Great win at Lambeau yesterday.

It is always great to beat the Dallas Cowboys, and it could not have come at a better time.

The Packers are now 5-4 with another big game coming up at Lambeau against another aspiring NFC opponent the 4 - 5 San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers have a tough defense and are coming off of a 10 - 6 win over the Chicago Bears.

San Fran will come to Lambeau with an extra 3 days rest and prep for what is a Must Win game for them if they hope to stay in the playoff hunt they are aspiring to.

The 49ers offense is not a well oiled machine. But if the game against Tampa Bay did not teach the Packers anything else, one prays that it taught the lessons of taking no team lightly. Frank Gore is the core of their offense. As such, it is essential to shut Gore down. If defenses can stop the running attack, they can move on to rattling San Fran's QB (a historically rattleable QB) Alex Smith. It is noteworthy that Smith was chosen 1st in the draft, the same draft that was Ted Thompson's 1st and that San Francisco chose Smith over Aaron Rodgers. A choice that one would gladly bet the 49'ers would like a do over for -- though McCarthy, then the offensive coordinator of the 49ers, was key to SF's decision, now as the Head Coach of the Packers he is happily declaring "no do-overs allowed!!!"

The 49ers defense on the other hand is well coached and gets after people. They are coming off of a game where they beat the Hell out of Jay Cutler and forced him into 5 interceptions. They also held Chicago's Matt Forte to 41 yards rushing. They are well coached by a talented defensive coaching staff (defensive coordinator Greg Manusky, defensive line coach Jim Tomsula and secondary coach Johnnie Lynn) who put their players in positions to succeed. They have talent on the defensive side of the ball and Aubrayo Franklin is emerging as one of the best nose tackles in the NFL.

San Francisco's kick and punt cover units perform very well, though their K Joe Nedney and P Andy Lee are not coming off of their finest performances.

They are ALL HUGE from hence forth, finishing 4 - 4 at the season's midpoint will make that a reality.

Green Bay needs to get right back to work and defend the House again against another NFC playoff hopeful competing with the Packers for one of the now coveted wild card positions.

This is another Statement Game .

Protect the House..
Beat another NFC Team
Keep the D with the pressure and intensity ( It will be interesting to see if Capers does this 2 games in a row)
Get the Offense into Rythym.. Like to see a few more drives of 15 plays and 8 minutes.

Keep Gore under control...Keep Davis under control and Keep a close eye on Crabtree ..
Frustrate Smith , he will be out to perform and show he was worth the higher pick then AROD.
SF Defense is great at the Point of attack

Keys I will be watching this week for prep of the Game and the Game.
Will we stay with the O line that we had against Dallas?
Will we keep the D the Same and place AK in on Passing downs to Rush the passer and keep hi out of coverage or did Jones show enough ?
Do we keep blitzing Hawk and Barnett ?
Does Finley Return this week ?

JMO

The 49ers have a questionable secondary. It is banged up right now with Nate Clements (the number one corner on the team) out again this week. Mark Roman is one of the starting safeties along with Michael Lewis - both suspect in pass coverage.

They have a great front seven - outstanding NT in Franklin and a stud LB in Willis. It will be a tough day for Grant and the O Line going up against this group.

Offensively, the 49ers are pretty bad. Five picks last week and ten points? Pathetic. RB Gore and TE Davis are the keys to their offense. Crabtree is their only really good wideout, but there are concerns about his speed. I don't see him running by many defensive backs in this league. Throw Harris on him and he will be marginalized. Blitz QB Smith - according to the NFLN announcers, the offensive coordinator of SF admitted in production meetings that Smith does not improvise well. Give him a bunch of defensive looks and bring the pressure.

Quick note: Finley will play this week, according to MM.

The Niners are the sort of team that can conjure up a win seemingly from nowhere, but they're also not looking so hot recently. The real deciding factor in this game will be the Packers, however -- if the D can put forward another effort like the one they came up with against the Cowboys, the Niners don't have a prayer.

Frank Gore and Vernon Davis are going to be the guys to watch. Davis in particular is having a bang-up year -- he owes Mike Singletary bigtime for slapping some sense into him and saving his career.

