Week One in Review

So we lost by one score on the road against the defending NFC champions. In the words of Mike McCarthy, 'we're nobody's underdog,' but we could have done a lot worse in terms of week one losses. The offense was consistent and efficient, scoring one touchdown in each quarter. The defense was porous and eventually insufficient, but gamely defended a short field more than once. It's hard to blame an offense that scored 28 points while their defense gave up over 500 yards, but turnovers were the difference in this game. Eddie Lacy's debut was a clunker that featured 2.9 yards per carry and a costly fumble, and yet he was the only true halfback to get a carry. The secondary suffered in the absence of starters Casey Heyward and Morgan Burnett, but the front seven offered little help in the way of pressure on the quarterback. The defensive line remains inept at collapsing the pocket, and recent first round picks Datone Jones and Nick Perry were all but absent from the stat sheet. Johnny Jolly was fun in his return from a ridiculous three year hiatus, making an impact both on the field as a disruption in the backfield, and on the sidelines as a vocal and animated leader. He was the only veteran even-tempered enough to break up the scuffle following Clay Matthews' late hit on Kaepernick. Thank god Roger Goodell had the wherewithal to suspend this OBVIOUSLY dangerous individual from the league for so long. Anyway here's what I liked and didn't like:

What I Liked:

Aaron Rodgers: The guy is good. His one pick was a perfectly placed pass to an open receiver. He managed 8.7 net yards per passing play, which would have been a full yard better than last year's best mark, set by a fella by the name of Colin Kaepernick, who posted a 7.7 net yards ppp in a modest 218 attempts.  He's cool, calm, and collected and will be dominant all year, just like he always is. 

Starting Wideout Tandem: Cobb and Nelson both had seven catches, both had over 100 yards, and both scored a touchdown. Cobb showed some fucking toughness, and there's no other way to put it. The only negative word I've ever heard uttered by the coaching staff about Randall Cobb is that he was skipping ahead in the playbook on his personal time, trying to learn plays that were not yet being installed. Combine that brain with an ability to catch the ball in traffic and gain yards after the catch, and you've got yourself a pretty decent player. Nelson looked 100% healthy following what appears to have been a good decision to operate on a lingering leg issue during the preseason. He executed both the mundane (in running and catching a simple slant in the end zone for a score) and the spectacular (in hauling in a circus catch on the sideline for 37 yards). He's the total package, and combined with Cobb makes Greg Jinnengs (sp?) a distant memory.

(default hilarious picture earned by mentioning Raji)

Run Defense: Yes, we gave up over 500 yards of offense (again), but we held the hard-nosed 49ers to a paltry 2.6 yards per attempt on 34 carries. Frank Gore has averaged 4.6 yards per carry in his career, but managed just 44 yards on 21 carries this afternoon. B.J. Raji stuck his nose in on more than a few plays at the line of scrimmage, and the linebackers did a nice job of swarming the ball carrier before he could reach the second level. Stopping the run is job number one for any NFL defense, and it gives us a decent foundation to build off of in the weeks to come.

What I Didn’t Like:

Third Down Defense: Although the numbers aren't as ghastly as I expected, the Packers' defense was not exactly stout on third downs. The Niners converted exactly half of their 18 third down opportunities, which would have been good for tops in the league in 2012, edging the Patriots who converted 48.43% of their third down tries. The Packers were missing two of their four starters in the secondary, including the quarterback of the defense, safety Morgan Burnett. It's comforting to make excuses, but the reality is that no team finishes or even enters a season completely healthy on either side of the ball. Injuries are a fact of life in the NFL, and if your back-ups can't get the job done, you're in trouble. Let's hope we can get healthy in the secondary and stop giving up huge chunks of yards. The good news is that next week's matchup pits the Packers' secondary against Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan, a duo of receivers that have never managed more than four touchdowns in a season.

An inauspicious start for the highly touted Lacy.

Turnovers: Blame it on whoever you want (I choose Jermichael Finley), but a pick is a pick. Any one score game comes down to turnover differential, and we lost today. The rookie Eddie Lacy lost a 2^nd quarter fumble, and was promptly escorted to the bench in favor of Jimmy Starks. I agree with the decision to bench him for a quarter, I'm disappointed that he lost a fumble in his debut performance, and I'm confident he'll learn from the mistake. The good news HERE is that on the very next offensive play following Finley's bobbled interception, Rodgers found Jermichael for a solid gain. It was probably the first time that I was glad Rodgers reminded me of Favre.

Josh Sitton: For all the talk surrounding David Bakhtiari's maiden voyage at the ultra-important left tackle position, it was Josh Sitton that was left holding the bag on the offensive line. He was flagged three times for holding, wiping out the Packers' two best runs of the day. This guy is supposed to be our best lineman, not the guy getting flagged left and right. The good news here is that he has beautiful curly brown locks and a jovial disposition.

Overreact if you must, but this is a minor setback. San Francisco is a good football team, and if nothing else, we showed today that they won’t roll over us if we see them in January. There’s work to be done in the running game and on defense to be sure, but we put a lot of good things on film today. Reacting to a loss has never been an issue for the Packers under Mike McCarthy, and I’m confident we’ll respond emphatically next week. I do know this much, championship teams don’t lose two games in a row to start a season.

Extra Points:

- I already miss Charles Woodson. Not that I think he would have made a huge difference today, it's just that I really loved watching him play for the Packers, and I'll never have the privilege of enjoying that again.

- Jim Harbaugh is a douche bag.

- I can't say enough about how happy I am to see Johnny Jolly back on the field. Sincere congratulations to him on a remarkable journey back to the NFL.

- I've always liked Anquan Boldin.

- I promise to never, and I mean N-E-V-E-R never include any details about any of my fantasy football teams in a blog post. You don't care, and I respect that about you.