Looking ahead to Green Bay and thoughts on Atlanta

I know this topic has been very sufficiently covered by Jaxon and LittleKing, but I feel like I have to post my thoughts on this matter and get my 2 cents in. I wasn’t going to originally say anything, but when I was going through the stats of the game I found a stat that just made me shake my head. The Panthers offense had 0 total turnovers. Zero. Our game with the Raiders were completely the opposite of this game, where the defense was making hits and big plays nearly all the time while our offense sputtered all over the place and came up with hardly anything to show for it. This game was completely the opposite, it seemed like no one could make tackles out there and Michael Turner ran all over us whenever he felt like it.

On one side you want to blame our defense for not doing what they’re so used to doing, yet a small part of me wonders if the Panthers defensive line is playing above the level their talent will allow them. Two of our starting D-Line left this season with Mike Rucker retiring and Kris Jenkins traded to the Jets and they were not really replaced by good players. Gone is the time of the fearsome foursome when we could depend on our D-line alone to provide pressure, and if this latest Super Bowl taught us anything it showed us that it‘s great asset to be able to drop 7 players back every play and still be able to provide pressure on the QB. We can’t do that anymore with our current team. The best guy on our defensive line is Julius Peppers, and even he might be leaving next year unless his contract is renewed. I hate to be pessimistic, but this really might be a problem that can haunt us in these upcoming games and years to come.

We can lessen its effects though with the strength of our linebackers. We have to be more aggressive and call more blitzes. That is how we stopped all of these top NFL rushers, and that‘s how we shall beat them in the weeks to come as we finish off the season and enter the playoffs.

Now, looking on to Green Bay we should be able to use the strengths in our team to beat on the weaknesses of their team. Green Bay is weak against the rush and strong using the pass, while Carolina is strong using the rush and strong defending the pass. On the other hand, 3 out of the 4 teams we have lost our games against were teams coming off of tough losses. Playing at home against Carolina after they had lost a 51-27 game against the New Orleans Saints doesn’t bode well at all for Carolina.

And by the way, both teams have a clear injury sheet. It should be a good game.

We need to correct our mistakes and get back to blitzing the QB against Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers needs to be pressured the instant the starting gun is fired and if that doesn‘t happen he‘ll make you pay. Greg Jennings is floating just above the 1,000 yard mark for the year and I would hate for us to be the team that allows him to hit it.

On offense I have this to say. There will be a lot of crowd noise at Lambeau Field this Sunday, but with their atrocious run defense it shouldn’t really matter at all. Just run the ball up the middle till the safeties creep up and you should be able to throw it deep. I mean last week Pierre Thomas ran for 87 yards and a couple of TD’s. And that’s in a west coast offense that is built around Drew Brees passing the ball.. Our running back combo of Diangelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart should slam them into the ground.

With Atlanta facing off against the Chargers and Tampa Bay going up against the New Orleans, we have a great chance of regaining the lead in the divisional race if we win this game. For now though, we’re still just following the path of the 04 Super Bowl Panthers.