Packers 31 Indy Ponies 34
We knew a few things about the Colts. We knew they had the number one defense in the NFL, we knew Phillip Rivers was a wily veteran who was rarely sacked, how do you combat those two things? You keep a few things in the playbook for the second half, and you play solid defense up front and you have your defensive backs run wind sprints in practice before you travel. If you can’t get to him, you’re going to have to play awesome defense with an emphasis on breaking up passes. You also don’t send a middle linebacker to cover a receiver, AJ Hawk taught us that! You set the edge, you keep your safeties watching for passes or running from the backfield. You hit that hard so they don’t do it again.
For the first half, that worked. But the poor coaching in the second half is what doomed the Packers. 3rd and 3, what do you do? Have Aaron throw it for 10 yards into double coverage. Sure, that’ll work. How about instead, I don’t know, have Marcedes Lewis and Allen Lazard take a step past scrimmage and whoever’s open hit them and have them fall forward for the final 2 yards?!
Another thought that crossed my mind was, “This is why you draft a rookie WR in the first round.” C.D. Lamb and Jerry Jeudy were faster than anybody else on their team. They were faster than anyone in their conferences. Imagine if the Packers had Jeudy as a slot receiver going across the middle for Aaron. He’d catch the ball, and he’d take the glancing hit. The next play, Jeudy runs the same play but instead of hitting Jeudy, Aaron hits DaVante or MVS on a GO route because the one high safety collapses on Jeudy and leaves MVS one on one with a shorter cornerback! THAT is why you draft a rookie WR in the first round, not a project QB who’s been inactive for every game this season!
A lot of things worked well for the Packers in the first half. Aaron had a great game. He threw for 3 TDs, 311 yards and had a passer rating of 110.7 even with throwing an interception, that was a little too late to MVS that was jumped in front of.
When is a fumble not a fumble? Apparently when your name is Phillip Rivers or Tom Brady! Now it’s not was the arm going forward, it’s was he holding it in his hand when you grabbed his arm? Brady got the same favorable call on Monday, I was glancing at the game while playing Millionaire on my phone; I don’t follow professional football. I still say that was a fumble, the Packers recovered and won that game! But I don’t make the rules, I’m just an owner.
Speaking of being an owner, I am still calling for the firing of
I love the guys on defense, Jaire, Darnell, the “Smash” (Smith) brothers, big Kenny, all of ‘em. They try real hard, but I feel if they were better coached, we would have a group that you would think, “Yeah, now you’ve done it! You’ve woken the Beast!” Remember when our D would come out in 2010. We’d be watching Woodson, AJ, the Claymaker, Nick Barnett, and just knowing it was going to go off. Now, our D comes on the field, and I’m praying. An incomplete pass is like manna from Heaven. I’m serious when I think we should find out what Marv Lewis is doing. His Baltimore(Ravens) defense made Ray Lewis a Superbowl MVP, I think he could do the same to our guys.
I am stepping back from the club for a few weeks, I won’t be at Duh Bears game or the next 2 after that. I’m going up to Joisey to work a job, but I will fly my flags, root for our team and all ways proudly proclaim…
Go Pack!! GO!!!
(Ken Hill)
Just Sayin'
Just Sayin’
(Jimmy Smith)
GPB In Our SPARE TIME
Oh what a day! The spirits of the 30 Packer Backers that met at Spare Time ran from mountaintop to the pits of despair. But needless to say, we cheer for our Pack and support them through thick and thin, no matter what.
Eight great door prizes were distributed to some lucky members. 437 Dan Heltness chose a waiter’s wine opener, otherwise known as a corkscrew! The office table 328 Marge Bramlett and 589 Kathy McGrew each chose sunglasses. 123 Kraig “Lewis” chose a baseball cap with a new and unique design. 531 Sara Hansen will snuggle in her new wrap/shawl, while 537 Wayne Boyd and 323 Celie Schilz will be sporting new tee shirts. 221 Barb Gambrell will never be late while sporting her new watch. The $1 board for the football pool was filled quickly this week. Winners were 185 Ken Hill (2), 537 Wayne Boyd and 117 Nick Papala.
The club would like to take this opportunity to again thank Mr. an Mrs. A. Nonamous for the gigantic pepperoni pizzas which made their way to the patio at half time. Yum! The winner of this week’s trivia contest was 120 Neil Petersen. He has received a $25 gift card from our generous sponsors at Spare Time.
Next Sunday we take on duh bears…Now I know that it is a night game, starting around 8ish, but it’s duh bears! Everyone who can needs to come and cheer with me and we can remind each other that “Upon further review…” and you know the rest. We can get back into the thick of things if we all just join together and cheer on the Pack. Through thick and thin...
