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.

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.

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.

Getty Images

A New Beginning

The Rodgers Era Begins

Replacing a Legend

Whatever cliche you want to use to headline the first start of Aaron Rodgers career, and the first start by any QB not named Favre since 1910, works for us, but the bottom line is…it’s on.

Whether it’s Lynn Dickey, Don Majkowski, or Aaron Rodgers, the opponent and the emotion remains the same and seldom if ever has the rivalry with the Minnesota VIkings been this hot.  After an offseason of mud throwing back and forth over state lines, the two will meet on Monday Night Football in front of the nation to deliver the first punch of the 2008-2009 season.

Minnesota has been doing it’s usual trash talking.  The Williams brothers and Jerrod Allen have been yapping like dogs at a mailman already about destroying Mr. Rodgers neighborhood.  Like last year the Packers haven’t fallen for the bait and remain silent, quietly filling their the locker room bulletin board.  Both teams enter this game beaten up and with quite a bit of uncertainty.  Unproven QBs, banged up secondaries, and pressure abound, this is one game that no one should bet on.  The Packers are favored by 2.5 (how do you score half a point again), but perhaps never in either franchises history has there been this many questions going into the opener.

Packer Addict will be at the game and will provide reaction tomorrow once we wake up from a night of excess beer drinking, hopefully celebrating Packer glory.