It will be very interesting to see how well Arizona can “turn it on” after getting spanked so bad on Sunday. Obviously, they were holding back and did not give it their best effort. Even so, Arizona was incredibly ineffective.

A major key to the game will be Arizona’s running game. I know that they have had some success throughout the year and if they can run the ball on Sunday vs. the Packers, it will open up all their passing and allow them to score at ease. However, the biggest strength that the Packers have right now is their ability to defend the run.

I expect Warner and the beast monster Fitzgerald to have much better games and score some points. And that goes for the Packers as well because their offense is rolling along quite nicely. I think that the winner of this game is going to have to score into the 30s in order to get it done.

Warner should come out sharp and get rid of the ball quickly like he always does. That means that it will be hard to get pressure on him and get sacks. I also expect the Cardinals to take shots down the field, especially to Fitzgerald, who is really good at making plays on the ball. Deep balls have been the one achilles heel of the Packers’ defense this season and I assume it will be a major part of the game plan for Arizona. The Packers defense is so good at everything else that I expect them to go deep in order to loosen up the defense for running and short to intermediate passing.

Rodgers will also have to be prepared to get rid of the ball quickly on Sunday. I am certain that Arizona will be crafting up ways to put a lot of pressure on Rodgers. GB gave up a whopping 50 sacks this year and it is no secret whatsoever that it is the weakness of the offense.

However, the Packer offense is starting to gel. Jermichael Finley is proving himself to be almost uncoverable and continues to make big catches on third downs and in goalline situations. ARod also distributes the ball very evenly amongst the rest of the receiving core Jennings, Driver, Nelson, and Jones. It is rare that you see a huge game out of any individual. Which is good because it keeps the defense off balance.

And what have we begun to see out of Brandon Jackson lately? I have never been a big fan of BJ’s running, but he has been doing some excellent work on the screen passes lately. He is patient and sets up his blockers nicely. If the Packers can get that screen pass working like the glory days and Edgar Bennett, then we will have a very good offense.

So the two biggest keys to the game are Arizona’s ability to run the ball and the pass protection of Aaron Rodgers. And it goes without saying that penalties and turnovers will have a large impact on the game. Anyway, I think that those two matchups (AZ’s running game and GB’s pass protection) will end up determining the turnover battle anyway.

So what is my prediction? I am going to have to go with the home team, but I think it will be very competitive. I am going to pick the Packers, with a final score of ohh 38-28…yeah that sounds like a good guess.

I am taking a temporary break from my Packer blogging because they are performing so horribly at this time. Rodgers: GET RID OF THE FRICKIN BALL! Your QB rating is not that important.

Ted Thompson: Fire McCarthy.

Harlan: Fire Thompson if he does not immediately fire McCarthy in the offseason.

McCarthy sucks and John Gruden is available. The time to act is now!!

The Browns are an extremely bad team this season and this is another must win game for the Green Bay Packers. It is a must win because it is an easy game and the Packers are not good enough to overcome a loss to a bad team. The Packers will win this game by the score of 20-13.

I am confident that the Packers will be able to take care of business because their defense is in tact with Bigby back in the lineup. Now that the defense can call a wide variety of blitz schemes, they are going to be a more effective and unpredictable unit.

And Cleveland’s offense has been anemic this year. I do not have their statistics in front of me, but they have to be close to the bottom in the league in most areas, especially passing. I know that Quinn and Anderson have both looked horrific.

Anyway, I predict that our offense will look like crap yet again, but the defense will provide them with enough field position to put up enough points to win the game. And then they will be on to face the Vikings in the following week.

Needless to say, I am not the biggest fan of coach McCarthy. The Packers have become one of the most consistently sloppy teams in the NFL. They have tons of penalties and dropped passes that kill drive after drive. They cannot pick up blitzes or run block at all. Not to mention all the sacks that Rodgers has been taking. These kind of mistakes are a direct result of execution and very reflective of the head coach.

Earlier in the season I dismissed these troublesome trends as something that could be cleaned up if enough focused attention was paid to them. However, they keep showing up week after week and I am getting sick of it. It is clear that McCarthy cannot correct these behaviors and that is unacceptable for a head coach in the NFL.

