Blue, Red & Cow Chips In '10 Preseason Loss To Chiefs

Brett Swain looked good, Jason Chery fared poorly, but who else receives our weekly designations after the preseason game against the Chiefs?

Our weekly designations:

Blue Chips

  • Brett Swain: Swain's biggest contribution to the Green Bay Packers may be on special teams, but he showed on Thursday night that he's a pretty good wide receiver too. A favorite target of quarterback Matt Flynn, Swain had 6 catches for 130 yards including a 77-yard catch and run against the Chiefs. Flynn also looked for Swain in the endzone, but the pass fell incomplete. The wide receiver also showed some grit by shaking off obvious pain to come back into the game and perform at a high level.
  • Jarrett Bush: Bush had the best performance on the defensive side of the ball, and there isn't even another player in the discussion. His interception, while nice, wasn't even the most impressive part of his game. The interception was mostly the result of an errant throw. It was his two tackles for a loss coming against the run that deserve praise. And the break-up of a deep pass from Matt Cassell in the first quarter was a nice addition. With the exception of his two penalties on the defensive side of the ball this preseason, he's looked as good, if not better, in coverage as any of the reserve cornerbacks on the team.

Red Chips

  • Matt Flynn: He couldn't turn 307 yards passing into many points, but Flynn did an admirable job directing the Packers offense in the absence of Aaron Rodgers. Flynn completed 62% of his passes with a passer rating of 88.1. If he was surrounded by the first-team offense for the entire game, it wouldn't be a stretch to think he could easily improve upon those numbers.
  • Quinn Johnson: Known primarily as a punishing lead blocker, Johnson showed some wiggle for perhaps the first time while wearing a Green Bay Packers uniform when hauling in a pass from Flynn, making a tackler miss with a juke and turning it into a seven-yard completion. If Johnson is going to have a job in a pass-first offense like Green Bay's, he's going to have to do more of that in the future. His lead blocking and pass protection were also a positive.

Cow Chips

  • Jason Chery: If Chery had any chance of making the team as a return specialist, he fumbled away that chance (literally and figuratively) on the first play of the game where he lost control of the ball, recovered and then fumbled after a short return, which was recovered by John Kuhn. Head coach Mike McCarthy said at halftime, "You can’t play in Green Bay if you don’t take care of the football."
  • Linebackers in pass coverage: The personnel may have been different, the no matter who seems to be at inside linebacker for the Packers, they seem to get exposed in zone coverage. Whether it was Maurice Simpkins trailing in coverage on a mismatch against a much faster Chiefs wide receiver, or it was Cyril Obiozor getting sucked in on a play action fake, the play by the linebackers was eerily reminiscent to last year's playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals who took advantage of match-up issues.
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Comments (21)

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supersoul's picture

September 03, 2010 at 08:17 am

he’s a pretty god wide receiver too.

Lofty praise there.

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PackersRS's picture

September 03, 2010 at 10:26 am

Good praise. Lofty praise.

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Ryeguy812's picture

September 03, 2010 at 08:22 am

Swain is to Flynn as Ruvell was to Rodgers "He's my guy!"

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Oppy's picture

September 04, 2010 at 02:59 pm

Yeah, the WR with the lowest standing of the starting, 53-man roster WR's (who often gets scout team detail) is almost always the favorite target of the 2nd string QB who otherwise gets to throw to training camp bodies and walk-ons.

But I agree, it sure looks like they are developing that bond, huh?

To be honest, Swain really has surprised me, early in camp he was favoring his bad knee so clearly that I thought he was not going to make it. Now it looks like he's not going to let it stop him.

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jeremy's picture

September 03, 2010 at 08:33 am

Thanks for the details. Much better coverage of positional battles than jsonline or packersnews.

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Aaron Rogders's picture

September 03, 2010 at 09:56 am

You know the world is coming to an end when Bush gets a blue chip...

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PackersRS's picture

September 03, 2010 at 10:27 am

He did it because I rooted against him.

