I agree the D was down his throat all night and he was still making some throws but our receivers gotta make some of those catches. I was opdd seeing DD drop so many balls last night.

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Well we all expected great things from offense, however, The Bears threw many new defensive plays that Packers had no awareness of. In the pres conference, Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy admitted there were some plays they could not figure because they had not seen anything like that on the film for last two years. Now you want to Grade how the Packers did hm..

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Is the defensive line supposed to be that dominant? I though the idea was to free stuff up for the linebackers. Jenkins was just murdering double teams out there.

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I've heard a couple times that there are variants in how your DL plays in a 3-4 - in one the DL are just cloggers but in another they're expected to penetrate and blow things up. I'd expect that Capers employs both depending on the situation.

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Colinsworth was talking about this during the game last night. He said Capers defense penetrates. The 3 d-lineman will never be gap-cloggers.

They were so damn impressive last night. I can't get over it.

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And we really have the personel for that. Jolly, Jenkins and Raji are all guys that can really penetrate into the backfield. Still not that sure about Pickett, but he does what he has to do, hold his ground on nearly every single play. Just once did I see him get really beaten badly. On an iso right side, if I recall correctly.

Anyway, the offense looked slightly out of sync. Something we're really not used to see. The receivers dropped some balls and Rodgers appeared to be feeling the pressure.

The receivers dropping balls where just a fluke, I asume. A guy like Driver doesn't just lose his sure hands. If he could do it with his shoddy and crooked fingers for so long, I'm sure that he'll be able to do it for a little longer. Jordy Nelson never really had any problems with dropping balls either. Like I said, just a fluke.

The O-line though... it's still utter crap. At least, the right side is. Clifton, Colledge (!) and Spitz all looked really solid. Spitz was just manhandling Tommie Harris for quite a while. Sitton was pretty decent as well. Barbre, though... I don't want to go out and make any too radical moves, but this was just horrible. Obviously, we should give him a shot next week, as we're playing the Bungles. I could play RT against the Bungles. If he does continue to struggle against decent, but not great, pass rushes, we should really explore our options with Giacomini or Mereditch. Maybe even try to sign Levi or Tauscher.

Yeah, I don't know if Tommie Harris is just about done or if Spitz is just that good but he really had his number last night.

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I noticed the reggie white moves too ZS. This guy was good.

There weren't any As offensively. If there was one, Josh Sitton for manhandling Tommie Harris all game long would be the best candidate. If the Packers can shore up their RT concerns, the offensive line might get going.

Hard to tell if the Bears' pass rush is this improved or not. These are the same guys who basically lead them to a Super Bowl and two division titles not to long ago, but they were bad last year. Cincy has a nice frontline so we'll see how the o-line responds to a week of criticism.

I would give Rodgers a B. He missed two throws to Driver and Jennings that would've been long touchdowns. I'm not sure if he was rushing them or was just off target. That last throw though was a beauty. If you look at the tape, Rodgers is hardly all by himself when he makes that throw. That was clutch.

Greg "I always make the clutch play" Jennings once again is just proving why he's becoming an elite receiver.

Defensively is where the As come in.

Cullen Jenkins, Brandon Chiller, and Johnny Jolly played great games. Those were A+ performances.

What about Ryan Pickett as the unsung hero? He did what a nose tackle has to do and was a big reason why the Packers kept Forte in check.

I thought the secondary was fantastic, but that's stating the obvious. Clay Matthews was well disciplined. He's a starter before season's end.

Overall, defensively A- is probably what I would give them and offensively a B- to C+. I know they didn't do much, but they didn't turn the ball over either which was the difference in the game.

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QB: B

I heard the official statistic was 5 dropped balls last night. I clearly remember 4 extremely bad ones (two from Driver and two from Nelson, very uncharacteristic from both) and if I remember correctly all of them directly or effectively ended drives. If those four passes are completed we're looking at Rodgers having 21 of 28 and well over 200 yards (possibly more points scored too). However, he did have some bad misfires including on the two deep balls early and a seem route to Jones. He was hit on the second deep ball but the first he just flat out overthrew it. Overall, he didn't get flustered, he didn't panic, and when it mattered most he did come through. It was an above average performance but we expect superior performances from the quarterback position (aren't we spoiled).

RB: BC, for those of you who went to UW you know what that is... I don't know any other school that gives out this grade

Grant was effective later on in the game and he had good push. He had a very good run of maybe twenty yards called back for a horse shit holding call on Sitton I think. He was less than spectacular though and I thought Wynn was pretty useless.

FB: B

Collectively I don't remember a blown assignment from any of the fullbacks and they made some nice blocks on some key runs.

WR: C-

Too many dropped balls. It was very disappointing to see this from our receivers because I know they're better. Jennings made a hell of a play for the game winning touchdown and Driver did a great job getting open on the one deep ball that Rodgers overthrew. Otherwise, they were quiet. Part of the problem obviously was the lack of protection and how that limited our chances to develop any rhythm.

TE: C

I really didn't see much of them. I had a hard time giving them a grade but given that I don't remember really any noticeable positives or negatives I'm going to say it was an average performance. Feel free to remind me of anything of note with the tight ends.

OL: D+

Sitton and Spitz played well and I don't think I heard Colledge's name called all night which is a good sign. I remember Clifton having one of his dumb false starts and a couple bad penalties. Barbre was completely dominated and really brought down the whole group. I hope this was just one of those nights because he was at least decent in what I saw of him in the preseason. If we can get okay play from the right tackle the line will be fine but that was as far from the case as possible last night. Barbre would be my only individual F if I were to list every player.


Overall Offense: C-


DL: A+

There was absolutely no where to run, no where to hide. Jenkins and Jolly where all over the place, and Pickett left no where to go up the middle. Jolly made the most athletic play I've ever seen from a defensive lineman. He had better hands last night than our receivers. They were absolutely amazing last night.

LB: A

They were solid on blitzes usually getting penetration. Clay Matthews showed flashes of his potential, Chillar played out of mind, Kampman and Hawk were flawless. They also had very few coverage mistakes. They completely shut down the Bears strong tight ends as well as Olsen only had like one catch for 8 yards.

DB: B+

They were ballhawks last night. They need to improve the catching a little bit as they probably could have picked off a few more and there were a couple of blown coverages. However, they were usually very solid.


Overall Defense: A


Special Teams: B+

The coverage units were fantastic, they stayed disciplined even when Hester started running around back and forth and gave him no where to go. Crosby missed a 49 yarder which is worrisome but he didn't let him go to his head. Hopefully, he improves on his accuracy. Kapinos was okay, should've had a few of his punts downed inside the five that weren't but none of his punts were returnable. Also, his shanked punt did take a favorable Bears bounce. Major props to Swain on the fake punt tackle, he was lined up on the outside but noticed what was going on before Garrett Wolfe and then beat him to the middle of the field. If he doesn't get there that could have been bad.


Overall I gave the packers a B for their work last night. The beat a good Bears team despite not clicking on all levels and there are definitely some very big positives to take from this game.

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