Real NFL caliber coaches do that, they are able to correct those types of mistakes and get their teams playing clean football. If there was ever a game that was set up for the Packers to win and win big, it was today against the Lions. The Lions are a really bad team to begin with and they have been decimated with injuries. They were only able to start the game with 5 defensive linemen.

And yet, the Packers really did not look good. It is not going to get any easier than that and I am not very optimistic about the rest of the season. The Packers will likely win enough games against bad teams to be in playoff contention, but they will not win any of the big ones. They have far too many gaping holes to do that.

Another thing to consider is that there are some good coaches out there right now like John Gruden who has Green Bay roots. I would trade McCarthy for Gruden in a heartbeat. Gruden can actually speak intelligently in a press conference and is a great leader that can actually control a team.

McCarthy has also show some seriously questionable decision making. There was one play that he challenged in Minnesota that was simply a horrible play to challenge. Too often he exhibits emotional decision making rather than logical decision making. He is not really that smart in my opinion.

I do not have a list of coaches that may be available, but I can guarantee you that there are more than a few that would love to be the coach of the Green Bay Packers. I would actaully like to see them go after someone off the Patriots staff. I know that is the trendy thing to do, but those coaches out there bring a true winning atmosphere to a team. And, they are great at scheming and winning key matchups.

The bottom line is that I do not have faith in McCarthy. He is a second rate coach and I do not think he is capable if winning us a superbowl. And that is really what we are trying to do here. So the sooner we can move on, the better.

Although the Packers seemingly won a blow-out shut-out win today, I was really disappointed in the way that they played. It was the same stuff that has plagued us all year. I it is like watching a broken record. Although it was a win in a must win situation, I do not have much hope that the Packers will show a lot of improvement as the season goes on. The Packers had numerous penalties, sacks, and turnovers that stopped many drives in our tracks. I still stand by the statement that it is going to be a long and disappointing season for the Packers.

The only thing that I found encouraging about the game was the return of Bigby. His presence made all the difference and the defense did look pretty good. However, I will not get too excited because they were playing the Lions. But with Bigby back they were able to be much more flexible with blitzing the corners and providing some much needed pressure.

Now onto the bad things. The offensive line still gave up five sacks to the Detroit Lions, four in the first half. This is so bad because the Lions only have five defensive linemen that can play! They actually had to bring in offensive linemen in goal line situations because they did not have enough actual defensive linemen to play. Which means that they had no rotation and they were still able to bring a lot of pressure.

To make matters worse, Clifton go hurt at the end of the game. Yeah! Now we are going to likely be mincemeat against Minnesota again in two weeks! Sweet, I cannot wait for that. Speaking of which, are they not the luckiest team ever this year.

Back to the sacks. A couple of those sacks today were Aaron Rodgers fault. He has shown some improvement getting rid of the ball but he still needs to work on that. He needs to get it out quickly, and if there is nothing available, then throw it away. Rodgers does not like to throw it away and he really needs to get better at it.

The running game was also pretty crappy. Remember that they were going against that decimated defensive line and they only began to run the ball at the very end of the game. This is really going to hurt us as the season progresses. We will need to run the ball in the cold weather and I do not think we will be able to get it done.

But what is the biggest problem of all? I have begun to have a negative opinion of coach McCarthy. He cannot clean up the mistakes and get the Packers playing clean football. I was not very sure about him one way or the other, but this year I have definitely begun to think we need to get rid of him. It all starts with the coach and McCarthy has pretty much proven that he cannot do it.

I am basing this prediction solely upon the healthy return of Clifton and Bigby. The Packers have had an entire week off to heal themselves and The Lions are a much improved team over a year ago. This new coach really in Detroit has really changed things in Detroit and I think they will be a much better team than they were last year even though they have only won one game so far this year. The Packers on the other hand should be fully rested and have plenty to prove after the disaster up in Minnesota.

The Lions are still headed for a top ten draft selection. Do not misinterpret what I saying. However, from what I have seen, this new coach has the Lions playing much better. Their turnovers and penalties are both down this year and I do not think that they will be as easy to beat this year. That said, the Lions injury report is as full of starters as the Packers. So they are not quite at full strength.

