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| From NFL.com |
Well, It's that time of year again. The regular season is over, and the playoffs have arrived. The Pack won the division, and I was happy about that. But that is the past, and there are bigger "fish to fry" as the saying goes. A quick recap of wild-card weekend though before I jump into the Pack. First of all I none of the other teams I wanted to win won. I wanted Indie to beat Baltimore (however unlikely it was) because right behind Detroit, I have a soft spot for the Colts. I'm not super bummed that the Ravens won, and actually it was cool to see Ray Lewis win his last game at home, but still. I don't really care either way about the Bengals/Texans game, so I don't have much to say about that. But I really was hoping the Redskins could come away with the win against Seattle. I don't like the Seahawks. Not the players in particular, but Pete Caroll especially on account of the fact that when interviewed and asked about the fiasco of a game they played against us he lied several times about that final play that was clearly an interception. I feel that his coaching style is a little dirty, and I think they take a lot of credit for things they shouldn't. But whatever. They won. I don't know why Shannahan left RGIII in the game for so long with his bad knee, and I really think Washington might have had a chance if they'd pulled RGIII and put in Cousins.
Pack vs. Vikes
Our game went pretty well for a playoff game. We started out strong, and sort of faded toward the end, and that would have to be my strongest criticism of the whole game (i.e. we lost our momentum). I thought the offense played well, Our run game is getting better and Harris is turning out to be reliable. If I were the coach the thing I'd stress to him this week is maintaining his sterling record of keeping the ball secure. He is doing so well, and I just want it to stay that way.
The offense was on track. Rodgers hit like 8 or nine receivers, and had time to do so thanks to the great play by the offensive line. Sure Rodgers got sacked like...5 times, but I think 3 of those at least were his fault for holding on to the ball too long. James Jones played great Jennings is finishing out the season strong. Jordy didn't get into the game until the second half, and came out with a limp after only a few plays, but did a really nice job.
The defense really showed up. Woodson is back and great, the secondary played well. They corralled AP and only allowed him 100 or so yards, which is not great but much better than 210 he got the week before!
All in all it was a good game, and we move on, but I'm not too excited about the win because I don't think the Vikings are really that good of a team yet, and I don't think they are tat hard of a team to beat. Especially without their starting QB.
Moving on to next week and our game against San Francisco. Now this will be a tough game. Here are a few of my thoughts about what we need to get done in order to win:
- I think the O-line has it's work cut out for them, but as long as they throw Kuhn, or a TE in there to help block I think Rodgers can get some long passes out to the receivers and work his magic.
- AR needs to get rid of the ball sooner though, especially against the Niners. I know he hates to throw the ball away (which is why he is sacked so often) but sometimes it is the right thing to do. Otherwise people get hurt, and the penalties pile up.
- The entire offense needs to be reminded that ball security is going to be critical against the Niners defense.
- We are going to have to be patient with the run game but stick with it.
On the defensive side of things,
- We need to limit Kapernick from running for 1st downs.
- And I think that we need to keep Frank Gore to under 100 yards. It was very fortunate that we played the best RB (Adrien Peterson) in the league 3 times in the past five weeks. Hopefully that has prepared the D for the run game.
Hopefully everyone is back on the field and healthy by Saturday.
I hope we beat the Niners, because their fans are becoming a real pain in the butt, shouting at me, making rude gestures, and telling me how terrible my team is. I am not upset by it really, but it is pretty annoying. All I can say is:
