As everyone knows, next week is a big game against Dallas. At Lambeau. Jerry Jones must have been asleep at the wheel over at the league office on this one. The schedule makers NEVER schedule the game at Lambeau. In the bygone Brett Favre era (circa 1992-2007), the Packers played Dallas 11 times (including the playoffs) and Dallas has only played at Lambeau twice. Three of those games were playoff games at Dallas, but take them out and it's still 6 in Dallas, 2 at Lambeau. Dallas had four consecutive regular season home games at one point in the 1990s. Yes, it still pisses me off.
Philadelphia isn't on the Packers schedule for the first time since 2002. Not that the Packers needed them on it because McNabb looked good. It usually takes one full season to recover from a knee injury and maybe only now is he back to full strength.
A few things I noticed while watching the game:
- I do like that this will be a short week for Dallas after playing on Monday night, and then they have to fly up to Green Bay.
- Both teams rarely blitzed and both had trouble getting to the QB. Philadelphia had no sacks. Dallas had four sacks, but the couple I saw were coverage sacks. McNabb sure holds onto the ball for a long time. Since QB Aaron Rodgers has shown some ability to run with the ball, Dallas probably won't blitz too much to keep him from running.
- Both teams had trouble deep in pass coverage. With time to throw, both QBs could throw deep. The safeties had a lot of trouble helping out in coverage. S Brian Dawkins has a Pro Bowl resume, but he struggled against WR Terrell Owens and TE Jason Witten. Losing Pro Bowl S Roy Williams won't hurt Dallas in pass coverage because he's lousy in it. Rookie WR DeSean Jackson blew right past him before the idiot rookie "fumbled" it at the 1 yard line.
- QB Tony Romo gift wrapped two TDs for Philadelphia. I'm not expecting the Packers will be so lucky.