ATL | Week 15

[LUKE23]

Steve Smith talking mega smack. Saying someone said something to him on the field and then he just decided to go off. Hilarious.

[rilamann]

Yea Luke23,that Monday night game next week could be very interesting.

Granted the Bears haven't been that great this season but with them playing at home in prime time vs a division rival that could be the Bears ''Super Bowl'' and a chance for them to go out with a bang and a positive.

Cutler has averaged like 4 picks in primetime games this year.

Well there you go,he'll have a chance to redeem himself and go out on a potitive if he plays well and the Bears beat the division winner at home on MNF.

That's how I look at it.

Think about this though,

If Favre don't hit that lucky TD vs the 49ers and the Raven's kicker can make a 40 yarder in a dome the Vikes are 9-5 right now.

And if the Packers simply win today and don't lose to an awful Buccaneers team we are 11-3 going for the division and first round playoff bye.

The fine line that is the NFL regular season.

[mbucks22]

Yeah as bad as Minny looked tonight, they will torch the Bears next week. Chicago is just flat out awful.

I'd love to be proven wrong though and see the Queens lose another one.

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

I guess i'll give Cutler a fighting chance just because Matt Moore put up Peyton Manning like numbers against the Queens secondary tonight.

[LUKE23]

Well, the good thing is that assuming that Philly wins next week vs. Denver at home (which I think is around 65% or so likely), the Vikings last game will mean something to Minnesota, so they would be playing their starters against the Giants.

All Packer fans should be rooting for Philly next week, as odd as it sounds. Of course, if the Skins beat the Giants tomorrow night it doesn't really matter.

[Bernman]

I told you they would be prone to a collapse, Luke. We just weren't good enough to take advantage.

[LUKE23]

I told you they would be prone to a collapse, Luke. We just weren't good enough to take advantage.

Are you referencing the Vikings? Yeah, well I doubt I debated that, Favre plays poorly the last quarter of the season almost every season. Regarding us taking advantage, at this point I just want to get into the playoffs. NFL is just impossible to predict, and I think we could make a run.

[El Duderino]

I told you they would be prone to a collapse, Luke. We just weren't good enough to take advantage.

Are you referencing the Vikings? Yeah, well I doubt I debated that, Favre plays poorly the last quarter of the season almost every season. Regarding us taking advantage, at this point I just want to get into the playoffs. NFL is just impossible to predict, and I think we could make a run.

Yea, i just want to get in. Even though Minnesota beat us twice, their pass defense isn't good if Allen gets blocked. I would worry about playing AZ in the playoffs because if they go to 3-4 WR sets often, that puts Bush/Bell on the field often with huge targets on their backs.

Our offense will be tough for anyone to contain, but all of AZ/NO/Pilly/Minn can throw the ball well and cornerback is clearly the biggest weakness outside of Crosby.

[Bernman]

I told you they would be prone to a collapse, Luke. We just weren't good enough to take advantage.

Are you referencing the Vikings? Yeah, well I doubt I debated that

You did.

[rilamann]

In 2003 everyone said the winner of the NFC would for sure be either the Rams or Eagles,the Panthers ended up winning the NFC.

In 2007 everyone said the winner of the NFC would for sure be either the Packers or Cowboys,the Giants ended up winning the NFC & SB.

This year everyone thinks the winner of the NFC will for sure be either the Saints or Vikings and they might be right,but I think the Packers could be that ''sleeper'' that crashes the party.

I'm with Luke23,as long as the Packers get in the playoffs I will be happy.Once this team adds more talent and becomes more sharp as far as limiting mistakes and penalites in the next year or two and is a real serious contender I'll sweat not getting homefield and not winning the division.

Sure HF would be nice but right now just making the playoffs as the youngest team in the league is satisfying for me.

[El Duderino]

In 2003 everyone said the winner of the NFC would for sure be either the Rams or Eagles,the Panthers ended up winning the NFC.

In 2007 everyone said the winner of the NFC would for sure be either the Packers or Cowboys,the Giants ended up winning the NFC & SB.

This year everyone thinks the winner of the NFC will for sure be either the Saints or Vikings and they might be right,but I think the Packers could be that ''sleeper'' that crashes the party.

I'm with Luke23,as long as the Packers get in the playoffs I will be happy.Once this team adds more talent and becomes more sharp as far as limiting mistakes and penalites in the next year or two and is a real serious contender I'll sweat not getting homefield and not winning the division.

