By Kyle Reilly

photo/AP

Everything started according to plan.  A beautiful pass from Aaron Rodgers to Greg Jennings, who juked his way into the endzone on the Packers first possession.  Then the defense forced a 3 and out.  Things seemed to be looking up.  And then, well, then it was melt down time.

Brandon Jackson bobbled a catchable pass into the waiting arms of the Bucs defense giving Rodgers his first INT.  After that the offense just plain stalled.  There was no running game, blitzes were not picked up and were savaging Rodgers, who was clearly rattled.

At the same time the defense decided it would most definitely not stop the run, and in the rare cases when they did force Tampa into third and long situations they would simply bail them out with costly penalties.

In the second half the Packers stood up again, but not for long.  For the crucial series of the game, Rodgers was unavailable due to injury.  It appeared Rodgers injured his shoulder diving for a first down.  The injury could be serious.  Matt Fynn stood little chance in his first game action, promptly orchestrating a 3 and out.

With 2:32 on the clock, the ball at the 40 and two timeouts the Packers looked like they had a pulse down by only two.  Rodgers made a brave attempt by coming back into the huddle.  Unfortunately what could have been an amazing comeback story, instead turned into disaster as a free blitzer destroyed Rodgers on the blindside as he threw, forcing a gut wrenching interception.

On a day when Favre threw for 6 TDs, this is certainly ammunition for those that are upset with the Packers for the offseason trade of #4.  In our opinion, the situation played out as well as it could have this summer under the circumstances.  Whatever your opinion is, if Rodger’s season is over due to injury, it will be the most devastating blow to the Franchise in over 20 years.

The Green Bay Packers travelled to Raymond James Stadium and beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-10. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers put together back to back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter to put the game away. A 2-yard pass to Greg Jennings broke the tie and Packers didn’t look back.

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Photo/Mark Hoffman

In a stunning turn of events, Al Harris may be lost for the season.

After leaving the game Sunday night Harris had some of the symptoms of a ruptured spleen, including blood in his urine, following a collision with teammate A.J. Hawk.  Harris is seeking a second opinion today and until all of the teams physicians are satisfied with a correct diagnosis, the Packers are mum.  Tramon Williams would take over for Harris.  Williams is finally having the fine season the Packers have been looking for and may provide a decent fill in, but the situation creates a nightmarish lack of depth in the nickel and dime formations.

By Kyle Reilly

AP Photo/Mike Roemer

“The reality is that it’s the third game of the season,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “It was a big game. It’s a great measuring stick for our football team. And I’ll tell [the media] exactly what I told them. The Dallas Cowboys are further ahead than we are right now. That’s the facts and that’s Week Three. How far ahead, time will answer that question.”

With that Coach McCarthy pretty much summed it up perfectly.  The Cowboys looked like the NFC contenders and the Packers looked filled with potential, but not as good a football team.  Talent-wise the Packers have what looks to be every bit as good a team as Dallas, but Sunday night the Cowboys executed plays and the Packers executed themselves.  Problems abound; the defense was gashed for 217 yards rushing, heartbreaking 3rd down and long coverage lapses allowed the Cowboys to retain the ball, and Rodgers was sacked 5 times as the O-line struggled to stop the rush.  Complicating the matter was Al Harris leaving the game, with Atari Bigby already inactive the young corners did well, but not well enough.  Although the corners limited T.O. to just two catches for 17 yards, something called Miles Austin did the sticking with two clutch catches for 115 yards.

Rodgers had a respectable game.  He hit Jennings 8 times for 115 yards.  For the third straight game he didn’t have an INT, but trailing by three scores later in the game the Packers became one dimensional and Rodgers struggled against 6 defensive backs on most plays.

“It’s disappointing,” Rodgers said. “You’d like to win them all, obviously, but Dallas is a very good football team and we unfortunately didn’t play our best. We’re going to have to watch some film, be very critical of ourselves and get better.”

So we are not the greatest team as of yet, and perhaps our young and talented team needs a beat down like this.  Post-season berths are not automatic and no one cares what you did last year.  Mistake free football should be the goal of the next several weeks as that is what it will take should the Packers be lucky enough to play Dallas again.

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Computers think they’re so smart don’t they?

Well this week Madden predicts the Cowboys coming in to Lambeau and pulling off the win.  Despite a strong start in the first half, Rodgers two touchdowns put the Pack up 14-0, Dallas rallied back.  With 1:20 left in the fourth quarter Romo threw his second touchdown on the day hitting, who else, T.O. for the game winner.

