Green Bay Packers vs. Kansas City Chiefs:
My unfitered game day recap and blog post of comments, observations and first impressions.
Inactive for Packers today:
Inactives tonight: Charles Woodson, Davon House, James Starks, Robert Francois, Jeff Saturday, Andrew Datko, Ryan Pickett, Donald Driver and Tom Crabtree.
Notes:
The Packers have finished the preseason against the Chiefs the last three years.
Mike McCarthy started his NFL career with the Chiefs in 1993.
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Mike McCarthy Pregame Show on 620 WTMJ:
Starters: Our starters will play one series, maybe 6-7 plays.
Last week’s game: We felt good coming off the field and even more so after the film study.
Roster: A lot of cometetion throughout the whole roster, not just at the bottom, but for starting jobs also.
Can someone win a job tonight: Absolutely, I’m counting on it. Ted & I have discussed this – it’s the beauty of having a 4th preseason game.
Graham Harrell: GH is just like every other football player competing – he has to play well and he has to earn that opportunity. I don’t really agree with the opinions outside the building. No need for us to address it. GH brings a lot to the table. If we were to play a game tomorrow with GH, our offense wouldn’t need to change… People need to get their facts straight.
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Packers vs. Chiefs – First Impressions – First Half:
Raji hurt on the first play? Hopefully just turned an ankle.
Sean Richardson in at safety before MD Jennings…
Nice job by Nick Perry on the Richardson tackle for a loss. Got backfield penetration, forced RB wide, couldn’t follow his lead blocker.
For a second, I thought Shields was gojng to try to run that interception out like last year when he would up getting concussed…
Harrell deep to Gurley. Huge play for both of those guys…
Graham’s Law: Harrell + protection = better results.
I’ve been in Alex Green’s corner since day one, but right now, he’s not finding the holes (assuming there are some). Will still give him a pass for most of this season. Usually takes close to 2 years for complete ACLrecovery.
Harrell hangs in until the last millisecond and Packers execute a perfect screen play – that’s where Alex Green will make his mark this year…
Tori Gurley is 6’4″, 35in arms, 33.5″ vertical leap. That’s up in the stratosphere… if only he could find some burst in his moves…
Daniels and Neal close out the half with a sack.,, Okay, so that’s the kind of pocket push we’ve all be hoping for… But it’s not coming for Worthy, is it?
Packers 14 Chiefs 3
Packers vs. Chiefs – First Impressions – Second Half:
2nd half of the final preseason game: Bottom of the roster guys in last ditch effort to show something. Lawrence Guy, Philip Merling, Vic So’oto all in.
Erik Walden justifying my faith in him. Picks up his second sack.
Haha. Muir chest bumps Worthy after his tackle on the screen, and almost pancakes him. Love the energy, but please hurt the other team only!
Harrell leaves the game with a perfect 58.3 QB rating. Harrell and flawless in the same sentence. Who’d a thunk it after last week?
Boykin’s got the “it” factor. Not the fastest, not the biggest, but he gets open, catches the ball and has YAC ability.
One thing I learned last year – we all tend to place a much higher value on Packers players than other NFL GMs do. Remember how nobody though Harrell would make it to the practice squad last year?
Coleman 2 for 6 so far… Good. Let’s keep hiding him…
Mike Neal got a lot of playing time and really came alive. Been M.I.A. before.
Same can be said for Terrell Manning…
Packers 24 Chiefs 3
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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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Graham just needs more time to learn how to be a proper quarterback. Tonight he had a great offensive line that provided confidence in his mind that he wouldn’t have to be running all game long like the other 3 games.
Boykin doesn’t have the skills of Gurley and Borel, but it seemed tonight he showed that HE wanted it more. He wanted to make the squad. I don’t know what will happen but either way he will be on the Practice Squad.
Borel is gone, Gurley maybe he stands a chance but unsure.
Moses can find himself a place to stay for the season because he was the Defensive MVP of the game.
Finally. This is one of the BEST defensive line performances I have seen in a long time, even better than the Superbowl team. They seemed to be in the backfield flying around like crazy.
That being said, 2-2 won’t get us into the Post Pre-Season. Which is depressing considering we were so good on paper. Maybe next year.
Onto the regular season! WE ARE COMING FOR YOU ALEX SMITH!
Much better pocket for Harrell tonight and he took advantage. Next to Harrell, maybe the second string o-line took the biggest leap forward.
What I don’t want is a Dr. Jeckal and Mr. Hyde #2 QB.
Good for Harrell, great performance. Where was that accuracy the first three weeks? Where was the confidence to push the ball down the field? I hope he keeps both attributes, he will need them to keep a job as a back up QB in the NFL. Showing up one out of three appearances isn’t very reassuring for me.
Apparent starter injury, new RB fumble, Newhouse early struggles, inability to stop the run, and another starting QB pick- all had me thinking “This is not the showing you want to see out of your number one units heading into the regular season”.
Pass rush looked good, though.
I am a strong believer in the mental aspects of sports. I think the problem was is that the offensive line never gave Harrell enough time to throw correctly.
QB’s when they get enough time, and make throws consecutively begin to develop a skill of “slowing the game down”. The body becomes confident, and in a sense the game will appear slower enough and Harrell becomes more aware.
Because the line gave Harrell confidence from the start, he was able to develop a rhytmn and became loose, he wasn’t fearing the defense and was simply throwing, not thinking and throw.
At least Harrell showed he CAN do it! You can never blame JUST the QB when he has a bad day/days. The O-line has to block, the receivers have to run the correct routes and get open, and they have to hang onto the ball. I believe Harrell will do just fine.
I’m not sure exactly what we have at back up QB. I didn’t think Harrell had it in him after watching the first 3 games. He definitely made the 53 after tonite, let’s hope he can play like this if called upon. Raji has 10 days to heal up and should be fine ( fingers crossed). Let’s hope CB got his fumble out of the way in the pre-season and no more for the reg season.
Here’s to a opening day victory! Can’t wait!
Shields made some great plays in this game.
Manning had a free run once, otherwise the he hasn’t kept pace with the change in game speed from college to the pros like the other rookies have. He’s processing slow, reacting slow and just not moving well. That can change, but he does represent a dilemma at the moment.