Last night I watched the game with DVR and did a rewind on most plays to see them twice and sometimes 3 times. Tried to watch some individual matchups as well as performance of units as a whole. Here are my thoughts from what I saw.

Offense
• Barbre- Starting with the current whipping boy. He was awaful not just on the sacks but consistently. IMO though he deserves another chance next week, if he does poorly in the first quarter then he is yanked for Breno.
• Rodgers- Got his come back win, but was definitely gun shy most the night. Managed the game well, and was a leader on the field. Still the Bears secondary is not good and despite some new looks they threw at AR he needs to put up better numbers.
• Grant- O line did not exactly open many big holes, but he ran hard as he could. I think Ryan is going to have a good year, since he was doing ok against a good bears run d.
• Jennings- Good night.
• Driver- had some drops.
• J Nelson- Dropped a few, weird since he was so sure handed last year. Soph slump?
• Kuhn- Blasted some people out there last night, I never thought has was special, but last night he was.
• College- Good.
• Spitz- No exchange problems and from what I saw had an ok night.
• Sitton- Part of that right side of the O line that had problems. not as bad as Barbre, but not good either.
• Clifton- Got beat a few times, and not great in the run, but ok.
• Lee- did an ok job as an extra blocker.
  
  Defense
• Kampman- Did ok, but seemed to drop back a lot. Think DC was using him as a decoy since opponents will assume he will be rushing more than covering. Problem, he may not be a great decoy. Still solid game and decent transitions by a great player.
• Jenkins- WOW... just WOW....
• Jolly- Great INT. Played well, but also gets tired. Team stopped the run well, but getting Raji going is going to be huge for Jolly and Pickett to rotate.
• Pickkett- Good.
• Harris- So having him play zone negates his physical play some and exposes his speed a little, however now he gets to see the QB and make reads. Locked the game down in the 4th, and made some huge plays in run support. He may be the best run tackling CB in the league behind Winfield.
• Woodson- Got beat long by a rook, and had some tough plays. Not one of his bests.
• Collins- Had the INT, good in run support, looked a step slow in coverage.
• Bigby- not the Bigby of 2007, just average...
• Pop- I did not see him do much
• Hawk- Thought he did a good job of being assignment sure and seems to be taking on blockers better than he ever has with GB.
• Barnett- Seemed to run well, but got eaten by some blocks too.
• Chillar- Made plays and seemed assignment sure. Maybe getting ahead of myself here, but is there anyways we can keep this guy, having already paid big bucks to Hawk, Barnett, and Pop.
• Matthews- Was up and down...
  
  Special Teams
• Crosby- the miss was close, and hit the others. Think some people are bashing him , but they need to also take into account the length this guy gets on his kickoffs. I can remember the days of Longwell where the guys fielded the kick near the 15, Crosby puts them all the way back the end zone.
• Kapinos- Looks to be a another year of a GB sub par punting.

I am happy about the win, and yes that was a good Bears team. Still there was a lot that will need to get better if this teams is going to get to the SB.

Barbre stuck out but Woodson was just about as bad last night...

Has he lost a step?


I graded Kapinos above average. He had a couple that could have been inside the twenty and one inside the five if not for the penalty.

I have been pretty harsh on Hawk, but I agree, he did look good in the game. Barbre was beaten like a red headed stepchild. I also agree- Jenkins did look fantastic, and the TD pass to Hester looked like there was confusion as to coverage responsibility- it seemed that Woodson was expecting help, and that Collins was very late coming over.
One thing I did like very much- the color commentary of Collingworth. A great improvement over the always annoying Madden.

I went back and watched it again, and I've got some "atta boy" moments that might have been missed. I think that these were some of the most positive moments in the game that should be acknowledged.

"Atta boy" to Clay Matthews for getting on the field and flashing some serious potential. On the Bears last series in the 1st quarter (from about 7-4 minutes remaining) he made several good plays that hopefully show his future potential for this defense. On the first one, Williams and Chillar blitzed from the left. Cutler saw it and went to his hot read, TE: Greg Olsen. Unfortunately for Cutler, Olsen was blanketed in coverage by Matthews. He actually made the smart decision and threw the ball out of bounds. On the next play, which was a bubble screen to Hester on the right side of the field, he dropped into coverage and read the play. He planted and launched himself at Hester as he was cutting into the middle of the play. He missed him by a hair, but absolutely BLEW UP the offensive lineman who was right behind the ball-carrier. Had he connected with Hester, everyone would have heard and felt it (and the ball likely would have popped loose.) He missed by inches and Hester got a few more yards to convert a 1st down, but I would have loved to see him make that play. He was in the right place and just miss-timed the tackle by a fraction of a second. Anyone other than Devin Hester might have been a sitting duck. Two plays later, after Kampman missed a sack on Cutler by inches (that was the play where Williams had his hand inside his facemask and was jerking Kampman's helmet all over), Matthews was rushing from the opposite side. He was engaged by Pace and still managed to overpower him ona bull rush and force Cutler to roll outside the pocket into more pressure (provided by Cullen Jenkins) and what should have been a sure-fire INT by Tramon Williams. He's locked up with Olsen man-to-man on the next play, but the read goes the opposite way on the near pick-six to Williams and two plays later, he uses another bull rush to push Pace back in to Cutler's pocket forcing him to his right again. This time, Jay tries to pull a Favre and throw the ball across his body and it lands right into the waiting hands of Nick Collins. Also, later on, on that Hail Mary pass heading into halftime, Matthews flat-out beats Orlando Pace on a speed rush with a sick swim move. Cutler got so lucky that he managed to spin out of the sack and attempt the pass. It was a sweet play. Clay Matthews looked good out there and will be a special player for the Packers right away. Can't wait to see Raji out on the field with him.