The Packers on the other hand are returning Clifton and Bigby, two starters that they have sorely missed in the previous games. The blocking has been horrible since Clifton was hurt. Barbre will still be starting at right tackle, so he will still be letting speed rushers sack the crap out of Rodgers. But that will only give Rodgers one side to worry about.

The Packers secondary gave up numerous big plays to Minnesota down field. It seems that most of them were blown coverages by the safety position that Bigby vacated with an injury in week one. Although Bigby is far from perfect himself, his presence is desperately needed in our unbelievably thin secondary. I am still wishing that we had not cut Anthony Smith.

So what is my prediction for the game? I predict that the Packers will win by the score of 31-17. Our offense will get in rhythm and move the ball consistently. The Packers will get out to a big lead and Detroit will get a couple of late scores to bring the final within 14 points. Overall, it will be a good game for the Packers to get back on track.

While it is undeniable that the Packers have some talent, it is also undeniable that they have some real problems. And they are problems that will show up the most in big games. Games like the one last Monday night in Minnesota. In that game, Rodgers got battered and bruised and was sacked 8 times. Anyone who knows football, knows that you are not going to get anywhere without a decent offensive line. It also became obvious that there is serious problems in the secondary, which is also something that will get exploited in big games.

The lack of protection was astonishing against the Vikings. I know that Jared Allen is really good, but he is not THAT good. The Packers have made the opposing team’s defensive ends look like some of the greatest pass rushers of all time in every single game this season. It is really pathetic.

And Rodgers has already been sacked 20 times this year. If we keep allowing sacks at this pace, Rodgers will probably not even be able to finish the season. I seriously doubt that any QB will be able to withstand 80 sacks over the course of a season and remain uninjured.

And on the defensive side of the ball, it seems that they cannot do more than one thing at once. In the first three games they could not stop the
run. In the Minnesota game they stuffed up Adrien Peterson really well, but
Favre picked them apart for huge plays downfield.

This is mainly because they had to commit so many people to stopping the
run that it left a lot of one-on-one matchups. There was also a lot of blown
coverages as well. It seems that the safeties that are replacing Bigby do
not know what the heck is going on.

But we are not doomed just yet. There is still a chance that we may not
be destined to a long and painful season. How? Well, it basically will depend on injuries. Clifton will have to come back from his injuries and play well for the rest of the year. Bigby will have to do the same, and Tauscher will have
to come back and reclaim the starting tackle position. If those three things
can happen, then the Packers may be looking at a Wild Card spot.

The Green Bay Packers lost the week 4 match-up against Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. I can only be so happy about the game, but there are still numerous things that I was pleased to see. First of all, they actually were able to stop a running back. Second, Jeremichael Finley actually showed some of his impressive skills and that some of his potential may be realized. Third, Aaron Rodgers looked unbelievable and proved that he can play well in the big games.

The Packers pretty much kept Adrien Peterson under wraps and did not allow one big run. This was a little surprising considering how the Packers had struggled to stop the run in the first three games of the season. Not to mention that Adrien Peterson is the best running back since Barry Sanders. They held Peterson to less than 100 yards and it took most of their defensive players to do it.

Stopping the run was undoubtedly their primary defensive objective as they were constantly swarming the ball and gang tackling. This strategy did create some big opportunities for Favre and the passing game. With all the attention on Peterson, Favre found a lot of favorable match-ups and wide open receivers down the field for big plays. The lack of depth at safety also contributed to this problem as there was frequent breakdowns in coverage. Even though there was still a lot of defensive problems, it was nice to see that we could at least take one step towards improvement. Now we just need to be able to stop the run and stop the pass. And I doubt we will be able to do that without Bigby back in the lineup.

It was also great to see Jeremichael Finley showing that he is on his way to achieving his potential. He is tall, fast, has good hands, and has been said to have a bit of a mean streak. All the talents to be one heck of a weapon. Keep it up!!

