Packers – Browns & Preseason Perspectives

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Packers Preseason Perspectives - Packers - Browns
Packers Preseason Perspectives

There is no getting around the fact that last week’s Packers – Browns game was ugly (for the Packers). Yes the Browns played their starters much longer than the Packers did, and yes the Packers had 18 players out with injuries, so excuses are readily available.  But the bottom line is, the Packers team on the field that night, did not look like the Super Bowl contenders we know they are.

The “chicken littles” were out in force, clucking that the Packers have not resolved their issues from last season. Never mind that it’s preseason game 2 and the Packers’ coaches mainly used this game to get tape on players to help their personnel decisions in a few weeks. Hell, we even saw some of the Ted Thompson haters crawl out of their caves.

But now that the dust has settled and we can perhaps look more calmly at the situation, here’s a selection of views on the Brown game, what it means or doesn’t mean and where the Packers go from here:

Over at Acme Packing Company the writer known as PackApologist was left feeling “sick” about the Packer’s performance Thursday Night.

Looking at this game from the Browns’ perspective, the commenters seem absolutely giddy about the Browns’ performance over at waitingfornextyear.com, a blog dedicated to Ohio sports teams.

Over at CheeseheadTV, in the aftermath of the Browns game, C.D. Angeli dares to ask the question: Have the Packers peaked?”

Kevin Seifert of the ESPN NFC Nort Blog, examines the Packers backup QB situation and wonders if the Browns’ Colt McCoy could be the solution.

Over at JSOnline, the venerable Bob McGinn, usually quick and ruthless with his criticism, seems to go easy on the Packers this time.

Plenty of quotes from Graham Harrell about his performance in this article over at Madison.com

John Rehor of Eat More Cheese has a gift for all the packers fans in a tizzy over the preseason performance.

 

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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.

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10 thoughts on “Packers – Browns & Preseason Perspectives

  1. McGinn has NOT been ‘easy’ on the Packers this preseason.

    He’s given the rookies little to no time to get up to speed. He’s figuratively crucified TT/MM for the Harell ‘debacle’. And he’s generally not given credit where it’s due.

    It’s gotten annoying. Sincerely, a former McGinn backer.

    1. That’s why I like reading McGinn- one thing you can say is that he’s a writer, not a fan- he’s never really worn green-and-gold tinted glasses.

      I will say this, though- I’ve always thought that he has a hard time judging the current regime’s methods and philosophies in their own right. McGinn seemingly can not help but always judge them comparatively to the Wolf/Holmgren era, or the Wolf/Sherman (Sherman/Sherman??) era. Sometimes it is fair, but often it comes off as edgy bias and discriminatory.

      I have always surmised it is a chip on the writer’s shoulder because TT/MM are tight-lipped, deeming much to be privileged information, where as Wolf, Holmgren, and particularly Sherman not only were often happy to run their mouths to McGinn, but actually took the time to TEACH McGinn how to evaluate talent and the general business of football- something most sports writers NEVER are exposed to.

      It makes McGinn, IMO, an incredibly knowledgeable sports writer, with much more insight than most. It also makes him somewhat arrogant and jaded at times, and he can often miss the mark because he is viewing everything in the very constricted scope he was taught by Sherman, amongst others. His sometimes harsh criticisms are probably closer to the way insider NFL personnel men speak behind closed doors than the way most report it.

      There’s no question that the current regime approaches team management from a different angle than previous regimes. McGinn has come around on TT and MM, but they certainly had to prove it to him to get their due. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s certainly not all warm-n-fuzzies, either.. And his strong stances make him dead wrong from time to time, as well.

      I’ll take a strong, honest opinion that’s wrong occasionally over the watered down fluff lacking substance most writers put out.

  2. “Never mind that it’s preseason game 2 and the Packers’ coaches mainly used this game to get tape on players to help their personnel decisions in a few weeks”.

    I hope the ORG has a great editing room and staff..they’ll need them to make most of it watchable and a nice raise in pay is definitely in order for what will be excruciating pain on the eyes.

  3. I beleave that the packers offense will be as good as last year. ST will also be good. The jury is still out on the D, but, there are signs that the D could be better,. I hope House can return for the opener. I would like to see DC play his CBs on the line of scrimage in the next pre-season game to see what the results will be in the passing game. 95% of the completions , against the Browns, came against CB’s playing 8-10 yards off the reciever.