Singletary said none of the five players on the post-game injury list is likely to miss the Green Bay game:

• Takeo Spikes is day to day with a strained hamstring.
• strong safety Michael Lewis (stinger),
• wide receiver Arnaz Battle (quad),
• safety Mark Roman (knee contusion) and
• right tackle Adam Snyder (sprained shoulder).

I believe this is the first time that Aaron Rodgers and Alex Smith will be facing each other (as starters, anyhow).

This is a crossroads game for the 49ers, much like it was for us against Dallas. Their playoff hopes hang by a thread with us being one of the wildcard contenters. Must win game for them, so it won't be easy.

On the other hand, they are not playing well. We should be a solid favorite to win, but we'll have to play with the same intensity as we did this week.

Packers win 24-17

It certainly will be and will make a GREAT story line IMO

Things I'm looking for this game...

Less than 3 sacks.

Less than 5 penalties.

Capers continuing to bring pressure.

Hawk continuing to play like he should.

The offense to step up in a big way, and dominate.

I'm sure the Niners expect the Packers to come out and try to run the ball early on, and use max protect in the passing game. Instead, they should come out using 3 WR and Finley. Roll Rodgers out both ways to keep him alive, and attack a suspct Niners secondary. Then they can come back and try to run the ball, use 2 TE, etc.

They need to at least make ST a draw, and if they actually win the field position battle they'll win the game.

I'm not sure what the background of this is, but I'd say it's exactly wrong -- Alex Smith's strongest point is making quick reads and getting the ball out fast. In fact, his biggest problem back in the day (aside from that injury to his throwing arm) was that the Niners under Nolan stubbornly refused to do this.

These teams seem to be mirror images of one another. Either team seems like they could lose to any team in the league, while either could very well hang with the best. Should definitely be a close one. If it's one thing you can count on from a Singletary team, it's that they'll be fired up.

Though I have to admit, I'm scared out of my boots about Kampman matched up with Vernon Davis in coverage. I could see him having a huge day.

You may be right.

I just recall hearing that on Thursday night.

The announcer was Matt Millen, so you're probably right.

To be honest, I hope Capers has Woodson on Davis, this week. Worked well against Witten, should work against Davis.

Packers 31
SF 17

TE's have always burned us in the past. If Woodson covers Davis like he did Witten, Packers should be in control. I mean who else on the niners poses a threat? Crabtree? Not really. Gore, yes, but the Packers can stop him.

24-10 GB

I'm going to stay away from score predictions from here on out. I just want this team to take the rest of the season one game at a time, with the focus on fixing the things that need to be fixed. I don't care if it's one thing at a time just as long as the other parts of the team can pick up the slack. Hopefully the D keeps the intensity which will help give time to the O to fix it's problems and Special teams, and so forth. I want to see penalties cleaned up and just a general feeling of the team moving in a positive direction. Just win and improve and before you know it, a string of wins will be put together and momentum will be in full swing by playoff time.

Look no further than the Atlanta @ San Francisco game earlier this year to see why Singletary doesn't always "have his team fired up" or "put in the best position to perform".

He's not that good of a coach. There, I said it.

The AR vs. AS Bowl.

I'm not so sure that we fans dont play up this "coach getting them ready to play" factor more than it exists in reality.
Brought up on "win one for the Gipper" films and Vince ranting highlights, we're conditioned to think the coach has more influence in player mentality and readiness than they do anymore.

I think todays millionaires...errr...financially stable players are a more "self governed" group - the emotion and "readiness" on display more a reflection of their character, desire and circumstance (i.e. must win game type stuff).

Certainly the coach/coaches can prepare their units as best possible - game planning and adjusting as need be - but I'm less inclined to think that todays "guaranteed" cash cows are influenced by...."winning one for the Gipper" mentalities or influential pre-game speeches.

It exitsts - dont get me wrong - a coach can certainly have influence - but not as much as we fans may think.

Just an opinion.

If you reduce it to a 'win one for the gipper" I totally agree, the coaches role is overrated and too often overblown.

Coaches do play a bigger role in game prep and game planning. They also set tone for focus. Football is a game of controlled explosiveness. Players understand this, but can lose focus either direction. It is the responsibility of coaching staffs to harness this explosiveness and put players into positions to succeed. Coaches are also salesmen - they must sell their players on their system and their scheme. After selling everyone, coaches need to keep them believing.

