PACKERS CLINCH NFC NORTH! At 5-0, and with the ensuing automatic 5 wins against the Bears, Viking and Lions, the Packers have clinched the NFC North division title for the 23rd time and 5th consecutive year. After the victory over St. Louis, a ho-hum Mike McCarthy said "One of our goals each year, on our way to winning the Super Bowl, is to win the division before the bye week. This year we did it 1 week ahead of schedule. Has D-troit won a game yet?" With 4 non-division games already in the win column, it is mathematically impossible for the Packers to not win the division. The only question now is will they have 1 or 2 home playoff games before they win the Super Bowl, which will depend upon records of other NFC teams that the Packers do not play this year (Hotlanta, Cam-o-lina) and obscure NFL tie-breaker rules that never favor small TV market teams in cold weather climates. Coach Mike McCarthy suggested in a lunchtime statement Monday from Kroll's West that he "likely won't start sitting players until the Super Bowl is confirmed to go through Green Bay." He then added, "Damn, that's a good hamburger!" and "I really like the pickles in these Bloody Mary's...is that a dill? What's the deal with the Vlassic stork? Are pickles supposed to be like babies or something? I don't get it. Maybe Dom knows - Eliot, remind me to ask Dom that later." Create a seam here - X's & O's about the game or a scheme What can be said that hasn’t already been said by the Packers beat writers like Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and all the other fulltime media that cover the Packers? Well maybe not too much, but let’s give it a shot… Bleacher Report and virtually everyone else is giving our team a #2 ranking behind the New Eviland PatCheaters. Good. Coach likes a #2 ranking; it keeps a chip on the shoulder of McCarthy, Rodgers & Co. I agree the defending champs are still the best in the AFC. The Defense was dominant again. Well, was it? ...the 4 interceptions and 12 sacks/knockdowns created plenty of Foles Follies and a very loud “ohhhhh” in the stadium when #52 crushed his ribs into powder and planted him like an onion bulb. In-spite of playing inspired D most of the day, the Pack gave up a long pass and a long run in garbage time when they reverted to their “prevent nothing” defense, with 6 men in the box in their nickel alignment. It didn't help that BJ (hee hee) Raji had to leave the game for a big groin issue (pun intended). The sacks, QB hits and interceptions were fantastic, but we’re not perfect yet. Special Teams played pretty well, although Crosby missed one (in the same direction that the Rams missed a long FG). Cover units didn’t have much to cover as Crosby was booming them out of the end-zone and the punts were mainly short. "Oh, but they got burned by that fake punt!" you say... "Fire Zook!" you say... The company line rebuttal regarding the fake punt was that we were ready, but one of the defenders slipped - leaving a receiver open for the wounded duck pass. That is consistent with my take from the film review Sunday night. Much has been made of “the Streak” and “the Interceptions”…..fooey, who cares. Coach likes that the pressure is off and now maybe #12 will feel more comfortable trying to stretch the field with the fans’ Hall of Famer, Jeff Janis. With no real deep threat, the Rams put 8 men in the box on 90% of the plays, yet blitzed very infrequently. Enough guys to stop the run and 4 to drop into short zone pass coverage. We are now 5 weeks into the season and we beat 5 very good defenses. Throw the rankings out the window guys…we are an undefeated legitimate SB contender and we are getting the very best shot our opponents have to offer. We also have faced some very strong D Lines/Front 7’s that allow the D Coordinators to wave kryptonite in our faces….rush 4 and drop 7 into coverage is the formula that has beaten us consistently. Let’s not forget 4 of our last 6 Playoff Losses have come against the NFC West, and we have now beaten 3 of those 4!! We are bringing it! WTF - The Coach's take on a bad ref call or a bad play call or the like Man, the refs really STINK this year. Did I happen to miss an announcement of a replay-referee strike this year? Sign the contract and dump these replacement-replay-refs before THEY cost us a home playoff game, too. Three brutal examples of horrendous refereeing from the game Sunday: 1. The 1st really bad call was when the replay ref overruled the correct call on the field after Jeff Janis downed a Masthay punt on the 1-yd line. Janis properly re-established himself in the field of play by placing his hand outside of the end zone before touching the ball. That is as acceptable as using 2 feet - same as a catch at the sidelines. As John Madden used to say "One hand is worth 2 feet." 2. The 2nd Aaron Rodgers "interception" actually bounced off of the carpet and popped up into the defender's hands. It was plain as day to see on the slo-mo replay. Again, the replay ref blew the call … in this case by NOT overturning the call on the field. Again, I defer to a John Madden rule - "If 5 guys in a bar agree it's not a catch, then it's not a catch." 