The Green Bay Packers went back to work Monday after their well-deserved bye week. Morgan Burnett, Davante Adams, James Jones and others were looking healthy and rested. Here are 10 questions going into the bye, and 10 answers coming out of it as the Packers enter their 10-game stretch run…
The Green Bay Packers’ defense accomplished an amazing feat Sunday. It stared down one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks on his best day and lived to tell about a 27-20 victory at Lambeau Field. San Diego’s Philip Rivers threw the football as well as anyone not named Aaron Rodgers is likely to in a long, long time here.
Is it possible the Green Bay Packers are more than a one-trick pony? Can it be that they have the horses on defense and special teams as well as offense to win the race? It is beginning to look like it. The Packers’ 24-10 victory against St. Louis Sunday at Lambeau Field might be considered bittersweet. After all, Aaron Rodgers looked merely mortal while throwing two interceptions and settling for an 82.8 passer rating.
In a game where Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay offense were less than scintillating – hey, it happens – the Packers’ defense rose up and carried the day. Clay Matthews led a hard-charging unit that registered six sacks against a beleaguered Colin Kaepernick. The 49ers’ quarterback never got comfortable throughout the Packers’ tidy 17-3 victory over San Francisco at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium.
Opponents struggle for solutions. Coaches and teammates search for superlatives. Meantime, Aaron Rodgers does what he does, which is to say he keeps playing quarterback at an otherworldly level. Kansas City’s frequently formidable defense took its best shot Monday night during the Chiefs’ nationally televised visit to Rodgers’ neighborhood. The Chiefs came up woefully short. The Packers and their MVP quarterback rolled to a 38-28 victory in front of a wet and wild crowd at Lambeau Field.
Monday will not be among the sleepless nights the Packers, their fans and head coach Mike McCarthy have endured since a painful January loss in the NFC title game at Seattle. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ brilliance outshone his statistics, and his stats were awful good.
The Packers relied on a couple of trusted difference-makers Sunday afternoon at Chicago’s Soldier Field. First, there was James Jones snaring two touchdown passes from Aaron Rodgers in the Packers’ 31-23 victory over the Bears. It was as if the pitcher-catcher duo had never been separated for a year. And then there was Jay Cutler…
The good news is another weapon has been added. The unknown is what we will see from the D and special teams, as they are works still in progress going into the regular season. The Packers re-acquired the veteran receiver after Jones was released by the New York Giants during Labor Day weekend. The 31-year-old played his first seven seasons in Green Bay.
The Packers must reach the league-mandated 53-man roster limit on Saturday. Here is Chris Havel’s position-by-position roster breakdown.
While Green Bay’s pre-season game against Philadelphia on Saturday night at Lambeau Field was a little frustrating at times, it showed again how the Packers continue to mine new talent.
For the second straight week, the Packers’ offense lost its top receiver to injury in the first series, but this time the injury appears not significant. Randall Cobb went down, but initial fears and false reports of a season ending-injury proved unfounded. And a collective sigh of relief echoes from Packers Nation.
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