RT Mark Tauscher Lost For The Year

Like the Packers needed more bad news. RT Mark Tauscher is done for the year:

"Coach Mike McCarthy said in his Monday news conference that tests revealed Tauscher had torn the ligament Sunday in the Packers' 24-21 loss to the Houston Texans and would be lost for the season. The injury is to the same ligament that Tauscher tore in the Louisiana Superdome in 2002."

OL Tony Moll will start in his place:

"Tony played OK," McCarthy said. "Tony's tough. He competed, just like you knew he would. He went in there. He did a couple things from a technical standpoint that he needs to clean up, but as far as the way we played the game and as far as the game plan, we didn't adjust anything."

Moll isn't as good as Tauscher. Neither one is dominant, but Moll usually has one or two more blown plays per game. He also seems to draw more penalties.

And about Moll's holding penalty against Houston:

It isn't a well-kept secret that the Packers were unhappy with the holding penalty called against Moll with 3 minutes left, a call that wiped out a first down at the Houston 13 and helped keep the Packers from scoring. Moll disputed the call and apparently the Packers' interpretation led them to believe the same thing.

Asked if Moll did what he was supposed to do on the play from a technical standpoint, McCarthy said, "Absolutely. He did exactly what he was taught to do."

I didn't make a big deal about it in my post game review. I was more upset that the Packers completely blew it on the two plays after that. They were still in great position for a FG, but went backwards. The refs just call what they want. That safety during the Minnesota game that was an illegal throwing motion, or whatever BS justification the refs came up with, was a worse call. I'm sure all teams deal with this junk and I generally ignore it as a random part of the game. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.