CheezWizHed

Packers are coming off a mini-bye (10 days). During that time, they were planning to actually incorporate Parson into the team's defense... yes, he has been playing mostly "ad hoc" to this point. The Browns are... well the Browns. They are starting the 40-year-old Joe Flacco (whom I keep wanting to call Vinny Testaverde). Joe, Vinny, or some scarecrow planted on a post will all have about the same ability to escape the Packer's pass rush. The Browns better have a good run game or a ton of short throws and misdirection to keep Vinny...er Joe on the Green side instead of taking a Brown dirt nap that Parsons and the Packer D will be trying to give him (which is ironic at several levels). Packers are favored by a ton in this game, but it is also our first game on the road. And our banged-up OL will need to deal with and equal pass rusher in Garrett, whom many in Packer land (me included), were hoping would end up a Packer in a miracle trade... more irony. Time to take the Green and Gold show on the road!

Yes, we all know Micah Parsons impacts the whole defense. But Nixon proved he was a starting outside CB in the league last year. Not HOF, not All-Pro, not even ProBowl... just a solid starting outside CB. But people still chirped about him being outside again this year. I think he has proved he belongs at outside CB. That is also why I gave Gute some credit for bringing in Hobbs to be an outside CB. Perhaps our system fits those two better as outside CB? I was very comfortable with Nixon, Hobbs, and Valentine as the people getting most of our snaps at outside CB. There might not be a high ceiling with those three, but it gave us a pretty high floor. I do agree (and always did) that our depth was the biggest concern. We have a lot of youth and inexperience there... but hopefully some gems start to form out of the dust... or perhaps another waiver/PS addition as the year goes on will help our depth. And of course... Micah's (and the rest of our DL's) impact will certainly help cover our DB backend. Detroit's pass rush showed that you need more than one guy and thankfully, we have more than one.

What do you mean?? Micah would be great dropping back into coverage to shut down Justin Jefferson!

Pretty much... I didn't see his RB get injured, but that just makes it worse for him. McLaurin and the LT Tunsil are the only players that look like you can build around. Deebo is an interesting player, but pretty much a gimmick player, not a route runner. And he is almost 30. Hasn't been truly dangerous for a few seasons. Ertz is very much over the hill. at this point in his career. Brown is a low #2 at best, probably #3 WR on a team that wants to win the SB. I didn't watch Washington last year much so I was legitimately stunned at poor weapons they have around Jayden and he still led them to the NFC championship? Kind of reminded me of the final Rodgers years when he had Adams and not much else. Swap Love and Jayden and I shudder to think what would've happened to Love under that amount of pressure.

My game summary thoughts: The entire DB was solid and covered well all night. Nixon won't play like that every night, but it seems like he continues to improve as a CB. Funny there were still some in TC thinking he wasn't an outside CB. Very sticky tonight with a lot of breakups. Bullard looked much more active too. Really aggressive in attacking last night. Hobbs looks very quick also. Of course, I don't think Washington has much of a WR core, but still. Walker and Cooper were excellent. Walker had a few swing and misses, but mainly because he was being aggressive... I'll take mistakes that way. McDuffie barely played as we were in nickel so much. DL - Ok, Parsons makes an impact on everyone, but still... that was impressive. So many people with sacks and pressures last night. Wyatt was on fire. Run D, Sacks/pressures, batted down balls... he was everywhere. Wooden - where was this version of you the last couple of years? It is like he is a different player. Run D is so impressive. I do think that we haven't seen a good OL yet... a couple of good players (who we have made look bad), but a large group of meh players/rookies... Will be interesting to play a more established line. OL - solid, but not spectacular. Good for having 2 starters out. WR - The silver lining of Reed stepping out is that his foot can heal. And Golden will get more reps in the slot. Everyone did great last night and in typical fashion... everyone had a part to play. I'm not worried too much about Golden's lack of catches. That will come for the rookie. We have a lot of options. He had a lot of "press" this offseason and people are focusing a bit more on him. They will back off now to focus on others and he will bust out. TEs - Kraft! What a night on national TV. Time for some national accolades. Nice to see Musgrave chip in this week, but he still looks like a baby giraffe when he tries to catch a football. Just can't stay on his feet. Love - really nice overall night for Love. He does run hot/cold, but most QBs do that at times. I'm concerned about his ability to pick up the blitz though. It still seems to "surprise" him and he has no plan for a hot read. The OL was part of it, I'm sure... but he has to read the blitz and make the adjustments necessary or a D like MN will eat him alive. Overall... way too many penalties. That kept Washington in the game. MLF won his challenge, so we have that going for us. Nice win all around though. I'm also impressed by Jayden Daniels. He picks up the blitz better than Love does. He has so few weapons at his disposal though... Get him an OL, a few WRs, and a TE that isn't at his EOL and he will be dangerous.