"Atta boy" to Johnny Jolly for not only being an extremely athletic big man and making his amazing highlight quality INT, but how about the recognition to realize that the screen was coming, swing out in front of the blocker and even be in the right position to make the play. That was a great read at a critical point in the game from a guy that many have been writing off for months. He looked active and comfortable in this defense.

"Atta boy" to Aaron Rodgers to have the awareness and ability to switch the ball from his right to left hand in mid-air while being tossed like a rag-doll by Danieal Manning on the safety and somehow being able to keep from fumbling it. As bad as a safety is in that instant, a fumble recovered for a TD would have been a death-blow in the contest. Many QBs would have fumbled the ball.

"Atta boy" to Nick Collins for throwing the best block that nobody noticed. Did anyone else notice the block thrown by Collins on the Tramon Williams INT return for a near touchdown. He tossed a great decleater block of a pursuing Jay Cutler around the 15 yard line. Collins came from way back and across the field to cut right in front of Williams at the last possible second and throw a perfect block on Cutler to keep him from making the tackle at that point and keeping the Packers from starting out at the 15 yard line instead of the 2 yard line. Key play that likely went unnoticed by most that might have made a big difference in the game.

"Atta boy" to John Kuhn for having a great game for a fullback. Good block on the Grant TD. My favorite play of his was the 2nd and 3 yard play late in the 3rd quarter where he picked up the blitzing linebacker, was stood up in the backfield and he threw him away and then bounced off to pickup another key block on Hunter Hillenmeyer to allow Grant enough room to bounce forward enough for the 1st down.On the next play he made a great read inside on a lead block for DeShawn Wynn. Threw his body around and was both assignment sure and physical. He definitely earned the start for this game.

"Atta boy" to Brandon Chillar for being such a great all around linebacker. He looked good in coverage, run support and rushing the passer. That hurdle and sack was a thing of pure beauty. The Packers have a lot of talent and flexibility at the LB position. Gotta figure out a way to extend his contract and keep that group as intact as possible beyond this season. Thompson is good at finding linebackers, that much is clear.

"Atta boy" to Jeremy Kapinos for forcing Devin Hester to call a fair catch right before the half when he was kicking from the goalline. A bad punt there might have been enough to give the Bears some life and momentum going into halftime. Any better field position than what they had and 40 seconds on the clock would have almost surely ended up in a score before halftime. That was a huge play that was directly responsible for keeping the Bears from tacking on some points there.

"Atta boy" to Donald Lee for some great blocking in the game. Key blocks on both touchdowns and a big block on most of Grant's long or key runs including a great cutback run in the 3rd quarter where he ran Ogunleye right out of the play allowing for the cutback right. For a guy who is not known as much of a blocker, he quite frankly did a stellar job at it against the Bears.

"Atta boy" to Clay Matthews for getting the heck off the field. He's fast enough that it wasn't even a question as to whether he was off or not. Inadvertently ended up causing one of the huge plays in the game.

"Atta boy" to Brett Goode for looking like a seasoned vet snapping the ball. Not a single bad snap that I saw. He's really been a good pickup since Rob Davis' retirement. If Crosby would have made his first field goal and the coverage team not screwed up the punt down on the 4 yard line, then every snap would have yielded maximum results.

"Atta boy" to the defense for not falling apart following the worst call of the night on that phantom illegal contact. They could have folded and given the game away like last year (especially after Hester broke the next play to get way down the field), but they stiffened and forced the field goal. Ryan Pickett was the man on the goalline stand.

"Atta boy" to Allen Barbre for saving his best block of the game for the last one. Ogunleye wasn't fooled by the play action for a second. He got a good jump, but Barbre got back into his stance quickly and kept him off of Aaron Rodgers long enough for the defense to bite on the fake and allow Greg Jennings to beat the coverage. A major positive to build off of for next week.

I've got another "Atta boy" to Aaron Rodgers for having the faith in the right side of that line to execute that play action touchdown pass knowing that it would take a long time to develop and he was going to be holding the ball for a few seconds. That was a gutsy move by a true leader. He sure wasn't jittery when the game was on the line.

My final "Atta boy" is for Greg Jennings on using perfect form on the touchdown catch. A lesser wideout might have let the ball get to his body (possibly dropping it by a slight deflection), but he got his hands up correctly and made the catch away from his body and in stride the way he's supposed to. Great mechanics that might otherwise go overlooked.

That Collins block on Cutler was indeed awesome. Collins was flying down the field just looking for someone to hit and took out Cutler with a nice block. Great play and exceptional hustle because he really came out of nowhere running at full speed.

Very nice post, Ellis. Very nice indeed. It was especially informative for me personally, since I only get to listen to the games usually and the things you point out are the kinds of things that aren't so apparent in the video highlights and they aren't talked about so much in the forums. Between you and Larry McCarren, I get a really good feel for the subtleties of these games. So, thank you!

You're quite welcome Terry. I'm glad that I could give a little more insight. Most people who saw the game saw all the obvious things, but I was fortunate to have the game on DVR so I went back and looked for the more subtle things. Back when I was coaching, I'd look for things like this so I could encourage my groups (traditionally OL, TE, WR and DB) to do the little things and it would pay off with big dividends. I think that in any game there are several opportunities for a game to get away. A missed block, broken coverage or just letting Devin Hester field a clean punt with blockers can change the whole outcome. Especially in a close or sloppy game (or a loss), I think that it's important to point out some of the things that guys got right. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. If I'm able to see the games and report on it, I'll put it in it's own thread in the future. Thanks for the feedback.