Oh yeah madden, well us humans win the future war.  (See Terminator 2)

By Kyle Reilly

After an offseason of hearing about how great the Vikings would be and how successful the Vikings young QB Tarvaris Jackson would be, Coach Brad Childress announced today that Jackson will be benched in favor of veteran QB Gus Frerotte for the remainder of the season.  So far this season the 0-2 Vikings have been completely incapable in the passing game.  Last week against the Colts the Vikings possessed the ball inside the Colts 50 yard line 8 times.  Of those they settled for 3 punts and 5 field goals in a last second loss to the Colts; failing to reach the end zone at all.

Frerotte may be able to pass better than Jackson, but he is anything but mobile.  It remains to be seen what the move will do for the Vikings, but whatever it is they will start in a two game hole.  Perhaps that explains the sense of urgency in the Vikings coaching staff.  They say they are not in panic ode yet, but their actions would contradict that statement in our opinion.  This is Childress’ McNabb, his guy he hand picked.  Jackson was supposed to be the future of the Brad Childress era and the final cog needed to complete a championship caliber NFL team.  Now the future rests in the hands of a 37 year old career back-up.  

This ought to be interesting one way or another.

By Kyle Reilly

Photo/Benny Sieu

“I think the summer only made our character stronger,” Rodgers said.

And some are beginning to argue the events and choices of the summer made the team’s ability to win stronger.  It was obviously going to happen, the year long comparisons of Rodgers and Favre.  Who would falter first?  Even though Favre is on the vastly inferior team and was playing a superior opponent, Rodgers’ impressive showing against the Lions was enough for many of the nationwide football pundits to proclaim the Packers the winners of the Favre trade situation.  Although it is only the second week of the season, today’s events certainly made the Packer’s brass smile and left no doubt that this is Aaron Rodgers’ team now.

He was poised as hell today, just as he was on Monday against the Vikings.  He was mistake free, just as he was on Monday.  Most importantly he was a winner today, just like Monday.

In his post game press conference it was very apparent Rodgers has completely accepted the role of being the leader of the Pack.  On the field the same can be said.  Down in the fourth quarter Rodgers took the ball down the field brilliantly, the outcome never in doubt.  He was 6 for 7 on third down passing on the day and all three of his touchdowns came on third down.  These are the crucial stats in judging quarterback effectiveness and he has an A+ this season, compiling a stunning 118.5 QB rating along the way in his first two games.

Last week was about Rodgers taking the field and introducing himself to the team, the fans, and the country.  Today was about Rodgers introducing himself to defensive coordinators around the league, beautifully illustrating why they should spend some time game planning against him.  So far, the Packers look like a top team in the NFL with Rodgers at the helm.  Mr. T (Thompson) seems to have assembled quite the A-team yet again.

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Once again we turn to what is the most incredible forecasting software available, Madden 2009, to predict Sunday’s tilt with the Lions.

If possible I would suggest the game has been using crack.  Despite Aaron Rodgers 303 passing yards and 3 touchdowns, the Lions recovered an onside kick and took the ball down the field for the winning TD.

Lions 34 Packers 27

Oh the horror!

(OK, a quick edit here now that it’s Monday morning.  In retrospect it’s kind of remarkable how close this simulation was.)

“He played extremely well,” Favre said about Rodgers. “He played well under a lot of pressure, but I’m not surprised by it. . . . He’s got tremendous talent. He watched and learned from me, and that’s good and bad.”

Steve Mariucci interviewed Favre for NFL network, an interview that will air on Sunday for those lucky enough to either have Direct TV or a cable company sane enough to carry that channel.

The San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith suffered a season ending injury when he broke his shoulder Sunday.  This was the same shoulder that was injured last season as well.  Many are now speculating that Smith’s career with the 49ers may be over, perhaps his career period.

"Well, this sucks!"

Let’s all remember draft day in 2005.  Mel Kiper was projecting a certain Aaron Rodgers going number one overall to the 49ers, the same 49ers who had a certain Mike McCarthy as it’s offensive coordinator.  It was reported that McCarthy was in favor of Rodgers over Smith, but the organization went in a different direction.

Flash forward to the present and McCarthy got his wish.  Ultimately we still don’t know how things will play out, but as of right now it appears the Packers benefitted greatly from the 49ers error in judgement.