Sure HF would be nice but right now just making the playoffs as the youngest team in the league is satisfying for me.

I think the youngest factor is a bit overstated. Of the main important players, only Raji, Matthews, and Finley are that really young type of player that could make significant jumps going forward. Maybe you could add Lang/Jones to that.

Some of what makes our overall roster age young is that we don't have say an older punter/kicker and no older backup quarterback. The vast majority of the starters on the team have played either a lot of years or enough snaps over 2-3-4 years that inexperience shouldn't be much of an excuse for any dumb mistakes. Take today's game, the only really young guy who had bad brainfarts which was a killer was Bell and he's just a scrub grabbed off the street to be the dime corner. Bush got torched often, but that wasn't from youth, he's just a bad football player.

That said, i agree that there would be a legit chance for us to beat any team in the playoffs, even on the road, it's just unlikely we could do that three times to reach the Super Bowl. If we just had Al Harris, i'd be way more confident about making noise in the playoffs. Knowing though guys like Bush/Bell will have to be out there in Domes against teams that all can pass well dampers my hopes of being one of those Wild Card teams who gets all the way to a Super Bowl. Bad corners are hard to hide, even worse when you have multiple of them.

[rilamann]

You're probably right,the youth thing is maybe a bit over blown Dude but at the same time I still think it's a legit factor.

A lot of our key guys are young and will continute to get better and I kinda look at the youth thing from a preseptive that some of our key guys over the next couple seasons aren't even on the team yet.

If the Packers become a serious contender in the next couple years it will be because our young guys developed and we've continued to have solid drafts in 2010 & 2011.

As for key guys who think will still improve my list would be,
Rodgers
Finley
Jennings
J.Jones
Jordy
Lang
B.Jones
Matthews
Raji
Tramon
Pat Lee
Bishop
Blackmon

I've probably even left out a couple guys if I went over the entire roster,I'm pretty optimistic about our roster.


And when you combine our solid young talent with vets like Woodson & DD among a few others we could indeed be the party crasher this January.

I think most everyone here would agree that we could just as easily be one and done or make it to the SB.

[El Duderino]

You're probably right,the youth thing is maybe a bit over blown Dude but at the same time I still think it's a legit factor.

A lot of our key guys are young and will continute to get better and I kinda look at the youth thing from a preseptive that some of our key guys over the next couple seasons aren't even on the team yet.

If the Packers become a serious contender in the next couple years it will be because our young guys developed and we've continued to have solid drafts in 2010 & 2011.

As for key guys who think will still improve my list would be,
Rodgers
Finley
Jennings
J.Jones
Jordy
Lang
B.Jones
Matthews
Raji
Tramon
Pat Lee
Bishop
Blackmon

Tramon is pretty much what he is, maybe he has a bit of room for growth
Blackmon i think is gone after the season
Jordy Nelson is a good 3rd receiver type, but i think his ceiling is limited
James Jones i don't see getting much better than he already is, but maybe he could be a No.2 WR
Jennings is a very good WR, but he's not going to get better
Pat Lee hasn't shown much in camp when healthy according to guys who watch practice
Bishop they obviously don't trust and i doubt he ever lands a starting role, thus will leave as sooon as he can

Rodgers is a stud and should still have growth in him
Matthews has incredible upside
Finley star in the making
Raji should get better, but i'm a bit concerned that he hasn't shown more this year
Lang likely will be starting somewhere on the line next year
Jones i'm not sure about. My gut says he's more a quality backup OLB going forward, but could be wrong and obviously has room for growth


Hey, there no doubt is a lot to like with some of these younger players. Between Rodgers, Matthews, and Finley, all have the legit upside to be elite players at their positions. That's huge, you need a QB and playmakers to be a special team. I just think the youngest team in the NFL angle often gets overstated in a league where 22 starters play each game along with numerous backups who play often. A few impact young players are worth far more than having a bunch of solid young guys.

[LUKE23]

You did.

Not really. I said the division was over and it was. The Vikings were three games up with the tiebreaker at the time. I fail to see how us losing one game out of the last six is "failing to take advantage". We weren't going to win out and I think everyone knew that. But once we were down three games past the halfway point with the Vikings having the tiebreaker, it was over.