Week 1, Chicago Bears
1. This game was completely anti last years Packers in just about every single way. The offense struggled, the Packers completely shut down the run, dominated special teams, shut down the Bears offense the entire game, didn't allow the tight ends to beat them, came through in the clutch, the defense didn't give away the game in the end and they won a close game. The biggest achilles heel for the Packers last season was close games and on Sunday they were able to come out with a tightly contested game and start the season 1-0. The second biggest criticism was of Aaron Rodgers and his inability to make big plays down the stretch. Rodgers' pass to Greg Jennings should quiet that for a little while. The defense also struggled stopping the run and especially stopping tight ends. Both Matt Forte and Greg Olsen really struggled against the Packers new 3-4 defense. The only downside was that last season the Packers offense looked much better than they did Sunday, look for that to get corrected and I would be surprised if the Packers have that low of offensive production in any game the rest of the season.
2. The offensive line was offensive. The first thing I said last night when Barbre got completely destroyed off the line by Ogunleye was that I couldn't remember a time in Mark Tauscher's entire career that he got beat that badly. In the same quarter it happened again. I completely agree with keeping Barbre in the game as he performed better in the second half, I also agree with the coaches assessment that it wasn't just Barbre but the entire offensive line. This is a huge concern right now for the Packers because their entire offense (much like any NFL offense) is predicated on good offensive line play and if Rodgers gets harassed like that each game there will be no playoffs for this Green Bay team. The good news is I think the coaches and the players are very capable of fixing the problems that happened on Monday and overall I think that Chicago's defensive line played very well and is one of the better defensive lines in the league. Barbre and company will get another shot next week against Cincinnati and hopefully it will be much improved by that time!
3. Kampman, Hawk, Barnett, and Poppinga may be the starters, but Kampman, Chillar and Matthews are the three linebackers that are going to see the field the most. I don't know how it's possible right now to keep Brandon Chillar off of the football field. Right now if I'm the Packers Brandon Chillar is probably my number 1 linebacker that I want on the field at all times. If the Packers at some point go into a defense with only 1 linebacker (which may not happen all season) it should be Chillar. He is great versus the pass, might be their best blitzer and is more than adequate against the run. Hawk and Barnett will probably share a lot of snaps and will spell Chillar occasionally but right now Chillar is the man on the inside. On the outside Kampman played more snaps than anybody on the front 7 and Matthews saw the field way more than Poppinga. Overall the linebackers played fantastic and I expect that to continue as the season unfolds.
4. That 2-4-5 look on defense was effective and really fun to watch. Usually when the Packers went into their 2-4-5 look it was Jolly and Jenkins inside on the defensive line, Hawk, Chillar, Matthews and Kampman at linebacker, C. Woodson lined up almost as a 5th linebacker/slot corner, T. Williams and A. Harris at corner and Collins and Bigby at safety. The best part of the formation was Charles Woodson. Playing him in this spot lets him do just about everything. They go 3 or 4 wide receivers, he's covering them in the slot which is what he did all last season. They go with a base set and he will line up over the tight end and cover him. He is also one of the top defensive backs against the run so they aren't losing anything there, plus they can bring him off the edge as a blitzer on any given play. That was the package that the Packers broke out the most and it's something I expect to see a ton of in just about every game the Packers play.
5. If the Packers really aren't ready to play the 3-4 and won't get the full intricacies down until midway through the season... look out! All offseason all that anybody wanted to talk about when the switch to the 3-4 was brought up was how the Packers didn't have the personnel or didn't have the experience in the defense to be able to run it. Others gave the Packers a little bit more credit and stated it wouldn't take that long and that maybe by midseason they would be able to run it in its entirety. Well if the Packers defense after Sunday isn't running on all cylinders or doesn't have the entire playbook down yet everybody in the NFL should be very, very afraid. The 3-4 defense was alive and well in Green Bay, and while they basically have everything down even this early in the season, the scary part is they are only going to get better in running the defense.
