off the field. Embarrassed Kenny Peterson

That's great to hear. The word on Colledge coming out was he was astute in pass protection but needed some seasoning on run blocking. Could have a special player on our hands if he's already looking that good on run plays.

Anyone notice how Jason Spitz performed? I didn't get to see the broadcast.