Well, that was more excitement (read: anxiety) than I expected. Strange game. I suppose we should have known it was going to be strange when we saw it raining in San Diego.
Even though Aaron Rodgers and the Packer offense get all the publicity, attention, and love, this game was about defense. In the first quarter, it was a play-making defense with two pick-sixes. But in the fourth quarter, it was an unnerving defense, inexcusably letting the opponent back into the game after having a 21-point lead.
How good does the closing pitcher feel when he entered the ninth inning with a 6-run lead and ended with a 1-run win?
Dom Capers’ defense has been notorious for its bend-but-don’t break success. But they broke a ton on Sunday afternoon, giving up a ridiculous 38 points. Thirty-eight! How many games can you expect to win in the NFL when you give up 38 points?
Still, it’s hard to argue with success. It’s hard to complain when you’re 8-0. Hard to criticize a team that has achieved the longest winning streak (including playoffs) in franchise history. Yesterday was the same script we saw a couple of times in last year’s playoff run -- the opponent driving down the field late in the game, gaining alarming chunks of yards at a time, only to get picked off in the end.
Nevertheless, I do trust that our defense will get “coached up” a bit this week. I fear that some upcoming opponent will learn from this game film how to score a boatload of points against us.
On the other hand, they haven’t yet shot the game film that shows teams how to stop Aaron Rodgers for a full 60-minutes. He was a maestro again today, with 4 TD passes, only 5 incompletions, and no interceptions. On the year, Rodgers has 24 TDs and just 3 INTs. The guy just doesn’t make mistakes.
It’s only halfway through the season, so we know that it’s premature to project out the statistics in order to imagine all the records he’d break at the current pace. But halfway through the season, we can say at least this: there is no doubt which team, which offense, and which quarterback are the very best in the NFL.
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2 comments:
This game felt a lot like the Saints game to me. Tolbert (although a different style of runner) was gouging the defense similar to Sproles did. It seemed the secondary started cheating a little once that happened.
It makes me nervous that the team as a whole is looking more like the St. Louis Rams during the Greatest Show on Turf era. The philosophy then was "Go ahead and score, we will just score more often." I know that isn't what Capers, Woodson, Matthews and any else wants, but when the offense is cutting through teams this quickly, the defense is on the field an awful lot.
Excellent point about the old Rams -- and a disturbing insight! The bewildering difference is that those St. Louis teams never boasted a great defense. What happened in Green Bay between last year and this year?
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