AP - Packers lose preseason opener to Chargers 17-3

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That MAN is ALWAYS in the GAME !

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Nietzsche or Nitschke? His take:

The All-Too-Human Green Bay Packers

Based on Saturday night, GBP are going to be superb at at least one skill: knocking one side of the opposing team’s shoulder pads outside of their uniforms. That happened like a dozen times, and teams waste lots of valuable energy and seconds tucking those things back in. It could have been 37-3 without this novel ploy.

I can never keep this straight—is it the defense (stuck with vanilla schemes) or the offense (still trying to get on the same page) that’s at a disadvantage in preseason? I’d love to know which GBP side actually had a structural edge last night, only to fall off it with all the grace of Kirstie Alley.

We go through this every year: Exhibition games are meaningless. But of course they aren’t, because if they were, nobody would get cut based on them, and GBP wouldn’t be arranging a plane to Lourdes for Manuel/Marquand/Manuel after Marviel Underwood shredded his ligaments last night, and we wouldn’t be getting this familiar feeling in the pit of our stomachs, that our favorite time of year is over before it’s even started.

I haven’t seen preseason play this bad since Forrest Gregg took his balls bearing and his stolen strawberries to SMU. Cory Rodgers appears utterly useless. Jennings looks shockingly small. Favre was smashed on almost half of the passing plays he ran. Hawk had a bit of Brian Bosworth in him, and that’s not a compliment. And who knew Aaron Rodgers wanted to be Bobby Douglass? He still has no awareness of pressure—and with Frodo and Sam and the rest of the OL hobbits, he’s going to need it.

(The new coaches’ shirts—how do they make them more of an eyesore from year to year?—also had some bizarre pattern going on with their back yokes. And let’s not even get into what the refs are wearing this year—very Rollerball.)

TT reportedly giggled after the first half ended. “You like to see them compete,” he said. “We’ll watch the tape and see.” What does he have to watch again, exactly? Can you imagine the flamethrower Ron Wolf would have used after a half like that? They can’t bring on that ‘96 nostalgia cavalcade fast enough for my tastes.

This morning, the excuses offered Sunday—we don’t practice against 3-4s or blitzes—have been discarded for hard looks in the mirror. The sort of OL confusion displayed last night doesn’t normally resolve itself in three weeks—more like two or three months. And where were the flashes of talent? Isn’t preseason all about getting excited over some guy who’ll end up on the practice squad?


Getting DirecTV is once again going to be a very tough call.