Green Bay Packers vs. Cleveland Browns:
My unfitered game day blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.
Inactive for Packers today:
It’s a long list:
WR Greg Jennings, WR Diondre Borel and TE Jermichael Finley, LB Desmond Bishop, WR Shaky Smithson, RB Du’ane Bennett, RB Brandon Saine, FB John Kuhn, FB Jon Hoese, CB Sam Shields, CB Davon House, OLB Frank Zombo, G Ray Dominguez, DT Johnny Jones, T Marshall Newhouse, T Derek Sherrod, TE Andrew Quarless,
Notes: Tonight is the 63 installment of the Midwest Shrine game. Big night for Alex Green, Casey Hayward and DJ Smith.
———————————————
Mike McCarthy Pregame Show on 620 WTMJ:
Lambeau Field: Great to be home – no place like Lambeau Field. Big night for some of our younger players – they’re excited about playing here tonight.
New Stadium Additions: Anxious to scope out the conditions. Great work for us; 15-20mph winds expected. I’m very interested to see what info our coaches gather.
Cedric Benson: I look for Cedric to come in and compete for a starting position. He looks to be in great shape. He’s an excellent inside runner, he’s a 220 lb running back . He defintitely falls forward.
Reggie Wells: Reggie gives u flexibility, has played all 5 positions. He’s older obviously, so brings a lot of valuable experience to a young offensive line group
DJ Smith: I think DJ is definitely one of our more instinctive players. We look for him to fill some big shoes.
Casey Hayward: Casey did some good things against San Diego. Big night for him and all the young cornerbacks.
Browns starters playing longer: Our starters will play at most 20-25 plays, important for us to evaluate the middle part of the roster. That’s great if they play their starters longer – will help our evaluation.
Curenski Gilleylen: Flexible player, has played many positioon. impressed byb his menatal ability – picked up our offense at multiple positions
Hope for tonight: Looking for a big step forward tonight. Discipline, communication, tempo – we’ve been addressing it all week.
Injuries: I’m not not concerned. Since my first day here, I talk to the team all the time about accountability and availabilty. We have 72 players tonight – they all have to be ready to go.
———————————————-
Packers vs. Browns – First Impressions – First Half:
Rodgers and Nelson: We’ll run the same play until we score. Try to stop us. TOUCHDOWN!
Was so happy to see a bubble screen to Randall Cobb – that’s what I envisioned from him when drafted. He makes a nice gain but doesn’t secure the ball. Still has lots to learn.
Alex Green doing a nice job in pass protection. making good reads, picking up blitzers. I like what I see so far.
Really surprised by strength of Nick Perry. Bull-rushed his way through two players to get to Weeden, but just a little late. When he develops some other moves, he might be the player we’re all hoping for.
Marshall Newhouse looks like Forrest Gregg compared to Herb Taylor. I may have a new appreciation for Marshall… Still think Sherrod is the eventual LT, but when?
M.D. Jennings is not the answer at safety…
Reading twitter comments, seems there’s a contingent of fans looking for reasons to knock Nick Perry. Coverage skills will take time folks – he hasn’t done it…
Watching Jerel Worthy amd Mike Daniels. They’re not blowing things up, but not getting moved out either. I give them a B grade so far…
Watching Datko at LT. Going against Browns starters, he doing pretty well in pass protection. Showing the quick feet. Must get stronger. Datko susceptible to the bull rush, but does a good job on the edge vs speed rush.
I have to say, I can see why Weeden is starting for the Browns.
Jerron McMillian, as advertised, is a beast of a tackler in the box. If he can cover, we have our starter…
I don’t want to pile on Graham Harrell, but boy he looks bad tonight. Truth be told, I’ve been a BJ Coleman fan since before the draft. Packers have rolled the dice before with a rookie as a backup QB – Matt Flynn. I remember screaming for them to bring in a vet at the time. Would they do it again?
Browns 16 Packers 7
Packers vs. Browns – First Impressions – Second Half:
As shaky as Harrell has been, he sure hasn’t gotten any help at all from his receivers. Taylor falls down, and it’s a pick-six for the Browns.
Nice job by Dale Moss coming back for a floater from Harrell under heavy pressure.
