Green Bay Packers vs. Cleveland Browns: 2013 Game 6
Unfiltered game day blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.
GAME NOTES:
The walking wounded (otherwise known as your Green Bay Packers) hit the field today in their Throwback uniforms to take on the improving Browns. Cleveland has a very good unit on defense, but the offense has struggled since Brian Hoyer went down and Brian Weeden stepped in at quarterback.
Packers wide receiving corps will consist of Jordy Nelson, Jarret Boykin and Myles White, fresh off the practice squad.
Today’s captains for the Packers: – OL Josh Sitton, DB M.D. Jennings, LB AJ Hawk.
Inactives for today:
Green Bay Packers
29 CB Casey Hayward
44 RB James Starks
52 LB Clay Matthews
53 LB Nick Perry
59 LB Brad Jones
82 TE Ryan Taylor
89 WR James Jones
Starting lineup changes: 11 WR Jarrett Boykin starts for J. Jones, 96 LB Mike Neal for Perry, 55 LB Andy Mulumba for Matthews, 57 LB Jamari Lattimore for B. Jones.
Cleveland Browns
58 LB Brandon Magee
60 OL Patrick Lewis
64 OL Martin Wallace
65 OL Garrett Gilkey
83 TE Keavon Milton
90 DL Billy Winn
The Browns have only 52 players on their active roster, therefore they have only six inactives.
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Mike McCarthy Pregame Show on 620 WTMJ:
Keep calm and carry on: Inspiration comes from my wife – has great appreciation for history. Really helps me on a personal level when the kids are being rambunctious. Very appropriate this week for our game against the Browns.
NFL requirement to dress 46: We will dress all 46. there will be a player or two on there we’d rather not play – not going to say who.
Question marks: Hayward not going to play he’s inactive. Mike Neal is active and ready to go.
Linebackers: Malumba and Palmer have had a full week of practice. First time we’ve had all 7 DL up. Excited for Josh Boyd, he’s been working hard in practice – deserves this chance.
Receivers/TEs: White, Stoneburner – they’re going to have opportunities to play today. I just want them to not overthink and just go out there and play football.
Improved unning game: It’s important to be able to run and throw. We want to be better at all aspects. A lot was made of it that frankly, didn’t need to be made of it.
Browns defense: Talented. Some good young players. have the nose guard that you need in a 3-4 Defense. Playing very schematically sound.
Brandon Weeden: Can make all the throws. I like the system he’s playing in. Always admired Norv Turner. He’s in good hands there.
Big Receivers: Some real playmakers out there…
Travis Benjamin: Clearly one of the most dynamic players well see all year on special teams,.
Message to team: It’s about playing Packer football at home. We need to cash in on the big play opportunities. We’re doing a better job of that of late and I think it will be a big part of our success today.
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Packers vs. Browns – First Impressions – First Half:
Packers win the toss and defer.
Defense gets a quick three and out as Weeden badly overthrows an open receiver on third down.
Rodgers goes to the Boykin back shoulder right away. Looks like Boykin ran a better route than last week, but drops the back shoulder pass.
Packers seem determined to show the Browns they can still pass the ball down the field. And they can. TD Finley with some tough running after the catch.
I like the fact that the Packers have gone after some punts the last few weeks, but Banjo gave the Browns life with the roughing the kicker penalty.
Not bragging, but I’m pretty sure I could be more accurate than Weeden is today… INT Davon House.
If the Packers could get this kind of field position even semi-regularly, they would be fairly unstoppable.
Browns know they have to help out their offense. Don’r punt from their own 40 – make it by inches, though not really. I thought it was a generous spot on first glance. Replay confirms, but McCarthy challenge rebuffed. Former NFL VP of Officiating Mike Pereira said on twitter it should have been overturned.
The way Weeden is throwing, this should be a 3-4 INT day for the Packers.
Score at end of 1st quarter: GB 14 CLE 0
Holding call on Barclay nullifies a long gain by Finley on a crossing route. Next play on 1st and 20 – handoff to Lacy. You might say I don’t approve…
Finley has come to play again. Most impressive this year has been his running after the catch (and lack of celebration after making a catch).
Unnecessary roughness on Tramon Williams? Ridiculous. He’ just making a tackle. He’s supposed to stop to see if the guy has the ball? They’re making it pretty impossible to be a defensive player these days.
Um, Mike Daniels can close on the QB, can’t he?
Rodgers seems more willing to tuck it in and run the last two games. That’s a back breaker for defenses. And he’s being smart – taking a slide every time.
Score at end of 1st half: GB 17 CLE 3
Packers vs. Browns – First Impressions – Second Half:
Perhaps the thing I like most about Eddie Lacy is how he keeps his head up all the time. Finds little seams to make something out of nothing. Doesn’t just run into the backs of his linemen when there’s a logjam.
First sack of the day on Rodgers. Makes it a 52 yard FG attempt by Crosby and he misses…
As has been their habit of late, Packers missing opportunities to put this game away. Too many penalties today, also.
Rodgers and Boykin starting to get a feel for each other. Boykin looking good today as he did in preseason.
