Observations from watching family night game

[esoxx]

wist, I hope your assessement on Hawk's lack of blitz ability doesn't turn out to be true b/c the Packer brass had hopes that he would be a guy that could blitz off the edge from his weak side position and disrupt. That has been a real source of disappointment in the LB play the last few years....the inability to disrupt in the backfield on pass plays when sent. I know it's early, but I'm getting a bad vibe if Hawk can't get around Coston.

[4and12to12and4]

This was my first family night, and it was AWESOME. They do a great job keeping it very entertaining for all ages. They introduced positions as they came out of the tunnel, as the crowd roared for each. Driver came out of the tunnel with the rest of the receivers and the crowd went nuts. He fired us all up the way he ran out.

Great tribute to Reggie, the crowd all started chanting "Reggie, Reggie". It brought tears to my eyes.

What I saw:

Brett looked pretty good, still has a great arm. Driver made a great leaping catch on an ill-advised throw 30 yards downfield into double coverage. Great catch! He also caught a pass into the corner of the end zone from Farve and did the Leap. He's awesome!

Aaron Rodgers was much better than his stats indicate. The second string unit receivers suck, and were dropping easy passes from him that were right on the money. He moves well in the pocket to give himself more time, but threw a couple of duds when running from pressure. It's hard to know whether he would've actually had time to throw those in the pocket, because the d-line had to pull up so as not to sack him. He threw a Favre-esque rocket to Boerighter on a crossing pattern in the back of the end zone with AC having blanket coverage. It was a perfect throw for a touchdown. His best throw of the night. Aaron ran one in for a score and dove into the end zone. He lost the ball as it crossed the line, then he picked it up and spiked it to the ground. I thought that was interesting because if he didn't have the red jersey on, I thought that he would've gotten nailed at the three yard line, but the defender had to pull up.

Cundiff missed from 39, but then nailed one from 49 with plenty of distance left on it. Rayner hit his 39 yarder, then missed his 49 yarder wide left (plenty of distance), then nailed a 52 yarder.

Gado was so-so. He did have a good touchdown run from the ten yard line, where Colledge helped give him a huge hole and he broke a tackle at the five, and AC hit him pretty hard at the one, and he drug him into the end zone. His best run. He has more patience than Herron to find the hole, and then hits the hole hard, whereas Herron runs full speed and if there is a hole that opens right away zooms through it. He did have a real nice 17 yard run. He is so fast!! But, he needs to be more patient for a hole to open.

Ben Brown runs very hard downhill but the second string offense gave him NOTHING to run through!

David Martin dropped a couple but also had a couple of good catches. D Lee dropped his first pass (right on the numbers) but then had some good catches on out routes with some YAC.

The most exciting play was when Wrobel hit Cory Rodgers on a slant off the right side on stride, and Cory juked his way through the middle of the defense and headed upfield. Crowd went nuts, I thought he was gonna score, and AC came from the other side of the field and ran him down as if he was jogging, and Cory was flying too!! AC is fast as hell!!

Speaking of AC, he did a nice job all night. Driver did jump up and catch that ball from Favre with him covering, but that was just a great catch from a great receiver.

Chris Francies was horrible. He was hurting Aaron's stats with drops of perfect passes.

Greg Jennings returned a punt for at least 40 yards and I thought he was gonna score, and then, for some reason didn't even try to juke Ryan, the only guy left, Ryan wrapped him up, and he just stopped running. He was on the sideline, so I don't know whether Ryan trapped him or he just didn't care, it was strange, because he is so fluid, I thought he was gonna juke the socks off Ryan and he ran right into him. ?

As has been said here, Hodge was the MVP of the defense. He had 5 solo tackles, and an third and short, he met Gado head on, straightened him up, and slammed him straight backwards to the ground. It was IMPRESSIVE, expecially considering that Gado is HUGE and usually always finds a way to fall forward.

Hawk disappeared. He did nothing. He was credited with one tackle all night.

Jennings is going to be a playmaker! Favre loves to throw to him, and he doesn't drop it! He will be the No. 2 sooner than later.

