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Here we go:

Week 1, Saints vs. Packers: Thursday practice report
By Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel
Sept. 5, 2011 12:48 p.m.

Green Bay -- As of right now, the only players who appear to be out for the game Thursday night are LB Frank Zombo (scapula) and CB Davon House (knee).

Today is the day the team is practicing in pads and TE Jermichael Finley and DE Mike Neal were taking part in all of the activities. Same with WR James Jones, WR Donald Driver and TE Ryan Taylor, all of whom were coming off of injuries but practiced Sunday.

The temperature around here dropped quite a bit and many of the coaches and team personnel were wearing jackets for the first time in months. The pace was fast in practice , which will go on for a little over 2 hours.

Coach Mike McCarthy will update us on injuries after practice.

Tuesday is the final practice of the week heading into the game.

Construction of the Summerfest-size stage in the east parking lot continues. Basically, the entire parking lot is filled with construction trailers, equipment and tents. It should be interesting to see how traffic is on game day.

I think I'll just sleep in my office Wednesday night so I don't have to deal with it.

Forecast 64 degrees with clear skies. Perfect.

Someone needs to edit that game thread to get out that silly and childish Katrina dig.

Bad karma FTL

Agreed. We also need one that is more professional-like (as T-Plush would say).

Professional game thread? Who's going to tickle that together?

Yeah we'll have a good game thread in a day or two. This will serve as the lead up. I've trashed the bad karma thread.

Traffic will be a madhouse. You have the usual 73,000+ for the game plus thousands that just want to hang out and see the concert and other festivities. Usually I can get street parking easily 4 hours before noon games. But this one I have no idea how it's going to play out.

Shall we meet up for a beer and talk smack about twirl, MD?

I don't know, he seems like a delicate flower. One thing I know, if I go to the game Thursday night I'm wearing a hockey jersey.

Alright, well if you want to grab a beer, I'll be the guy in the Packer jersey.

Crap me too. We'll look like noobs both wearing Packer jerseys

I'm actually 50/50 on Thursday night, love to be there just not sure it's going to work out.

Lance Moore (underrated slot guy/wes welker role) has been banged up and missing practice. He could be a key loss for NO if that keeps up. Barring a set-back, it looks like Colston will play.

MD will be at the temporary craps table in the K-Mart parking lot.

"I told Mark Ingram we're not playing Kent State this week. We don't get a couple of warmups.''

-- New Orleans coach Sean Payton, at his Sunday news conference, on his words with his rookie first-round back, four days before Ingram debuts at the world champion Packers in Lambeau Field Thursday night.

Pack a 4 point favorite. Total number is 47.5

Dear football and karma gods,

It is with great remorse i humbly submit to you, for my distasteful Katrina "joke."

Forgiveth me by showing thy compassion in a 4 touchdown, 350 yard passing day by Aaron of Rodgers.

Thank you.

Just saw Rodger's in an interview on espn wearing a Brewer's hat. I know he wears Crew gear a lot but it still warms my heart every time I see it.

Ill-yasova wrote:Just saw Rodger's in an interview on espn wearing a Brewer's hat. I know he wears Crew gear a lot but it still warms my heart every time I see it.

That's awesome.

MickeyDavis wrote:Pack a 4 point favorite. Total number is 47.5

That surprises me a bit, i would have expected the line to be 3.5 or 3. Then again, Bill Simmons often has on this one very in the know guy from Vegas who's name i forget and he mentioned that the Packers, Patriots, and a few other teams are called national teams. That meaning that those teams tend to get consistently bet heavily on by large numbers of casual betting fans, thus it can often inflate the the lines of those teams by an extra half point or full point.

Speaking of the Saints, i was just looking at their schedule and at this point at least, it sure looks pretty favorable to me.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/nor/schedule

On the road, they face very few teams with a high quality QB. After the Packers game, it's just at Atlanta, Tampa, and St. Louis. The Saints then play a bunch of teams with either mediocre, bad, or rookie quarterbacks. If they can stay healthy, i see them as clearly the Packers biggest threat for best record in the NFC.

The only nice thing about that is even if New Orleans finishes will the best record in the NFC, we all know how well the Packers play in domes. Granted though, the Saints are also built more for playing in a dome than Atlanta was last year. An NFC title game of NO vs GB in the Superdome would be a game that i think football fans and sports media folks around the country would be excited as hell to see happen. Of course i'd rather see it be played in Lambeau Field for a best chance to win, but an NFC title game in the Superdome would have the potential at least to be one of those epically exciting games which football fans remember for a long time.

Yeah, that ATL was incredibly epic. Obviously the champsionship and super bowl were bigger games, but in a pure football sense the ATL game was my favorite of last year. Epic James Jones TD catch, epic Tramon pick 6 right before half and other leaping pick in the end zone, epic Rodgers escaping the blitz.....epic.