Yeah, I saw that about Wilson too... except he was back with the Vikings, so I was missing him, but not cheering for him. 😉

Hopper: It was preseason... so the obvious caveats are there. But it looked like Hopper was cut loose from whatever was holding him back last year (thinking too much?). He was seriously fast and moved around the OL really well. Frankly, he reminded me of Quay (without getting tied up blocks). He was in on a ton of tackles... similar to what we saw week 1 from the defense - everyone was gang tackling. Obviously, he needs to transfer that to the regular games too... but I did see one writer speculate if Hopper might replace McDuffie in the starting lineup soon. We will see....

Ah. The "Tom and Walker" comment had me thinking OL. Depending on how Hopper looks this year (he looked great in preseason)... it wouldn't shock me to see them let Walker leave. He is a highly athletic LB, but has his warts. Plus, the downside of getting Parsons is that there will be some tough decisions to make on other extensions. Well, I only bet on certainties! Yeah, I completely forgot that we took care of Tom. Parson fever took over!

If I was a betting man, I'd bet money on Tom getting a contract and Walker walking. Morgan is ready to take the LT spot and you have to save money somewhere. Walker is a good but not great LT.

But Philadelphia is 23 games over 500 at home and 1 on the road...

Math and lunch... didn't mix well. 🤦‍♂️

I've assumed this has been happening for a while.... someone gets "dinged" and they get a light vacation on the IL. Let them rest a bit, limit innings pitched, refresh the body and get everyone 100% for the playoffs.

Fixed that for you. Ever since '85...

Normally a QB that can run (i.e. more than scramble) kills us, but I like Hafley's defense with Walker+Cooper here. I don't think Jayden is going to have nearly as much room to run. Still a good and accurate passer, but if you take away the run game, that tightens those passing windows.

I disagree. If someone thinks Payamps figured something out at AAA, we could be giving a decent reliever to our competition for free. I would suspect this is more about what we could give someone than what the Brewers would lose. Now, granted... he hasn't looked good in two appearances so far. If that continues then certainly no playoff team is going to use him. I'm guessing the Brewers will ensure he still looks bad before doing that.

I like big numbers. With 18 games left, we could hit 107 wins. Time for more GW burgers!😉

They'd have to expose Payamps to waivers to send him down. I'm guessing that was part of the equation. Yoho hasn't exactly looked stellar at the MLB level this year... probably didn't want to risk it.

Nestor has a 6+ ERA for the Padres and just went on IR.

If the Brewers play .500 ball for the rest of their 18 games, they end up with a 98-64 season. In order to catch tie them (ignoring tiebreakers): Phillies would need to go 15-4 Cubs would need to go 17-2 Dodgers would need to go a perfect 19-0

Great kickoff to the season by whooping it up on last year's 15-1 Lions. But no time to rest on our laurels as there is a quick turnaround this week with the Commanders coming into town on Thursday. At least we have it as a home game. Last year's surprise playoff team won convincingly in their first game... but only against the lowly Giants. The availability of Zach Tom will be a key item to watch this week. Hopefully, he was held out as a precaution Sunday as we had a good lead when he got hurt. He was riding the bike on the sidelines, so that would indicate nothing too serious. Would be nice to have Hobbs back this game. Bo Melton also left the last game with a shoulder injury. Jayden Daniels will be much harder to contain than Jared Goff, but he does take sacks. I'm sure Cooper and/or Walker will be spying on him most of the game.

But beating the Cubs (and rubbing it in) is more fun... 😉

Interesting. White Sox waived Civale after 67 IP @ 5.37 ERA (78 ERA+). He was claimed off waivers by the Cubs... and pitched out of the bullpen.

And to think that this is basically Preseason game 4... Our offense has barely played in game situations together - Love only played a little in game 1, Reed has been mainly out, Banks and Jenkins rarely played together. And the defense will integrate Parsons into the D and get Hobbs back. Obviously, the defense was excellent out there, but the offense still played really well at times... and looking at the other times in light of barely playing together in game situations... there is a lot to look forward to.