Marge 328
Packers vs Duh Bears
This week, it’s a night game in Lambeau Field where the temperature at game time will be 36°. Against most teams this is an advantage for the Pack, but not here because both teams play football the way it was meant to be played, outside. Playing in Lambeau is a slight advantage for the Pack (49-42-4) but in the age of the empty stadiums, home field, and the energy the fans brings, lessen this advantage. Air-ron, over his career has owned duh bears with a record of 18-4 (note: I am not including their first meeting in 2013 when duh bears broke his collar bone and Air-ron was not able to finish the game).
The Pack have 99 wins in their history against, as Ralphie’s father like to call them, the “Chicago Chipmucks”. This week they have a chance to make that 100. It will mark the second time in the history of the NFL a team has lost 100 games against one team; the other being the Lyins (103), also against the Packers. This could be considered an advantage for the Pack but also motivation for duh bears. Eventually it will happen. It would have been nice for duh bears to be the first to that 100 mark but it would be nice for us to do it at home, this week.
The one advantage duh bears do have is the bye-week. They have not only been given an extra week to prepare against a divisional opponent, but two weeks to heal some of their starting players; most notably, Nick Foles (hip & glute) and Mitch Trubisky (right shoulder). If neither can start, the nod goes to Practice team QB Tyler Bray. They have also had two weeks to figure out how they went from a 5-1 contender to being 5-5 pretender, loosing their last four games. We all know it’s because duh bears still suck, but somehow they are ignorant of the obvious. Most concerning in those 4 losses has been the lack of points, only once topping the 20 point mark. Whereas duh bears have a season high of 30 points the Packers have topped the 30 point mark in 7 of their 10 game. The problem for the Packers is they have allowed their opponents to reach that mark in 4 games, 2 of them being losses.
This will definitely be a game of strength against strength. Our high scoring offense against their stingy defense who have allowed a season high of 26 points, twice. They live and die by their defense to create turnovers or in some cases, scoring themselves.
It will also be a game of weakness against weakness. Theirs of course being, even in their wins, their inept offense, verses our Achilles heel, our porous defense. Last Sunday, again was a prime example of this; our defense was on the field for 35 minutes. Three times they allowed drives of over 10 plays, resulting in 17 of their points with two of those drives in the third quarter alone where they were on the field for 24 plays and 11:22. Of course, two 3 and outs and a fumbled kickoff by us didn’t help, but isn’t an excuse either. Although we kept former UW star, Jonathon Taylor to 90 yards, we did end up yielding 140 rushing yards total. If duh bears offense has any strength whatsoever, it is their running game.
The final advantage has to go duh bears for special teams. Cordarrelle Patterson has been a thorn in our side lately and has a TD off a kickoff already this year. Duh bears always seem to come up with some kind of special on-side kick or a trick punt play each time we play them so no punt or kick off can be taken for granted. After all, this may be the only way for duh bears to have any chance of winning.
Divisional games are never a given. Maybe this is why the NFL has end loaded so many divisional games this year. In the last 6 weeks of this season, the queenies have 2, both us & the lyins have 3 and duh bears have 4. Winning the divisional games has been the reason we win the NFC North so often. We have a chance to be 5-1 but even 4-2 almost guarantees us the NFC Crown and a ticket to the playoffs.
As I said at the start of this article, we have a 4 game lead (99-95-6) in the series over duh bears in the last 99 years and 2 days when we first played them (then called the Chicago Staleys). Taking care of ball will be our #1 priority and most likely the key to our success Sunday when we will reach win #8, and #100, and have a 3 game lead in the NFC North. According to Bill Demuth’s formula, this is a “Green Light” week. It was 99 years ago the cry first rang out “Upon Futher Review… duh Staleys Still Suck!” The name changed but 201 games later, it still rings true. Linda & I hope to return to the lineup after our stint on the reserve/covid list. We have been declared covid free and have it has been confirmed that we again
Bleed Green My Friends!
(Packer John)
Let's give a big Packer Backer Shout Out and wish Zachary Molter a Very Happy 35th Birthday on December 1st!
All of us at the PBB want to wish each of you a Very Happy & Healthy Thanksgiving! We may not be thankful for the outcome of the last game… but let us be thankful for all the wins we've had and all those to come!
Send your birthday, graduation anniversary, or other milestone Shout-out’s to me at:
heatherbailey80@gmail.com
(Heather Bailey)
HELP WANTED
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Linda & I would like to thank those who helped with the club during our lock-down. There is Marge 328, the rock, along with Kathy McGrew & Jamie for their work in the office. Jimmy Smith for being the runner for the prizes, Ken & Travis for handling the Mic, M&M A. Nonamus for the gift of pizza and anyone else I may have overlooked or been unaware of. This proved the club can run without us.
Still in need of the mid-week tasks: Money, database and prizes. Talk to me about them; none are hard or time consuming. ~ Packer John.
