Losing a former 2nd round pick, QB Brian Brohm, and replacing him with a QB who went undrafted and spent last season playing Division II college football is a big step down.

But if there is a silver lining about the news that QB Mike Reilly was signed to the practice squad, it's that Reilly's an interesting player. Here's his bio from NFL Draft Scout. He was major college prospect who went to Washington State, but transferred to Division II Central Washington after his redshirt season. He threw for 12,448 yards in college, 3rd all time in Division II history, and won the Division II equivalent of the Heisman trophy last year. And at 6'3", 214 lbs., he's got the size to play in the NFL. The Packers' personnel department must have scouted him, and known all about him, so this isn't just a random signing to fill the open QB spot on the practice squad. 

Hopefully he stays on the practice squad for the rest of the season, and sticks around through next year, because I'd like to see him play in a preseason game.

Week 1 of the jersey contest is in the books. Hopefully I'll remember to post the results shortly, but in the meantime, the entry form for this week's game is now open. Follow the link here. The contest details were posted last week here.

Please use the same user name, and email address, you used last week so I can keep track of the cumulative score for November. And if you didn't enter last week, go ahead and enter this week anyway. I ask two bonus questions, only one entry got either of them right last week, and you can easily get to the top of the leader board if you correctly guess them.

Good luck!

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It's well deserved that CB Charles Woodson was named NFC defensive player of the week. When was the last time a Green Bay Packer defender had as dominant a game?

In a minor move, WR Jake Allen was released. He was quickly claimed by the Browns. Aaron Nagler was less than impressed with Allen during the Buccaneers game. He rarely played this preseason, only recording 2 receptions. He was just your generic, undrafted free agent who made no impression.

This does leave a roster spot open, but three key players returned to practice on Wednesday, TE Jermichael Finley, LB Aaron Kampman, and RT Mark Tauscher, so they don't necessarily need to add someone this week since that new addition would likely be left inactive on Sunday.

But according to Greg Bedard, the Packers opened up that roster spot so they could add QB Brian Brohm from the practice squad. Unfortunately he declined the offer and instead signed with the Buffalo Bills. That's the 2nd player they've lost from the practice squad to the Buffalo Bills, OL Jamon Meredith was the other player lost back in September. 

It hurts that they lost a recent 2nd round pick for nothing in return. But Brohm was clearly the 3rd best QB on the team over the last two seasons. He was much better this preseason compared to his rookie year. He probably had little chance of moving ahead of backup QB Matt Flynn, and had no chance of taking the starting job away from QB Aaron Rodgers. At best, he could have shown some improvement next preseason, as did former Packer preseason superstar QB Matt Hasselbeck, and then been traded for something in a year or two. In the end, he turned out to be a high priced insurance policy in case Rodgers fell on his face last season. And it was offset by the knowledge that they used a 7th round pick in 2008 on a backup QB (Flynn) who appears to have 2nd round talent.

Watching the Browns game on Monday night reminded me of Brohm. Both he and QB Brady Quinn have poor accuracy past about 10 yards. If Quinn could be an NFL starter, it seemed ridiculous that Brohm couldn't find a team interested in adding him to their active roster. If QB Bruce Gradkowski can start in Oakland, then certainly Brohm deserves a chance somewhere. He might not get that chance this season, but he'll probably be given an opportunity to win the Bills starting job next season.

Via Football Outsiders. An englishman in Green Bay, from the BBC:

I was in Green Bay over the weekend with BBC 5 live sports extra - as part of the first ever British commentary team to broadcast live from the US - to witness the hometown Packers record a much-needed win over the visiting Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field.

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Follow the link over to NFL.com and show rookie LB Clay Matthews some love.

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Injuries, Injuries, injuires...from Mike McCarthy:

Cullen Jenkins had some ankle swelling. He'll probably miss some practice time this week. Desmond Bishop also had an ankle sprain. He'll probably miss some practice time. Greg Jennings had a knee contusion. He'll miss some practice time. And John Kuhn had a broken hand, and we'll see what he'll be able to do this week. With that, I'll take your questions. 

The only injury he mentioned in his post-game press conference was LG Daryn Colledge's ankle bruise, but Colledge returned to the game at few plays later. The three guys who missed the Dallas game, RT Mark Tauscher, TE Jermichael Finley, and LB Aaron Kampman, are all expected back at practice this week. A lot of guys are banged up, and there's still 7 regular season games to go.

According to Rob Demovsky, the Packers should have been assessed a 15 yard penalty after McCarthy tried a 3rd challenge. I admit I hadn't noticed. The Cowboys got down to the 1 yard line anyway, and were stopped when QB Tony Romo threw a INT to CB Charles Woodson, so I'm not sure it would have mattered.

