It was rough watching Tennessee's starters control the game against the Packers 2nd and 3rd team players during the 1st half. Unfortunately they didn't look much better in the 2nd half against Tennessee's reserves either. Overall the Packers played really hard during the entire game despite the loss.
It was really good to watch QB Brett Favre work so well with his receivers while WR Donald Driver is out. WR Greg Jennings and TE Bubba Franks looked great, especially Franks since he has looked as good as ever as a receiver. WR James Jones might be a fantastic receiver. It's so hard to tell since it's preseason, but he's shown the ability to fight for the deep ball while gaining a lot of yards after the catch on short routes. WRs Ruvell Martin and Carlyle Holiday have looked solid too, and give the Packers the best depth they've had at receiver in many seasons.
LB Desmond Bishop missed a couple of tackles and gave up a TD pass in coverage, but is all over the field and might start making the plays he is just missing once he has some more experience. CB Patrick Dendy struggled, but I'm still not sure why CB Tramon Williams beat him out. S Atari Bigby looks like a big hitter. CB Will Blackmon was great and broke up a TD pass. CB Jarrett Bush struggled a little, he was completely turned around by WR Eric Moulds on a 18 yard reception. NT Ryan Pickett played a lot with the 2nd team this preseason and could lose his starting spot to someone like Johnny Jolly or Colin Cole as the season goes on.
RB DeShawn Wynn had an ugly box score and dropped two passes (he doesn't appear to be much of a receiver) but looked really good running the football. There just weren't a lot of running lanes for him. He was quick to the line and the hole (such as they existed) and showed some good power running.
Losing RB Noah Herron hurts because he played pretty well in 2006, but RB Brandon Jackson and Vernand Morency can do a lot of what Herron did. With Herron on I.R., GM Ted Thompson used the roster spot to pick up FB John Kuhn. There isn't much on the web about Kuhn, but he did play well enough the last two preseasons to survive until the final cuts in Pittsburgh.
With a missed field goal and surrendering a TD on a punt return, it looked like an ugly night for special teams. But overall special teams played pretty well on kick coverage, except for the TD return where it looked like since released LB Tim Goodwell was blocked into LS Rob Davis right in the middle of the field which opened up a huge hole for the returner. P Jon Ryan could still improve his consistency and still has trouble avoiding the touchback.
There are a lot of guys I didn't mention, but overall the Packers made the right decision about everyone they kept over the guys they released. The only exception is why they kept CBs Frank Walker and Tramon Williams over Dendy, but there doesn't appear to be much of a difference between the three players. Hopefully the three starters (Driver, Jackson, and RG Jason Spitz) all return healthy for Philadelphia.
With the exception of the run offense, which I think will come around given more opportunities, the 1st team defense and the offense have only gotten better with each preseason game and I'm really excited to watch them at full speed for an entire game against Philadelphia on Sunday.