Packers Crush Falcons: Reviews & Grades

Senior writer jclombardi reviews & grades Packers win over Falcons.

Summary: QB Rodgers threw 3 touchdowns and rushed for 1 touchdown as the Packers crushed the Falcons 48-21. Next Sunday, the Packers face the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game.

Game balls: QB Rodgers; WR Nelson; WR Jones; CB Williams; LB Matthews.

Injury Report: CB Lee (hip). FB Kuhn (neck stinger) and NT Raji (head) are okay.

Report Card–Good, Bad, & Ugly: JC vs SE:

Pass Offense–A vs A-. QB Rodgers was unstoppable making clutch throws while avoiding pressure and throwing accurate deep passes. He completed 36 passes for 366 yards, three touchdowns, and 136.8 passer rating ripping overmatched Falcons secondary. He completed passes to eight different receivers. WRs Jennings, Driver, Jones and Nelson combined for an amazing 26 catches for 331 yards. WR Jennings had 8 catches for 101 yards and 1 big fumble. WR Nelson made 8 clutch catches for 79 yards and 1 touchdown. WR Driver had 6 clutch catches for 76 yards. WR Jones made 4 clutch catches for 75 yards and 1 big touchdown. Also, FB Kuhn had 2 catches for 14 yards and 1 touchdown. While rookie RT Bulaga generally played solid overall game giving up only 1 sack, no pressure, and solid run blocking. RT Clifton struggled in pass protection giving up soft protection and 1 sack.

Rush Offense–C+ vs C. The Packers rushed a pedestrian 96 yards on 31 carries averaging 3.1 yards. RB Starks had his moments running with power and speed getting 66 yards on 25 carries. In the first half, he got only 14 yards on 9 carries. In the second half, he got 4 carries for 27 yards on a big touchdown drive. RB Jackson had 1 carry for 13 yards. FB Kuhn rushed for 1 touchdown. QB Rodgers had 1 red zone touchdown.

Pass Defense–B+ vs A-. DC Capers defensive plan worked getting strong blitz pressure defense to rattle Falcons QB Ryan. Facing blitz pressure and tight coverage, Falcons QB Ryan completed only 20 of 29 passes for 1 touchdown, 186 yards, 2 big interceptions, 1 fumble, and horrible 69 passer rating. WR White had 6 catches for 57 yards and 1 touchdown. In the span of two and one-half minutes before the first half, CB Williams had a touchback interception and then scored on a momentum changing interception. The Packers had five big sacks on blitzes.

Rush Defense—C+ vs C+. In the first half, RB Turner had 9 carries for 37 yards and 1 touchdown. In the second half, with the Falcons facing a rout, he had only 1 carry. For the game, RB Turner had only 10 carries for 39 yards averaging 3.9 yards. The effective weapon against Turner was to force the Falcons into their passing game and make Ryan commit mistakes. CB Woodson had 6 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, 1 sack and 1 QB hit, while LB Bishop had 6 tackles and 1 fumble recovery. OLB Matthews had an overall impressive game with 4 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss, 2 sacks and 2 QB hits.

Special teams—D+ vs D. Punter Masthay, who wasn’t needed to punt once, was off the hook from a lot of blame to go around with another lousy performance by the special-teams units. Eric Weems added to Green Bay’s malaise in the early going with a record-setting 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to put the Falcons up 14-7. Then, Starks inexplicably tried to field the ensuing kickoff as it sailed toward the sideline and the ball glanced off him out of bounds inside the Packers’ 10. Starks averaged just 10 yards in two runbacks. Also, the Packers tried Pat Lee on another kickoff. Williams didn’t have a punt return with two fair catches. Crosby rallied after a 50-yard field-goal attempt hit off the left upright with makes of 43 and 32 yards.

Coaching–A- vs B. Maligned special teams coordinator Slocum can thank his colleagues for bailing him out with a dominating performance by the offense and defense. Head coach/play caller McCarthy had his finest hours in orchestrating the offense on an injury-marred secondary. McCarthy didn’t abandon the effective running game to do so intermixing runs to soften up the Falcons even more on play-action. DC Capers also applied the full-court pressure in the indoor venue, shaking, rattling and rolling Ryan out of his unflappable tendencies in the pocket with a heavy dose of blitzes. The Packers finished with big advantages in total yards (442-194) and time of possession (38:19-21:41). The Packers were 8 for 12 in third down conversions and 4 for 6 in the red zone. They had 6 penalties for 65 yards and 1 fumble.

