Sunday, September 13, 2009

Bucky Five: Rodgers Gets Clutch

The five thoughts I'm walking away with after the Packers 21-15 win over the Bears.

1. Like I Said, Cutler Sucks - I have been going on and on about how I don't think Jay Cutler is going to be the savior to this Bears franchise, much less even a good quarterback, and boy did he look bad tonight. He did have his moments, I'll give him that, but four interceptions is very um, well, shitty. The best one of the night was by far the one that Johnny Jolly somehow came up with. Granted, the Packers could have done a better job creating points off the turnovers, but that still doesn't change the fact that Cutler has four interceptions next to his name.

2. Barbreshop - A friend of mine brought up the fact that Ted Thompson better have Mark Tauscher on speed dial, because maybe Allen Barbre isn't going to be able to hold down this starting position for a whole season. He did do better in the second half, but looked awful in the first half. In fact, the offensive line kind of got owned a lot in this game, and Rodgers definitely felt a lot of pressure. I know the Bears have a better defensive attack then most teams, but this is definitely something they can work on this week.

3. Illegal Contact? - This will get glossed over because the Packers ended up winning, but that illegal contact call on Al Harris in the fourth quarter was a bunch of crap. Man, was that brutal. There was a similar kind of call in the first quarter as well, which lead to Al Michaels giving a plug to my hometown of Fond du Lac live on the air. By the way, it's a fact that the Packers have intercepted a pass after every time that Fond du Lac has been mentioned on a nationally televised game.

4. Patrick Mannelly is Awesome - If that wasn't the dumbest play in the history of the world, then there are only a few others that could be ahead of it. Patrick Mannelly maxed out his long snapper power abilities when he audibled from a punt to a fake punt without letting anyone know. Sure, he pointed at Garrett Wolfe, but that's not really a thing. The Packers were able to get a field goal out of it, which gave them the lead at the time. It had to be pretty awkward for Mannelly in that locker room after the game, almost as awkward as the interview between Bob Costas and Jay Leno.

5. Thank God - After not really playing well during the game, Aaron Rodgers came back in a big way with the game winning 50 yard pass to Greg Jennings. Rodgers didn't play terrible terrible, but he didn't really play with the same gusto he had in the preseason. It was almost as if Rodgers was putting a lot of the weight on his shoulders, especially because of how disappointing last year was. Rodgers knows that he is a good quarterback on a good team, but knowing is only half the battle. You have to actually execute your talents, and they had a hard time doing that throughout the game. But yes, he did totally redeem himself with a game winning drive, and shed that monkey off his back. Rodgers actually lead similar drives last year, but the defense would then crumble, so it was nice to see them pull through, and it was great to see Al Harris give us the same finger point interception he gave us back in the 2004 playoffs. Overall, a nerve-racking game that ended beautifully, and the Packers enter week two 1-0.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Bob Costas pretty much shouldn't be covering football. I use to hate Collinsworth but I thought he was pretty good last nite.

Go Pack.

TZar said...

Costas/Leno was brutal. Costas could of atleast pretended that Leno was funny.

Matt said...

Travis, what are you thinking?! Collinsworth was his typical Packer hating self. His is an absolute idiot!!! The guy is the second worst color announcer on Television, second only to Tony Kornheuser (sp?)

Unknown said...

Kornheuser isn't doing MNF anymore. I just thought he was calling it how it was lastnight. I liked how he compared Cutler's bad pass to Favre. I'm definitely not sold on Collinsworth but I'm going to give him a chance this year.

Daniel C said...

I can only assume that Rodgers read the article from earlier, giving him the confidence he needed to hit Jennings on that play.

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