Charles Woodson has a fractured toe. Apparently, he still plans to play on Sunday. We went through this last year with Woodson, who had toe problems the second half of the season (he only missed one game because of it) but his play dropped off noticeably from the beginning of the season.

Not what you want to have happen to your best corner when you’re about to play at the injury-house known as Ford Field.

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• Woodson Waived Off Bush

I’d like to take a quick break from pointing out all the things the Packers need to work on and single out Charles Woodson’s inspired play from Saturday night. Not just his interception, which was freelancing at its finest, but his very presence on the field. He and Harris completely shut down the receivers for the 49ers, and it was no coincidence that when Woodson and Harris left the line up, the 49ers had exactly zero points.

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• Woodson Waived Off Bush

I am an Al Harris fan. Always have been. But the time has come for Bob Sanders to put Charles Woodson on the opposing teams best wide receiver.

Writing in today’s Green Bay Press Gazette, Pete Dougherty quotes Ted Thompson regarding Harris and his performance against Plaxico Burress in the NFC Championship Game:

I thought that was a day where one guy had a heck of a game, but I don’t think it was necessarily an indication that Al’s skills have diminished…A lot of those plays were bang-bang, and the other guy made some plays. We’re not overly concerned about that.

What Thompson fails to mention is that Harris’ failure against Burress was more a mental breakdown than a physical one. Just as he did against Terrell Owens the month prior, Harris allowed the player across from him to dictate his emotions and get him out of his game. Time and again you can see Harris and Burress jawing back and forth both before and after plays. The same thing happened against Terrell Owens. Harris simply gets so jacked up for these big-time matchups that he seems incapable of keeping his cool, and against these elite talents, it costs him. Big time.

So Sanders should matchup the much more levelheaded Charles Woodson on the oppositions’ number one wide receiver. Woodson’s cover skills are just as good, if not better, and he has shown an uncanny ability to bounce back after a bad play and, for whatever reason, a better temperament for dealing with the baiting and the trash talking that the best number one wide outs all seem to engage in.

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• Woodson and Harris Get Their Wish

They need a guard. And a defensive end. Not to mention a tight end and a linebacker. But the Green Bay Packers need nothing more than a infusion on talent at the position of cornerback. Not safety, cornerback.

Take a look at this excellent research compiled by the guys over at Footballoutsiders. (For an explanation of their methods and mission, and how their numbers are much more useful than mostly meaningless conventional statistics, please read here.) They break down not just team defensive ranking as a whole, but also how each defense fared in 2007 against different offensive positions. (#1, #2 and ‘Other’ WRs, TE’s RB’s, ect.) As you all know, I’m by no means a stat geek, but I found the positional breakdown very telling. I’ve had more than a few small arguments with my co-host of Packer Translplants regarding the dismal play of our #3 CB over the course of the year. Corey seemed to echo McCarthy’s argument that, when your #1 and #2 corners are as good as Harris and Woodson, of course the opposing team is going to go after the #3. And that might well explain SOME of the following but not all - Only one team in the entire NFL was worse against #3 and #4 wide recievers than the Green Bay Packers. (The Vikings were the worst). Now, as I said, some of that is due to the fact that the Packers #1 and #2 are so good. (Though thank goodness the chart only takes the regular season into account. Goodness knows how much Green Bay may have dropped against #1’s if they had included Harris’ playoff run-in with Plaxico Burress…) But a lot of it has to do with some pretty poor play from both Jarrett Bush (who I think is sub-standard at best) and Tramon Williams (who I think gives great effort but just doesn’t have the tools necessary to be a good cover guy).

With both Harris and Woodson getting up in years, and nothing in reserve behind them, it would seem obvious that Thompson needs to be proactive both in the draft and in free agency to stockpile more talent in the defensive backfield. Perhaps Will Blackmon could provide some help, but until he proves he can stay healthy for more than the opening kickoff, the team simply can’t count on any realistic contribution there.

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• Understanding Ted

All week I’ll be bringing you, our faithful readers, various keys to the game in no discernible order. Here’s the first one:

Charles Woodson vs. Amani Toomer

Eli Manning has been nothing short of rock solid so far in the playoffs. A big reason for that is his ability to find Amani Toomer on his second and even third read. Watching the games against the Buccaneers and the Cowboys, you can see time and again he comes off his first read rather quickly (usually Burress) and moves his eyes to find Toomer. Whether this is by design (which I doubt) or Manning trusting Toomer the most out of all his receivers (which I find more likely) he has been able to make plays both big and small with Toomer on the receiving end.

In the playoffs, this has happened due mainly to one thing -  the opposing teams have had their best corner on Burress for the duration of the game. With his injures lingering, Burress has been at less than full strength against the likes of Terrence Newman and Ronde Barber (yes, the Bucs played mostly zone, but they usually had Barber on Burress’ side) meaning Toomer has been seeing the likes of Phillip Buchanon and Jaques Reeves. That will be worlds apart from facing Charles Woodson, who is on another planet compared to those stiffs.

