Green Bay Packers

It’s time to take a look at the All-NFC North team for 2011. As ever, we’e being a little creative with the formations to try and get the best possible players on the field and, in this instance, that leaves us with a truly destructive looking offense.

The “Black and Blue” division doesn’t let us down when it comes to defense either, with only safety being a notable weak point on a side stacked with stud players. No team in the division has fewer than five players selected to this team which shows that despite some teams struggling (well, the Vikings), there is talent all over, and no one team is in power all the way through.

So let’s take a look at the rundown. Read the rest of this entry »

Green Bay became the first 15-1 team in league history to go one-and-done in the playoffs when they fell to the red hot New York Giants at Lambeau Field on Sunday.  The Giants never trailed and ended the game going away from the Packers who only briefly threatened a comeback in a game they were unquestionably second best in.

Aaron Rodgers missed some uncharacteristic throws in the game and only his running kept the Packers from allowing the game to slip out of hand as their defense could never really derail the Giants.  Rodgers’ job was made even tougher by drops from Green Bay receivers, something they have struggled with all season, but which really cost them in this game, one in which they needed every play that was there for the making.

The Giants are now as hot as any team in the league and are riding a win streak that has some remarkable similarities to their Super Bowl run of 2007 (which also ran through Lambeau Field), and also to the close of Green Bay’s season last year.  The playoffs are all about getting hot at the right time, and right now the Giants are that team.  

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The defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers find their dream of an improbable repeat still very much alive, and may well be the best team left at this point. They will host the New York Giants in a game that will cast many minds back not to the first game between the two sides this season, but to an NFC Championship game back in 2007. That game in frigid Lambeau ended Brett Favre’s tenure with Green Bay on an ugly interception and thrust Aaron Rodgers on an unsuspecting NFL landscape.

Rodgers is now a Super Bowl MVP, and he will go head-to-head with another in the form of Eli Manning in this game. Manning has been quietly having a stellar season and unlike the quarterbacks everybody is talking about, is doing so behind some extremely suspect protection from an O-line badly in need of reconstruction. Read the rest of this entry »

So this is a game that the Packers didn’t care about; they’d simply rest their big names, run the ball at every opportunity, just take the loss and move on? Yeah right.

Matt Flynn is a free agent in February and he and the coaches had other ideas about giving up a 22 year home winning streak against the Lions. Instead they gave him the opportunity to shop his wares to all the NFL teams struggling at the QB position and condemn the Lions to the playoff gig no one wants; away to the offensive juggernaut of the New Orleans Saints. Matthew Stafford together with Calvin Johnson played about as well as you can but still came up short in a game that had plenty of interest for interested parties and neutral fans alike. Here’s what I thought of some of the key players:

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Green Bay coaches have yet to tip their hands on how they’ll approach what for them is a “glorified scrimmage” against the Lions. The guess here is they won’t be offering up many of their key starters as fodder for a hungry, and often reckless Detroit team that still has plenty to play for.

A victory for the Lions would assure them the fifth seed and keep them out of a first round visit to either New Orleans or San Francisco–teams they’ve already lost to this season.

Let’s take a look at how some Packers backups could fare in extended duty against the Lions starters.

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With Matt Forte breaking tackles and Jay Cutler slinging touchdown passes, eyes had turned to a Christmas Day encounter that promised as much excitement for football fans, as opening that first present from Santa Claus does for kids of all ages.

Unfortunately injuries meant that there was no Forte or Cutler, with their backups trying admirably to make a contest of things against the juggernaut that are the Green Bay Packers. Instead we got to see the Packers get back on track even if they had to wear down a stubborn NFC North divisional rival.

It means that there will be no playoffs in Chicago as they’re left to rue what may have been, but for injuries. Green Bay instead will turn their attention to the playoffs, with homefield advantage secured you have to wonder if, after the wakeup call that was Kansas City, can anyone stop them? Let’s take a look at some of the key performances.

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The only game on Christmas Day is an ancient rivalry as well as a rematch of last season’s NFC Championship and a close Week 3 battle. This game could have been a lot more interesting had Jay Cutler and Matt Forte not been injured earlier in the year, but the Chicago Bears, who are still fighting to keep their slim postseason hopes alive, will have to go on without them. In the midst of a four game losing streak, they are coming off a 38-14 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks, who they beat there last January in a playoff game.

The Green Bay Packers are coming off a much more shocking loss to the Kyle Orton-led Kansas City Chiefs, their first loss of the season. The injuries the defending champs have endured haven’t been as devastating as the Bears’ injuries (starting QB and starting RB), but they have made QB Aaron Rodgers’ health going forward a concern; they lost two right tackles just last week, are currently on a backup left tackle, and Rodgers suffered two concussions last season. So neither squad is anywhere near 100% healthy.

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Green Bay’s quest for an undefeated season skidded right off the rails and buried itself into the scenery at Arrowhead Stadium this week. While everybody else was talking about what point in the game the Packers were going to pull their starters for a well-earned rest, Kyle Orton was out to remind everybody that he can play football pretty well at times.

The Chiefs really dominated this game and should have been well ahead at the half, but for their complete inability to convert on three trips into the red zone. In the end, they survived a brief comeback by the Packers to get their first win without Todd Haley at the controls. Orton also had a nice advantage of this being his second time around against the Packers, having faced them when he led the Broncos back in Week 4.

For the Packers things simply just weren’t firing. Aaron Rodgers seemed strangely off target, and then his O-line started to drop like flies and leak pressure badly, making his job even harder.  Let’s find out what else went on in one of the biggest surprise games of Week 15.

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As the Green Bay Packers enter their final road game of the season, coaches and players are starting to embrace the pursuit of perfection. With home field advantage all but sewn up, it could prove hard to maintain an edge over these final three games. So suddenly, the push for 16-0 now becomes a motivator–instead of a distraction.

The Chiefs officially ended the Todd Haley experiment and have installed defensive coordinator and former Browns head coach, Romeo Crennel as the interim. Last year, many teams saw a resurgence after mid-season coaching changes. The Chiefs could be next. Now a longshot for the NFC West division title and a playoff berth, Kansas City could certainly be finding their own motivation in the Packers’ current win streak, as in being the team that ends it.

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Green Bay’s quest for the perfect season remains on course. The latest team to step up to the plate and try to derail their season was the Oakland Raiders. At 46-16, it’s safe to say they didn’t pose too much of a threat.

The Packers were rolling early in the game and Carson Palmer showed some of the poor play that he showed in his later time in Cincinnati, as if the three-week warranty had worn off on his resurgence in Oakland.

Green Bay led 31-0 at the half and was really just on cruise control in the second half, and Oakland rolled over for the second week on the bounce, threatening to limp their way out of playoff contention in the AFC West

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