3. The Jones TD was marked down at 1-yd line even though he never had a knee on the ground. Replay video shows the field ref RIGHT THERE AT THE GOAL LINE yet he still got the call wrong! What's worse, the replay shows that the field ref never even looked at Jones' legs/knee to see where he might have been down. The ref just assumed it wasn't a touchdown even though he did watch the ball cross the plane! WTF! Thankfully the replay ref finally got that one right. Me and the gang celebrated that touchdown with a bowl of John Madden’s favorite hot buttery popcorn... http://youtu.be/2iPuxHnSUKE The Bears Still Suck - the Coach has proof Our furry foes of feces to the south played the KC Chiefs on Sunday. Since they were being completely dominated in the Show Me state, several members of the classless Bears defense went Jeff Gillooly on Jamaal Charles to get him out of the game (and now out of the league, as he'll have to retire) so they could stand a chance of competing in the 2nd half. The Bears' version of Tweaker Harding, Jay Cutler, still almost lost the game at the end by dropping the shotgun snap on the 5-yd line, but he accidentally swatted it forward and then it fortuitously landed in his WR's arms in the end zone as time expired. I'm sooooo looking forward to seeing Cutler on TV in 20 years when he's 140-LB's overweight and broke, doing paid interviews for Inside Edition like Tonya Harding in order to scrape up enough cash to buy a hit of crystal meth. Here's the brutal attack on Jamal Charles' knee (watch the D linemen closely)... http://youtu.be/voUMQrLy_uY Udder stuff - commentary from the Badger Underground DREW BREES DECLARED ELIGIBLE FOR UW-Purdue GAME Like Chicago, Illinois, the city of West Lafayette, Indiana, has no professional football team. With that fact, in a surprise move it was determined via some arcane NCAA rule regarding small-town college football teams with uniform colors in common with NFL teams, that Drew Brees will be eligible to play in one more football game for his alma mater, Purdon't University. Digging deeper, because Brees never graduated nor transferred to another college or university, and since both the Saints and the BoilLancers have like uniforms, and they oddly enough have their byes on the same weekend (24-25 October), and his wife is hot by Indiana standards, Drew has the option to play out another college game this weekend after the Aints play on Thursday night against the rejuvenated Atlanta FowlCons. Said a pumped-up Brees, "Hey, why not? The Saints suck this year, and Purdue has a bit of mojo after putting a scare into Sparty. I am going to have some fun with this, so What the heck?" Obviously, the Brees development brings a whole new wrinkle to the 1-1 Badgers' game planning. Should they study his latest NFL game tape, or footage from his days in West Lafayette? Here is a lighter clip of Drew Brees from yesteryear as the focus of attention in a Purdue Homecoming tradition... http://youtu.be/LJ7OITjk5zU The Badgers beat Nebraska Saturday in spite of themselves on a FG with 4 seconds to go from Rafael Choke-lianone. Coach has never seen so many dropped passes or dearth of open receivers – even in years when we were an all run, no pass offense. The problem is that we have a weak run game and O-line to go with the slow, stone handed receiving corps. It makes one wonder what Stave would do with some talent around him. He tends to take the rap for poor productivity, but he has made some darn good passes when he is not running for his life or expected to throw a deep ball. The saving grace this year is the defense which, bless their heart, will give us a chance to make it to Indy for the opportunity to get spanked by the East Division winner (see last year's result). On Saturday, though, expect big numbers both running and passing from Bucky. Purdue is that bad. Hopefully, Stave targets Jazz Peavy and Troy Fumigalli since they have cool names. As we get ready for Purdon’t and reflect on many fond memories of this rivalry... One of my personal faves is the time I took a Purdue friend to see his team play Bucky. I was a gracious host even though the black-and-gold and DBrees throttled Bucky on Homecoming. Wide eyed at the spectacle of a full-on party before an 11 AM kick-off, and complete with pro level beer pong, he was quite impressed with the marching band playing through all the major bars (The Grid, Jingles, etc). The post-game shenanigans were a blur not worth chronicling here The