Green Bay Packers vs. Kansas City Chiefs:
Here is my unfiltered game day blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.
The Packers limp into Kansas City today with five starters on their inactive list, including their #1 receiver and their #1 running back. Greg Jennings and James Starks will watch from afar today while the Packers offense looks to adapt in an attempt to keep their undefeated season on track. Kansas City comes in after a tumultuous week that saw them fire their head coach. in-season coach replacements are a funny thing in the NFL. Sometimes the team will come out looking lost and confused, other times they will ride the emotional wave to an over-achieving effort. Which will be see from the Chiefs today? I’m banking on the former.
Early reports from Arrowhead Stadium before the game indicate that there may be more Packers fans than Chiefs fans there. The #OccupyArrowhead movement appears to be a blazing success!
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Inactive for the Packers today are:
Graham Harrell, Brandon Saine, James Starks, Desmond Bishop, Chad Clifton, Ryan Pickett, Greg Jennings
A.J. Hawk returns to full strength this week. While active last week, he never made the field as there was no reason to risk further injury with the Packers blowing out the Raiders. He wasn’t happy about it, but too bad. It was the right thing to do.
Packers go into this game with only two running backs on the roster, and one is fullback John Kuhn. That should mean more single back or empty backfield sets, in addition to more use of various tight ends in the H-back role.
Vic So ‘oto active today. Would love to get some tape of him at OLB if the Packers are ahead comfortably.
Davon House active today. that hasn’t happened for quite a while…
Josh Sitton is also back. Expect him to start…
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Mike McCarthy Pregame Show on 620 WTMJ:
Sunday noon games: It’s good to play early… part of your nature… you get up early and get to work – just like our normal schedule.
His time in KC: I have great memories of KC. Awesome years Arrowhead a great place to perform. Ultimate respect for the hunt family
Kuhn and Grant only RBs: – Something we’ll manage during the game – we need to be smart
Josh Sitton: Sitton will start at right guard. he felt real good yesterday.
DJ Smith: Smith gets the start next to AJ Hawk. Robert will get some time in there as well.
Jennings out – now what? Defense will dictate what we end up doing. We definitely want to come out and play fast, get the tempo up as quick as we can.
Weather: A great day. A little windy but can’t complain about 50 degree weather in December.
Effect of Chiefs’ coaching change: My memory of those situations – there’s new energy. We expect the Chiefs to play well in their home stadium… hopefully a lot of Packers fans… I saw a lot of Green and Gold as the bus pulled in.
Chiefs’ Offense: I think they’re going to run the football, then take their shots and try to get behind our safeties.
Chiefs’ Special Teams: We’re worried about their special teams – thay have 2 dynamic returners.
Chiefs’ Defense: Their defensive is very solid schematically. Front seven from a talent basis… four #1 picks.
Chiefs’ Pass Rush: That’s our primary focus. Edge rushers are as good a group as we’ve seen.
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Packers vs. Chiefs – First Impressions – First Half:
Packers win toss and defer again.
On Chiefs first possession, Packers playing a lot of base 3-4, with Raji at NT for Pickett. Chiefs doing a nice job mixing up the run and the short passes.
Chiefs call the perfect play with a screen over the blitzing Clay Matthews.
Packers defense holds on three downs from inside the five, but is helped by a Le’Ron McLain drop on 3rd down. Thanks buddy!
Packer three and out cancelled by a penalty as a KC player plows into Masthay.
Doesn’t matter though as the Packers shoot themselves in the foot with a fumble and pass interference penalty. Ugly start to this game…
Crosby! misses wide right twice…
Tramon with a fantastic pass breakup on an attempted back-shoulder pass near the goal line. I would guess Tramon has had plenty of practice against that that in practice…
Jordy Nelson called for two pass-interference penalties? Did someone change the rules overnight? the second one was an especially ridiculous call.
Jermichael Finley continues to drop passes that are hitting his hands… That’s THREE already with 13 minutes left in the second quarter.
James Jones with a nice catch on a slant with a defender all over him. Pretty ironic when James Jones has to show Finley how you catch the ball…
Packers defense with their second stand inside the five yard line. Imagine if the Chiefs had scored TDs both times?
Personally, I’m more worried about the Packers offense today than the defense…
After Rodgers and James Jones don’t connect on a slant pass just before the half, Mike McCarthy turns and uncharacteristically and animatedly chews someone out on the sideline.
Time for a “Come to Jesus” halftime speech by MM…
Packers vs. Chiefs – First Impressions – Second Half:
One thing hurting the Packers offense here is no real receiving option out of the backfield. No Starks or Saine…
3rd and one – another fullback dive to Kuhn. Seriously Mike, where does your “offensive genius” go on 3rd and one calls?
Randal Cobb just made me really nervous with a very shaky fair catch…
Long completion to Finley, who catches his first pass of the game. Rodgers made sure he wasn’t going to overthrow Finley by putting plenty of air under the throw. Not something Rodgers does a lot.
Packers finally looking for and sniffing out the screen – two straight now…
Even more evident now: The way to beat the KC defense today would be to send the receivers deep and then dump off to the running backs. Unfortunately, the Packers RBs that are good receivers are not playing…
Blame the wind, blame an off-day for Rodgers, whatever you want, his passes are not sharp. I’d love to see MM simplify and call more short passes.
