If the playoffs started today, who would have the best chance of beating the Green Bay Packers in the NFC?
The 49ers? If the Packers get ahead by more than 10 points, I don’t think Alex Smith has the arm to bring them back.
The Giants? Their pass rush is scary, but not much else.
The Saints? It’d be high scoring, but the Packers would prevail.
The Lions? Puhleaze.
The Cowboys? They’re talented, but don’t have the cajones to hang with the Packers.
The Bears? They’ve got as good a shot as any.
Packers stock is at an all-time high right now, and I’m not talking about the certificates fans buy to hang on their wall and support the team. I’m talking about the ridiculous level of play we’re seeing from the Packers right now.
These first nine games have been amazing, but the ride is just getting started. We don’t truly find out who the good teams are until after Thanksgiving. Right now, nobody can touch the Packers. But there’s a long way to go.
Lets get to the stock report.
Rising
Aaron Rodgers
I’m sick of always putting Rodgers in the rising category, so lets give him a partner this week. Led by Rodgers, the Packers beat the Vikings Monday night. Led by QB Russell Wilson, the Wisconsin Badgers beat the Minnesota Gophers on Saturday. Rodgers and Wilson combined were 39-for-47 for 428 yards, eight TDs and zero INTs. Their combined passer rating was 144.2 and they threw just as many TDs as incompletions (a perfect NFL passer rating is 158.3). The two teams from Minnesota had no chance (stats courtesy of Judd Zulgad).
Tramon Williams
As Williams’ shoulder continues to improve, so does his play. The CB has interceptions in two straight games and played the sort of tight coverage against the Vikings that we got used to seeing last season.
Jordy Nelson
Which was worse: The mauling Junior Dos Santos put on Cain Velasquez during Saturday night’s UFC fight, or the mauling Nelson put on Cedric Griffin during his touchdown catch and run Monday night? I vote for Nelson.
Steady
Desmond Bishop
Bishop has sacks in his last two games and has recorded fewer than eight tackles only twice this season.
Greg Jennings
The most steady receiver in the NFL has a touchdown in all but two games in 2011.
Mike McCarthy
Remember when we used to complain about McCarthy’s playcalling? Neither do I.
Falling
Ryan Grant
Grant looks a step behind everyone else on the field. Since gaining 92 yards against the Bears in week three, Grant has totaled just 96 yards and averages 2.7 yards per carry. I’m not saying he should be benched, but the talent gap between Grant and Starks right now is wide. Of course, we’ve counted Grant out before and he’s proved us wrong.
Josh Sitton
Nelson has gotten better since signing a contract extension, Sitton has regressed — at least for now. The best way to throw a star QB (or any QB) off his game is to get pressure up the middle. Sitton allowed several inside pressures on Monday and hasn’t played at a pro-bowl level recently. Hopefully it’s just a rough patch and he straightens out down the stretch.
Jared Allen
Showing emotion and getting excited after making a play is a good thing. Just because your team is losing doesn’t mean you should act stoic and uniterested after making a play. However, there’s a right way to show emotion and a wrong way. Jared Allen, Minnesota’s favorite redneck, chose the wrong way Monday night. With his team getting dominated by the Packers yet again, Allen sacked Rodgers in the second quarter and went into his silly cow roping celebration.
I have a question for you Jared Allen: Why not put down the cow rope and celebrate with your teammates for a change? Your team stinks and is getting throttled. Is it necessary to run away from the rest of your team just so you can do your schtick in front of the Monday Night Football cameras? Next time go find a couple of teammates and celebrate with them. Maybe Chad Greenway will even let you lassoo him.
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Adam Czech is a a freelance sports reporter living in the Twin Cities and a proud supporter of American corn farmers. When not working, Adam is usually writing about, thinking about or worrying about the Packers. Follow Adam on Twitter. Twitter .
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Jared Allen is a reincarnation of Mark Gastineau of the Jets.I remember Joe Klecko saying saying that when Mark got a sack and did his dance even when the Jets were losing by 30 pts,he wanted to break his legs.I think Klecko kicked his ass before going to jail down the road.
The point that neither understood was the damage being done to the TEAM while building your own porfolio of meaningless shit and never getting the RING.
Great comparison between the two. I wonder who on the Vikings feels the same way about Allen as Klecko felt about Gastineau? Maybe it’s Robison, and JA’s got a kick in the nuggets in his future!
The Tramon Williams pick was all on the Defensive Pressure that wasn’t picked up from the HB when he did the flicker. Bishop killed Ponder for it, and Ponder could feel it coming to he threw it a bit too high it was begging to be picked easily.
As for Nelson, one say that Rodgers has elevated Nelson but Nelson I think has learned to stiff arm better from Edgar. No offense to James Jones, but it seems Nelson has more desire to be great. Rodgers has said he throws to people who will be open, and Nelson has been dedicating himself to being open and not only that, but making a ton of big gains of 30 yards or more which would make any secondary’s morale drop.
Nelsen was one of TT’s development picks, he’s developed.
Nelson would say hardly. Jones would probably smile. To get further, I am not totally blaming Jones, as he has done his work but Nelson seemed to literally fight for that “one inch” that turns a quick pass into a 17 yard stiff-arm break tackle into a touchdown.
