Recap: Games 5-8 in 2008

by Brandon on Jan 8, 2009 2:00 PM CST in Looking Ahead to 2009 Comment 1 comment

The 2-2 start wasn't inspiring. The next four games started with a very disappointing loss, but ended with 2 wins and a well played road loss against the last unbeaten team in the NFL. After 8 games, it looked like the Packers were playing the best of all the NFC North teams.

	vs. Atlanta	at Seattle	vs. Indy	at Tennessee
Rushing Yards Gained	104	113	116	102
Rushing Yards Allowed	176	113	73	178

Passing Yards Gained	304	200	186	288
Passing Yards Allowed	194	64	229	169

Penalty Yards on Packers	97	45	70	41

Turnovers by Opponent	1	2	2	0
Turnovers by Packers	1	1	0	2

Green Bay	24	27	34	16
Opponent	27	17	14	19

It was possible to believe the Packers would lose at home to Dallas, then on the road in Tampa. But to lose to Atlanta? At Lambeau? After Atlanta finished up an 11 win season, it doesn't look so bad. Atlanta got just enough offense from WR Roddy White in the first half (over 100 yards), and from RB Michael Turner in the 2nd half, to lead them to victory. One week after his serious shoulder injury in Tampa, Rodgers threw for over 300 yards. Again the run defense collapsed late in the game, and, again, another poor game for RB Ryan Grant.

Due to injuries, Seattle was forced to start QB Charlie Frye against one of the best pass defenses in the NFL. Somehow he managed to throw two TDs, but he was so awful. He had no accuracy past 10 yards. It was like they played a team without a QB. Seattle would have been better playing RB Julius Jones in the wildcat all game.

Hope sprang eternal after the big win over Indianapolis. The pass defense owned MVP QB Peyton Manning, he threw two pick 6s, and even the run defense showed up. It was a bad statistical game for Grant, but he started to show some signs of life in this game. WR Greg Jennings started to slow down at this point; this was the first of four games in 2008 when he was held for under 40 yards receiving.

If you can have a good loss, losing at unbeaten Tennessee in overtime was a good loss. Rodgers took some heat in the papers after this game for throwing one INT in the endzone, and having two drives stall near the goal line. K Mason Crosby was forced to kick two short (23 and 25 yard) FGs instead. I thought that was a load of c*&p because he had also managed to throw for over 300 yards against the best pass defense in the NFL. The Packers' run defense, again, collapsed at the end. Tennessee got the ball to start OT and their last 6 plays were all running plays to set up the game winning FG.

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The end was already here...

Sans Cullen Jenkins, Al harris, a banged up bigby, AjHawk, etc etc…the writing was already on the wall at this point.

To me, I just think we matched up perfectly with Indy, offensively and defensively. Plus I believe Freeney was out. But we matched up well with them because they are NOT a POWER, PHYSICAL team a la the ones that do give us trouble…we didn’t have to deal with an overpower front 7, so not surprising, our Oline really gelled in that game.

Defensively, our Dline got good penetration and I really feel our Dbacks were monsterly pumped facing Mr. All World Peyton Manning

The Seattle game was an absolute joke.

The Titans game was really interesting. Our Defense, in my opinion was simply outstanding for much of that game…as I recall Lendale White had one 40 plus yard run but the rest of them we kept them bottled up(him and Johnson), until the end. Entering the game, everybody was saying how we were going to get slaughtered by the best run game in the NFL (at that time they were nearly the best I suppose)

What’s really disappointing me in that game was the endzone interception thrown by Rodgers when he had the ball around the 30. I believe that was at the end of 3rd quarter. We were actually running the ball well on that drive prior to his ill advised pass. Early on, this was going to be a nip-tuck, field goal game, he should NOT have gotten greedy and recognized it was a low scoring game, decided by kicking the ball…

by PackFaninFL on Jan 8, 2009 8:33 PM CST reply actions 0 recs