Another defensive stand from inside the 5 yard line. Incredible the Packers are still in this game…
Packers lose another offensive tackle – first Bulaga, now Sherrod. This one looks serious. Trainers put an air cast on it and he’s taken off by stretcher…
Let’s not get Rodgers killed. Enough 20 yard passes downfield. three-step drops and quick-hit passes only…
And as I write that, Rodgers is sacked on a deep drop…
Packers soooooo need the D to produce their first turnover right now…
Walden bit hard on that end-around. You HAVE to be able to see that coming…
Nothing to worry about – Packers D has them right where they want them – inside the 5… 🙂
D’s luck finally runs out. Chiefs score a TD…
Packers drive for a TD with 2:04 left.
Can we expect the Packers D to get a three and out? I guess MM didn’t think so. Packers attempt the onside kick.
Packers can’t stop the Chiefs from getting first down. Game over. Undefeated season over.
Packers were out-coached (and out-played) today – it happens…
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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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Ugh. I’m so angry right now. I need a beer. I wanted history. Now I just want a super bowl 🙂
The ultimate goal is still there…
Yes, it is – but there are worries that’s for sure. We’d all better hope Cliffy can come back soon and Bulaga isn’t out long…
And Memo to TT: DRAFT ANOTHER PASS RUSHING OLB! NOW! (please) 🙁
I love it, bout time someone shows that rodgers is human and without his #1 WR to carry him, hes just a regular qb…
Yep – he’s no Alex Smith, that’s for sure…
Al, you’re starting to sound like Vic…..hmmmm?
How dare you insult me like that? 🙂
yay, another troll…. Rodgers could go down as the greatest QB ever but there will still be guys like this around. Hatin on others to make themselves feel important. Really just pathetic.
The loss- no big deal. The Oline – a very big deal. If Bulaga has to sit for nay time they are in trouble. Anyone have Tauschers’ phone number.
Newsome cannot handle speed.
Ya Alex Smith aint much to talk about, I would have benched him long ago…
Not the momentum we were looking for. What happened to the 40 some points the Pack was suppose to hang on the chiefs. I look at this loss as a good thing, The Pack, the Media and the fans can now stop talking about 19-0, like it was highly probable. This team has holes. The D is iffy and the O line is falling apart. I like the position this puts the packers
Hit send to quick….I like the position this puts the packers in, they play better under adversity. No more talk about a perfect season. No more media hype. Probably negative feed back from fans regarding the game today. This will ground this team. What I like about this team is they don’t quit. MM and the team leaders will not fold the tent, they will be extra motivated. The sting from this game will put fire in thier belly’s. The O-line situation is a concern however. The pack has to beat the bears next week, wrap up the 1 seed, rest who ever they want in the last game. The bear game will probably be a low scoring physical slug match that the Pack needs to win. I hope Bulaga can play.
The number one problem for the Pack; lack of pass-rush. If they ever got it fixed all the other problems go away. Did we even get a sniff at Orton today? We had a good pass-rush last year. What has changed?
Agree 100% – Orton had all day – This could be our biggest problem into the playoffs.
Your right Mojo, the lack of pass rush today was sickening. They can’t come close to the QB with their base 4 rushers and Neal is horrible. Let’s not try and sugar coat it anymore, TT did a bad job of projecting this phase of the game for 2011. And letting Jenkins go was a mistake because TT made no moves to counter it.
The Pack goes undefeated next year after drafting Vinnie Curry in the 2012 draft. But in the mean time need to win SB XLVI.
Curry’s on my list of wants for the Pack…
I have been worried about this D all year. Today was a perfect example of why I left some negative comments this year, regarding the D ,on this blog. I knew that once the playoffs hit and the weather turned cold, (and the fact that the Pack would be facing good teams), I knew that if the offense had a off day ,battling a good playoff D in the elements, that our D would have to step up and win a game. Look at the NFC championship game last year against the bears, the D won that game in the cold. The D did a good job today inside the 5, but they were playing one of the worst offences in the league. What has helped this D all year is turn-overs, but as we can see today, no turn-overs can lead to a loss. This defence will need to play with fire if the Pack wants to win another SB. That’s why I think this loss might be a good thing, it needs to light that fire.
Throw away this loss, and instead spend time learning the mistakes. No need to panic, as this was the best for the Packers. I was getting sick of this undefeated talk. Its impossible to go undefeated, Patriots tried for it and gassed.
Lets focus now on sealing up Homefield and getting prepped for the playoffs.
saying bend but dont break works is like saying the titanic was a success because it saved a few people. come on, now. you cant let them run all over you and keep the ball out of arod’s hands. i dont like being dependent on making every game a shootout…
Skip is going to be REVOLTING tomorrow morning. I’m glad Tebow looked so bad today too…
Inexcusable effort today. Pathetic. They should feel embarassed to put on film this kind of performance.
That being said, sh*t happens. It’s about the Super Bowl. If they learn from it and come out with better tempo and better attitude, it’ll be worth it.
And how many times are we going to see a game where NOBODY played well? The one that came close to a good performance was Grant…
Gutted, and very worried about the O-line..
However I do have faith in the coach and players to turn things around. To a certain extent this was back to the offense seen at times in 2010 we went looking for the big play too much and had some critical drops. Annoyingly we had an effective run game but didn’t seem to want to ride it. Part of that would be situational I would guess but it was frustrating. Live by the sword die by the sword I suppose.
The D couldn’t pull the game out but this was not on them for me. If we can get the o-line patched up we can still go all the way..
I thought Masthay did well, too. Of course, if the defense doesn’t ever stop anyone, it hardly matters that he punts well.
Better that this happened now, rather than four weeks from now…