What was the biggest upside in the game though? It was undoubtedly the play of Aaron Rodgers while under constant pressure in a big game. It was one of the worst performances that I have ever seen by an offensive line in the NFL. It was simply disgusting to watch. Yet Aaron Rodgers remained cool and played so well. If anyone is doubting his skills and potential at this point, then they are completely stupid. Plain and simple. Thompson needs to do whatever he can to get some tackles this offseason. Period.

I was not even going to make another article this week, but I got especially agitated as I watched Brett in all the pre-game interviews. He always brings up how we or Ted “moved on.” I wish that I could slap Brett directly on his face and scream “Listen numnuts! You are the one that moved on when you got up on the podium and cried like a little girl and retired!” He moved on first. Then Ted and the rest of the organization moved on. Because Brett left them no choice.

That is a total bunch of b/s that he sits up there and acts like the Packers mistreated him because they did not want to put up with his damn crap anymore. I want to be clear about this. I absolutely 100% agree with how Thompson handled the situation. At the time, before I had the chance to see Rodgers in action, I initially wanted Favre just because I knew what he could do. I did not know what Rodgers could do.

But now that I have seen A-Rod play a bunch of football, there is no doubt in my mind that Teddy made the right call. Ted should have done what he did after Brett forced everyone to move on. Rodgers is up and coming. Just wait and see what happens if Thompson can ever assemble an offensive line in front of Rodgers.

And yes Brett it is you that moved on. You retired. You went back on your word. You lied. You have very little integrity. You have no respect for us Packer fans. If you did you would never suit up in purple because of some GM that you were trying to take advantage of. Thompson was only there for the last 3 years that you were there. What is the big deal?

The bottom line is that you leaving Green Bay is your own fault, and it was all your decision. You need to start acting like a real man and accept the consequences of your own decisions. That is what men do. Stop acting like a spoiled 14 year old that thinks she should get everything she wants.

The world does not revolve around you and your whims. Deal with it.

Had I wrote this after the Arizona preseason game, it would have been very easy for me to choose the Packers in this game.  The Packers looked like invincible world beaters.  My how things change so quickly.  It is now the Vikings that appear to be the team to beat in the NFC while the Packers are a couple of tackles short of being that team.

One of the most critical points to focus on in this game is the Packers run defense.  It has not been good this year, especially in the last two weeks.  Stephen Jackson was able to start every single St. Louis drive with a decent run and ended up with over 100 yards on the day.  It did not really matter because the rest of the Rams team is so pathetic, but it still exposes the run defense as a weakness.  And I will not even get into how badly Cedric Benson tore us up the week before.

Part of this is the new defense.  The Packers have succeeded in using the new scheme to put a lot of pressure on opposing teams quarterbacks.  However, we have not fully figured out the run yet.  The biggest problems have come when the opposing teams just line up and slam that running back up the middle.  There seems to be a lot of running room once they break through the initial line.  BJ Raji has to have an impact either.  I look for our talented rookie to start making more plays once he can actually figure out what the heck he is supposed to be doing out there.  He looks a little lost right now.

The Packers inability to stop the run huge considering the Vikings ability to run the ball with authority.  Adrien Peterson could have a monster day.  That could really be the kiss of death in that game.  Then play action for Favre will work well and it could get ugly.  If they run the score up early, the Packers will be forced to pass and the best d-line in the league can just tee off on Rodgers.  I do not even want to think about it.

Also, I do not think the Packers have a prayer and blocking the Vikings defensive linemen.  The Vikes should be able to get consistent pressure on Rodgers while only rushing four.  Which means the rest can drop into coverage and shut us down.  The Vikings have great linemen on both sides of the ball.  Which means that it does not really matter that they have receivers  that should be in the arena league.

What is my actual prediction for the game?  I predict that the Vikings will pretty much destroy Rodgers and the Packers and end up winning by the score: Vikings 38 Packers 20.  And the Packers will only score 20 with a couple of second half garbage TDs.  For the reasons stated above, I just do not see how the Packers could win that game.  Especially since Rodgers like to hang on to the ball so long.  I am just praying that Rodgers can survive the game.  Or else it is going to be a really long season.