I want a favorite European beer report on my desk by Tuesday.
I’ll do my best but I’ve only got a couple of meals to try things, and Wes won’t be helping with the sampling, so …
Mike do you have any special jet lag prevention methods? I imagine early next week may be harder once the adrenaline wears off.
I have no idea how this will go. I don’t sleep well on planes, so I’m expecting to be pretty beat on Friday over there. But I’ve had plenty of work stretches here after night games when I’m getting home at 4 a.m., sleeping for a few hours, and coming back to the office. It’s not fun, but I imagine this trip will feel a lot like that.
I read somewhere that the 49ers defense played 74 snaps in Monday nights game. Yet their intensity was still as high as ever. Is that just a credit to their conditioning. If the Packers are to win with defense this year they have to have the same level of intensity.
No doubt. I don’t think there’s any lack of effort on the part of the Packers’ defense, but when you’re not stopping the run, it’s much harder to get after the QB, which is where “intensity” shows up visually. As I said in Inbox this morning, that 49ers front seven is the best in the league in my opinion. I like GB’s secondary better, though, so we’ll see how the season unfolds.
Mike, since you and other reporters don’t get to see the full practice, and Coach LaFleur making remarks about working Nijman at right tackle, guessing Sunday’s game be the first opportunity to see if that was just talk, or a change to the O-line going forward?
Exactly. We aren’t going to know anything until seeing how the Packers are lining up in pregame warmups Sunday.
What are the Giants going to attack us with other than SB?
They’re going to follow the same pattern as the Patriots, I suspect, which is to get the running game going and then work play-action off of that to help protect the QB and give him throwing lanes. The Giants’ passing offense has been pretty rough this year, but it still comes down to containing Barkley first.
Mike, do you think the Packers may try some others at punt return soon? I see they signed a CB with return experience recently.
I’m going to assume that job is Rodgers’ until I see otherwise. He had a really good return in Tampa wiped out by the running into the kicker penalty, and he’s looked far more confident back there than he did as a rookie. I think he’s coming along.
Now that the real pre-season is over. Besides injury stuff positive/negative, what has been an under the radar surprise?
For the Packers, I think it’s getting a special-teams performance like the one in Tampa this early in the season. Everything on special teams is still a work in progress, but there’s already been a lot of positive impact from that phase through four games. Two punts downed at the 2 in the last two weeks, a game-winning FG without a hitch. There’s been a lot to like already.
This will be my 3rd Packers game (and 5th NFL game). We won the first two games, so I expect that streak to continue.
What is really uncharacteristic for the Packers is, that we don’t win the turnover battle. I think that is one of the reasons for the not so pretty wins.
The turnovers this year have been highly uncharacteristic of the Packers under LaFleur. They’ve turned the ball over in every game this season, four straight. The previous three years, they haven’t had a streak longer than two games. With seven turnovers already this year, they’re more than halfway to their worst turnover season under LaFleur (13). I don’t think it will continue, but it also can’t if the Packers expect to keep winning.
What’s the over/under Rashan Gary wins DPOY?
We’re a long way from assessing anything like that, but a sack in every game, and five total through four games, is a heck of a start. LaFleur uses the term “game wrecker” a lot when talking about other team’s top defenders. Gary is definitely in that category, too.
Did Joe Barry have a logical explanation for not getting more beef on the field when the patriots went with the old u71 package, aka 6OL?
Barry is speaking to the media later today.
Is it fair for me to assume Adrian Amos’ and Jaire Alexander’s absence in the Patriot game was significant?
I thought so. That’s 2 of your top 4/5 DBs, with one an All-Pro level player. The Packers certainly have capable depth there, but not having players like that is going to have an impact, no doubt.
Good question from Thomas. I know you don’t have the numbers in front of you, but I wonder what the chances are of a team making the playoffs with a -5 or -10 in the turnover ratio.
It’s not good. What I know this year is there are 11 teams with a minus turnover margin, and the Packers are the only one of those 11 with three wins.
Is there an over/under on how much fish and chips you and Wes will consume? Or will you be sticking to the basics like McDonald’s?
I definitely want to have some fish and chips. We’ll be trying to sample the local fare as much as possible.
Speaking of the turnover problem, I do like how for the most part, our defense has responded to that adversity and the opponent either gets nothing or has to settle for a FG.
Absolutely. Opponents have 16 points off of GB’s 7 turnovers, but 7 of those came on the INT-TD. The defense has allowed only three field goals off of the other six turnovers. That’s been significant.