Poor coaching shows up in lack of concentration and focus. Coaches must also be able to read their team as well as individual players. On of the great myths are that Coaches should or do treat all players the same - it they do they are ignoring a major portion of their job IMO

Finally, some players respond to you-rah's and others are oblivious or worse turned off by attempts to manufacture emotion - again it comes back to coaches and team leaders knowing their team and the individuals on the squad.

You make some very points though leader.

This is the 3rd week in a row against a major TE threat and I believe Woodson has drawn that assignment each week. I would bet he would be on Davis the majority of the day.

I'll be at the game with some friends, so I hope they don't lay an egg... maybe I shouldn't go there.

Anyway, I hope the Cowboys game gave them some confidence and is the beginning of a roll and not just some false thinking that they are better and can just walk over other teams.

Ha, what are the odds someone in the stands is holding a sign that says, "Hey Mike, don't lay an egg!!!"

I don't know............what are the odds of it being cold at Lambeau in December???

yeah I'm flying up from dallas for this one, with my girlfriend who's a niners fan... so i'm right there with ya, pleaseeeeeee don't lay an egg!

i'm extremely excited, it should be a fun game. go pack!!

They should use Woodson like they did vs Dallas. In fact, they should do that EVERY week. Sure, I can see Woodson covering Davis a lot, but Chillar and Bigby will have that assignment also. That's the beauty (or should be) of this defense. The offense should have no idea who's rushing and who's covering every single down.

The Packers really need to be concerned about Crabtree as well -- that guy reminds me of Randy Moss in his ability to go up and get the ball.

Every game now scares the cr@* out of me. You never know which team is going to show up.

The offense is still struggling and haven't been in rythm all season. Still has me worried.

The defense played extremely well in the Dallas game. It was like someone lit a fire under those guys. I sure hope they can keep that fire burning.

I think the most frustrating thing is that we all know that this team has talent....maybe not on all facets, but they do have talent and are very capable of playing better than they have been.

Unless and until they can put together several games of high intensity, controlled and focused play, I will be nervous for the rest of the season.

BINGO........we have a winner

I REALLY like what Bruce also said



Put these bolded together:

Using Woodson like they did vs Dallas(and the preseason) excites these players to play in this system

keep them believing by repeating with proper changes to personel= a revved up defense.

EVERY person on the defense vs Dallas played thier best game of the year, individually, which resulted in a TOTAL TEAM domination. Every player maxed out WITHIN his area of responsibility....

WHY.......the Coaches listened to the players...all year since the preseason we have heard things like" we are better than this"......." we have the talent to be a dominate defense"........"turn us loose".....

If Caper resorts back to what the where doing earlier....he will lose this unit of players.....there won't be another "come to Jesus" meeting...there will be a lynch mob mentality...ok maybe a little over dramatic

repeating wiTh This same scheme of using Woodson and moving him around with the return of Chilliar and Kampy..we could be on the verge of something REALLY good.........DOMINATING GREAT

IT ALL DEPENDS IF THE DC WILL FOLLOW UP WITH GOOD SALEMANSHIP AND ALLOW HIS PLAYERS TO DO WHAT THEY DO BEST........as LT said "Play like a crazed bunch of dogs"

Well, we've all heard of Davis and he's a premier TE in the leauge.... so we should have nothing to worry about. It's the no-name TEs we obviously need to game plan against this season..

Davis has had three not-so-great years, and is having a pretty good year now. Not quite Premier in my book, but perhaps a rising star.

New poll up today on PC Home Page;

Who will win this Sundays 49ers vs. Packers game at Lambeau Field?

Listening to the radio on the way home from lunch, the talking heads here in the Bay Area believe that the key to winning the game is to force the Packers to become on-dimensional by taking away the run.

Also, I was interested to hear that their biggest fear was that they had no idea what sort of defensive look Dom Capers is planning to unveil on Sunday -- something to the effect of "I saw what they did to the Cowboys on Sunday, and I had to sit down and completely rethink what might work offensively -- the Niners D looks the same in week 1 or week 10, but the Packers keep you guessing."

