6 in a row baby! We said on the blog three weeks ago that the Packers needed to capitalize on three winnable games in a row, before the schedule took a turn. They posted a ‘W’ in every one of them. At Cincy (which looks like a really quality road win right now after the Bengals blew the doors off of Baltimore on the road yesterday), at Chicago, and yesterday at home against the WFT. They cashed all three tickets, and now get ready for a stiff road test against 7-0 Arizona on a short week.
- The 50’s retro jerseys were FRESH. Throw the traditional ‘G’ on the helmets and I don’t think I’d be upset at all if those were the go-to home jerseys.
- It had been a LONG time since Large Robert Tonyan posted a decent day catching the ball, but yesterday looked like 2020 Big Bob. 4 catches, 63 yards and a touchdown. And a football spike that registered 2.1 on the Richter Scale in the greater Ashwaubenon area.
- Davante posted a ho-hum (for him) 6/76/1 line, but that catch he made down the near sideline on the final play of the 3rd quarter was criminal. Top 2 wide receiver in the league, not #2.
- Rule #1 for quarterbacks: Don’t throw across your body back to the middle of the field*. *= Unless your name is Aaron Rodgers, and the guy you’re throwing it to is Davante Adams.
- I gasped when Fox flashed the graphic that had Green Bay rated 5th overall on defense. I knew they had been getting better since they got demolished in Week 1, but I didn’t realize it was THAT much better.
- ^Related: Rashan Gary WRECKED that game yesterday. He destroyed that game the way another #52 used to in his heyday. He’s got 14 pressures in the last two weeks, 2 sacks and a forced fumble yesterday that changed the tone of the game on the opening drive of the 2nd half. There were a TON of people that said he was a waste of a pick on draft night, I wish I would have screenshotted those takes to be used against those people in the court of social media.
- This is your weekly De’Vondre Campbell appreciation note. Join us next week for another De’Vondre Campbell appreciation note.
- Dean Lowry being good this year has been a welcome surprise.
- It can’t be overstated what rookie Eric Stokes is doing as the #1 corner. He gave up the touchdown yesterday to Terry McLaurin, but otherwise he was, and has been, fantastic. I think the hope was that you’d have a healthy Jaire Alexander on one side, and then Stokes could kind of learn a little bit on the other side. But with Jaire out indefinitely, Stokes has risen to the occasion as the #1 guy.
- Is it too early for Corey Bojorquez to be fitted for his jacket in Canton?
- I’ll say something objective about yesterday’s game. I can’t fathom how this wasn’t a touchdown:
- I realize they called it by the letter of the law, but anyone with eyes and a brain watching that game thought that was a touchdown. Why the NFL is obsessed with over-litigating what should be a fairly simple game will never make any sense to me.
- ^Related: As a fanbase we need to take a stand against opposing players doing Lambeau Leaps after they score touchdowns in our house. After Heinicke thought he scored on that dive, he found a single WFT fan in the front row and jumped toward him. If you’re a Packer fan you’ve got to ‘spill’ your beer on him or something. Can’t have it.
So, you get to 6-1, and now we get some mid-season acid tests. First, a short week against the unbeaten Cardinals on the road. I won’t lie: Watching Taylor Heinicke scramble for big gains yesterday doesn’t give me a ton of confidence that the defense will be able to handle Kyler Murray. Plus they’ve got De’Andre Hopkins, AJ Green, just traded for Zach Ertz, we’re going to find out real quick whether this Top 5 defense is for real or not. Then you’re on the road against Kansas City which maybe doesn’t look as daunting now, before coming back home against the Seahawks (and it sounds like Russell Wilson is coming back for that game). You’ve also got the Rams at Lambeau before the bye week and a trip to Minnesota. So you really did NEED to get these early wins, and at least give yourself some room for error in the next 4-5 weeks.
PS: Are the Badgers back? That was a VINTAGE Badger game on Saturday. Just run, then run, then run some more, then run again, then pass, just kidding then run. The Braelon Allen/Chez Mellusi combo looks pretty nice at the moment. If they can somehow beat Iowa at Camp Randall this weekend, the path to the Big Ten West title and the Big Ten Championship game is all in front of them.
