Looking forward to this weekends games….

I am interested to see how the Packers bounce back against our cross state rival Vikings and there very good D, the Packers D in there own right have been playing pretty darn good ball and the offense while in a major overhaul on the O-line has shown real strides the last 4 weeks. This is a team rebuilding and like I posted a few weeks ago I really like some of the building blocks Ted Thompson is putting in place. I for one am looking forward to watching the game on TV versus listening on the radio as I have been working the last few Sundays with my work schedule and now have the next two Sundays off to watch the Green and Gold. The other game to watch in the state are the Badgers who are getting zero national respect but just keep winning, playing at Iowa looks like without there senior leader and QB John Stocko, I heard his arm was in a sling and he might have broken ribs, we might be waiting to see him for the last time in cardinal red and white in a New Years Day bowl…..If they beat Iowa on the road and don’t get some boost in the Polls/BCS they will have to be content to go to there bowl game and take it to a so called better team then they are- like they did to Auburn last year who felt going into the Badger game last year that they should be considered for the national championship only to get pounded on…

Bigpike- Very interesting points you make here about Ted Thompson. I don’t disagree that the team is developing and showing improvement but wouldn’t you agree that he has put the team in re-building mode when he didn’t have to? 2-3 years ago he had a solid offensive line protecting one of the best QB’s in the game and blocking for one of the better RB’s in the game. The team was in the playoffs every year. All they needed was some help on defense. He lets the offensive line leave in free-agency and chooses to replace them in the draft. Just seems to me that he wasted two years of his key players careers when he had most of the pieces in place to make a run at a Super Bowl.

I’m a Bear fan so what the heck do I know but that’s just my outsiders view of the situation. I’m a football fan and try to keep up with all the teams in the division.

Despite the Pack’s loss this past weekend they have been improving. Had they not turned the ball over 6 times they would have won the game. They pretty much doubled up the stats on Buffalo but gave the game away with the turnovers. Minnesota, on the other hand, seems to be heading the other direction getting worse every week. Right now their confidence level has to be pretty low. They played like crap in their past few games and look worse every week. I can see Green Bay ending up in 2nd place in the division this year with Minnesota finishing 3rd. Nobody will catch the Bears unless they play the rest of their games like they did this past Sunday. Green Bay is improving. They have a ton of young players that are just beginning to come into their own and they now have a coach that isn’t afraid of diciplining his players. Look for the Pack to be back in the playoffs as soon as next season. They were due for a couple down years.

Eyehunter

I think Thompson wanted to put his stamp on the team, he weeded out Sherman and the interior O-line, and all of Shermans bad draft picks, I believe his philosphy regarding the o-line is pay for your tackles and build the interior with low pay alternatives instead paying huge money to guys inside. The blocking scheme they are putting in this year is based on this line of thinking and its starting to work, it will be a big test for them this weekend against a very good front four in Minnesota, I think the Bear game in week 1 was not a testiment to the O-line and Favre, week 17 the Bears will be in all likelyhood sitting most of there key players down so again it wont be a true battle. This week will. Regarding three years ago the Packers were a good playoff team it became apparent that Sherman could do no more than that, take them to the playoffs. Remember the 4th and 26 game at Phily that the Packers had won but then lost, That was Sherman in a nutshell. He could only take this team so far…..Good luck to the Bears this year, it will be interesting to watch them in the playoffs!

The way my Vikings are playing, 9 points will give the Packers a win. It should be an interesting game, they always are. Hopefully Brett will follow last weeks performance with some key turnovers. But, like he has done in the past, he can light it up with the best of them.

Vikings – 27
Packers – 23

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The way my Vikings are playing, 9 points will give the Packers a win. It should be an interesting game, they always are. Hopefully Brett will follow last weeks performance with some key turnovers. But, like he has done in the past, he can light it up with the best of them.

Vikings – 27
Packers – 23

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Are you saying the Vikings will score 27 this weekend? Or is that a total score for the rest of the year?

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The way my Vikings are playing, 9 points will give the Packers a win. It should be an interesting game, they always are. Hopefully Brett will follow last weeks performance with some key turnovers. But, like he has done in the past, he can light it up with the best of them.

Vikings – 27
Packers – 23

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Are you saying the Vikings will score 27 this weekend? Or is that a total score for the rest of the year?

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27 points this weekend. The over under on this game is probably around 30 points. But, you know as well as I do, when these two teams play, stats don’t mean squat. That’s why I am drinking my Purple kool-aid and believing my squad can score 27 on GB’s defense.

But aren’t you concerned that by the time that o-line really gels and gets experience playing together that they’ll be protecting what will be essentially a rookie QB? I’m assuming here that Favre won’t play past the ’07 season here, obviously.

Like you said though, no doubt the Pack have improved since week#1. If they can find another WR or two in the off-season they’ll be that much better for next year. The defense has been stout and Woodson has played much better than I thought he would.

It’s always a great game when the Vikings and Packers get together and I look forward to watching it. Hoping for a competitive, injury-free game. Good luck!

The other reason for the release of Wahle and Rivera a few year ago is because Sherman and many years of winning had the Packers in salary cap hell, they now have one of the best salary cap situations and if Favre were to retire tommorrow they will have a zero salary cap hit AND they will free up the 10 million a year his salary to possibly sign a Bree’s type QB if they feel Rodgers is not the guy- based on the non-comiital effort to sign another guy they either believe in Rodgers or they think he will be good be are not sure…either way two or three years on the bench wont hurt him if he is good.