Family Night Scrimmage: Good & Mixed Reviews
by John C. Redfern 8-5-07
GOOD REVIEWS: QB Favre looked sharp guiding 2 TDs drives. The 1st team O-Line didn’t allow the defensive line near Favre. However, they must improve on bigger holes for the running game. WR Driver made two crucial receptions including one for a TD. WRs Greg Jennings, Jones & Holiday had good nights. Rookie running back
MIXED REVIEWS: The offense continued to look sloppy & struggle during the two minute & red zone drills with two drives ending in interceptions. On offense, WR Martin & the TEs were almost nonexistent. With a horrible 2nd team offensive line performance, the 1st team defensive line put strong pressure on QB Rodgers. QB Rodgers, looking like a pressured QB, had a good performance. QB Martin had a bad night throwing errant passes. CB Walker had mixed reviews with a couple of good plays & the most tackles. Safety Manuel continued to struggle, especially in defensive coverage. Finally, overall, the backups looked unimpressive requiring quality competitive improvement in position battles for roster positions by opening day.
2006 Off Season Archives
9/5/2006 VikingUpdate.com is reporting that Koren Robinson was in Green Bay on Sunday and may be signed by the Packers. Robinson potentially is going to be suspended by the league, but regardless, it would be an interesting pickup. Maybe Koren can host a nice boating outing on Green Bay? |
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9/4/2006 Brett recently taped an interview with Bob Costas for the HBO Show Costas Now. JSOnline has the details. The BIG quote that will surely get Packer fans talking: If it comes to a point where they do start over and I feel like I can play and they say, 'Brett, if you want to go somewhere else, go ahead, but we've got to start over. It's time for us to rebuild. It just doesn't make sense, so do what you want.' If I got the itch at some point, I can't say 'no.' The interview airs Wednesday night. |
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| The Packers picked up three players off waivers yesterday: safety Charlie Peprah, guard Tony Palmer, and cornerback Jarrett Bush. The Pack now has to release one player. >> Update: They released cornerback Jason Horton and are looking to add another receiver. |
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9/3/2006 Final cuts were announced by Thompson on Saturday afternoon. The Packers are down to 51; Two lower than the league maximum. Most notable: Najeh Davenport, Rod Gardner, and Cory Rodgers. Davenport is probably a big surprise to most Packer fans since he looked to be the #2 RB during the pre-season. Supposedly, the Packers had been shopping him around for the last two weeks and no teams showed an interest. He lost support after strong showings from Gado and Beach - younger players that were drafted by Mike Sherman. Rodgers is Thompson's 2006 4th round pick. GMs don't like to admit their mistakes so Rodgers must have really sucked. The Reactions: JSonline on Davenport and Rodgers. Chris Havel on Thompson. We're sad to see Ben Brown go. We hope he joins the practice squad. Maybe Thompson left those two spots open other teams' garbage? Possibly ex-Seahawks WR Peter Warrick, ex-Cowboys RT Rob Petitti, or ex-Lions WR Charles Rogers will see some green and gold? |
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9/2/2006  Well, I missed yesterday's pre-season game. Besides Greg Jennings's elevation to a starter and fabulous opening-drive catch, doesn't seem like I missed much.Because we couldn't tell you much, here's the link to PackerNews.com's post game coverage. |
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9/1/2006 The NEW Packers.com |
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| Due to a hacker disrupting my normal job, it's been hard to update the PBB. Then we've got a 3pm kickoff... on a Friday? Who thought this was a good idea? Here are today's pregame links: |
2006 Off Season Archives
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8/29/2006 No big surprises here, but eight guys won't be getting checks from the Packers anymore: The Packers cut eight players to get to the NFL roster limit of 75. They released fullback A.J. Cooper, long snapper Thomas Gafford, wide receivers Chad Lucas and Calvin Russell, defensive tackle Jerome Nichols, defensive end Montez Murphy, cornerback Jerron Wishom and quarterback Brian Wrobel.The final preseason game is on Friday, which means the real tough decisions have to be made by Saturday at 3 PM. Ted Thompson also claimed kicker E.J. Cochrane off waivers from the Eagles. Cochrane was an undrafted free agent out of Montana State, and--I'll bet you've never heard of this, either--wants to be an "avalanche forecaster" after he's done with football. He'll compete with Dave Rayner, which, after last night's performance, sounds like a losing proposition. |
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| The box score Jason Wilde comments: "They cannot win when Favre turns the ball over, or when their defense plays horribly. When both happen, it's simply embarrassing." Bob McGinn: "Last season, the Packers were blown out in the third exhibition game by New England, 27-3, and went on to finish 4-12. Also, Packer's roster needs to be down to 75 by 3pm Tuesday. |
