No. 1 Rush Defense vs No. 1 Rush Offense

[Swanny]

I know I should know better, but I have a hard time taking this version of the Packers all that seriously. They're obviously a good team, but with Rodgers merely human and their strength reportedly in the DL, this seems like a game we can win. In fact, I'm a bit perplexed that we started out 5.5 point road dogs in the first place. Anybody who's followed them closer than I have able to educate me as to why they're favorites?

They are favorites because of Rodgers. Yes he's now Human but still good. Nick Perry is ballin out of his mind and Mike Daniels is a top 5 DL in football. I think the Packers will do whatever it takes to make Dak beat them. This game will be fun to see what Dak can do. GO DAK!

 

[marius]

yes but cowboys its the 2nd best offensive on the league and green bay its the 9th best defense on the league, cowboys win in cinci being the 11 best defense on the league, can win

 

[Kevinicus]

Yep.. It really comes down to how well our defense does against Rodgers.

I hate this matchup for our team.. Absolutely hate it. I think we are better than them but their strength offensively is our weakness defensively and they play the run well defensively.

It's weird, but their strength offensively appears to be running the ball. They are 27th in passing (Rodgers is 20th or so in passer rating), but 12th rushing. I don't know what to make of them, but they certainly haven't been that great so far. Perhaps they are not the team we thought they were, and the problems were more than just Jordy being out last year.

 

[CATCH17]

It's weird, but their strength offensively appears to be running the ball. They are 27th in passing (Rodgers is 20th or so in passer rating), but 12th rushing. I don't know what to make of them, but they certainly haven't been that great so far. Perhaps they are not the team we thought they were, and the problems were more than just Jordy being out last year.

I hope you guys are right but i'll believe it if that is the case Sunday.

They are 3-1 with Dallas coming to town and i'm sure we will get their best shot.

 

[perrykemp]

Perhaps they are not the team we thought they were, and the problems were more than just Jordy being out last year.

I think the fact that Nelson missed all of last year an so far has looked like a shell of his former self is a big part of it.

Nelson is one of the best deep ball receivers in NFL history and for the past 5 years the Packers have relied on Nelson to blow the top off of the defense -- opening everything up underneath for the Randall Cobb, Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley's, etc of the world.

Now Nelson is averaging 11 yards a catch and at age 31, recovering from a blown ACL, there is a good chance he'll never be that guy again.

Honestly, people talk about how good the Packers WR are -- I just don't see it anymore with the current group of Nelson, Cobb, and Adams (who looks very average to me). Their TEs are nobodies and they have a plodding running game.

The Packer's down the field explosiveness is long gone and isn't coming back this season.

Beyond all that Rodgers hasn't been himself and now, 16 games into this stretch of average play, you have to wonder if this is more than a 'funk'... ie his skills are diminishing as he approaches age 33.

What they do have is a top notch OL and a decent running game.

It's a very different team.

 

[Idgit]

I think the fact that Nelson missed all of last year an so far has looked like a shell of his former self is a big part of it.

Nelson is one of the best deep ball receivers in NFL history and for the past 5 years the Packers have relied on Nelson to blow the top off of the defense -- opening everything up underneath for the Randall Cobb, Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley's, etc of the world.

Now Nelson is averaging 11 yards a catch and at age 31, recovering from a blown ACL, there is a good chance he'll never be that guy again.

Honestly, people talk about how good the Packers WR are -- I just see it anymore with the current form of Nelson, Cobb, and Adams (who looks very average to me). There TEs are nobodies and they have a plodding running game.

The explosiveness is long gone and isn't coming back this season.

Beyond all that Rodgers hasn't been himself and now, 16 games in, you have to wonder if this is more than a 'funk'... ie his skills are diminishing as he approaches age 33.

What they do have is a top notch OL an a decent running game.

It's a very different team.

Thanks, percy. I know you see them a lot, so the input's valuable.

 

[Idgit]

It's weird, but their strength offensively appears to be running the ball. They are 27th in passing (Rodgers is 20th or so in passer rating), but 12th rushing. I don't know what to make of them, but they certainly haven't been that great so far. Perhaps they are not the team we thought they were, and the problems were more than just Jordy being out last year.

There's a changing of the guard going on in the North, for sure. They're still a dangerous home team, though.

This is shaping up to be one of the best games of the year so far.

 

[dogunwo]

Viewing some Packers message boards, the fans are definitely worried about this game, especially Zeke.

 

[Diehardblues]

I'm looking more forward to see how the Packers 27th ranked passing attack vs the Cowboys 19th passing defense.

 

[Diehardblues]

Rodgers is the 29th ranked passer. Shocking!

He looked effective enough Sun nite. I think he will look effective this Sunday.

 

[skinsscalper]

Exactly a very misleading stat. Jax...no legit running game and terrible OL. Minn AD was hurt in this game but they did shut him down until he got hurt. Detroit...no legit running game. Gnats....no legit running backs. Very misleading ranking for the pack imo.

Agreed and even when you throw AP into the mix it's still not impressive. Minny's O-line is absolute trash. Peterson had 50 yards on 31 carries before he was injured. Their leading rusher has 174 yards on the entire season through 5 games. They (literally) rank 32nd in rushing in the entire league. Even AP wasn't able to fight his way through that garbage pile.