Now, real football is not Madden. You don’t just lock one-on-one corner-on-receiver and never worry about it again.  No doubt, Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride will be working on all sorts of ways to move Toomer and Burress away from the perimeter (and the Packers’ corners) and move them into the slots (and the Packers’ safeties). But for the majority of the contest, you’ll see Burress vs. Harris and Toomer vs. Woodson, and if his first two playoff games are any indication, Manning will be looking for Toomer, but this time, more often than not, he won’t like what he sees.

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• Look For Martz To Come Out Gunning

With Charles Woodson on the bench, and Al Harris no doubt getting an early hook, look for Mike Martz to chuck the ball around the lot today. Word out of Detroit is that Martz is out a the end of the season, (sorry, no permalinks at PFT, you’ll need to scroll down) and he will no doubt want to put his offense scoring lots o’ points on tape for all those job interviews he’ll be having this spring. No doubt, he is salivating  at the thought of having Kitna pick apart the likes of Jarrett Bush, Will Blackmon and Frank Walker. Should be a good test for our second-tier defensive backs today.

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• Woodson Waived Off Bush

“To play him or not to play him?” That is the question.

Or is it, “Just how hurt is he?”

Or is it, “Why risk Woodson when he only has to cover an ailing Patrick Crayton? Surely Jarrett Bush and Tramon Williams can handle that…”

The mind swirls with possibilities, but one thing is clear: The question is about Charles Woodson.

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• Woodson To Stay At Safety

The Packers are 9 and 1. I am still in shock. My first Carolina game in Lambeau after 3 in a row being at Charlotte games. This is an amazing team to see live. I didn’t expect them to be this good and I know there is luck involved but you don’t get to be 9 & 1 in the NFL solely because you are lucky.

I know that some fans have already taken it for granted, and are looking ahead to Dallas but please stop.

We just beat an injury plagued team that has some of the best personnel in football. No they don’t have a quarterback- although Vinny looked good and the call on Barnett hitting Vinny out of bounds was the right one. (Dude - he’s 44 - come on). But they do have a really good Defensive line, a pretty killer O-line and a strong running game. They also really needed to win. We had them beat from the moment Tramon Williams ran a pooch punt for a TD. (Right in front of me- it was sooo sweet) There was never a question that we were completely in charge of that game.
So what, Vinny Testaverde has a good line and we rushed four in the second half and we let them try to beat Jarret Bush. He won some, they won some. So what Al Harris missed one play where he got beat. He DOMINATED. When you see him live, there is no doubt that when he wants to exert his will he will jam you and you will not get the ball. And on the off chance you have the potential to get the ball thrown to you while he is covering you, you had better throw the ball perfectly and be at the very best in the NFL at your game because you will not catch it otherwise.

Charles Woodson is usually the fastest man on the field. There is a lot of local chatter about Woodson still returning punts, and I agree about the risk reward (ie the punt return data isn’t adding up from a statistical point) but he is one of the biggest playmakers on this team. He is the closest thing we have had to a Leroy Butler type playmaker - game changing finisher since the man himself. He really is on the verge of breaking a punt return for a touchdown, I’m just still not convinced that it’s worth it. Especially when you see how ridiculously good of a cornerback he is.

You know what’s better than big five? Audible from 4 wide 1 RB to Big Five in transition. Carolina had no answer and they looked scared. They were very close to calling a timeout and for good reason. It has the potential to be the most dangerous formation/personnel grouping in the NFL. Show me a team that has the personnel to stop this when it’s greased and lubricated and has one of the greatest behind it. You wanna talk weapons..

On a side note..

The area where my Grandpa’s seats area, section 122 - has got to have some of the most boring non-packer knowing fans in Lambeau. There has got to be a rule. If you are not helping the team. Do NOT come to the game. Stay at home and watch it on television. So I gotta start this:

Corey Behnke’s Rules for being a good Packer fan:

1. Do Not discourage the people in front of you from standing up at any time and especially when the packers make a good play.

2. When the Packers are on Defense

1st & 2nd Down

At the VERY least, yell (or say) “D”, “Defense” or shout for 1 second something.

3rd Down

Do whatever you just did multiplied by at least 3.

4th Down

In the event of this potentially historic moment, you should not have vocal chords that operate properly when it’s over.

3. When the Packers are on Offense

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Down

Shut the hell up. I don’t want to hear your voice. as a matter of fact wouldn’t it be sweet if it was so quiet everyone could just hear Brett’s cadence?

Feel free to offer your opinion or “encouraging” words to the opposing team or our offensive line - but just do it between plays.

And to the gentleman behind us in Row 17:

Number 25 is Ryan Grant. He is the starting running back for the Green Bay Packers.

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