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8/28/2006 Lightning has halted the game. Thank you. |
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| Some notes I took during the game: |
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 Why? Why did I allow myself to get so psyched up after last week's W over the Falcons? Why do I do it? I can see how my Sundays are going to go: I'm going to scream at McCarthy for not running the ball. Farve will start throwing interceptions and I'll blame his receivers. The defense will miss tackles and give-up big plays. Injuried players are going to stack up on the sidelines. I've got to stop... please... someone help me. |
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| Packers Vs. Bengals, ESPN, 7PM Central It's: the third pre-season game, on Monday Night Football, against one of the AFC's top teams, and the last real, fake game before the season starts. So, it's like kinda-sorta important. Here are the links to prepare you for tonight's game: Carson Palmer starts his first game since his horrific knee injury. Coach Mike McCarthy intends to play the starters into the third quarter, according to JSOnline.com's "Five things to watch". Is Ahman batman or Robin?. Several radio folks have mentioned that Ahman looked great last week in practice. Mark Chumura, on ESPN 1510's Football Show, said that he's looking for Ahman's "burst" - that initial quick first steps through holes or around the end of the line. Saturday's Camp Reports: JSOnline.com and PackerNews.com |
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I love long shots, so the latest Wilde article on Madison.com is a must read. It's about Packers RB Ben Brown and his quest to make it on the Packer's roster.Ben and Shrell had spliced together the highlights using their VCR and one they borrowed from a friend, that they'd dubbed 32 copies to send to every NFL team, and that they had no idea how unlikely it was that their hard work would get them anywhere. Thompson estimates that once every three or four years a tape leads to a tryout, and he can't remember a single player who made it to the 53-man roster that way. |
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| This is some sort of joke, I hope. It's Brown County Cable Access' Packers show with host Bill Walton. |
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| Each week, we'll select one Packer-related photo of the week. This week's photo comes courtesy of Flickr, Yahoo's photo sharing service.  Have a photo to show on PBB? "Tag it" in Flickr with "packerbacker". Please caption this photo in the comments. |
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| FOXsports.com ranks the coaching staffs. It isn't pretty. The Packers come in dead last, apparently all because of Mike McCarthy. The author has nice things to say about Jeff Jagodzinski and Bob Sanders, but this isn't exactly high praise: The biggest misconception about McCarthy is that his background is in the same West Coast Offense that the Packers have run throughout the career of quarterback Brett Favre. In reality, McCarthy got his start in the NFL as an assistant to Marty Schottenheimer in Kansas City, where he coached a conservative, run-first offense. Before that, McCarthy was an assistant to Paul Hackett (the former Jets offensive coordinator who was often criticized for conservative play-calling) at the University of Pittsburgh. McCarthy did spend one year as Favre's quarterbacks coach. That isn't necessarily a good thing for Packers fans, though. The year McCarthy spent in Green Bay was 1999, when the talented Packers finished a disappointing 8-8 and Favre had one of his worst seasons with 23 interceptions and a career-low 57.3 completion percentage. The NFC North really doesn't light things up in these rankings: the Bears are 10th, the Lions 20th, and the Vikings 25th. |
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8/25/2006 Couldn't resist adding this link to the PBB: Time for Beer, Brats and Favre ESPN's Sportsguy hit Miller Park and Lambeau last weekend. Highlight: You have to hand it to Wisconsin: The people here have listened to every health-related study from the past 25 years -- watch out for fried foods, butter and cheese, beware of heavy beer, make sure you eat enough vegetables and fruit, try to exercise as much as possible -- and basically said, "You know what? If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I love Wisconsin. |
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| Pro Football Prospectus is one hell of a book. It's put together by the guys at Football Outsiders, and has more stats than I knew even existed for football. If you read Football Outsiders, or know about the folks at Baseball Prospectus, then you have an idea of what PFP is all about. I just got my 2006 book in the mail the other day. I haven't read anywhere near the whole thing (it's almost 500 packed pages), but since I went straight to the Packers section, there are a few tidbits I can pass along.