I'm tellin' ya, the Cowboys O-line and Zeke are going to show Green Bay that they aren't even average against the run when Sunday rolls around.

 

[Hoov]

The giants had opportunity to beat them - Eli was missing open receivers and was just bad throughout the game. Rodgers didn't look like he was finding his open guys without having to buy time by running around in the early going. I was surprised that he was having to hold the ball as long as he did.

 

[Diehardblues]

There's a changing of the guard going on in the North, for sure. They're still a dangerous home team, though.

This is shaping up to be one of the best games of the year so far.

Yes there is.

Vikings defense is a force to be reckoned with and Bradford appears to have found a home but he's very injury prone .

But if he can stay healthy they will be a threat to go to Super Bowl especially if they have home field advantage.

Just another team in NFC that's built a ferocious defense with a bus driving QB that could go all the way.

 

[skinsscalper]

Rodgers is the 29th ranked passer. Shocking!

He looked effective enough Sun nite. I think he will look effective this Sunday.

He really didn't though, bro. He threw 2 INTS and had an ETERNITY to throw the ball all night long. Romo would shred ANY defense that gave him the amount of time that the Giants gave Rodgers (and no this isn't a Romo/Dak argument).

That dude and his offense are NOT what people remember them for. They are sloppy, slow, and anything but efficient.

 

[Diehardblues]

What's the weather forecasted for Sunday? No rain I hope. Still Oct so not too cold yet.

I attended our game at Lambeau in Oct 1989. It was still chilly. I left Dallas with a light jacket and ended up having to buy my first Bomber leather jacket there. I was freezing in the 40's when sun went down .

 

[Diehardblues]

He really didn't though, bro. He threw 2 INTS and had an ETERNITY to throw the ball all night long. Romo would shred ANY defense that gave him the amount of time that the Giants gave Rodgers (and no this isn't a Romo/Dak argument).

That dude and his offense are NOT what people remember them for. They are sloppy, slow, and anything but efficient.

I do admit I was distracted watching that game. I had the sound turned down on my 2nd TV watching and listening to Debate. I didn't recall any specifics .

 

[tyke1doe]

I think the fact that Nelson missed all of last year an so far has looked like a shell of his former self is a big part of it.

Nelson is one of the best deep ball receivers in NFL history and for the past 5 years the Packers have relied on Nelson to blow the top off of the defense -- opening everything up underneath for the Randall Cobb, Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley's, etc of the world.

Now Nelson is averaging 11 yards a catch and at age 31, recovering from a blown ACL, there is a good chance he'll never be that guy again.

Honestly, people talk about how good the Packers WR are -- I just don't see it anymore with the current group of Nelson, Cobb, and Adams (who looks very average to me). Their TEs are nobodies and they have a plodding running game.

The Packer's down the field explosiveness is long gone and isn't coming back this season.

Beyond all that Rodgers hasn't been himself and now, 16 games into this stretch of average play, you have to wonder if this is more than a 'funk'... ie his skills are diminishing as he approaches age 33.

What they do have is a top notch OL and a decent running game.

It's a very different team.

Summary: The Packers are an aging team, and the Cowboys are a young team with a young quarterback, a young running back, a young offensive line, a young secondary and a young defensive line.

If we can bottle up Rodgers, I think we wear them down.

Cowboys 27
Packers 21

 

[Idgit]

Yes there is.

Vikings defense is a force to be reckoned with and Bradford appears to have found a home but he's very injury prone .

But if he can stay healthy they will be a threat to go to Super Bowl especially if they have home field advantage.

Just another team in NFC that's built a ferocious defense with a bus driving QB that could go all the way.

I called my shot on that one. If I'm Bradford, I'm sweating the PHI game something fierce. It just seems like something PHI would do: take advantage of your desperation to trade you a QB, and then knock that QB out when they play you with some sort of questionable hit (think of Hicks driving Tony's shoulder into the turf). With the thin MIN OL, it just seems like the sort of thing the Eagles would do....even if it hurts their own draft position from the trade.

 

[skinsscalper]

I do admit I was distracted watching that game. I had the sound turned down on my 2nd TV watching and listening to Debate. I didn't recall any specifics .

I watched every second of it in anticipation of our matchup this week. I walked away thinking "There's no freaking way that Dallas is afraid of this team. No way". Now, with that being said, you always have to give a guy like Rodgers his respect because........well.....he's Aaron freaking Rodgers but he's not the same guy this year that everyone is used to seeing. That is for damned sure.

I've watched bits and pieces of every Green Bay game this year (and all of the Minny game because my wife is a Vikings fan) and outside of one game (Detroit) their offense has been utter garbage. If Dallas starts marching on Green Bay like we started rolling on Cincy, this game will be over by the end of the 3rd quarter.

 

[drawandstrike]

Cincy had the 9th ranked D in the NFL going into our game. We dropped them 2 spots to #11.

http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst...OTAL_YARDS_GAME_AVG&d-447263-o=1&d-447263-n=1

Now it's the Packers that occupy that #9 spot for overall defense.

Not sure what the Bengal D was rated against the run before we played them, but we dropped them #19 in the league. Green Bay is, as we're discussing in this thread, #1.

For now. I don't think they are going to be #1 once we're done playing them.

Right now, Packers are the 24th ranked pass defense. I'm pretty sure we're gonna drop them there, too.