Two Good Quarters out of Eight

All About the Defense, Photo by Joshua Clark, USA Today

"We've had two good quarters out of eight," said Aaron Rodgers in his post-game press conference, obviously referring to the offense.  And he is absolutely right.  The offense right now is like a big old V-8 engine that is only hitting on two cylinders.  But, in spite of this, the Packers are 2-0 after two weeks.

If you had told me, a couple of weeks ago, that the Packers' offense would have one good quarter against the Bears, and one good quarter against the Vikings, and that they would do diddly-squat (©) in the other six quarters, I would not have given the Packers much chance of being 2-0, 2-0 in divisional games, and in sole possession of first place in the NFC North.

It is obvious that the improved defense this year is responsible for the Packers being unbeaten.  They have given up 19 points in two games, and that was good enough to secure victories when the offense under-performed in both games.  If the defense can continue to play this well (or better!), if and when the offense really gets its act together, this team could win a bunch of games.  It must be a huge comfort to Rodgers (and to LaFleur) that the Packers now have a defense that can win some games for them.  It is certainly a great comfort to me as a fan.

Family members Sam and Mary were at the game, and they tell me that the Packers chose to introduce the defense at the beginning of the game, a tip of the hat to the fact that the defense won the first game.  Rodgers and LaFleur have been very upfront in acknowledging how well the defense is playing, and in particular the importance of free agent acquisitions Za'darius Smith, Preston Smith, and Adrian Amos, and rookies like Darnell Savage and second year players like Jaire Alexander.  Rodgers described the two Smith "brothers" as leaders on and off the field, and these two clearly seem to enjoy playing with each other.  Adrian Amos basically sealed the win last week against the Bears.  Against the Vikings, it was Kevin King who made the end zone interception to essentially salt the game away.

In the crazy schedule the Packers have drawn this year, they will have two more home games in a row (vs. Denver and Philadelphia), followed by a road game at Dallas, and followed by two more home games (vs. Detroit and the Raiders).  So by the end of the day on October 20, the Packers will have already played 5 of their 8 home games, but they will have had lots of chances to work out the kinks in their offense on their home field, with a home crowd that hopefully knows to be quiet when the offense is at work.  It is not hard to imagine the Packers standing at 5-2 after seven games, and wouldn't that be a great start while getting used to a new offense!  As the crew on Good Morning Football said Monday morning, Rodgers and LaFleur are getting used to the new offense and working with each other on the fly.  Absent catastrophic injuries, there is every reason to think that the offense will get better as every week goes by.

Speaking of learning on the fly, Sam and Mary also tell me that there was no foghorn at the game yesterday.  So LaFleur, or whoever else may have come up with the idea of copying the Vikings' Gjallarhorn, has learned on the fly that it was not such a great idea.

Anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Maybe the offense doesn't improve from week to week.  Maybe the defense is hit with the injury bug (Savage and Greene were hurt in Sunday's game).  And playing 6 of the final 9 games on the road will be no picnic.  But as of this moment, I couldn't be more encouraged by the new Green Bay Packers.

Packers' Best Defense in Years?

Game-Saving INT by Adrian Amos, Photo by Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee J-S

After all these months of waiting to see the new Matt LaFleur-led Packers, I didn't have much idea what to expect in the regular season.  First, we had to suffer through another meaningless preseason, with some unfortunate injuries, but without ever seeing Rodgers, most of the offensive starters, or many of the defensive starters on the field.  The Packers didn't look very good, even though they won the two home games, but with the joke the preseason has become, there was at least room to hope that they would look better when the games started to count.

And yet, the much-vaunted 100th season opener, on the road against the Bears, promised to be a tough one, given the strength of the Bears' defense.  Mitch Trubisky is still a question mark, but the Bears have a new rookie running back who looks like he might be a good one (David Montgomery), and the Bears also have some quality receivers, even though one (Trey Burton) missed this game.  But it wasn't the Bears' offense that worried me, it was the Bears' defense, the same one that knocked Rodgers into sub-par play for all of last year, that was really the cause for concern.

The addition by the Packers of some quality rookie and free-agent defenders carried with it the possibility of improvement, but I honestly did not expect the Packers' defense to match the Bears' defense, play for play.  The most prominent free-agent acquisitions were the two Smiths, Preston and Za'Darius, and Adrian Amos.  All three made a real difference in this game, and two of them provided the decisive plays that sealed the game.  The Smith "brothers" came up with 8 combined tackles and 2.5 sacks, while Amos contributed the decisive interception.

Both defenses played very well, as should be obvious given that the game score was 10-3.  But the Packers broke through and mounted one perfect TD drive to start the second quarter.  And that single drive was the difference in the game, as the Packers' defense only gave up a field goal the entire game.  The rest of the time, they just stopped the Bears in their tracks, time after time, including on 12 of the Bears' third down plays, and both of their fourth down plays.

Still, the game wasn't over until ex-Bear defensive back Adrian Amos intercepted Trubisky in the end zone with 2 minutes left.  And even then, it wasn't quite over, as the Bears got one final chance, thanks in part to the Packers taking a chance and throwing an incomplete pass when they were trying to ice the game.  But that last-ditch chance was snuffed out by Preston Smith's 4th down sack of Trubisky.

Speaking of that decisive touchdown drive, my reaction watching the miserable first quarter was this.  Under the way preseasons were conducted until a few years ago, Rodgers and the starters would probably have played about one quarter of one game in the preseason.  They didn't do that this year, and it looked like it in the first quarter.  NBC flashed the stat that the Packers lost 17 yards on the first two drives, making them the worst two drives to start a game for Rodgers as a starter.  After they got that lousy quarter behind them (the quarter they should have played in the preseason), it was time to shake off the rust and play like the Packers.

And lo and behold, that is exactly what they did, although it was mostly that one drive at the beginning of the second quarter.  Four for four passing, 74 yards, and a TD pass to Jimmy Graham.  Boom!  We watched the game on vacation in Hawaii with our friends Stan and Lorri (see photo below).  But my daughter and I, watching the game from 5 time zones away from each other, had exactly the same reaction to the Graham TD.  This was exactly what we expected to see from Jimmy Graham last year, but rarely saw.  Rodgers with the confidence to throw it to Graham, even though he was well covered, and Graham with the skill to pull the ball in despite the coverage.

With this somewhat improbable, 10-3 upset win, the Packers managed to beat their ancient rival, go a game up and a tie-breaker against them, and pull off a win on the road to start the season.  They also, according to the excellent NBC statistics crew, managed to hand the Bears their first loss, when the opponent scores 10 or fewer points, since 1932.  Now that is an obscure statistic, one for which they had to dig pretty deep.

And now, the Packers get the luxury of having 10 days to prepare for their home opener against the Vikings.  A win there will give them a great start to the season.

Stan, Lorri, Your Humble Blogger, and Judy, Watching the Game in Hawaii