Packers 21, Tampa Bay 30

by Brandon on Sep 28, 2008 3:57 PM CDT in News

This game wasn't as close as the score. As Pack Man said In the comments to the open thread:

this absolutely sucks

if the offense cant get it together this is going to be a long season

During the Favre un-retirement saga, one of the reasons why Mike McCarthy said that Rodgers has to start instead of Favre was that the Packers changed the offense since last season to better suit Rodgers instead of Favre. I would like McCarthy to change the offense back to what it was last season as soon as possible.

The Onion made a joke about it last week, but the offensive line is in bad shape. Maybe you can excuse the lack of a running game against Dallas and Tampa, but they couldn't run against Detroit either and everyone runs against Detroit. The line got no push against Tampa's d-line, and RB Ryan Grant had no where to run. Not to take any blame off of Grant, he had a bad game and a killer fumble too, but the offensive line gave him nothing. Rodgers had his worst game, even before he got injured. None of the receivers, except WR Greg Jennings, are getting open.

The only thing that kept this game close was the two big TD passes to Jennings, and the play of the Packers secondary and their three INTs, none bigger than CB Charles Woodson's INT he returned for a TD.

It was a rough game for the defensive front seven, DE Aaron Kampman was shutdown and Tampa's offensive line got a lot of push up front, but they got to QB Brian Griese a bunch of times and were good more often than bad. S Nick Collins is working on a career season and CB Tramon Williams had a great game. The defense is playing good enough to win.

Also, the Packers special teams got rolled in this game. Nothing from the return game and new P Derrick Frost was horrible. Frost had a good game against Minnesota, but he's been bad or awful ever since. I've been cutting him some slack after poor Detroit and Dallas games, but this game was inexcusable. The only way he should keep his job next week is if P Jon Ryan is still with Seattle or there is no one worth mentioning available as a street free agent.

I'm not writing off the season. With Minnesota losing again, only Chicago has a chance to tie Green Bay for the lead. No team in the NFC North is going to run away with the division. But the Packers have taken a step back from last season and don't look anything like an NFC division champion.

Poll

Who's Been Struggling The Most?

Ryan Grant

23 votes

Defensive LIne

0 votes

Offensive LIne

30 votes

Nick Barnett

2 votes

Donald Driver

0 votes

55 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 6 comments

Read Related

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Not a good day

for the Packers to lose, Aaron Rodgers to get injured, and Brett Favre to throw 6 TD passes. :(

by Vince D on Sep 28, 2008 4:53 PM CDT 0 recs

Momma said there'd be days like this

I’ve said my piece in my post. Now I’m going to try and turn my attention to my fantasy team, which is having much more success than the Packers are right now. Ryan Grant is killing me, though.

"I'm so clean, cats think I sip Ajax."

by Mitchell_M on Sep 28, 2008 4:59 PM CDT 0 recs

You can’t go comparing this one game against Favre’s one game. Where is all the complaints about Favre POOR play last week, where he should have had at least 4 interceptions hadn’t the defense dropped the ball.

I knew this would happen, soon as Rodgers has a bad day, people will be all over him. Yet its just fine for Favre. Favre does it all the time. Countless games where Favre did absolutely nothing last year, and was outplayed by rookie quaterbacks last year.

The Jets also have one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. The Packers have one of the hardest schedules.

Grant on the other hand needs to be benched for someone else. I’m sick of all his fumbling… and he can’t run either. Jackson isn’t much better. They should have traded Favre for a runningback.

by TC93 on Sep 28, 2008 6:02 PM CDT 0 recs

People shouldn’t worry about the Favre comparisons, he was facing a terrible NFC West defense, he’ll have plenty of games like that and then others like Monday Night.

It’s growing pains guys. The O-line is the biggest concern.

by BearsNecessity on Sep 28, 2008 6:46 PM CDT up 0 recs

Good point on the schedule too...

The Offensive line and the running game and brett favre looked like crapola last year when facing teams with physical defenses and especially those that pay the Cover 2…Philadelphia and the Giants being the former, the Redskins and Giants being the latter.

I am not sure the team has taken a step back, they have faced 3 very good defenses early on and last years schedule, in retrospect was simply cake…they faced only 2 playoff teams in the first 9 games, and those two play off teams were playing AWFUL early on, namely San Diego and Giants…and the AFC WEst was rather weak last year. This year we face the division that has indy, jacksonville and Tennessee…good luck.

But the Oline is continuing to have problems against overpowering lines…that’s been the story the last 3 years really.

by PackFaninFL on Sep 28, 2008 7:49 PM CDT up 0 recs

Can't run the ball, can't stop the run

This game bothered me a lot more than the Dallas game, because I considered it to be a true measuring stick of where we are. Tampa Bay is a purely average football team. A good team should be able to beat them on the road, and we weren’t able to get it done.

I don’t care who is playing QB – when your starting running back gets 15 carries for 20 yards, it’s difficult to win the football game. Aaron Rodgers wasn’t going to play interception free football forever, although I would prefer not to see too many more 3-interception outings. The real question now is the game of russian roulette McCarthy and Thompson played at the QB position with Flynn and Brohm as the backups. Will we reach out to a veteran? Is there even a veteran out there with enough knowledge of the Packers system to come in and start on short notice if Rodgers can’t go?

The defense is also starting to concern me – bottom line is we gave up almost 200 yards rushing again, and that’s a problem that needs to get fixed. The DT position that was so deep for us last year has become alarmingly thin, and our linebackers and safeties aren’t doing a good enough job in support.

The Bears are starting to look like they could be a legitimate threat, so the team has to pull their heads out of their collective arse and start playing football.

by Packschmid on Sep 29, 2008 9:51 AM CDT 0 recs