Name: J.D. Gold
Email: jdgold@idatasports.com
Date: Tue Sept 12 16:00:34 2006

Headline: PACKERS GRILLED 26-0 IN HOME OPENER
Offensive MVP: Ahman Green
Defensive MVP: Aaron Kampman
Gold Coin Player of the Game: Greg Jennings

The Gold Standard Weekly news and reviews By : J.D. Gold

The meat grinder like approach the Chicago Bears play football with spit out the packers like a fresh three pound pack of ground chuck at Lambeau field Sunday afternoon, 26-0. Blown assignments, missed opportunities, and some questionable calls, all add up to the first shutout during the Favre era and also ending the NFL's 4th longest franchise scoring streak started back in 1991.

Though things looked ugly most of the time, believe it or not there were some good things in the game, you just got to look for them... REAL HARD. Don't jump off the bridge just yet. It's only game one.

GOLD BAR RATINGS

QB: 2 Gold Bars Favre looked sharp (11-16 for 143 yds) till the 4th quarter. He stayed with the game plan till then also. But trying to turn the clock back ten years wouldn't be in the cards this Sunday. Down 26-0, with his Super Bowl teammates on the sidelines, Favre wanted to make something happen. As the protection started to break down Brett decided to start trying to make plays rookies aren't ready for; but defensive backs are. The season long questions will be when or if to take out Favre; and every other factor associated with that decision.

RB: 3 Gold Bars Ahman Green looked better then anyone could have expected against the Bears Sunday. 20 carries for 110 yds first game back. As he keeps playing more his vision and instincts will be sharper as with any player coming back from a long layoff. Samkon Gado looked hesitant in his two carries. Vonta Leach, when he finds his man, really brings the wood. Just ask Hunter Hillenmeyer the Bears LB he knocked out of the game.

WR/TE: 2 Gold Bars If not for Donald Driver this rating may have been a half a bar. Put out an A.P.B. out for Greg Jennings he must have got lost on the way to the game. Now he can pick up his JD Gold "Susan B Anthony gold coin" this week In limited snaps Ferguson played well. He made a tough catch in traffic. Sound the sirens. Bubba was kept in for protection at TE but still he was a total non factor as were the other TE's.

OFF. LINE: 2 Gold Bars Aren't having two book end tackles good for something? Clifton and Tauscher seemed to have as many problems as the rookie guards and were penalized more. This best illustrates how difficult it is to learn a new offense. Even solid vets like Clifton and Tauscher are going through growing pains with the new offense. Moll and Spitz were victimized also. Sometimes looking at the action like a deer in the headlights as favre was on the run .


DEF LINE: 2 Gold Bars: Even though there were some good individual performances by the likes of Aaron Kampman , Cullen Jenkins and Ryan Pickett. The line as a whole was some what Jekyll and Hyde. Against the run the Pack were stout keeping the rating from being 1 gold bar.. But putting consistent pressure on Rex Grossman with just the front four was almost non existent at times exposing the secondary.


LINEBACKERS: 2 Gold Bars : Just like the defensive line the linebackers fared much better against the run then the pass. Th e fullbacks and TE's for the Bears caught a combined 10 balls. 8 of these were linebacker responsibility. Look for teams to continue to go after the Pack in the middle of the field with the pass till our young linebackers catch on. Brady Poppinga wasn't the only linebacker torched in the passing game. AJ Hawk and Nick Barnett had there share of problems too, even though Barnett had an end zone pic.. Against the run it was a different story. AJ Hawk on more then one occasion filled the hole taking on the lead blocker or running back at full force. Same with Poppinga . One thing for sure this unit will not lack in speed or toughness.

DEF. BACKS: 1 Gold Bar: Even though the D-line was not putting sufficient pressure on Grossman the corners and safeties all to often looked confused or a step behind. Nick Collins had the best game out of the bunch. He was right there on Barnett's int. and had a touchdown saving tackle on Thomas Jones to boot. Woodson and Harris seemed out of sync. Playing ten yards off the receiver at the line and giving way to much space in zone coverage.I'll say it now. Get off Charles Woodsons back. See special teams. Marquand Manuel still looks like he's trying to find his way in this D. He did have a nice tackle of Jones for a loss ; something Mark Roman only dreamed about.


SPECIAL TEAMS : 1/2 Gold Bar: Maybe Woodson can return kickoffs too. Here's the thing with woodson. He supposedly doesn't like to hit and has lost his speed according to his detractors. If you do not like being hit why would you volunteer for the chance to get your head taken off on punt returning? Did he look slow as he burned by everyone with a little juke move for a 28 yd return? After some poor punting early Jon Ryan settled down and hit some good balls. He even completed a pass on a fake punt. It seems as if Rayner over estimated the wind just a little on his 53 yd field goal attempt. Coverage at times looked good. With youth comes speed .To this end the Pack looked fast , but were not in there lanes where they needed to be more often then not.

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