The Packer Pundit

AJ Hawk Nominated For NFL Rookie Of The Week

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Defensive end VICTOR ADEYANJU of the St. Louis Rams, running back JOSEPH ADDAI of the Indianapolis Colts, wide receiver MARQUES COLSTON of the New Orleans Saints, linebacker A.J. HAWK of the Green Bay Packers and defensive back DEVIN HESTER of the Chicago Bears are the finalists for NFL ROOKIE OF THE WEEK honors for games played on November 12-13, the NFL announced Tuesday. Fans can vote for one of these five players on NFL.com beginning Tuesday at 9am EST and ending Thursday at 5pm EST to determine the NFL ROOKIE OF THE WEEK. The NFL ROOKIE OF THE WEEK will be announced Thursday evening on NFL.com.

A.J. Hawk recorded 13 total tackles and 1.5 sacks, and forced one fumble in the Packers' 23-17 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Early in the third quarter, Hawk sacked the Vikings quarterback for a 10-yard loss. He later combined with teammate Nick Barnett for another 10-yard sack, giving him four this season.






Remember me mentioning those articles about making the playoffs?

Playoffs not unspeakable
By Jason Wilde / Madison.com
The mere mention of it a month ago would have made you hear Jim Mora's screeching voice in your head. Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. You kiddin' me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game. But if - and yes, this is a colossal if - the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots Sunday at Lambeau Field to move to .500 for the first time all year at 5-5, you can actually use the word playoffs without having to have your head examined. Or at least without flashbacks to the then-Indianapolis Colts coach's unforgettable postgame rant. (You'll just have to go to YouTube.com to watch it like the rest of us.) "Absolutely," Packers coach Mike McCarthy replied earlier this week when asked if his team, even with a 4-5 record, has a legitimate shot at the postseason. "There's a lot of football left to play." But he'll have an easier time convincing the rest of Packer Nation if his team can beat the Patriots. Having won three of the last five Super Bowls, New England is the NFL standard-bearer and, despite back-to-back losses to Indianapolis and the New York Jets the last two weeks, remains one of the best teams in the league. "This is a big game, this is a huge game," McCarthy said. "To get back to 5-5, we'll be right in the middle of it, so yes, I think we have an excellent chance."
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Patriots pose big challenge
Game will show whether Packers are contenders or pretenders
By Rob Demovsky / greenbaypressgazette.com
The Green Bay Packers are 3-1 since the bye week and are playing easily their best football of the season, but the next three weeks likely will show whether they're for real. It begins Sunday with a game at Lambeau Field against the NFL's best team over the last five seasons, the New England Patriots. Though the Patriots will come to town having lost consecutive games for the first time since late in the 2002 season, they still lead the AFC East and are an early-week, six-point favorite. They have one of the game's best quarterbacks in Tom Brady and perhaps the league's best coach in Bill Belichick. The Packers (4-5) haven't beaten a team with a winning record, and their next three games are against teams with winning records after 10 weeks: The Patriots (6-3), the Seattle Seahawks (6-3) and the New York Jets (5-4). The Jets beat the Patriots 17-14 on Sunday. "I'll say this: We're playing our best football," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Monday. "And if that's good enough, time will tell. But we're playing our best football." For a team that stumbled out of the gate, was shut out in the opener against the Chicago Bears and was 1-4 going into their bye, the Packers have turned things around by limiting turnovers, finding some semblance of a running game and keeping blown coverages on defense to a manageable number. "I'm happy with the progress we've made," McCarthy said. "I think we're playing at a high level emotionally, physically." -- More






Linebackers Making Their Presence Known
By Mike Spofford / Packers.com
Posted 11/14/2006

"Since day one we've had a good relationship on and off the field, and with how our defense is, communication is huge between everyone. I think our communication gets better every single day and we enjoy being on the field together. It's something that really, as the season goes, is growing." -- A.J. Hawk