I think having Jones play for AK in coverage plays would be crucial. We have noticed that AK cannot cover that well, but put his hand down when needed i think we win and keep SF under 10.

27-10 GB

I agree with this statement. I think he was good for "shock value" for a team that had become accustomed to losing when he took over, but as far is sustaining a professional atmosphere every week and definitely as far as gameplanning and scheming, I think Singletary lacks.

He has the ability to motivate, but only in that "rah rah" kind of way. I'm not sure that is best for an NFL head coach. I think he was best suited as a and Ast. head Coach/LB Coach, perfect job for him.

I think the keys this week will be fairly simple.

Offensively, the Packers need to NOT turn the ball over and continue to place an emphasis on running the football. I would like to A. Green implemented more, especially inthe 2nd half of games. MM has NEVER been committed to the run, but given the hand he has been dealt this season on the o-line, he needs to maintain an EXTRA level of commitment in an effort to keep defenses guessing on when to send their pressure packages. Point blank, mix it up between the run and quick passing game and be judicious about taking some shots.

I dont think we can even ask for "good" pass protection, but MM needs to know that and pretty much do away with his 4 & 5 WR sets. I know they've worked good IN THE PAST, but the few times that GB ran them against Dallas Rodgers had literally NO TIME to throw to his receivers. Maybe with tauscher in there for a few games, this group can gel enough to offer at least BETTER protection in the final quarter of the season, but not right now.

Defensively, Capers need to keep it up with the heat and varied blitz packages. This secondary is talented enough to handle a lot of 1 on 1 match-ups, but this team cannot put pressure on the QB straight up with vanilla pressure. They need to be creative in how they do it. Another thing, let's see more Brad Jones at OLB and less Aaron Kampman. Instead let's see Kampman at DE, both in 4-3 nickel passing situations and yes even at 3-4 DE in some base situations or 3rd down situations. He's not ideal, but I think he's a better fit there than he is at 3-4 OLB. Let him play with his hand down, PERIOD.

This team cannot afford a let down. It's concerning that this team needed a wake up call like a loss to Tampa in order to gain the focus required to beat a quality opponent. Hopefully the same group doesn't feel that they accomplished their mission by getting up and playing passionate and inspired football for 1 week. It will be interesting to see how they respond to success.

Hoping for Packer wins the next two weeks, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Exactly.

Singletary talks and acts like every fan's idea of what a 'football coach' should be in terms of being a hard-ass and all that, but he's not able to reliably put together the X's and O's that a team needs to win.

It seems that some people still think of 1970s-1980s football. I get tired of certain talking heads always repeating the same cliches over and over. You need to stop the run and make them one dimensional. The NFL is a passing league now days. Focusing on the rush will get you killed in the passing game. We tried that against Minnesota. We completely shut down Adrian Peterson in Week 4 but got killed by the pass. Making a commitment to stopping the run usually entails keeping more defenders near the LOS. A good QB will rip that apart all day long. Rodgers is used to not having a running game and overcoming long down and distances. He is the best QB in the NFL on 3rd downs despite the Packers having faced more 3rd and 10+ situations than any team in the NFL. The 49ers need to worry about how their terrible pass defense is going to contain the Packers pass offense.

The key to a win for the 49ers will be to outscore the Packers plain and simple. The Packers offense is good for 24-27 points nearly every week. Can the 49ers sustain that? None of this stop the run nonsense. The Packers offense is a quick strike offense. I believe they have the quickest average TD drives in the NFL. You can stop the run but you better hope you don't get beat deep or miss a tackle down the field. It seems some of these talking heads completely ignore the matchups and say the same thing every week of every year.

The key to this game is simple guys...we wanna beat the 49ers?

Stop Frank Gore.

i've actually been pretty impressed with his record considering the dearth of talent on that team. their defense has been decent, and he's gotten a lot out of the front 7. their secondary just doesn't have any talent. you can't blame Singletary too much for the offense, nor do i expect a lot from them considering their QBs are garbage.

he's gotten the front 7 fixed, and that's more than can be said for any other coach in their recent history.

I think it's a little more than that. While Gore is their best player, we gotta stop Davis as well. They have a pretty tough D as well, and it won't be easy for the o-line.

