Green Bay Packers Family Night: Notes, Thoughts, and Observations

That was a fun night. At it's core that's what Family Night is about, fun...and working out some of the rough patches. There were some rough patches and some bright spots. Perry and Worthy had some good flashes last night. The guys you know are going to be good (Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Tramon Williams, etc) still looked good. It was also fun to watch Jeff Saturday try and do a Lambeau Leap.

Now I didn't go to this particular event so there are not going to be the same offbeat stories like I bring from camp, but we will still go down the list of things from the broadcast. There is no practice tonight and so the camp reports return on Monday after Sunday night's practice.

Biggest surprise of the night: The changes in the kicking game. I may not have followed the latest renovations to Lambeau as close as some, but I didn't expect those additions to affect the kicking game quite as much it did. Trust me, Mason Crosby has not looked that bad in practice. Last night he missed a number of field goals in a row and all just wide right or wide left. Typically he's hit from that far off regularly in practice; really it's been as automatic as last year. Hopefully they just needed a night to practice in the building to get use to the new swirling winds.

Pleasant surprise of the night - Young defenders flashing talent. Much of the Packers hopes this season rest on Jerel Worthy and Nick Perry. They have each looked good this camp, but haven't quite been as awesome as many had dreamed. Last night we saw some good spurts of rush from each of them as well as UDFA sensation Dezman Moses. Perry even had a couple good plays in coverage. If these three can continue to build on the good performances from last night then the defense should be in much better shape.

Disappointment of the night - The entire backup offensive line. There are countless excuses to be made here...they were going against the starters, it was only a scrimmage, it's still early....but what I saw last night out of the number 2 offensive line wasn't good. This was especially the case up the middle. I was a little surprised from the performance of Evan Dietrich-Smith who looked fine in relief duty last year, but outright disappointed me last night. The rest of the line was pretty much what I expected of them, i.e. worrisome. Everyone fears about the backup QB situation, but I worry more about the depth at G and C. Those guys are more likely to get hurt and a bad replacement there can tank a season just about as quick as that of QB.

Offensive performance of the day - Aaron Rodgers is still the king. I could highlight many people here, but I'll let Rodgers steal the show. He had a great day and reminded Packer nation that the QB spot is in good hands. Only fitting after some of the other bad Family Nights he's had to suffer through.

Defensive performance of the day - Dezman Moses continues to shine. There is an interesting battle going on right now at the OLB spot. Perry has very high expectations and hasn't stuck out negatively. Erik Walden is having a pretty good camp and could push Perry for that starting role that was just handed to him. Moses is also pushing for playing time by displaying some very good pass rushing ability. I doubt Moses is going to push for starting minutes (the totality of this game just isn't there), but he may make a push for some good minutes and pass rushing situations to keep Perry and Clay Matthews fresh.

PA pay attention! Update on Du'ane Bennett. Very quick since watching on TV is not quite the same as camp. Bennet I thought had a good night with a few nice runs and one great catch. He's growing on my quick. It doesn't help him that Brandon Saine also had a nice showing, but that's besides the point. Bennett could translate his continued solid performance into some sort of job as long a s he continues to put good things on tape.

PA's controversial call - Keep the faith on Graham Harrell. As I breeze through the initial reports by the beat writers on Family Night I've encountered some negative reactions to Harrell's night. He was up and down and missed some throws that he should of made, but don't give up on him yet. Harrell is still probably the best option for a backup. B.J. Coleman struggled just as mightily as Harrell did last night. Also don't forget that the Packers offense is pretty complex and so just bringing in a vet for the sake of bringing in a vet would probably not help as much as so many pundits and fans might think.

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