Green Bay Packers

All my real life brothas throw your hands up!! Whoa...wait a minute now Jordy.

Ran across this article on Green Bay Packers Jordy Nelson and how he and his teammates think that opposing defenders don’t take him as seriously cause he’s white.

There’s a joke in the receivers meeting room that Nelson benefits by being the only white receiver on the team because perhaps opposing defensive backs don’t take him seriously.

“Honestly, I think it is (a factor),” Nelson said. “As receivers, we’ve talked about. I know (cornerbacks coach) Joe Whitt tells me all the time, when all the rookies come in, he gives them the heads up, ‘Don’t let him fool ya.’ That’s fine with me.”

Said Jennings: “He uses that to his advantage. Don’t put this out there because that’s our secret. But no, seriously, he has taken full advantage of every position that he’s been in whether it be special teams with the kick return game, now being the No. 2 … however you want to put it, he’s taken full advantage of it. It’s not because he didn’t put the time in. It’s not because he’s the white guy. A lot of it has to do with the fact that guys look at him say, ‘OK, yeah, he’s the white guy, he can’t be that good.’ Well, he is that good. He’s proven to be that good, and it’s because of the work and the time that he’s put on not only on the field but in his preparation off the field.”

I can see there being some truth here though I think Wes Welker has pretty much blown whatever cover white receivers had completely to pieces at this point. Anyway, cute little secret weapon inside joke on the Packers team. Use what you got.

Packers Cornerback Charles Woodson needs his ass beat!

The NFL welcomed us fans back in style with a better opening game than they could have EVER hoped for. It was a high-scoring, low-penalty, uppercutting (whaaat?!?!) kind of game that was so uptempo I felt my heart rate going up despite at least 10 boring ass’d touchbacks.

This ain’t ESPN or your local newspaper so I’m not gonna recap the game. But I’ll give a few of my observations:

Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees are two of the best QBs in the league. This is a Captain Obvious sort of thing. But Rodgers breezed through plays and made everything from footwork to back shoulder throws look effortless. Brees threaded the needle on some pretty impressive passes and I don’t remember even one interception.  I had no idea that the Saints were in some sort of contract dispute with Brees but they might want to go ahead and empty their wallets right away. As the Packers D threw Brees myriad looks they actually showed him on the sidelines flipping through pages tryin to figure out his next move. In a game like this one, a lesser QB would’ve cracked. In this instance I can guess that Brees was quite a help to Saints Coach Sean Payton who seemed to be struggling with play calling.

Example: pass play on 4th an inches.

Looks at rookie power runner Mark Ingram.

Now at the kicker.

Now back at Mark Ingram.

Now back at the kicker.

Now back at Mark Ingram.

Sadly, Sean Payton didn’t look at either of them

This was one of those games that felt a lot more one-sided than it was simply because one team made it look effortless (Packers) and the other team made it look tiresome (Saints).

The Saints D is change you probably can’t believe in. Coming into the season there were certain supposedly good defenses that I was skeptical about. The Saints D is one of them (along with the Ravens and pre-infirmary Giants). Roman Harper is bearing the brunt of the criticism just like most defensive backs do cause hey, who really sees when a linebacker or defensive end messes up. I’m not saying Harper is playing on an elite level, but the reality is the Packers offense was doing whatever they felt when they wanted to.  Blown coverages aren’t just the result of one failing secondary player.

Ultimately the defense needs to gel, and the Saints front and secondary weren’t on the same page. And worse, they seemed content to settle for stopping the gain after passes were caught. And against a team like the Packers that simply won’t do. Now if we want to talk about the secondary, I will say Rodgers looked completely bored by the Saints pass rush. Harper did manage to sack him with 6 minutes left in the game but umm…yeah so…mmhmm yeah.

Long story short: The Saints were competitive with an elite team so there’s no need to put Roman Harper’s car on blocks…yet.

The Packers are that rare combo of fundamentally sound and exciting. The thing I hate most about the Packers is that they’re impossible to hate. Fundamental football teams are always more interesting than fundamental basketball teams (think New England Patriots vs. San Antonio Spurs) but the Packers don’t just give flashes of brilliance they produce eye-popping plays all game. If they continue on like this, they will breeze through the season. Remember, last year they had about 16 players on IR by mid-season. They come into this season pretty healthy and not at all rusty by the looks of it.

I will tell you what IS rusty though, that Lambeau Leap. I can do without it. It’s one thing when there’s a few scores in a game, but when you have a college basketball scoring numbers every time a scorer Lambeau leaps I wanna leap through my screen and helmet to helmet hit him. And I’m an actual dirty player not a media-exaggerated one like Ndamukong Suh.

If Ingram’s knee holds up the Saints will have a bright run game. Saints took a bit of a chance drafting an RB who already had knee surgery before he ever played a down in the NFL. But Ingram, though semi-misused in this game, had a great showing tonight and he’s looks as though he will add a lot to the team. Darren Sproles is the teeniest little running back my eyes ever did see, but boy was he something else last night.  A lot of talk on twitter about Reggie Bush (perhaps he’s the only Saints player some Saints fans knew? I’m sure they can name all the Falcons RBs though… No shots!) but Sproles game is come-pleat-lee different.

To say that Sproles gives them a more consistent run option is like saying it’s been raining in DC all week. Okay, and? Bush isn’t just a running back. When healthy he’s a playmaker that gives you more than one option out of the slot. Maybe Sproles will be a playmaker too, he certainly showed some potential, but comparing grapefruits to watermelons has never been my thing. But  I guess when you’re main motivation is to make jokes, mock and slander, those comparisons come in handy. woop dee do! Besides, at 5’6 Sproles has an advantage: it’s hard to tackle somebody you can’t even see from your vantage point.