Packers defense looks like they’re tiring. Browns offense building some confidence.
Score at end of 3rd quarter: GB 17 CLE 6
With 11 minutes left and down by 11, Browns go for it on 4th and 15 from the 30. Kick a field goal and it’s a one possession game. that just reckless aggressiveness.
Finley gets hit and taken off on a stretcher. I didn’t think it was helmet-to-helmet. Looked like his neck might have gotten crimped. Hopefully a stinger?
Packers offense has gone a bit stagnant. And I say that, play-action pass to Boykin goes for 37 yards down to 1 yard line. Nice catch and run by Boykin. Jitters seem to be gone…
Packers confirm it’s a neck injury – has feeling in all extremities. Knew it wasn’t a helmet-to-helmet. So many out there jumped the gun on that…
Easy to say after he messes up, but is it really a good idea to make a guy in his first NFL game the key ball catcher on an onside kick?
Packers dodge two bullets on two straight onside kicks. God bless those refs! 🙂
Final Score: GB 31 CLE 13
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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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I’m confident the offense will continue rolling, especially if James Jones returns next week. Finley’s injury looks like it could sideline him for a while however…
I’m worried about how the pass rush will be without Matthews and Perry. Sure it was OK today, but come on it’s the Browns, it should have been at least five sacks IMO.
Once our defensive pass rushers come back I’m confident this team can challenge any other team in the league.
Chad,this is the second game in a row where the Packers’ pass rush was simply fine without Matthews.
It’s going to be alright. The Packers have plenty of guys who can press the pocket. Neal, Daniels, Hyde, Hawk (surprise!), and now we’ve seen Palmer shows signs of pass-rush potential as well.
Things will get down-right scary for opposing offenses now that Capers has seen what the young guys can do in live action, and once Clay comes back… QB’s will be stocking up on Shout! to get all the grass stains out of their jerseys and pants.
The last game against Baltimore we still had Perry, a healthier Mike Neal, and a three sack performance by A.J. Hawk.
This game didn’t have much penetration up the middle or really much penetration from anywhere at all. Each sack was more because the coverage was just so outstanding. Weeden consistently had all day to throw in that pocket. Had we played just about any other team this week they would have easily given up another 300+ yards.
I’m not saying we won’t survive the next 2-3 weeks without Matthews or Perry, but I definitely can’t wait to see them come back (them and Casey Hayward). Our defense will shut-down offenses like like a steal wall, and THEN I’ll be confident going into the postseason.
I get exactly what you’re saying – we’re certainly in “survive” mode on defense, but the guys in there are thriving. I don’t know if Perry will be able to go this week and think Clay is still one week away. Hopefully Brad Jones can return soon so he and Lattimore can help fill in at OLB til Perry and Clay return. Certainly helps our DBs were covering very well today and don’t forget – Cleveland has a decent OL with very good players at C and LT. Hopefully Hayward will be ready to return this week as well. But I did like what Mulumba and Palmer showed today
I can’t get over how patient Eddy Lacy is for a rookie back. He’s showing really impressive maturity in his running and decision making for a rookie.
Micah Hyde/Davon House/Sam Shields.. Packers went from naked to a fully stocked cupboard at CB over the course of 2-3 years.
Our depth at LB is looking impressive. Add Nate Palmer, the guy the whole world though was a huge mistake in the 6th round, to the up-and-coming list.
Boykin is flat-out dangerous after the catch.
Consider what this team has a chance of looking like when guys like Cobb, J. Jones, Matthews, Perry, B. Jones and so forth get healthy with all these young depth guys getting meaningful reps right now and learning to contribute.
And let’s hope Finley is OKAY.
Packers will need Cobb no diubt about it. James Jones is a good reciever made better by those around him. Boykin will replace him next year w little to no drop in production.
Brad Jones is gonna have a hard time getting his job back. Lattimore looks like a better playmaker right now! Kid is ballin like a mother!
I’ve been complaining about Mike McCarthy all year, but he deserves some major props today. He crafted a game plan out of nothing and got the team to execute it.
Can’t complain. They got a win with a manufactured offense. The numerous penalties made it impossible to get into a rhythm. Don’t know if the Triplette crew gets paid by the penalty.
If they could have gotten any kind of consistent pass-rush on Weeden it would have gotten really ugly for the Browns. Can’t blame them too much considering who’s out. Weeden was unusually bad in the first half and decent in the second.
Lacy is a huge part of this teams success. Takes what he can which keeps the down and distance manageable. His yards add up by games end.
Hope Finley’s OK. The other TE’s don’t offer much as receivers. Nice win. First place baby!
Great win today! Again, celebration tempered by concern for Finley. Just what this team needs, another injury. If this team ever gets healthy and a chance to play together, they will be awesome. Until the Vikings, Thanks Since ’61
There’s a new leader in the NFCN division! I hope Finley is ok and that the head strapped to the stretcher was precautionary thing. I noticed that nobody has a dislike check, after their comments ,so far . Trolls haven’t hit our site yet today.
Sorry…I just had to do it.