I don't think we will see as many blitz's as last week simply because the 49er's won't throw the ball that much...........they never do.BUTTTTT I think Capers is smart enough to keep Wood playing from multiple positions, while covering Davis in obvious passing downs.

Kampy will play more because of the 49's tendacy's to run. Kampy is by far and away better at the run D than Jones..Kampy is just sooooooo much better setting the edge vs the run over Jones..later in the game we may see Jones come in with the nickel/dime package.

We HAVE TO STOP THE RUN....The DL needs to duplicate the game they had vs the Boys.........that is a MUST

The game will hinge on M3's playcalling and if he will keep with the shorter passing routes to keep the rush off Rodgers. Green needs to run the screen passes more. Our other backs, Grant & Jackson, just don't have the feel for a screen like Green....green is a great screen running back, he keeps proper spacing....now if Cliffy can just block the screen

The game could hinge on ST and field position..........THAT worries me

With that said I wouldn't be a true fan if I didn't say ....the Pack will win

The 49ers biggest weapon is their defense. The pressure is on us to execute and move the chains, and overcome our bad OL. All SF needs to do is keep it close and they'll have a good chance.

I'm not as worried about Gore. I'm worried about our own offense executing and finishing drives.

Next one..

Statistical Breakout: ( GB VS SF) And Analysis:

AR Versus Smith

AR #4 in Passing in NFL QB Rating of 101.8
Smith # 37 Not enought Starts Yet this year NFL QB Rating of 79.5

RB Comparisons

Grant #9 in NFL 4.2 yds per Carry 700 Yards
Gore #15 in NFL 5.2 yds per carry 551 Yards

Offensive Rankings

GB-Overall #9 ( Pass # 11 , Rush # 12)
Niners -Overall #27 ( Pass # 26 Rush # 22)

Defensive Rankings

GB -Overall #4 ( Pass #5 Rush # 4)
SF -Overall #17 ( Pass #28 Rush #3)

Analysis ( JMO)

GB On Offense:

So from reading the stats , we need to Play off the Pass to keep there front 7 Honest by Screens, Quick Slants, Draws , Rollouts and Quick Hitches Attack them in the passing game and place the onus on there secondary to contain us. This will help set up the run, No Deep Dropbacks from Rodgers to keep the pressure off of him and the O line from getting the early sacks and placing us in 1'st and Long and or 2'nd and Long. Get out to a early lead to place pressure on there Offense. ( this way Capers and D can pin there ears back)


GB On Defense:

Keep pressure on Smith and Attack him early and often to get him out of his game and place them on there heals. Keep the Blitzing and pressure from Hawk, Mathews and Barnett. Play Woodsen as we have against VD and make sure we contain him. Harris should be able to man up on Crabtree and Allow the safetys to play over top and bait Smith into a INT...Contain Gore and dont let him have the cutback lanes.. Control the gaps...


Special teams-

Crosby is 15/20 with 4 of the 5 misses further then 50 Yards.. ST coaching should make sure they know which direction he can hit them from if they determine to try anything over 50.

Hopefully Jordy is back helping on Returns and Kapinos needs to start punting it like he is in practice.

Contain there returns so we can defend more then half the field, and maybe start winning the field position battle. The field position we have been giving up on these are not helping us put an opponent away after we score. If we can start containing them deep at there end of the field it opens things up for Capers and the D.


Miscellaneous:

Penalitys and SACKS... They must be lower so we can see improvment... Period... These 2 Things continue to crop up and create problems in the Offense getting into a Rythym... Need to clamp down in these two areas.. would really like to see the offense get on track without these types of things shooting us in our foot.

Challenges- Booth Buddies need to get this corrected whomever in the booth that has been sending this info to MM needs to get there glasses checked before they buzz...

Well that is my take and JMO.....

The 49ers run D is pretty stout. Their passing D? Not so much. AR won't throw horrid picks like Culter did last week and if our D can keep the Girls off the board we should be able to do that again on Sunday.

But you have to remember Gore missed 3 weeks due to injury. If he is healthy then most likely he is well ahead of Grant in yards.

That should not diminsh Grants stats. He has done a pretty damn good job.

Also IF not all the holding calls, how many yards does Grant have ???

Around 800 IMO.