Jason Hunter (who?) was a ballhawk. He made some very nice plays. He seems to be a sure tackler, and has good quickness.

Underwood looks very good. He had a great interception on the 1 yard line in a two-minute drill. I don't blame Aaron for the pick because there was 11 seconds left, and he just threw it up there. There's no field goals in scrimmage play. Underwood made a "willie mays" catch over his shoulder. Very impressive.

It is cool to watch the o-line in the zone blocking scheme, it looks so fluid, but there very few holes opening up. I hope that's because of our d-line. Colledge fits the part. Coston wasn't very good. I hope they do alot of gelling in preseason!

Manning did pretty well. He seems very fast and powerful.

Cory Rodgers didn't drop any returns YAY!!, but I noticed that as he catches the ball he almost goes down to his knee, which obviously takes more time for him to come back up and start running. But at least he finally held onto the ball!!

Jennings will definitely be the no 2 or 3 and Hodge seems like he's gonna make it impossible for the staff to keep him on the sidelines in short yardage plays. He is a friggin' animal! I can't wait to watch the game on tv because I want to find out where the hell Hawk was all scrimmage.

William Henderson is FRIGGIN HUGE!!

Fontenot sucked!

Nick Barnett made a very good tackle for no gain. He FLEW into the line.
But it wasn't as good as Hodge's.

Cole, Pickett, and Peterson are all VERY BIG and quick. Not big like out of shape, big in all the right places. I think our defensive line is really going to suprise people.

All in all, neither the offense or the defense dominated throughout, which is good I guess, it's hard to root for either one when they're facing each other.

Oh, one last thing, AC had blanket coverage on, I think Boerighter, on a long pass down the sideline, and there was contact just before the ball arrived, I thought a flag was gonna be thrown, but as I watched the Jumbo replay, when the receiver looked up, AC turned his head to find the ball, and a second later they bumped. It was a good play, it was nice to see him turn to locate rather than fling his arms out at the receiver like he did alot last year.

Well, that's all I can remember right now.

[FritzDontBlitz]

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.

sounds like ahmad carroll to me.

[wist43]

wist, I hope your assessement on Hawk's lack of blitz ability doesn't turn out to be true b/c the Packer brass had hopes that he would be a guy that could blitz off the edge from his weak side position and disrupt. That has been a real source of disappointment in the LB play the last few years....the inability to disrupt in the backfield on pass plays when sent. I know it's early, but I'm getting a bad vibe if Hawk can't get around Coston.

esoxx,

I make a distinction between the terms "blitzer" and "pass rusher". I think Hawk can be reasonably effective on the blitz - he's instinctive, has good timing, takes good angles, and has the size, speed, and strength to defeat TE's and RB's. I think he will improve the defense with his ability to disrupt the pocket, but he will have to be put into position to do that, i.e. they will have to design their blitzes to ensure that Hawk is matched up with the RB on blitz pick up.

Don't expect Hawk to be coming off the corner either with speed or a physical counter move to beat an OT, ala Shawn Merriman. Hawk is not that type of player. He simply doesn't have the height, length, et al to defeat even an average LT.

[Partial]

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 laclk 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.

Clifton didn't play. He is an infinitely solid tackle and this system is taylor made for him. I suspect this season if Ahman returns to form, you start seeing Cliffy mentioned with the ranks of Pace, Jones, etc.

[BallHawk]

Great report 12and4. I really like Marviel Underwood, It'd be great if he could really make an impact this year.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Cundiff missed from 39, but then nailed one from 49 with plenty of distance left on it. Rayner hit his 39 yarder, then missed his 49 yarder wide left (plenty of distance), then nailed a 52 yarder.

I watched on TV and then both missed from 39. Cundiff then made a 49 yarder and missed a 52 yarder. Rayner missed the 49 yarder and made a 52 yarder, I believe.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Greg Jennings returned a punt for at least 40 yards and I thought he was gonna score, and then, for some reason didn't even try to juke Ryan, the only guy left, Ryan wrapped him up, and he just stopped running. He was on the sideline, so I don't know whether Ryan trapped him or he just didn't care, it was strange, because he is so fluid, I thought he was gonna juke the socks off Ryan and he ran right into him. ?

