The Packer Pundit

McCarthy, Packers Find their Mojo in Mo-town
With Number 4's Arm... 3's a Charm!
Packer Pundit / Patrick Stuckey
After 3 tries, and despite their best efforts to give away yet another game, the Packer's grudgingly held on to beat the kindred, winless Lions, 31-24. With 1:54 left in the game, defensive tackle Corey 'Deacon Junior' Williams sacked Jon Kitna for the second time in the game. The sack turned the ball over to the Packers on downs, and seamed to seal the 'V'... but alas... for reasons unbeknownst to this pundit... instead of taking a knee... the Packers ran the ball on three straight plays.

Say What?
You heard me. Up seven points... the Lions are down to 1 time out... ball on the Lions 35 and we hand the ball off to Ahman Green for 3 yards. Lions call time and I scream at the TV... WHY??? Just take the frickin' knee!!! Okay so the Lions call their last TO and it's 2nd and 7... so we just take a knee for two plays... run approximately 80 seconds off the clock and at worse the Lions get the ball around their 35 with less than 20 seconds and no timeouts. Right?

Nope... not the Packers... we line up and rookie Tony Moll gets a procedure penalty. Okay... so now I do understand us running one more time... which we do and it's now 3rd and 10ish... take the knee. Right?

Nope! We run the ball once more to Ahman Green who... fumbles... hellooooo? The Lions now have the ball on our 40 with 49 seconds to go. Fortunately the D stiffened and the Lions failed on a last second Hail Flutie.

I'm hoping we don't have Herm Edwards doing our clock management!

Favre in da Hizza!
Brett 'I don't do Domes' Favre, looked fantastic. He made crisp, SMART throws to open receivers, just once airing one out to a 'not open' Robert 'I'm good for one catch a game' Ferguson. The protection for Brett was excellent, even the famed Lions DT's couldn't get to Brett. Mostly because McCarthy used a lot of shot gun formations and rolled Brett out. Have you noticed McCarthy has Brett roll out for his first pass in each of the Pack's 3 games. I think this is a smart move. Brett has always thrown better on the move. When Brett has confidence early, connecting on passes... he tends to go 25/36 for 340 yards... no pics and 3 TD's.

Okay that was the 'Glass is half empty' portion of this post... here's the good news...

**Greg Jennings 75 yard touchdown scamper with Donald Driver leading the way. Reminds me of last week when it was Driver with the reception and Jennings with two huge down field blocks to help spring him. Jennings is Legit!

**A. J. Hawk is a Stud!!! I am soooo hearting me this guy. His motor is constantly running and you can just see the confidence growing in him every week.

**O-Line Pass protection, along with the Backs picking up blitzes... A+ Yes Brett was hurried at times... but on the whole our rookie guards held their own against the Lions pro bowl Interior defense. Now as soon as we can start making some holes for Green...?

**Special teams picked it up big time. Koren Robinson is a threat as is Woodson... and Woodson made 3 nice returns to help set up good field position. And good field position wins games. Also the coverage picked it up a notch... shutting Drummond down on punts and kick offs. Rayner didn't hit the ball as deep as he usually does... but Ryan absolutely launched one punt 62 yards... and helped pin the Lions deep in their own territory. Field position baby!!!

**Bubba Franks remembered what those two things attached to his arms are for... picking up first downs! Everybody picked it up Sunday... and when you pass protect... and catch Brett's passes... good things are going to happen.

Final thoughts
**Nick Barnett completely disappeared from this game. He mailed it in as did Kampman and KGB. Barnett had 2 tackles (7 assist... okay) and Kampman had 1 tackle against a 5th round rookie. KGB didn't even get his uni wrinkled let alone... dirty.

**Marquand Manuel can't tackle my grandmother. And she's been dead for 10 years now. Fortunately he got a lucky ricochet and intercepted a Kitna pass for a TD.

**The Defense is still giving up the 'Big Play' including a 37 and 42 yard touchdown passes.






Special catch for Jennings
The 75 yard TD catch was special to Greg Jennings for a lot of reasons. The biggest, of course, was what it meant to the Green Bay Packers rookie wide receiver's quarterback: Brett Favre. When Jennings caught a little 5-yard pass from the legend on the second offensive series of the game, spun and ran away from three Detroit defenders en route to a 75-yard score, it gave Favre his 400th career touchdown pass, second only to Dan Marino (420) in NFL history. But the play was also special for Jennings because he was home - he grew up in Kalamazoo, and had a number of family and friends at the game - and it reinforced the notion that he is developing into a legitimate No. 2 receiver to take the onus off Donald Driver.

Over 100, with help
After his 75-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter, Greg Jennings didn't have far to go to record his first 100-yard game in the NFL. He finished with three catches for 101 yards. But he had to give an assist to Donald Driver for most of those yards. On the 75-yard TD, Driver held a downfield block on Dre Bly for several steps to clear Jennings' path to the end zone. The big play was redemption of sorts for Driver, who had dropped a short pass on the Packers' opening possession when he was wide open in the flat and would have easily picked up the first down. The touchdown was the 400th TD pass of Favre's career, and Jennings initially made a rookie mistake, giving the milestone ball to the official.