He is, after all, the bane of my existence. He just won't go away. And you know he's gonna cost us sooner or later. When it matters.

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nypacker's picture

September 03, 2010 at 09:55 pm

PackersRS I know how you feel. Bush just never seems to get the boot, no matter what. I mean seriously, with all the injuries that happen to our players, how come we never hear anything about Bush? He's like our healthiest player. Can we test him for steriods or something? Just some way to get this guy offthe roster, please!

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Oppy's picture

September 04, 2010 at 03:00 pm

Jarret Bush is a nice boy. He takes good care of his mother.

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lebowski's picture

September 03, 2010 at 10:00 am

While Bush seems to be playing better, finally, this year, and Barbre and Giacomini have played themselves off the roster, finally, we can take consolation in knowing that there is someone ready to step up and fill the position of "Packer player who makes you cringe". Brady Poppinga gets lousier every year, I swear. And he's the top backup at outside linebacker. Yikes.

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PackersRS's picture

September 03, 2010 at 10:30 am

I swear to God, I just can't understand why do we keep those awful players. Potential? Where's the potential? ST play? We were the #31 unit last year.

I mean, can you honestly point out ONE SINGLE NFL player that was hated by the fanbase and turned out into a good player? It just never happens.

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Danimal's picture

September 03, 2010 at 12:10 pm

Terrell Buckley ended up having a long, decent career after his hardships with the Packers fanbase.

That's one.

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Oppy's picture

September 04, 2010 at 03:03 pm

Danimal,

As a person who has made the same statement about T-buck on other Packers forums, I feel the need to share with you this knowledge:

Duck, and make sure you have a clear line of escape.

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Aaron Rogders's picture

September 03, 2010 at 01:19 pm

Donovan Mcnabb

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Ron LC's picture

September 03, 2010 at 01:34 pm

The problem is going to be this, MM will have a hard time cutting 22 when based on last nights' performanca it should be 30. They'll have to add 6 or 7 to get to 53.

The backup D line and LB's were awful just plain awful. They made the DB's look good.

Let's hope MM consults with the "Ghost of Vince" and is able to miraculously fix that crap they call a ST.

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Glorious80's's picture

September 03, 2010 at 03:33 pm

The ghost of Jack Vainisi.

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Nononsense's picture

September 03, 2010 at 09:00 pm

I see that you mention ILB Maurice Simpkins in your cowchips section but I thought he played pretty well in that game, the bad coverage on the WR not withstanding.

The kid gets off blocks and makes tackles, hed led the team with 7 total tackles with a couple for little to no gain.

His STs play was also pretty good so I think hes all but locked up a spot on the PS. Its not ground breaking or anything I just knew the guy would play well if given the chance.

What do yall think?

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CSS's picture

September 03, 2010 at 09:06 pm

He's listed at 6'0" because he wore the 3" spikes during his physical. He's just too small/short to impact passing lanes in the NFL. It would be a great story, but I just can't see it.

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Oppy's picture

September 04, 2010 at 03:09 pm

Maurice Simpkins did do a number of very positive things on the field. His instincts for taking proper angles of attack seem sound and he has shown ability to shed blocks when penetrating the interior of the line.

He also could be a ST demon, by the looks of it.

All that said, he was playing against lesser opponents and I'm not qualified (nor have I seen enough of him even if I was) to make any kind of judgment on his ability/preparedness to play in the NFL.

Looked like he has some of the aptitude and definitely the attitude, though.

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nypacker's picture

September 03, 2010 at 10:00 pm

I say we still give him a shot. Not on the 53 man roster but at least on the PS. Sometimes guys that know how to play football get it done despite their measurables. Just lookat London Fletcher. I believe he's 5' 11". The guy has been playing at a high level for years.

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Mr. Bacon's picture

September 03, 2010 at 10:23 pm

Head coach Mike McCarthy said at halftime, “You can’t play in Green Bay if you don’t take care of the football.” ...

Guess this means Brandon Jackson is going to be cut.

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