The returns weren't full contact, so Ryan just had to tap him.

[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.

sounds like ahmad carroll to me.

I'm not sure I agree. I saw improvement from Carroll last night. He stayed with everyone, and had better technique in transitioning from covering the man to playing the ball. And he is blazing fast.

[packrulz]

I think people are giving up on Fergy too soon. I don't know why he wasn't there but he must've had a good reason. He works hard, plays special teams, and was here for the OTA's. I remember him making some great catches in games so I don't think he morphed into dog crap. Last year he was playing hurt alot and people saw that as lack of effort. At least wait until he plays, then bash him if he screws up.

[BF4MVP]

At least wait until he plays, then bash him if he screws up.

I agree. It's a new season.

[red]

I think people are giving up on Fergy too soon. I don't know why he wasn't there but he must've had a good reason. He works hard, plays special teams, and was here for the OTA's. I remember him making some great catches in games so I don't think he morphed into dog crap. Last year he was playing hurt alot and people saw that as lack of effort. At least wait until he plays, then bash him if he screws up.

LOL

too soon?

its been 6-years of waiting for him to do something. i think the fans and team have been more then patient enough with him

[GrnBay007]

Just got home from Family Night weekend......what a great time!!!! I highly encourage anyone that gets the chance to attend this next year to do so.

You could really tell Jennings was pumped to be out there. Can't wait to see him play this season!

Did anyone see Ahman right after the warm up gettin down to the music on the sideline? It was funny, he's generally so serious.

We came soooo close to winning his jersey....the seat just a few rows down from us won.

Kids had a great time.....my daughter is now an OFFICIAL Packer lover!! She has finally seen the light!!

My son got some autographs ....Marquand Manuel and Bubba Franks were the best of the ones he got. Bubba Franks was very cool about signing autographs.

[4and12to12and4]

Cundiff missed from 39, but then nailed one from 49 with plenty of distance left on it. Rayner hit his 39 yarder, then missed his 49 yarder wide left (plenty of distance), then nailed a 52 yarder.

I watched on TV and then both missed from 39. Cundiff then made a 49 yarder and missed a 52 yarder. Rayner missed the 49 yarder and made a 52 yarder, I believe.

Packers notes: Kickers are off the mark PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jason Wilde - Wisconsin State Journal
Sunday, 06 August 2006
GB LogoGREEN BAY - It was only a glorified practice and only 10 kicks. But you can bet more than a few of those folks in the record crowd of 62,701 were thinking about one man at the end of the Green Bay Packers' Family Night Scrimmage Saturday night.

Ryan Longwell.

The Packers let the franchise's all-time leading scorer walk as a free agent during the offseason - he signed with rival Minnesota - and his would-be replacements, Billy Cundiff and Dave Rayner, did little to inspire confidence with their 3-for-5 field-goal performances.

Cundiff missed from 39 and 52 yards, while Rayner missed from 39 and 49 yards before nailing a 52-yarder to end the scrimmage. Still, coach Mike McCarthy tried not to sound alarmed.

"Tonight was their first opportunity with the lights on," McCarthy said. "We'll take this whole preseason to make sure we have the right guys."

Cundiff seemed disappointed but unfazed, saying, "You don't want to miss any inside 40, but I missed it. I want to blow off the miss(es), but I think it's important to take it for what it is. We've got lots of practice left."•

_______________

You're right, Harvey, Rayner missed his 39 yarder also.

I remember after both of them missed from that spot right after one another, the crowd started booing a little. I know I'm a softy, but I felt bad for them, although I really should be feeling bad for us, because it doesn't look so good right now.

By the way, another nice moment was when a young boy fighting cancer sang the national anthem. Again, another teary moment.

[GrnBay007]

By the way, another nice moment was when a young boy fighting cancer sang the national anthem. Again, another teary moment.

He did a very nice job too!!!