next morning he was in for a treat. With a Big Ten hangover in tow, we trundled off to Bennett's on Park Street for their famous Smut-N-Eggs. What better a hangover cure than 14 color screens of XXX, a big slimy plate of eggs Benne-dick, a pint of PBR, a Bloody Mary, and of course Packers pre-game! Perhaps the most notable thing about this story was a similarly hungover Mr. Bennett behind the bar wearing a phallic hat and showing off his ventriloquism skill with a very real looking pet goose telling gut busting jokes. (Think of an AFLAC commercial gone bad.) Good times, good times. http://bit.ly/1G3MB1Y We're gonna kick your a$$ - predictions for the next game San Diego looked very anemic losing to the Michael “Dog Piñata Party” Vick Steelers on Monday night, but don’t expect an easy game come Sunday. The AFC West has been just about as tough as the NFC West and Coach expects the Bolts to come out on fire. It will be a warm welcome back for MG3, and he will be eager to strut his stuff for his posse that he bought visiting team tickets for. In addition to Melvin Gordon III, the Bolts have a legit QB and a defense; they were embarrassed and are hungry. Prediction: Coach’s long standing theory is that teams losing on Monday night tend to win the following Sunday and, conversely, teams that win on Monday night tend to lose the following week. Well, that was the Coach’s pre-NBC Sunday Night Football theory anyway – which was totally accurate and then completely obliterated later by the surprise unloading of cable v. network ratings shakeups and resultant overplayed commercialized primetime sporting events that lured us in with smokin' hot sideline reporters like Melissa Stark and Erin Andrews (and now, Olivia Harlan!) even though they have nothing of value to add to the game diagnostics or outcome – other than laughs if you happen to be at the game watching drunk guys screaming wedding proposals at said hotties as they trot along the edge of the stands to go from one team’s sidelines to the other’s. But I digress… The Packers have more injuries than Coach has fingers, and rookies and practice squad guys playing in several key positions; wow, really bad? No!! The Packers are playing outstanding as a team, and look for Abbrederis or Janis to start going over the top. Proceed directly to Park Place and collect your $200 as you pass Go: Pack by 14 (coach doesn’t know or care what the line is). Oh yeah, the Pack is 9-1 vs SD all time. Just sayin. JB - Packer players you forgot about, but stories you'll remember about them Da-da-da-da… da da-da, da, da-da (drums, horns)… With the San Diego Super Chargers coming to town, I can’t help but think of the great intro song to Mundane Night Football starring Howard Cosell, Dandy Don Meredith, Frank Gifford, and the guy who murdered Nicole Brown and her platonic friend, Ronald Goldman, in front of her Brentwood, California condo circa June 1994. In 1983, the Packers had the most prolific offense in the NFL, thanks to QB Lynn Dickey, TE Paul Coffman, WR James Lofton, and of course the offspring of San Diego’s “Air Coryell” armada, WR John Jefferson! And that year, they scored more points on a Monday Night game than ever before (and long since). So this week we pay tribute to a guy that made it ok to leave a perennial playoff team for a fledgling franchise in the frozen tundra, creating a Renaissance for Green Bay football and paving the way for lesser known free agents in subsequent years such as obscure talents like Reggie White (he was a defensive end), Andre Rison (he was a wide receiver), and Charles Woodson (he played defense, I think) to sign with the Green and Gold. Due to a contract dispute with the Chargers, #83 Jefferson was traded to the Green Bay Packers in 1981. With JJ making acrobatic catches, and sporting his famous albeit outdated single-bar facemask, the Packers made it to a second-round playoff appearance (despite the worst defense in the NFL) during the strike-shortened 1982 season. John Jefferson was a stand-up guy, and the razzle-dazzle of the team, which gave them an edgy positive attitude and legitimacy as a force to be reckoned with by opposing defenses. Future Packer Darren Sharper said of Jefferson, “I really liked that Packer team and I always looked up to him when I was a young boy dreaming of becoming an NFL star, but maybe not as much as I admired James Lofton.”
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-12-19/sports
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Author"Coach" is the insightful collective brain and funny bone of a few legendary Packer fans who provide everything you need to know (and what Packers beat writers often plagiarize) about the Green & Gold, plus a weekly guest appearance by The Badger Underground. Archives
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