Overall Game—A- vs. A (CBS Sportsline). With the score tied at 14, QB Rodgers took over & never looked back. Rodgers threw for 366 yards and 3 touchdowns. Despite team’s No. 6 seed, Packers are likely favorite to represent NFC in Super Bowl.

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Packers Crush Cowboys: Reviews & Grades

Senior writer jclombardi grades Packers win over Cowboys.

SUMMARY: QB Rodgers threw for 289 yards and 3 touchdowns and RB Jackson scored twice as the Packers crushed the Cowboys 45-7. The Packers defense dominated destroying the Cowboys.

GAME BALLS: LB Matthews; QB Rodgers; LB Bishop; WR Jones; CB Bush; S Collins.

INJURY REPORT: DE Pickett (ankle sprain).  CB Harris was released.

QUOTE: After LB Matthews’ interception touchdown, NBC’s game commentator Collinsworth said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen somebody humiliate the Cowboys like this,” We sympathize with the Packers nation who suffered throughout the game with the endless biased Cowboys coverage.  Who cares if Phillips got fired?  The Packers are America’s team.

Report Card Grades–Good, Bad, & Ugly (JC vs. SE):

PASSING OFFENSE:  A vs A-. QB Rodgers had a good day throwing 27 of 34 passes for 289 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions. Rodgers had good command of the pocket with good protection with all linemen, even LT Clifton and rookie RT Bulaga, playing well. Generally, except for one or two plays. Rodgers established great sync with his receivers using high-percentage short and intermediate throws. WR Jones led the receivers with 8 catches for 123 yards and one touchdown. The spread out offense with quick slants and short-passes to wide-outs game plan destroyed the Cowboys passing defense.

RUSING OFFENSE: B VS B+. The Packers struggled rushing, but they got 128 total yards. FB Kuhn had RB Jackson combined for a tough 92 yards. QB Rodgers scrambled for 48 yards.

PASSING DEFENSE: A- vs A-. Cowboys QB Kitna completed only 19 of 30 passes for 183 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions under constant pressure. The interception highlight was the one returned by LB Matthews for a touchdown. Although rookie CB Shields had a great interception, he struggled covering WR Bryant especially on one big offensive series giving up a touchdown. S Collins got fined $50,000 for his inadvertent helmet-to-helmet hit on WR Williams. Rusty S Bigby got into the game, but we do not see him replacing consistent S Peprah.

RUSHING DEFENSE: A vs A. Led by the front seven line, the rush defense returned to its stout days limiting the Cowboys rushing to 14 rushes for 39 yards averaging a miserable 2.8 average. LB Matthews and LB Bishop dominated the inside rush defense. After LB Matthews stuffed RB Barber on a running plays, the Cowboys simply gave up running the ball.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B+ vs B. Although the kickoff coverage was shaky, they came up with two big turnovers. First, S Collins returned a fumble for a 26 yard touchdown (was the player down?).Then Bush recovered another fumble leading to another score. P Masthay had a good day averaging 49.5 gross yards and 47.5 net yards as the two kicks that landed inside the 20. Yet, K Crosby had a 54 early field goal blocked and his late first half kickoff went out-of-bounds gave good field position to the Cowboys leading to their only score. PR Williams averaged only just 4.4 yards. Rookie KR Shields will return kickoffs, especially after he returned his only one for 49 yards. S Bigby and LB Walden both looked rusty on coverage.

COACHING: A vs A. The Packers had their best game of the year with all three units delivering an outstanding performance. The game plan was solid using the simple spread out offense with 3 or 4 receivers. McCarthy focused upon using an effective running game with 34 rushing plays, employing even the old-school three backs backfield. DC Capers called another great defensive game using LB Matthews, LB Hawk, and CB Woodson on effective combination blitz schemes. The Packers go into the bye week 6-3 at the top of their NFC North division.

OVERALL: A- vs CBS Sportsline A-. The only thing the Packers didn’t do well was cover kickoffs. It was apparent they were up against a team that had no desire to make a game of it, so it’s hard to tell how well they played. The running game was solid and did just enough to keep the Cowboys off balance. The defense caused two turnovers.

COMMENTARY: The Packers are very lucky. GM Thompson did a great job getting replacement and solid backup players, especially from the later rounds in the drafts, the waivers, and free agencies. CB Shields, DE Wilson, S Peprah, LB Zombo, and DE Green really helped the team during a tough injury filled period in the 2010 season. Without them, the Packers would be 3-6 instead of a winning 6-3 record.

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