Charles Woods needs his ass beat. So during the game Packers cornerback Charles Woodson, who says he’s the most complete player in the league (no disrespect, but I can only guess he gets his information from Fox News), uppercut one of the Saints players and managed to get away with it. Now Woodson’s weight is listed at 200lbs. I would guess him at slightly less. At any rate, in high school the security cameras allegedly caught me pushing a 200+lbs dude down the steps after he made a snide comment about my side ponytail, may he rest in peace (I didn’t kill him, he died years later). So there’s no reason Woodson should have still be standing after what he did. Who dat dem gonna uppercut dem saints. Woodson I guess.

Bottom line: I hate the Saints and I want to hate the Packers. One more Lambeau Leap or win over the Falcons and I’m sure I will accomplish my goal.

If remembered anything wrong, cuss me out/correct me in the comments section.  I’m not rewatching any games cause, again, I ain’t your local reporter. I’m your neighborhood blogger. Get into me!

Congrats to the Packers. They lost key players to injury in the Super Bowl and still managed to pull out a victory.

LEAD UP AND PRE-GAME

Let’s start out by saying, I don’t give a damn about the Super Bowl unless my team is playing. I just watch because I love football. The Super Bowl becomes even more of a production every year. Now we’re up to two full weeks of Super Bowl talk all around mainstream media plus a weekend of stories and interviews and flashbacks etc.

I do enjoy “some” of it. But now that the NFL has replaced baseball as America’s sport, the level of attention paid to the Super Bowl from all spheres has become overwhelming. So much so, I really didn’t pay much attention to most of it.

As far as the pre-game was concerned, I get making Super Bowl a distinctly Americans event-we love holidays and nostalgia. But this year’s Super Bowl was full of unwelcome and uncomfortable propaganda. All sorts of lines about “freedom” and “independence” read by players, coaches, and military men and women, among others. It felt like it was airing on the history channel, only the Fox News version where there are colonies and colonizers but no small pox blankets or slaves.

In fact, they actually talked about the colonies. Awkward. The tone of pre-game production wasn’t my cup of tea. I suggest the NFL keep the history references to a minimum unless they’re referring to the evolution of the game.

The National Anthem And Whatnot

In a show of shameless promotion, Fox decided to have Lea Michele from the sitcom(?) “Glee” sing “America the Beautiful.” Unfortunately, it sounded ugly. Too bad the NFL doesn’t have any Canadian expansion teams, cause that would have been a good reason to drag Tamia out to sing “Oh Canada.” ANYTHING would have been better.

Christina Aguilera’s rendition of the Star-spangled Banner was simply awful! She oversang, messed up the words, and looked like a goth blob. Most people who sing the anthem choose to pre-record. That eliminates these sorts of embarrassments. But alas she sung her rendition live. I’m sure she wishes she had a time machine.

Speaking of the anthem, Americans will bet on anything, and by anything I mean the over/under on how long it would take Aguilera to finish the national anthem. The two big gambling sites bodog.com and Bookmaker.com clocked the time differently (1:53.7 and 1:54.2 respectively), sending the online gambling world into a frenzy.

I may or may not be exaggerating.

HALFTIME

I thought the Black Eyed Peas did a good job but they put quantity over quality, opting for a effect-driven show rather than a talent-driven one. 500 dancers and I don’t even know how many songs were in their medley-7 maybe? They also bought out both Slash and Usher. I thought both were great, but Fergie’s singing wasn’t as good as it normally is and the songs jumped genres and had no real flow.

But luckily I like their party music, so I jigged a little and was satisfied for the most part. I think if you like BEP, generally speaking, the performance was good, if you don’t it was a tragic mistake.

Kind of hard to please anyone who’s seen Michael Jackson and Prince perform at halftime.

THE GAME

The first quarter simply wasn’t competitive. The Packers ran over the Steelers scoring two quick touch downs. The rest of the game was much better, but turnovers and dropped balls pervaded it making the energy a bit uneven.  Still a a good game overall (probably not in the top 10 of those I’ve seen in my lifetime though).

I remain kind of in disbelief that defensive titans Harrison, Polamalu, Farrior, and Clark made very little impact on the game.The Packers Defense played well-they looked confused for a bit after CB Charles Woodson left the game with a broken collar bone, but eventually pulled themselves back together and continued to apply pressure.

Ben Roethlisberger made some crucial errors and turnovers including 2 interceptions. The Packers converted Steelers’ turnovers into 21 points, and I think that really tells a lot of the story. Rodgers looked to be heading into his normal bad-second-half routine that he’s had throughout this year’s playoffs but it didn’t last very long. He really put together a good game.

RODGERS VS. FAVRE

I think it would be a nice gesture if Favre called Rodgers personally to congratulate him. Favre has been a hard act to follow in terms of winning the hearts and minds of fans. But as you can see from Rodgers’ play this year and Favre’s stints with the Jets and Vikings, the Packers made the right choice in sticking with Rodgers.

I’m sure Packers fans will have no problem coming to terms with this now that that they have another Lombardi trophy to show for it. Besides, after only 3 years they have a QB that gets to be in the ranks of the “chosen ones” that analysts shower with deference and positivity. A land where no black man shall ever live. Just one more thing to celebrate.

DEPRESSION

I do watch other sports; however football is the only sport that matters. The lockout that is looming is like a dark cloud over my life. Speaking of life, unfortunately, with football season over I have to get one.

I’m glad that the combine is coming up soon because that’s always a good time, well, to me anyway.

Even though the season is over I will still be busy on this blog. It’s in the process of being redesigned and I’m working on some special projects to introduce that will make next football season even more fun for me and hopefully for my readers as well.