Tommie Draheim is not long for this team…
Tim Mathsay earning his fatter paycheck. He may be on a path to Pro Bowl status in a year or two.
Yep, nothing like a good ass-whuppin’ in preseason.
Sorry haters, Erik Walden is playing much better against the run.
Brandian Ross, after being talked up by the coaches this past week shows why. He was very active, around the ball a lot and had some hard hits.
It’s gotta suck for a vet like Brad Jones to be playing with the 4th quarter scrubs…
Datko is going to grade out very well in this game. None of the Browns’ pressure is coming through him…
Browns eating into Coleman’s playing time… It will be another 2min drill for BJ, at best…
Coleman in with 51 seconds… Interception… pefect ending…
Browns 35 Packers 10
——————
Follow Jersey Al:
Follow @JerseyAlGBP
Add to Circleson
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.
——————
Last night was Colt McCoy’s audition for the Packers back-up job. Discuss.
What would it take to get Flynn back? Help!!!
Ha. We actually covered that: https://allgbp.com/2012/08/08/how-much-to-get-matt-flynn-back/
Art, you’re not planning on Rodgers getting hurt, are you? It’s a little early to call for help don’t you think? “Wolf, Wolf”!
Wish I would have been able to watch the game last night. I have to say that while I’ve been an ardent advocate of McCarthy’s trust in Harrell, it sounds like he might not be quite fit for the job.
The nice part is that if things go well for Rodgers health-wise, it won’t even matter.
Your lucky you could not watch it. It was just that bad.
Harrell has a couple of issues but he has bigger issues with the lack of OL,WRs,TEs with blocking,routes,getting open,standing up and generally thinking they are playing.
I cannot help but feel he would do better,look better and simply perform better if were to play with the ‘starters’ and not a bunch of guys not long for this team or many others.
I watched as the Offense was moving slow..was it really Harrell or was I seeing many a guy lost to what play was called.
Perry is looking more like a ‘perrishable’ than a ‘Perrisher”.I know its pre-season and the learning part…he should be doing a lot more than he is…he’s getting handled and one almost QB hit simply isn’t enough,even at his stage of pre-season.
Unless Worthy can cheat at the snap…
I’ll wait for another week but as of now the only thing that the Packers will ‘repeat’ at is the 32 spot in defense.
Overreaction much?
Good Lord. It’s PREseason. MM was evaluating talent – not scheming. Not exploiting the other teams’ weaknesses.
Don’t forget GB didn’t dress 19 guys. The Brownies weren’t playing 1’s vs 1’s. It was their 1’s vs our 2’s. Their 2’s vs our 3’s.
That being said, yes it was ugly. No, I’m not worried.
Perry looks just fine. That kid has impressive qualities that you can’t teach. When he learns the position, he’s going to be a very good player.
He bull rushed a double team like he was pushing a shopping cart. How can you miss that?
The sky is falling.
Better not even play the season.
Just pack it up and move along everyone.
Oh wait – it’s preseason.
Put a fork in ’em, they’re done! I’m cancelling my Sunday Ticket subscription!
Oh Wait, That was the second pre-season game, and unlike the Packers (2 series) I think I remember Cleveland’s starters playing a good portion of the game. Harrell certainly did NOT look good, and where is the dynamic duo of Gurley and Borel these days? Well, maybe I’ll give it another week just to see what happens with Benson, we’ll see!
Unless TT can get Mc Coy for a 7th and league Min don’t count on that happening. Let’s face it, if AR goes down Mc Coy won’t save the season. He’ll just be less embarassing to watch.
The individual progress I had hoped for was non-existant for the most part. That said there’s still 2 weeks plus to get them ready for the 49ers.
Newhouse played well, but they didn’t have a speed guy on their right end. That test will come and I hope it will be better than last year. I think he will be better because he is moving more fluidly (word?).
The young DB’s are showing some enthusiastic play and that’s a nice thing. I am beginning to like Levine at Safety.
Cobb needs a bigger jar of Stickem.
Gurley and Borel – me too Bubba.
Big problem – Greg Jennings is still down with a concussion. He hasn’t passed the base line test in 11 days.
Next week is a must improve game. The coaches need to work them harder in the limited practice time they have before the 49ers. I think it’s only 10 practices left. So MM, no more short practices. Crank up the enthusiasm level and get it going.