Other milestones
With his 131 yards from scrimmage (63 rushing, 68 receiving), Ahman Green moved ahead of Jim Taylor and into second place on the Packers' all-time list with 9,791. He now stands 111 yards away from taking over the top spot, held by James Lofton at 9,901. For his career, Green is now over 10,000 yards from scrimmage, going over the mark on a second quarter carry. Including his time in Seattle, Green has 10,122 career yards from scrimmage. Driver's three catches moved him past Max McGee and into sixth on the Packers' all-time list with 347 receptions. He also caught his 29th career TD pass, needing one more to become the 11th player in franchise history with 30 TD receptions.

Key replay ruling
The only instant replay review of the game went Green Bay's way, and it proved important. Late in the third quarter at the end of an 8-yard gain near midfield, Ahman Green lost the ball as he was going to the turf, and Detroit recovered. The officials ruled Green was down, but the new replay rules allow that call to be challenged, and Detroit asked for the review. On the replay, it appeared Green's knee was on the ground as the ball was being stripped. At worst, the video was inconclusive, and the Packers kept the ball. The drive did not produce any points, but the resulting Green Bay punt pinned Detroit on its own 2-yard line. When the Packers defense held, it set up a short field for the offense, which drove 43 yards for a touchdown to make it 31-21 early in the fourth quarter.

Here's to you, Mr. Robinson
Koren Robinson played only five snaps on offense, but what he did on the first - a 24-yard reception on third-and-7 to set up Driver's 5-yard touchdown catch midway through the third quarter - was huge. Especially since Favre improvised after mishandling the shotgun snap. "Big play in the game," coach Mike McCarthy said.

Running on empty
Although Favre threw for 340 yards and three TDs for the second straight week, the running game continued to struggle. Halfback Ahman Green managed only 63 yards on 22 attempts (a 2.9-yard average). "We didn't run the ball as well as we'd like," right tackle Mark Tauscher said. "That's a good defensive front. That's not a bunch of slugs up there; those are some good players. But we want to run the ball better than we did. We did some good things the third quarter running the football." That said, the offense made up for its struggling running game with classic West Coast offense - short passes - as the tight ends and backs caught Favre's checkdown throws after six drops last week. "It'll get better with time," offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski said of the run game. "Stats and all that, really the only stat that matters at the end of the year is how many you won and how many you lost."

Bubba bounces back
One week after standing in front of his teammates and issuing a postgame apology for dropping two passes and being flagged for a costly 15-yard penalty, tight end Bubba Franks made amends, catching three passes for 39 yards. Not that Franks took any pleasure in it. "Man, last week was last week. We just wanted to come back and get a win," Franks said. "I don't care about how I played. I mean, I want to play great, but if we don't get a win, it don't matter. But we got one today, so I feel pretty good."

Play it again, Sam
With starting sam linebacker Brady Poppinga's continuing struggles in pass coverage, backup Ben Taylor saw action in his place, although Poppinga still played most of the game. Taylor replaced Poppinga on Detroit's fourth possession of the game, and again for part of a series in the second half after Poppinga was beaten by Lions tight end Dan Campbell for a 22-yard gain up the middle of the field. "I'm just a guy that's going to go out and work every day, and I think the coaches see that and they feel comfortable putting me in the game," Taylor said. "I always have to be ready no matter what, because I'm basically backing up all three (linebacker) positions anyway. When they put me in there, I have to be able to perform at a high level."

Williams' big day
Reserve defensive tackle Corey Williams finished with a pair of sacks, including an important takedown of Lions quarterback Jon Kitna late in the game that appeared to lock up the victory - until Green's fumble. "That last (sack), when we went out on the field, (McCarthy) was like, 'Somebody needs to make a big play,' " Williams said. "I felt like he was directing that to me. That's how I always feel in crucial times." Williams, who had another quarterback pressure in addition to his sacks, appeared to be a main beneficiary of the Lions' attention to Packers defensive end Aaron Kampman, who entered the game leading the NFL in sacks with four. "I've never seen that much (attention)," said Kampman, who was matched up mostly with rookie right tackle Jonathan Scott but watched Scott get plenty of help from chipping backs and tight ends.

Extra points
Former University of Wisconsin cornerback Jamar Fletcher started in place of Fernando Bryant, who missed the game because of a personal matter. Another ex-Badger, halfback Brian Calhoun, gained 5 yards on an option pitch from Az-Zahir Hakim and also caught one pass for 2 yards in limited action. .... Packers defensive tackle Colin Cole, who started the season opener, was inactive in favor of Williams, Kenderick Allen and Cullen Jenkins, who started his second straight game. "We've got a very competitive group there and Colin just happened to be the guy that just barely didn't make it," McCarthy said. "That's a very hard decision to make week in and week out." .... McCarthy didn't have much injury information, but the players that did leave the game - Allen (toe) and nose tackle Ryan Pickett (right ankle) were able to return, while safety Nick Collins (cramps) was fine after taking a postgame IV.





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