Week Three in Review

The week one loss to the 49ers I understood, but this one has me a little concerned. The way I see it, we played a bad game, lost to an average team, and are now two games out of the division lead just three weeks into the season. It's far from panic time, but there are some things that we need to get right, or the season could get away from us quickly. We didn't protect Rodgers as well as we should have, but he didn't exactly look sharp out there himself. It was without a doubt one of the worst performances of his career. I liked a lot of what I saw from the defense, specifically the defensive line, but there's only so much a defense can do. We've got a bye this week, which gives our already nicked up players a chance to get healthy. It's time to go on a run and I believe we'll do just that. Here's what I liked and didn't like:

What I Liked:

Adversity Defense: When your offense plays like shit, it puts added pressure on your defense. Not only does the defense need to hold the opposing offense to a lower point total to win, but they are also put in difficult situations as a result of turnovers. This was definitely the case yesterday, with four turnovers by the Packers putting the defense in tough spot after tough spot. I absolutely loved the way the entire defense rose to the occasion and kept the Packers in the game from start to finish. Yes we gave up 34 points, but there was a stretch of seven drives starting with 6:43 to go in the first quarter during which the Bengals gained just 75 total yards, and picked up just three first downs. The results of those seven drives went as follows: punt, interception, fumble, fumble, fumble, punt, punt. That is some solid defense.

Production From the Running Game: Packers running backs gained an average of 5.9 yards per carry on 27 total carries. That's good production in terms of attempts, and fantastic production in terms of YPC. Not only does running the ball effectively help keep the offense in favorable down and distances, it also helps to set up the passing game. Although the offense was unable to take full advantage of such good balance yesterday, running the ball this well will pay dividends, I'm sure of it. Consider that we ran the ball this well with our top running back on the sidelines, and there's certainly reason for optimism.

Clay Matthews: The human fucking wrecking ball that is Clay Matthews III tallied a sack and two forced fumbles in just over half of a game. For all the talk about his pass rushing skills (skills that are robust, to be sure), he may play the run just as well. His ability to recognize a hand-off the moment it happens, adjust his path down the line of scrimmage, and attack the ball carrier is second to none. It's not so much that he's aggressive about stripping the ball, it's just that he tackles with such violence that the runner collapses and simply can't hold on to the ball. He's an exciting player and his importance to our team can't be overstated. Let's hope his recurring hamstring injury benefits from the bye week.

What I Didn't Like:

Turnovers: What the fuck was that shit? Four turnovers? Two picks? That second pick that Rodgers threw was just awful and proved costly. Sometimes I get the impression that Rodgers can be frustrated to the point of inefficiency. His body language made it seem like he thought certain plays were doomed to fail before the ball was even snapped. The Ross fumble was bad, and yet McCarthy stuck with him on both kick and punt returns. I HATE it when coaches neglect to use their best return man because they're 'too important to the offense/defense.' Randall Cobb should be returning any and every kick, and I will not back down on this point. If you think he shouldn't risk an injury on a return because he's too important to the offense, then you're a pussy. If you want your team to play scared, then do us all a favor and move to Minnesota. Franklin's fumble was immensely disappointing. He negated an otherwise electrifying NFL debut with one bad play. You can't put the ball on the ground if you want to play running back for the Green Bay Packers.

Play Calling Creativity: Coach McCarthy preaches 'less volume, more creativity' when it comes to play calling, but he displayed less of both yesterday. Of course play calling is not the only reason that Aaron Rodgers posted the 5th worst passer rating of his career, but it was certainly a factor. Passing opportunities downfield were few and far between, so the offense began to rely heavily on shorter routes, specifically calling flare route after flare route after flare route. We had some success for a few drives using the strategy, but NFL defensive coordinators are not stupid, especially defensive coordinators with 34 years of experience. We went to the well too many times, attempting flare routes on the final third and fourth down plays. Both passes were knocked down at the line of scrimmage by linemen who had seen the play several times before, and would have been contested by defensive backs who had seen the play several times before. Add in the vanilla half back slam on the fourth down fumble play, and it's clear that McCarthy did not have his best day on the headset.

3rd Down Efficiency: 4 for 13. Not good enough.

Extra Points:

- I loved seeing BJ Raji break up the quick confrontation between Rodgers and McCarthy on the sidelines. Rodgers has pointed to Raji as a leader off the field, and it was on display yesterday.

- Datone Jones again failed to record a single tackle, though he did block an extra point.

- The Packers haven't beaten the Bengals in 15 years.

**BONUS CONSPIRACY THEORY**

I think the NFL is pumping fake sound effects in between plays, specifically defensive adjustments and audible calls. They all sounded so formulaic, I swear they just borrowed the soundtrack from Madden 2012.

**WHAT WAS I DRINKING THIS WEEK?**

New Glarus Wild Sour Ale. It's a sour brown ale from their thumbprint series. I give it a hearty thumbs up, and I'm a stickler about sours.