I hope I’m wrong, but that injury to Finley looked downright nasty. Just a bad stinger? hope. hope.
The o-line provided a nice pocket in the 1st half for the most part. Rodgers was able to step up and even run since there was nothing in the middle of the field in front of him. Rodgers was able to slice up the Browns. 2nd half the pocket was not so good. Sack at 11:36 3rd quarter was somewhere between 2.5 and 2.65 seconds (TV had a close up of Rodgers and did not show the actual snap – so I am estimating a bit), and Rodgers had to pull it down around 2.43 seconds. Hope Finley is OK. The young guys all looked good.
Boykin looked good today. Love his touchdown where he lowered the shoulder and went through the d-back. Defense did a great job for the third week in a row.
Amazing effort by the Packers today! Hope Finley is ok and wish him and his family all the luck. I couldn’t help but think of his little boy when he was laying on the ground. The Packers played a very good defensive team today and put up 31 without Most of their receiving corps. The defense played great and Sam Shields is becoming the shut down corner on this team. Josh Gordon was tearing defenses up and they took him out of the game. Lastly how about Hyde catching the Browns kickoff returner as the announcer was saying the returner had 4.3 speed. I couldn’t help but think of Stroh saying how SLOW Hyde was. Didn’t look to slow there! Pack is in first place where they belong!
I don’t remember the play specifically, however the question is did he have the angle on the returner. Or did the returner have to run slower to allow for blockers. Lets be honest if its straight speed between a returner and Hyde, we’ll all take the returner.
Hyde a good player and has some good qualities, but speed is NOT one of them. But good try on starting an argument.
Not starting a argument Stroh. Just mentioning something you brought up about Hyde. Seemed to me you were pretty adamant about him being slow, bringing up combine times. Others like Hyde because he’s a football player, not if he can run fast in a straight line during a 40 yard dash wearing spandex shorts. Vernon Golhlson from Ohio St was a combine freak and #5 overall pick for Jets, how did he work out? Just saying, you can’t always measure a player from all those combine tests and 40 times. You sure as hell can’t measure heart. Hayward had a slow 40 too and QB’s had the worst passing rating in the NFL when throwing his way last year.
What is the actual difference between 4.5 and 4.3? The name of the game is more quickness/suddenness/acceleration when it comes to speed. Straight-line speed has a place, but it’s a rare opportunity. Getting up to full speed happens almost every play.
Exactly Bedrock. Take a stop watch and click it on and off as fast as you can. That’s the difference between 4.5 and 4.3.
I never said he wasn’t a football player. He is and a good role player. I know all about Gholston and actually he was the 6rd overall pick. Either way Hyde is a good player w/ or w/o speed, but his ceiling is most likely a backup CB or possibly starting Safety due to his lack of speed. Both Hayward and Hyde have good quickness which makes the perfect for the slot role. Hayward is more talented than Hyde tho. Both have roles on the team but their limitations will probably prevent them from being great starters. Both have a lot of traits that make them good players.
You seem to assume that I don’t think they are good players and nothing could be further from the truth!
For the record I never liked Gholston, he never showed in college that he was a great football player. Teams were infatuated by his athletic ability, just like they were Mike Mamula before him.
Gholston was a flat out bust; Mamula was a good player beset by the injury bug.
His first 3 years he started on one of the best D’s in the league.
No comparison with Vernon.
Mamula did very little in his NFL career. He was among the original bust players that were WAY over-drafted based on their combines. Mamula never did anything in college to show he was deserving of top 10 pick. He was mostly non-existent in college and shot into the top of the draft only due to his combine. I would guess that Gholston probably was a better college player, but neither did anything in college to deserve top 10 draft status and Mamula was a huge disappointment. He played out his contract w/ the iggles and no other team ever wanted him after that… Couldn’t have been very good, probably just that the iggles were less willing to give up on his as quickly so his stats, while pedestrian, looked better than he was.
Just an FYI your heading, “Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions: 2013 Game 6” is a little off. 🙂
grrrrr. fixed
Actually I could care less who’s right or wrong. The packers got a football player in the 5th round of the draft. One that’s helping this team win. At the end of the day I just want the Packers to win. Period!
There can be only one explanation.
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x4/myTmaus/Familyguysniper.jpg
Game Balls to the Packers Defense. Great win under the circumstances and overcoming one of the worst ref crews in NFL.
I keep waiting to here that TT has signed CB’s S.Shields and D.House, DL J.Jolly to contract extensions…Where is the love for Mike Daniels? I would like to see more playing time for S Chris Banjo. I hope that the special team play gets better kick coverage in future games!
The spirit of Donald Driver showed himself in Jarrett Boykin.
I had predicted that McMillan was going to be vastly improved this year and instead he has regressed. Banjo seems to be in the right place more often. The game doesn’t seem to big for him. GoPack!
Excellent article and well written as usual. However, I thought it was that kid from Ohio St (Stoneburner??) that slid into the punter and drew the penalty??
Hyde kept up with their return specialist, and dove with a NICE right hook at an ankle to prevent the touchdown on that big (80+ yrds) return for the Browns. He should get a game ball for that alone.