    1. “I beleave that the packers offense will be as good as last year. ST will also be good. The jury is still out on the D, but, there are signs that the D could be better”….

      No offense Dan but…you sound like a politician trying to get votes.

      “The GDP will be as last years,SpecialCommissions will also play bigger,we’re holding back all data as to the Recession Recovery but the signs say the debt may change but the direction of the needle is unknown”.

  4. McGinn, as usual, writes what his little imaginary scouts tell him. I guess it’s better than plagerizing.

    The first 2 pre-season games were totally focused on personnel evaluation. So, I’m not overly concerned about what we’ve seen. The offensive #1’s haven’t been on the field for 40 plays yet. In short, there is not enough data to make a conclusion yet. For the O, that is.

    The defence is another thing. I am hoping beyond hope that what we have seen so far is just a vanilla approach to evaluate the physical skills of Dom’s players. Until now it has been 2011 de ja vue. NO RUSH, POOR COVER, and slightly improved tackling is what is happening.

    The 3 man rush (or lack of) still allows open men underneath. Can someone explain that? On the other hand they have used no tricks for the Dlinemen and very few blitzes. We may not have seen anything yet. I am holding on to that thought to aleviate sleepless nights.

    Next week, Capers, it’s time to show what you have. More of the same will not instill confidence in Capers’ ability to recover from last year. This teams’ objective now is less evaluation and more getting ready to play the 49ers. At this point they are not yet ready.

  5. I don’t like the sloppiness. The team just doesn’t look ready. They looked really sharp in the 2010 preaseason, then went on to win the Super Bowl. They looked OK in the preaseason last year and played well in the regular season. I’m afraid the poor play we’re seeing could be a bad omen.

  6. I know it can be hard to watch these games being played out, but it’s necessary in this case to test out our depth. A good portion of these people will not be getting significant playing time. Unlike some of the other backups for the designed substitution roles.

    I’ve said it before, with Graham Harrell is that he is the backup and not a starter, so he is supposed to be bad in a sense because most likely in a perfect scenario to us; he will be holding the clipboard for Aaron and never play a down.

    I know the need for backup is essential for every single team but I think, and this probably holds true for a lot of people is that you have to judge a team based on the third game that’s being played.

    That is when most starters will get the reps, and you will get a feel of what starting offenses will provide and the defenses as well.

    Either way it will be a miracle if we can somehow avoid the injury bug in the regular season because at this rate, the NFL is going to be a literal morgue. I was watching the NFL network, and I’ve seen about a couple of people, maybe three that have gone down to serious injury for the year.

    There is this link to a Article someone wrote on Bleacher Report.

    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1296733-are-nfl-player-injuries-up-or-has-reporting-just-improved

    So I think something to look forward to during the season is. First off, will you be having hamstring injuries during the first half like the article says, because they’re not yet in peak midseason form.

    I think that is where the health and conditioning coach will really come into play because most injuries you cannot really prevent their only happening at game play actions, so it’s not really his fault that something snaps.

    I think for the most part, if we can reduce the amount of leg injuries. For starters, I think we will do pretty good, although that’s a given for any team in general. It’s interesting to note though that during the final weeks of the season is when the action becomes more severe, and concussions become more likely.

    So even if the Packers make the playoffs, but still have weeks to go, you might want to consider training up the offensive line, because the last thing we need is for someone to have a clean hit on Aaron and give a concussion that will put him out for a few weeks.

  7. I have re-watched these games several times and I think that people are really getting worked up prematurely. The first and second team defense really performed well against the browns. The Browns struggled to move the for the first half.

    The packers are developing their depth and evaluating it. While other teams are trying to put their team together. Not all is perfect, but things are far better than people are writing.

    I wish we could get more articles that provide more insight into the process and philosophy that goes into putting a winning team on the field. Writers jumping on the negative bandwagon don’t offer a whole lot, unless they can bring new insight.

    I saw a fantastic article about the browns game on Cheesehead TV. It went through each of Harrell’s passes, play by play. That article gave me a much different view, which I appreciate.

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