6. I really want to find the scouts that the Press Gazette interviewed saying that Jay Cutler is the best quarterback in the division and see if they still have the same opinion. I've never been so disappointed in scouts in general then in this offseason. I almost have to believe that the scouts have started messing with interviewers so that fans will read what they have to say anonymously and have incorrect expectations of their team. On espn.com their Scouts Inc. had A.J. Hawk rated as the 5th best Packer on the team, and Aaron Rodgers was tied for 7th with Chad Clifton and behind Donald Driver. As a barometer they had Rodgers ranked as the 18th best quarterback in the NFL behind players like Matt Cassel, Eli Manning, Brett Favre, Joe Flacco, Tony Romo, Jason Campbell, Jay Cutler and Matt Hasselbeck, amongst others. They only had him rated slightly ahead of Vince Young. Then last week the Press Gazette did an interview of 4 scouts who unanimously selected Cutler as the best QB in the division and also The Sporting News did a ranking of the top 100 players and M. Vick and B. Favre made the list, but again, no Aaron Rodgers. Meanwhile many of the experts are selecting the Packers to go to the Super Bowl and Aaron Rodgers to be a strong candidate for MVP. I know there will be a difference of opinions and it's not like Rodgers even had a good game on Sunday, but I will guarantee that Rodgers goes on to have a much better season and career than Jay Cutler barring any major injury.
7. I still want to see a little bit more from him before I get too excited but Johnny Jolly has really looked fantastic in this new scheme. For some reason I just keep expecting Jolly to let me down this year but overall he has been fantastic in this new scheme. That interception he made off of Cutler was one that I'm not sure any other 300 lbs lineman in this entire league makes. He was running down plays from behind, getting to the quarterback, intercepting passes and he was showing the same type of skill and ability in the preseason as well. We're only one week in and have a long way to go but my vote so far for most improved Packer has got to be for Johnny Jolly.
8. The Packers should have a pretty good bill of health going into Sunday's game with the Bengals. The only significant injury the Packers seemed to have on Sunday was to starting safety Atari Bigby. As it looks right now Will Blackmon and B.J. Raji should return vs. Cincinnati and the only two players who look to be in danger of not playing are Bigby and Brandon Jackson. Overall for the Packers have to be happy to really be without only 4 players that were expected to be on the opening day roster (Harrell, P. Lee, Bigby, and B. Jackson). There is a chance that Raji or Blackmon could have a setback but right now the injury situation looks pretty good. It concerns me a little bit to see Aaron Rouse in at safety when a couple weeks ago everybody expected him to get cut, but overall he looked pretty solid against Chicago.
9. I was curious all week to see who the Packers' inactives were going to be but there weren't very many surprises overall. Injuries played a big part in who the Packers decided to keep inactive. Three of the 8 inactives (Blackmon, Jackson, and Raji) were out strictly because of injury. Four rookies made up the next four spots (Underwood, Q. Johnson, B. Jones, and Dietrich-Smith) and right tackle Breno Giacomini made the final inactive. The biggest surprise to me was that T.J. Lang was active and Giacomini was not. It ended up being a big decision because I really think that if Breno would have been active that the Packers likely would have put him in at some point with the problems that Barbre was having against the Bears. This week I would expect Raji to be active and J. Wynn to sit down in his place, Blackmon to be active and Bigby to be inactive, and finally Giacomini to be active and Lang to sit.
10. The special teams was significantly better than a season ago. It's amazing to see what a new coach, philosophy and players will do to a special teams unit. Even though it was a terrible call, Brett Swain made a great heads up play on the tackle of Wolfe on the fake punt. J. Nelson had a solid day returning behind some great blocking and the coverage units were fantastic against generally one of the best special teams units in all of football. The only hiccup was Mason Crosby's missed field goal on the opening drive. With the return of Will Blackmon the special teams could really be something to watch come Sunday and at some point this season will win some games for the Packers.
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