Week Seven in Review

It goes without saying, but with regard to Jermichael Finley, any discussion beyond his health and well being would be completely inappropriate. He reportedly spent Sunday night in the ICU of a Green Bay area hospital, but mostly as a precautionary measure. The Packers reported that although he lost feeling and mobility in his extremities immediately following the hit, he has since regained complete mobility. He's reportedly been walking around today and is in high spirits. *UPDATE* Jermichael has tweeted a thank you to fans and encouraging words which can be read here. It's a stark reminder that football is just a game and the Packers' record really doesn't matter. It's easy to complain about players from a distance, act like we know them, call for them to get fired, insult their abilities/intelligence, and I'm guilty of it all. The fact is these guys are people first, with families of their own. So without getting too preachy I'll just say that I'm wishing Jermichael and his family the best. That being said, the game goes on, the league goes on, and life goes on, so here it goes.

Sunday's game was a good win. Cleveland sucks. I get it. But the Browns are an NFL franchise with NFL players. There is just too much talent and parity in the league to write any team off, especially when you enter a game as beat up as we did yesterday. Cleveland's defense is actually pretty good, so putting up 31 points with so many starters on the sideline was downright impressive. The defense held serve against a dogshit offense, giving up just 216 total yards. Good teams win the games they're supposed to win. Here's what I liked and what I didn't like:

What I Liked:

Eddie Lacy: This guy is a grinder. He churned out a gritty 82 yards on the ground yesterday with a game long rush of just 13 yards. Although you'd like to see at least one explosive play from the running game, it's nice to see a feature back able to average nearly four yards per carry even without it. He also tallied five catches on seven targets. Lacy wasn't drafted for his ability to catch the ball, but he's showing some aptitude for it. It's still too early to anoint him Ahman Green 2.0, but he could be the real deal.

Jarrett Boykin: Boykin was clearly featured heavily in the game plan, likely in anticipation of concentrated coverage on Jordy Nelson. He was targeted by Rodgers early and often, and he rose to the occasion. Eight catches for 103 yards and a score would be good numbers for any receiver in the history of the league, let alone a second year guy getting his first career start. Rodgers predicted this offseason that Boykin would eventually become a big time player in Green Bay, and he's off to a great start in his first meaningful opportunity.

Middle Linebackers: We entered Sunday's contest with just two healthy middle linebackers, a notoriously brutal position. Not only did Hawk and Lattimore stay healthy, they both excelled. Hawk was Hawk. He led the team in tackles (tied with Lattimore) and made his presence felt around the line of scrimmage. It was Lattimore, however, that really caught my eye. His 12 tackles matched his CAREER TOTAL coming into Sunday's game, and he recorded his first career sack. Although he's been on the roster for three seasons now, he's played almost exclusively on special teams. His successful performance in his first career start is a credit to the scouting and coaching staffs. Depth is a must in today's NFL, and we've got it.

What I Didn't Like:

McCarthy on Penalties: Mac C is a great coach. Not good, great. But I've long had questions about his clock management and penalty decisions. With over 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, and the Packers holding a 17-6 lead, McCarthy made yet another questionable decision to accept a penalty. The Browns fell four yards short of a first down on third down (albeit well within field goal range), but McCarthy chose to accept a five yard illegal formation penalty, thereby giving the Browns another chance to pick up the first down. Even worse, the penalty did not take the Browns out of field goal range even if they gained zero yards on their second attempt at third down. Now, the Browns threw incomplete on third down, and inexplicably attempted to convert on fourth and 15, rather than attempting a 55 yard field goal, so the decision by McCarthy worked out. Personally I don't care. That's like saying you made a good call with Jack-6 just because the flop came Jack-Jack-6. I'd love to hear McCarthy's explanation of the decision, but I'm afraid I might feel even worse after hearing it.

Penalties: Ten penalties for 97 yards? That's ugly. We're lucky we were playing the Browns, otherwise these penalties almost certainly would have hurt us.

Punting: Masthay averaged just 30 yards on three punts, managing to place just one inside the Browns' 20 yard line. I know that he had one excellent punt downed at the one wiped out by a penalty, but this was as bad a game as I've seen from him. Dismissing the importance of the punter is stupid, but Masthay is usually damn good. I'm not worried about him, I'm just saying it's something to be aware of.

Extra Points:

- The combined record of our next five opponents is 10-23. That's good.

- Jermichael Finley is consulting doctors with regard to whether he should return to football at all. That's bad.

- The Vikings quarterback situation is a complete mess. That's good.

- The United States Federal Government spends over $1 billion a day on the military, and yet roughly 4.5% of annual US deaths are attributable to poverty. That's bad.

- Slovakia, Hungary, Russia, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Vietnam. A list of countries with lower death rates due to malnutrition than the United States. How about we support the troops by bringing them home to their families. And how about we use taxpayer dollars to feed starving children instead of augmenting what's already the largest and most deadly war machine in human history.

**TRAP GAME ALERT**

The Vikings looked bad, bad, bad, bad on Monday night. It's a safe bet that the entire organization is embarrassed by the performance they turned in. Their quarterback position is in flux, they just lost to a winless team, they wear purple uniforms, embarrassing. So what's there to worry about next week for the Pack? Well, we're missing several key players, the game is in Minnesota, it's a division rivalry, and the Vikings are pissed off. This is classic trap game stuff people. I'm not saying we're going to lose, I'm just saying that the Vikings will likely come out with some pepper in their gumbo. NFL players have a lot of pride.

**WHAT WAS I DRINKING**

Johnnie Walker Black Label. I had a total of about three fingers owing to a bad cold I caught from a stupid kid. WebMD says croup only affects children, but my throat says otherwise.