Since the travesty in Tampa last month the Packers have won three straight and to me the key to that turnaround has been the defense, even though it was the offense who had the “airing of grievances” meeting following the embarrassing loss to the Bucs, who still have only one win. The offense did alter its game plan a little with more check downs and screens to help a weak offensive line, but the defense has been lights out since getting torched by a rookie quarterback.
The Packers will need more of the same against the Ravens Monday night as the Packers may find it tough to move the ball against a Ravens defense that is still capable of playing at a high level. The key to the offense is simple, given Aaron Rodgers time to throw, which he may have to do a lot as the Ravens are stingy against the run. The Ravens’ defense isn’t a sack machine, with only 21 sacks all year, but they are still 12th against the pass and can get after the passer.
It looks like Chad Clifton is good to go after missing practice most of the week with a bad hamstring. Good thing to, because the Packers had a rough, and I mean rough, week of practice. T.J. Lang suffered a concussion on Thursday and Jeremy Thompson suffered a severe neck stinger on Friday that left in the hospital overnight. Makes you wonder what is going on? Is McCarthy overworking them?
The Packers main competition in the wild cad race is Philadelphia. The Eagles hold the tiebreaker on the Packers and have a good chance to maintain that based on their schedule. Didn’t dig deep enough to see what happens if they have the same conference record, we can worry about that later. Nobody can overtake the Packers if the Packers keep winning, and Philly should knock Atlanta out of the mix tomorrow. Dallas can pretty much do the same to the Giants. All of a sudden it looks like 10 wins will be plenty to get a wild card spot, so the Packers need to go 3-2 the last five games. They have two at home and three on the road. Got to win the two at home because trips to Pittsburgh and Chicago will be tough, The Bears are a division rival that would like nothing more than to knock the Packers out of the playoffs in a season that has been a disaster so far. It may very well come to down to at Arizona. I hope the Cardinals can clinch the division by then, but they lost last week and will likely lose this week, so that isn’t a given anymore.
I’ll be an Eagle, Cardinal, and Giants fan tomorrow. I’d love to see the Cowboys back in the wild card hunt, as the Packers have the victory over them. If the Falcons lose they are done, so less teams in the hunt. The Cardinals not only to knock off the Vikings but to get them closer to clinching the NFC West.
Crunch time is here, and it is good to be back in the mix again. Go Pack!