Aaron Rodgers, Donald Driver, Bob Sanders (yes, Bob Sanders)
Charlie Peprah, Brady Poppinga, Jason Spitz
	Jarrett Bush

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• Packers:27 Broncos:24

Join us at the Packer Fan Forum during the game.

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• Live Chat during the Game

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.
From a question about Nick Barnett for Winston Moss on Greg Bedard’s ‘Mondays With Mikey’s Men’ feature over at JSOnline, where Bedard lets ordinary schleps like you and me posit questions to the assistant coaches:

You’re OK with how Nick is playing?

Moss: Versus his opportunities, he’s making the plays versus his opportunities.

Do you need to free him up, get him more opportunities?

Moss: You’re asking the wrong guy.

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• Top 5 Seattle Game Thoughts

Clearly, Bill Parcells is keeping tabs on the Packer’s practice squad.

Tracy White, who was cut late yesterday afternoon to make room for the elevation of rookie linebacker Danny Lansanah, tells Bob McGinn that the Dolphins had planned on singing Lansanah to their 53 man roster. It would have marked the second poaching of a Packer practice squad player by the Dolphins in less than a month, with Miami having signed tight end Joey Haynos a few weeks ago. It’s interesting that Parcells is zeroed in on these young players while he builds his squad in Miami. It makes you wish guys like Jarrett Bush had never been on the roster in the first place to make room for one of these guys.

And now we’ve lost White. I understand why he’s the one to get the ax and not Bush - the Packers are down to their fourth safety and Bush took snaps there throughout the offseason and training camp. They need the body there. But losing White hurts, and what hurts even worse is the intimation by White that the Vikings are interested in signing him. I bet they are, especially after having Reggie Bush make their coverage units look like little boys on national television. White would immediately improve their coverage units.

That said, White was a disaster from scrimmage, the play where he let Tampa Bay tight end Alex Smith free on a naked bootleg just one of many instances where he was less than up to the task. Going back and quickly watching some preseason action, Lansanah looks competent, if not special. If nothing else, he’ll bring speed and athleticism to a linebacking corps that has been missing both so far this season.

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• A Note About Abdul Hodge

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/falcons-27-packers-24

Aaron Rodgers

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/in-praise-of-aaron-rodgers

Fire Bob Sanders

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/the-packers-need-to-hire-jim-bates

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/mccarthys-shoop-phase-continues

This Week In the Packer Blogosphere

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/live-chat-tonight-new-feature

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• Working Where I Do…

At the end of January, I wrote the following:

This is the start. The start of McCarthy’s very own “Shoop Phase”. What’s that you ask? A “Shoop Phase” is where a head coach refuses to recognize the deficiencies of one of the coordinators on his staff, how that coordinator is holding the team back, and how that coordinator really just isn’t very good.  Named (by yours truly) for the one-time offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears, John Shoop was widely regarded as terrible by everyone in and out of football, save for Bears head coach Dick Jauron. After years of refusing to replace Shoop, Jauron was fired by Jerry Angelo, making way for the hiring of Lovie Smith.

Now, I’m not saying McCarthy is going to get fired any time soon. I am saying his team will continue to disappoint on the defensive side of the ball because of his faith in Bob Sanders. The only way this team wins a championship with Sanders as its defensive coordinator is if the defensive line goes 8 quality guys deep for the whole season. No injuries period. Because otherwise, you’ll always get what we got this year - a great pass rush from the front four the first half of the season that fades away in December and January due to worn down personnel.

McCarthy from today’s presser:

I thought Bob was aggressive with the number of five-man pressures, man free, that we had called in the game. We didn’t do a very good job pressuring the quarterback, we didn’t do a very good job of pressuring their receivers. We play bump-and-run. The receivers don’t run off the line against our coverage unit. That wasn’t the case a lot of times yesterday. Pressure was not what it needed to be from our defense yesterday.

…when you look at who’s making the mistakes, the experience level of the players. I’m talking about we had a number of young players on our defense yesterday who had an opportunity and didn’t take advantage of it, and that’s the facts. I thought some of our veteran players played solid, and we didn’t get production that we needed throughout the whole defense. It was a poor performance from our defense. That was very evident. They know it, and we’ll correct it and move on. But we had some young guys with an opportunity yesterday that really didn’t take advantage of it.

Is it really McCarthy’s contention that the play of his young secondary is at fault for the defense’s inability to pressure Matt Ryan yesterday? Because that’s absurd. The young guys need to bump off the line and cover their receivers, that is true. But the defensive coordinator should bear the ultimate responsibility for his squads deficiencies, should he not? And it should be his job to notice that along with the young corners and safeties not bumping properly at the line, variations on the same linebacker blitz over and over are not getting it done. Tramon Williams and Will Blackmon have exceptional speed and could be dangerous weapons in a great pressure package if only Sanders had the creativity to draw it up.

But no - McCarthy is content to make excuses for his very own ‘John Shoop’.

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• Look For Mike To Spread ‘Em Out

Aaron Rodgers, Donald Driver, Tramon Williams
Bob Sanders, Will Blackmon, Michael Montgomery
	Derrick Frost

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• Bengals: 20 Packers: 17

It’s true you need to wait three full seasons before you can truly judge a draft class. But it’s also true that in today’s NFL, teams need at least one or two of their rookies to provide instant production. The Packers had several players provide help at one point or another last season. From Brandon Jackson to James Jones to Korey Hall and Aaron Rouse (not to mention Mason Crosby) the Packers seemingly had talent popping up everywhere.

This years rookie class has yet to make any impact outside of Jordy Nelson’s touchdown in Detroit and his nine catches for over a hundred yards on the season. (And unfortunately, several of those came in garbage time against Dallas) The Packers, if they are to right the ship after two sub-par performances and after a slew of injuries have left the team’s available talent depleted, have several unknowns from the draft class of 2008 that should be given a chance from scrimmage from here on out.

To begin with, Patrick Lee can build upon his solid showing against Tampa. Lee was targeted once or twice by Brian Griese and more than held his own. Even more encouragingly, Lee did not seem overwhelmed when Sanders called for a rare zone coverage, keeping perfect spacing on his side of the field in what looked like a Cover 2 shell during one fourth quarter play. With Al Harris out for at least a month, and Jarrett Bush less than reliable (to put it charitably) Lee has a chance to show the coaches he can be trusted in more than just the dime package.

Secondly, Jermichael Finley should start making a contribution on offense. The Packers took him in the third round knowing full well it would take time for the 21 year old to mature into a productive role, perhaps even several years. Well, how about several games? The Buccaneers played a lot more Cover 2 than anyone expected them to and it played havoc with the Packers short passing game. Finley’s athleticism and soft hands would be the perfect counter to what will no doubt be a prevailing defense employed to stop the Packers offense. (A defense that is used on the majority of snaps by all three of the Packers NFC North foes)

Also, it’s about time for Jeremy Thompson to show what he can do. Admit it, you forgot all about Thompson, who has yet to be active for a game. With the team in dire need of some quality snaps at the defensive end position, it would be a revelation if the Packers found even modest production from this fourth round pick who by all accounts has the tools necessary but has yet to ‘put it all together’. This would be a good week for him to start doing just that.

Finally, there’s Matt Flynn, who can show everyone exactly why he was chosen to be Aaron Rodgers’ backup over Brian Brohm if he is called upon this weekend. I know a lot of people have the Packers down for a ‘L’ if Flynn takes the field. But let’s at least see him take the opening snap before we deem him a failure.

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• A Word About the Draft