With Nelson in his forth year, and 26 for the rest of the season (birthday is in May), Nelson wont reach the WR Prime until hes 28 through 32 years old. He continues to train, and baring any knee injury he might be able to provide a long term combo with Jennings and Cobb.
Ill even say Jordy is the 2nd string WR on the team but because of Driver’s longevity but lesser skill set because of age that Driver is the 2nd WR because of respect wise.
I don’t think the difference between Nelson and Jones is a matter of desire. Jones always fights for extra yards, then has a tendency to fumble the ball. I’m sure he works just as hard to get open, but has a problem making the catch.
Some stats:
Jones 2008-Present season: 123 catches, 1,749 yards, 13 TDs.
Nelson 2008-Present season: 134 catches, 1,901 yards, 13 TDs.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d take Nelson over Jones 10 out of 10 times, but we tend to underrate Jones because of all the boneheaded plays. He fill the role of “added luxury” perfectly on this team.
Deffo Adam. Although this year, and from my perspective, I forget about last year. Jones gets the slate clean, so he has the best hands this year. So while the second half of the season begins, I would like to see Jones get more touches because I think he is the more stronger of the two.
We shall see how it ends up, but with Ted Thompson looking above the field, he only looks for ways to improve the team. So while I think he is safe for not only this year, but next year, I wouldn’t be surprise to bring in a WR to challenge the WR to become greater and become even hungry.
One of the key things from this development, is that Thompson looks for these hard working blue-collar guys. As from what was seen in Vikings games, the Packers are so hungry to prove to the league of how dominant they are that they work and fix anything that is wrong each week.
Its the type of people Lombardi would love to get his hands on. Oh I could imagine what he would have said seeing the absolute destruction of that team on the field!
I always felt that Nelson was hands down the better WR than JJ and their names should not be used in the same sentence concerning talent.Now after further review,the use of JJs’ name should not be in the same paragraph or storyline when comparing talent or desire to achieve.
What I wrote last July:
“Jordy Nelson will have a longer and better career as an NFL wide receiver than James Jones. There – let’s just get that out of the way. I have nothing against James Jones, and his hard-luck personal story makes me want to root for him, but I just don’t think he will ever be more than a good NFL receiver. I believe Jordy Nelson, however, has the extras that could propel him to be a quasi-star in the NFL.”
Al, totally agree with what you said in your July post on Nelson v. Jones. The thing that worries me about Jordy is his bulky knee. I believe he injured it fielding a kick return a couple years ago. I don’t think his knee healed properly and ever came back to 100% as Jordy played through it. He reinjured and played through it again in the SB.
If he can get it “cleaned-up” in the off-season with minor surgery, he should, in that I hate to see his very promising career derailed.
I’ll definitely buy that Nelson is more talented than Jones but I think Jones has plenty of desire to achieve and talent of his own. In limited chances this year he seems to have largely fixed last years problems he’s caught almost everything thrown his way and hadn’t fumbled before last night that I remember.
At the very least JJ is a solid #3 NFL WR in my book that his name gets called infrequently on this roster is no shame..
I guess I need to sugar coat the brutal honesty.
Good thing the Pack got in on the ground floor with Jordy when his stock price was relatively low.
Is something wrong with Sitton’s knee? Else he’s regressed terribly.
I’d move Bishop up to rising. It’s clear he’s one of the few impact defensive players we have. Good we exercised our option on him.
I think you may be on to something Mojo. Not playing with the “killer” attitude we’ve seen beofre. The next two weeks are key, then the 10 day rest should help a lot.
Sitton has been listed on the injury list before and after the bye. He was also listed as ‘limited practice’ after the bye. If he only had a very minor injury I would think 2 weeks off from the bye week would have helped. I think he maybe more injured then the team is letting on. He was to much of a road grader last year to have slipped this much (i hope) . Hopefully this will clear up in the next month. Good news reading that Clifton and Neal are healing up. Go Pack!
PS. Ferret Allen is an attention freak and as much as he wanted to be the one to bring the mullet back into fashion, it didn’t work. That’s because its a mullet. At least his wife gave him a clue when she made him cut it of for there wedding.
I’ve been a big Grant fan-but yes Starks is just a better option at this point. The effort is there for Grant and he doesn’t seem to be making horrible mistakes but I think his role needs to be very much as a back up for now.
MM was making positive noise about Saine so if he develops and Green comes back this year is probably it for Grant in Green Bay. Wouldn’t bet against him having a fair season or 2 elsewhere though..
“he doesn’t seem to be making horrible mistakes”
Grant had some big holes and made bad reads. Pretty sure Grant’s average was 0.8 yards per carry. Starks’ was 5.5.
That’s horrible. Period.
His numbers last night (and really since the game at Chicago) have been horrible no question.
I haven’t had (and likely won’t get) a chance to watch the game again but my initial thought was the run blocking didn’t open big holes for either back though Starks was able to make plays where Grant couldn’t. The effort was certainly there from Grant I remember him fighting to try and avoid negative plays though with little success. I may be looking through rose tinted glasses I accept.
Yeah I don’t know how much Grant has left. We’ll see.
Call me crazy or a conspiracy theorist but it seems to me that the O-Line believes in Starks more than Grant and you see results accordingly. I saw similar results last year with Starks over Jackson.
The holes seem bigger and they seem to do a better job.
Could just be my imagination and/or Stark’s better ability. Don’t know.