Really don’t understand people saying there is nothing to worry about it is preseason. I disagree 110% for many reasons… First of all the team is getting used to losing, not a good thing, but is becoming a learned behavior… Don’t give me the we just want to see how scenerios are going to look crap. If you don’t play the game to win, don’t play the game. I understand things are not perfect at this point and time, but it looks like a rag tag team thrown together in the eleventh hour.
wrong on so many levels.
I don’t think this deserves all the thumbs-down. I don’t totally agree, but I don’t think it’s wildly off base or unnecessarily rude.
I went to the game, and then like a total geek came home and rewatched alot of it on DVR. It was painful to watch the first time, educational the second.
It is too bad that Brad Jones is in with the scrubs in the 4th, but he totally bit on a play action, which he should not have.
Casey heyward looked really good, as did many other players. How about woodsons one play of the game?!?!
We should consider that Harrell had NO starters on the field with him. It was he and the second team vs. the Browns starters. He could have played much better and it was a painful thing to watch, but maybe all those players got alot better last night, and the coaches were really able to evaluate the young players.
Sven, that doesn’t make you a geek, just a potential Packers blogger!
You can say Harrell didn’t have enough talent around him, you can say he didn’t have great protection, and that could all be very true.
None of that changes the fact Harrell made some god-awful decisions.
Accessing the situation under pressure and making sound decisions is more of a factor than arm strength and accuracy when separating a NFL QB from a practice squad candidate. Knowing MM, we know it’s been drilled into Graham’s head repeatedly that protecting the football is paramount. He executed some amazingly bad decisions.
How he responded post-game gives me hope he’s tough enough to endure and learn from it, but make no mistake, you can’t surmise he’s a capable back up QB at this point based on his live action reps thus far. He better flip the switch in the next two weeks if he wants to gain the confidence from his coaches and team mates they always claim to have for him..
assess, darn it, assess.
I agree. Wonder what Harrell looks like with starters in the game?
When House played last week he was in bump and run coverage and he looked great. With House and Williams playing near the line, the D will be competitive. Playing 8 yards back is a recipe for disaster, just like last year, thanks for getting House injured on ST in the 3rd qt of a meaningless game Mike, you had what looked like the answer and then treated him like a practice squad prospect. I’m convinced that the O will be just as good or better then last year. With Jennings, Finley and Benson back, they will be fine.
Dude, it’s football, injuries happen, and why shouldn’t a kid who didn’t play a lick of D his first season, be used on special teams during the preseason?
Unfortunate injury, but I don’t think there is any gross negligence on MM’s part. Hindsight is 20/20.
Two notes:
1) Anyone somewhat concerned about Cobb’s ball protection? Not only did he get stripped with the 1’s early on, but he was also involved in that near-turnover with the #2’s. If it was just a matter of these two unfortunate incidents, I wouldn’t worry too much. Combined with his history from last season, I wonder if he has miniature hands that are even smaller than they should be for his smallish frame. Not sure, but didn’t he bobble/drop while fielding a return last week, too? Me no Likey. Get your head(and hands!) right, Randall!!
2) I don’t want to hear about our #2’s playing against the Browns’ 1’s. The Packers put out their #2s vs. other teams’ 1’s frequently during the preseason over MM’s time. Not to mention, Browns had 5 of 11 defensive starters scratched due to injury, and their #1 offense was led by a(admittedly old)rookie the entire first half.
Don’t take it like I’m on the ledge, I’m not. But let’s not go out of our way to find reasons why things aren’t going well in preseason games. No excuses, this team has some work to do in a few areas before the season starts.
oppy ole buddy ole pal, I agree with you!
It seems that preseason is an excepted excuse for some things/players and reasons for condemnation of other things/players.
One player fumbles=cut him..another player fumbles=its preseason.
Preseason or not…losing and playing that bad no matter the squad is not and should not be acceptable as well as pointing the finger at one instead of all.
My memory may be slipping, but weren’t the Packers 1-3 in 2010 preseason when we won the Super Bowl? See how important pre-season is. Can’t even remember it from just 2 seasons back.
Thanks,
Since ‘yq
They were 2-1. Interestingly, the losses were to Kansas City and Cleveland. They beat Indy and Seattle.