No real surprises there, but it's nice to see that according to one stat, we've got a decent shot at the playoffs. |
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8/24/2006 Ahman is back and he's pissed. - Jason Wilde, Madison.com Rodgers makes this guy's top QB list? - Elliott Kalb, FOXSports.com Is A-Mat the New Sterling? - PackerChatter.com Packers cut Gado... from being a fullback. - Tom Silverstein, Jsonline.com |
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| Slightly off-topic... Thank god that Al Gore invented the Interweb, cause this could be my most favoritest new Website: The Bratwurst Pages. Note to self: check it out before Monday night. |
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8/23/2006 A quick update: McCarthy replaced the Tuesday morning practice with a full team dodge ball game. Samkon Gado played a little at Fullback during Tuesday's night practice. [Jason Wilde on Dlist] Packers trade CB Therrian Fontenot to Cleveland for WR Carlton Brewster... and cut WR Marc Boerigter. |
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8/22/2006 Regardless of the weird name, "The Dope Sheet" is The Packers' new weekly media guide. It's filled with player & game stats, background on the upcoming game, etc. They also spend a lot of time talking about Monday Night Football in this week's issue. Seems like someone has too much time on their hands, actually. You can download it here. | ||
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Is there any doubt that Sherman took down our 1990s dynasty? If you still aren't blaming Sherman, then maybe this stat will get you: Only three Sherman draft picks remain as starters (Aaron Kampman, Nick Barnett and Nick Collins). [Six current starters are draft picks from Ron Wolf's tenure. Can you name which six?] The Packers are supposed to get down to 65 this week. Typically this means cutting veterans so they can catch on elsewhere. Just two were announced on Monday, Sanders and Linebacker Kevin Schimmelmann. Mark Chumura and Jason Wilde, on ESPN 1510's "The Football Show", agreed that there would be no surprises this week. Sander is obviously not a surprise, but still a bold move as McCarthy digs out of our Sherman-dug hole. | ||
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8/21/2006 A lot has been made about Tony Kornheiser's occupation of the new Monday Night Football booth. I've been a long-time "Mr. Tony" fan, of both his columns and TV shows. I'm obviously biased and have enjoyed his inclusion on MNF. BUT, I WANT TO TALK ABOUT JOE THEISMAN. Just cause he's a "football guy" he gets a free pass. Joe Theisman is annoying. I don't cut him slack because of how his career ended or that he signs autographs with "83 MVP". My wife commented, tonight, "everytime I walk in the room, Joe is speaking." She's exactly right, and to prove my Joe-Theisman-is-annoying point, I'm going to publish a series of Joe quotes during the 2006 season: About Dallas QB Tony Romo: Kornheiser: "Tony Romo is also a great cook as well as a Quarterback". Theisman: "He's also a great golfer." On the Vikings: "The Viking's offense is all about getting the ball into the hands of the receivers." Does Joe like Randy Moss? "Randy Moss is the type of player I'd want on my football team". >> Next week, the Packers play the Bengals on Monday Night Football which will surely provide me with more fodder for this ongoing post. |
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The Onion was founded in Madison, so these guys know whereof they write:ASHWAUBENON, WI-Although his critics and fans alike generally agree that NFL veteran Brett Favre is well past his prime, his ability to captivate an audience was demonstrated yet again Tuesday night when a raucous, over-capacity Lambeau Field crowd of 73,127 paid to see the Super Bowl-winning three-time MVP fitted for a new suit. |
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| Packers/Wisconsin version of the "wassup" Bud commercial: |
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8/17/2006 Jason Wilde on ESPN Radio's Dlist: On Favre's "retirement" press conference: Wilde was discussing Favre's July 16 press conference (rumored to be his retirement). Wilde said Farve is add|cted to football just like he was to v|cod|n. Wilde also made a reference to Favre having a past, similar fancy to "chicks". Wilde on Greg Jennings: "Made the best catch I've seen in maybe 5 years... I really like this kid.... Jennings could be a starter on this team." Note: replaced the 'i' in this post with | so that the google ads stop showing ads for drug treatment centers. Posted By: Rick Stratton at 8/17/2006 12:00:00 PM |
