Will Packers Stay Undefeated Before the Bye?

Lazard Catches a Bomb, Photo by Butch Dill, AP

"What do Football and Jazz Have in Common? . . . Both become elevated to the sublime at moments of chaos that follow a breakdown, when instinct and improvisation take over. . . . Melody, rhythm and harmony become speed, agility and pure execution.  Come for the mastery, stay for the improvisation.”

Wynton Marsalis, in the NBC Intro to Sunday Night Football

As a person who loves both football and jazz, the Wynton Marsalis quote really spoke to me, although I had no idea at the time how chaotic this week would become (see below).  On the bright side, speaking of "speed, agility, and pure execution," after 3 weeks, not only have the Packers scored more offensive points than any Packers team in history in the first 3 games of the season, they also lead the league in points scored.  And it is not just scoring points.  The Packers have also been very careful with the football, giving up no turnovers in the first three weeks.  Never before has a Packers team played the first three games of the season without a single turnover.  And never in NFL history has a team scored at least 35 points, with no turnovers, in each of the first three games.  

While they were also 3-0 last year at this time, they had only scored 58 points after three games, while this year they have scored 122.  So there really isn't any doubt that the offense is running more smoothly this year, after the Packers beat the Saints Sunday night by the score of 37-30.  That evinces speed, agility, and execution.  It was particularly gratifying to see other players step up, in the absence of Davante Adams, and make plays.  The top 3, in my mind, were Allen Lazard, Jace Sternberger, and Big Bob Tonyan.  If Lazard were just a hair faster, he would have had two long bomb touchdowns, but even so he ended up with 6 catches for 146 yards and a short touchdown.

Speaking of long bomb touchdowns, on re-watching the game, there really is no doubt.  Drew Brees either can't, or won't, throw the long ball anymore.  I don't think he had a single throw more than 18 yards downfield.  He gets credited for a 52 yard pass Sunday night, but it was really about a 2 yard pass to Kamara with 5 or 6 broken tackles.

The defense again had a very mixed day.  There were more missed tackles on Kamara's long touchdown reception than I want to see in a whole game.  All I can say is that he is one of the top couple, two, three running backs in the league (if you have read this far, I hope you appreciate the Wisconsin syntax), so making people miss is what he does.  But when it counted, the defense again generated a turnover, this one by Za'Darius Smith, when he popped the ball out of Taysom Hill's hand and then recovered the ball himself.  Many of us still can't get over how the Packers screwed up with Taysom Hill a few years ago.  He was making a lot of noise in the Packers' training camp, and instead of putting him on the active roster, they tried to sneak him onto the practice squad.  Oddly enough, the Saints must have had some video equipment around their facility (who knew?), because they saw what Hill could do, signed him off the Packers' practice squad, and he has been a Swiss Army Knife for the Saints ever since.  On this day, he gave up the pivotal fumble that really turned the game back in the Packers' direction.  But he is still a hell of a player, even if he was never likely to be the heir apparent to either Rodgers or Brees, and I wish he were still on the Packers' team.

I started writing this post earlier in the week.  And then came the chaos.  The star of Sunday's game, Allen Lazard, injured his core, required surgery, and is expected to be out for multiple weeks.  Is Adams ready to return Monday night?  If not, what then?  Then the Steelers-Titans game was postponed for Covid reasons until later in the season.  And now, Saturday morning, it has been announced that Cam Newton tested positive, is out for Week 4 as a result, and Patriots-Chiefs is now postponed until Monday or Tuesday, which could be the first step toward postponing it until later this year.  At what point does the league conclude that the whole thing is just not viable, wiping out the promising start of the Packers and other teams?  The title of this post asks whether the Packers will stay undefeated before the bye.  Now maybe we have to ask if the season will even last until the bye next week.  That is the "chaos that follow(s) a breakdown" (or breakout in this instance).  Let's just hope that football, somehow, "become(s) elevated to the sublime" out of the chaos.

Great Opening Night Win

So we decided to take a little journey to the land of the opening night hoopla.  I have been to opening day games before, and there is always a special, "back to football at last!" sort of flavor to the first game, or even to the first home game.  But I have never been to an opening night Thursday game, much less to a special, Thursday night opening game with everyone watching, and with a concert outside the stadium, colored cards for visual stunts taped to the seats, etc. Plus, the last two Super Bowl Champions facing off, Rodgers vs. Brees, the Packers' long list of receivers vs. the Saints' long list of receivers, fireworks being shot off, the whole nine yards.  You could certainly say that the game had a playoff feel to it.

Last week I wondered if the Packers would remember lessons learned from last year and stay aggressive.  Early returns suggest that they remember very well.  They started the game in a modified no-huddle type of offense, which worked so well during the pre-season and at times last year, and drove right down the field for a touchdown on the first drive.  A fumble recovery led to another quick touchdown, before the pace of the game settled down a bit.  They were also aggressive enough on defense to put a lot of heat on Drew Brees.  You could perhaps criticize Mike McCarthy for going a little bit into his shell on the last couple of offensive possessions.  I suppose that if the game goes down to the very last play with the winner in doubt, maybe it is fair to say that McCarthy went conservative a little too early.

Except for those last couple of possessions, the Packers' offense looked great.  Do did the Saints' offense.  Stuck in traffic on the way up to Green Bay, I heard various predictions on the radio about how the offenses are always behind the defenses at this time of year, so the score would probably be something like 17-13.  Yeah, right.  These offenses were on fire, in a way that I thought was not a poor reflection on the defenses so much as it was a sign of excellence on the offensive side of the ball.

Speaking of which, stuck in traffic again on the way back from Green Bay, we heard some Bears fan call in to NFL Satellite Radio, licking his chops about how bad the Packers' and Saints' defenses are, and predicting a 3-0 record for the Bears after facing the Falcons, Saints and Packers.  Talk about whistling past the graveyard!  I think 1-2 or 0-3 are far more likely.  We shall see, but despite the fact that the Bears won the division last year, played the Packers very tough, almost knocked them out of the playoffs, and almost beat them with their third-string quarterback, I am just not sold on the Bears.

Of course, there were some bad things in the game, like the old special teams problem rearing its ugly head, and some unnecessary penalties.  There was a scary-looking injury to Tramon Williams, but it appears that it is not as serious as it looked.  On the whole, what a great way to start the season for the Packers.  And for the NFL and NBC, I don't know how they could have asked for a better game.  On the offensive side of the ball, the Packers got a lift from the return of Jermichael Finley, and the combination of Ryan Grant and James Starks looks like it should be productive.  And then there was Randall Cobb.  A rookie, backup receiver and kick returner, scores his first two touchdowns on a huge stage, ties an all-time kickoff return record, and becomes the first NFL player born in the 1990's!

The Packers' defense, despite giving up 34 points, came up with two huge stops to save the game - first on a 4th and inches play late in the third quarter.  The Packers must have smelled a pass, because they came after Brees, chased him backwards about 20 yards, before he finally got rid of the ball on a short pass that had no chance of resulting in a first down.  Then, after an interference call on A.J. Hawk on what should have been the last play of the game, the Saints got one final chance, with zero seconds left, to get the ball in the end zone from the 1 yard line.  Maybe because of the 4th and inches failure earlier, Sean Payton decided to switch things up and try a dive by Mark Ingram over the center of the line.  But the Packers, this time, smelled the run (one of the defensive linemen said something about seeing the Saints' offensive linemen clenching their fists, and they knew it would be a running play).  So the defensive linemen went low, to avoid being pushed backwards, and four linebackers and defensive backs went high to stuff Darren Sproles Mark Ingram for no gain.  Final score: Packers 42, Saints 34.