P Jeremy Kapinos is a great punter, in practice, says special teams coach Shawn Slocum. Slocum better be careful, praising P Derrick Frost's practice skills didn't help Mike Stock keep his job after last season. I haven't been a big critic of Kapinos because he's not as bad as Frost and I doubt they'd find anyone better at this point. Still, he's one of the worst punters in the NFL and the Packers will have to bring in some serious competition next season. For the remainder of this season, Greg Bedard suggested P Sam Paulescu, but he was bad last season in Dallas with a 41.8 yard average, compared to a 44.2 yard average for Kapinos. His net average is even worse, but the punt coverage deserves a lot of blame for it.

In his 1st NFL start, LB Brad Jones had 7 tackles and 1 for a loss. I'm a big fan of his, but I was disappointed he couldn't bring more of a pass rush against the Cowboys' backup RT. A good game, but those are LB A.J. Hawk type numbers. So I'm surprised that the comments are praising Jones, McCarthy has been asked whether Kampman remains the starter, and Tom Silverstein writes about Jones's emergence. 

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From Blogging the Boys:

The Cowboys offense was terrible, the defense hung tough for as long as they could, but eventually buckled late in the game. This was all on the offense, though.

So that's a Cowboys fan's perspective. Looking back at the play-by-play, it took the Cowboys the first 3 quarters to figure it out on offense. They were shut out for most of the game because they weren't able to run the ball or protect QB Tony Romo. Also, while the Packers had more penalties and penalty yards, the Cowboys penalties seemed to hurt them more. They weren't able to get any rhythm on offense because of their running game, pass protection, and the penalties. Then, in their final 2 drives, they managed to protect Romo (except for that big hit DE Johnny Jolly put on him) and they abandoned the run. It could have led to 2 TDs, except CB Charles Woodson jumped the route on the goal line for his big INT.

While it's not unusual to see a great defensive performance from the Packers, it was unusual to see the pass rush work so well in this game. The concern is that it was only a temporary surge of sacks and QB hits. While Romo kept taking hits, he wasn't sacked on his final 26 pass attempts. Also, the Packers allowed another red zone TD pass, their 6th one allowed in the past 3 games.

The offensive line struggled again, allowing 4 sacks and 4 QB hits. Overall the offense struggled with an inconsistent running game, sacks, and penalties. They did manage to put it together for one long TD drive, but even then the Cowboys' penalties helped move it along. Dallas' defense has gotten better as the season has gone on, but it was not a great offensive performance. The exception being that they had zero turnovers (1 turnover was negated by a penalty). 

The special teams weren't great, but nobody on the Cowboys will be named NFC special teams player of the week either. The kick and punt coverage looked a lot better this week, so hopefully this is the start of a good trend. 

The Packers don't play another team with a winning record until December 20th (the Steelers in Pittsburgh). It's never easy in the NFL, but hopefully they can keep winning over the next four weeks. They play 3 of their final 4 games on the road, so this is the time to build a lead in the Wild Card standings.

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If you read my preview, you'll know I didn't expect them to win. Box score from ESPN. So how did they pull it out?

• Protect the QB. 4 sacks and 4 QB hits on 40+ pass attempts isn't a Pro Bowl performance for the offensive line. LB DeMarcus Ware had a big game with 2 sacks, 2 QB hits, and forced at least a couple holding penalties. But as far as this season has gone, this actually marks an improvement. But it's not the reason they won.
• Stop the penalties. The Packers committed 12 penalties costing them 100 yards. Nope, that didn't win them the game.
• Coverage on special teams. The kick coverage was good, holding Dallas to only 60 yards on 3 returns, with nothing over 25 yards. But the kickoffs weren't that deep either which left the Cowboys with good field position. They did hold PR Patrick Crayton to only 8.2 yards/return, with a long of 18 yards. Not great, but at least they didn't start any drives in Packer territory. Better, but it wasn't the reason they won.
• The defensive shutout (almost). The Packers have allowed 38 points in each of their previous two games, which masked the fact the defense had been playing well. The pass rush hadn't been getting to the QB, but defensive coordinator Dom Capers opened up the playbook and the blitz got to QB Tony Romo this week. There's been a lot of talk about QB Aaron Rodgers holding the ball too long, but Romo was guilty of it this week. And the pressure forced the turnovers that had been absent the past 2 weeks. The final 2 Dallas drives created 139 yards of offense and will slightly mask how dominant the Packers defense was. On 8 separate drives, the Cowboys were held to under 20 yards of offense. The Packers D allowed another TD pass in the red zone, it was the 6th one they've allowed in the last 3 games, but it was offset by a big INT by CB Charles Woodson that ended one red zone drive. Another Dallas red zone drive ended with a missed FG. Definitely the reason they won. 

The past two weeks have been ugly, but a big win like this turns it all around. We can't expect the defense, no matter how well it's been playing, to lockdown their opponents like this every week. But after 2 disappointing losses in the previous 2 weeks, and 2 tough losses to the Cowboys in the previous 2 seasons, it's a big win. Hopefully that momentum carries them forward through the 2nd half of the season.

As far as MVP goes, LB Nick Barnett had a huge game with 2 sacks and 2 QB hits. But CB Charles Woodson forced 2 fumbles, both recovered by the Packers, had 1 sack, and his INT stopped a sure Cowboy scoring drive.