For a blitzing linebacker to actually succeed in getting to the quarterback, a combination of factors must come together. The linebacker has to time the blitz right, either going quickly enough to get a jump on any blocker trying to cut him off, or waiting just long enough for a lane to the quarterback to open. He has to take the proper angle, so as not to waste any steps or get caught up in additional traffic. He has to keep his pads low to avoid getting stood up if a blocker does get a piece of him. And he has to have the speed and agility to make it all work. "Everything goes into it," defensive coordinator Bob Sanders said. The Green Bay Packers have a trio of linebackers who are bringing all that to their defense in 2006, as evidenced by their considerable contribution to the pass rush in last Sunday's victory at Minnesota. Nick Barnett, A.J. Hawk and Brady Poppinga each got to Vikings quarterback Brad Johnson at least once and accounted for three of the defense's four sacks. As a group the linebackers had four sacks coming into the game, so they nearly doubled their season total. "I think we always were attacking, I think we're just starting to get comfortable with attacking, sending guys and knowing where we need to fit on those blitzes and plays," Barnett said. "There were a couple times where I went and it wasn't even a blitz. It's just feeling comfortable and knowing where you need to fit, playing football."
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Tough footing:
Kicking no fun when weather takes turn
By LORI NICKEL / journalsentinel.com
Posted: Nov. 14, 2006
During his nine-year career in Green Bay, Ryan Longwell kicked through everything Mother Nature threw at Lambeau Field. Through hail, sleet and snow, wind, rain and fog, Longwell became the Packers' all-time leading scorer and one of the most accurate field goal kickers in National Football League history. Yet nothing topped the evening conditions of Dec. 11, 2005, at Lambeau. Longwell booted field goals of 36, 39 and 28 yards to help beat Detroit, 16-13. It's a game mostly forgotten in an otherwise dreadful 4-12 season, but Longwell recalls it because it was the worst weather he has ever faced. "You had the 40-mile-an-hour winds, you had the rain and sleet, you had 10 degrees outside and the field was torn up because it was wet," Longwell said recently. "That was kind of the trifecta of bad conditions all in one game." Longwell is an expert on the challenges of kicking in the NFL's worst conditions, and now is the time of year when northern kickers' statistics start heading south. Dave Rayner and Jon Ryan of the Packers will discover soon enough. The American flag atop Lambeau's north end will contradict the flags on the goal posts, and it won't matter. They're both liars. They pair will toss grass in the air and watch it flutter around in three different directions. Dig a spike into the sideline and discover that solid footing won't be there between the hash marks. Take it from Longwell, who, even after nine years, never felt as if he really got the hang of kicking in one of the toughest venues in the NFL. -- More



Packers' coverage concerns start at top
By Tom Oates / madison.com
Hard to believe given how bad they were two months ago, but the Green Bay Packers are a fumble (against St. Louis) and an interception (against Buffalo) away from a five-game winning streak. (Edit: Here we go again) However, as enjoyable as it has been to sit back and watch a young team grow up a little bit more each game, there is another weekly occurrence that is growing very old. That would be first-year coach Mike McCarthy and his first-year defensive coordinator, Bob Sanders, trying to explain away still another costly miscommunication in the Packers' pass coverage. In each of the last two games, the Packers have blown a coverage and given up a touchdown pass in which there wasn't a defender in the same area code as the receiver. Buffalo's Lee Evans caught a 43-yard TD pass when Charles Woodson, playing safety in a pinch, was supposed to cover the deep zone but never got the message when the call was changed prior to the snap. In Sunday's Packers win, Minnesota's Billy McMullen caught a 40-yard touchdown pass after a linebacker, presumably A.J. Hawk, didn't cover his receiver and safety Nick Collins, whose No. 1 priority was to stay in the deep zone, moved forward to cover Hawk's man. Those carbon-copy touchdowns would be easier to pass off if they were infrequent occurrences. Unfortunately, they rekindled memories of earlier games in which statisticians needed a calculator to keep track of the long pass plays given up by the Packers defense.
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Video Highlights of Packers versus Vikings (5:42)