Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on April 27, 2012
If you live within striking distance of Chicago, I cannot recommend highly enough making the trip to Will’s Northwoods Inn for their annual PackerPalooza. Guests in the past have included LeRoy Butler, Gilbert Brown, and Ahman Green and this year’s guests–Frank Winters, Mark Tauscher, and Chad Clifton–again do not disappoint.
A few months ago, I wrote a post on Brent Favre about why I named Will’s as The Best Sports Bar in America (noting but accounting for my large bias for all things Sconnie/Packers):
Between when I got the assignment and when I made the list, I grappled with the decision as to make Will’s Northwoods Inn #1 or merely to put it on the list. I am obviously biased because I’m a huge Packers and Badgers fan living in Chicago so it makes sense that I would be a regular patron of the bar and didn’t want my personal preferences to compromise the integrity of the list.
The more I thought about it, though, the more secure I was in the decision. Out of everybody I know and perhaps everybody that they know, I am the most qualified to evaluate the quality of sports bars based on (in no particular order) screens, food, drinks, atmosphere, staff, and clientele. I spend a lot of time in sports bars and am consistently thinking about ways that they can improve and how they stack up against each other. Will’s is my favorite sports bar and there isn’t a particularly close second.
Further, even those of my friends who are not blessed to be Wisconsin sports fans love going to Will’s. It’s atmosphere for Packers games is unsurpassed and unlike any other sports bars that I have been too comes as close replicating the experience of being at the game.
If you read this blog and have never been to Will’s for a Packers game, I cannot recommend the experience highly enough. Even if you live in Wisconsin, it is worth adding to your list of destinations to check out.
Let’s be serious: there is NOTHING that you could be doing Sunday that will be 25% as fun as dusting off your favorite Packers jersey, drinking a few stadium cups of Leinie’s Original, indulging in brats and burgers, meeting some former Packers greats, and sharing the experience with hundreds of like-minded folks who you don’t know yet but would become fast friends with.
Ryan Glasspiegel writes Sports Rapport. Follow him on Twitter.
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on January 17, 2012
Originally posted on Sports Rapport.
36 hours later and I’m still sort of reeling from this Packers loss. I have to start by giving an immense amount of credit to the Giants for forcing this sloppy play and playing mostly error-free football of their own. There was absolutely no doubt that the Packers were outplayed in this game. As torturous as this is going to be, I need to try to figure out how and why it all happened so I’m re-watching the game and writing a Bill Simmons-style retro diary. I will write broader takeaways at the bottom if you want to skip down to that part without re-living individual plays from the game. If you’re interested in a full photo-diary of my trip to Green Bay, read it here.
This hurts badly before I even hit Play on my Tivo remote. Times represent what is remaining on the clock…
First Quarter
12:19 – Giants 1st-and-10 just past midfield. Desmond Bishop drops an interception. Would have been a great play but I’m sure it’s one he’d like to make. Happens, though.
8:37 – After bending most of the way down the field and giving up two big 3rd down conversions, the Packers don’t break inside the red zone. 3-0 Giants.
7:55 – Jermichael Finley drops his first pass of the day, one that would have given the Packers a first down around midfield (although the refs missed a penalty on the play). The Packers move the chains on the next play so this one wasn’t costly but you can’t drop first downs in big games.
6:32 – And Finley drops another ball, this one is completely inexcusable – he was wide open and the pass was lofted perfectly. It would have given the Packers 3rd-and-1 at the very worst just outside the red zone.
5:38 – On third down, Rodgers misses a WIDE open Greg Jennings on what would probably have been a touchdown if he hit Jennings in stride. Worst case would have been 1st-and-goal inside the 5. I can count on one hand how many times Rodgers missed that pass this season. Packers have to settle for a field goal after that drive saw two drops and an errant throw. 3-3.
4:37 – On 3rd-and-11, Eli Manning has all day and hits Hakeem Nicks for a first down. He’s converted third downs for 8, 10, and 11 yards so far. AND NOOOOOOO….
3:47 – The next play, Manning hits Nicks over the middle, Charlie Peprah launches himself at Nicks but doesn’t wrap up, Nicks stands tall, and runs into the endzone without being touched again. AWFUL missed tackle. 10-3 Giants.
1:34 – Packers get extremely lucky. Greg Jennings fumbles before his knee is down, it gets ruled down by contact, and the Giants lose their challenge. This was pretty clearly a fumble and I’m not sure what the refs did or didn’t say on the replay. Unrelated question: why does the referee on the field have to rule challenges under the hood with what I imagine is a tiny screen? Why not have someone in the booth rule on reviews with a massive HDTV? Why not centralize challenges in NFL headquarters? It doesn’t seem as though the current system is optimal.
Second Quarter
14:54 – Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn touchdown catch! Bang on the Drums! 10-10…this was a completely undeserved touchdown, though, because Jennings definitely fumbled. Packers are lucky to be tied and not down two scores.
14:52 – Packers surprise onside kick! They fail to recover it, though. I actually said to the three people who would listen to me that I wanted this to be an onside kick. Good idea but it didn’t work out – The Giants got the ball on the Packers 40. Given that they probably would have gotten the ball that far anyway, I think it was worth the gamble for a chance to get the ball back. I think that Mike McCarthy sensed that something was a bit off and tried to give his team a spark.
12:32 – Brad Jones blocks the Lawrence Tynes field goal attempt! No harm, no foul on the failed onside kick. At this point, this feels like an everything-goes-wrong game for the Giants–they lost a challenge and a timeout on a bad call, gave up a touchdown, and got a field goal blocked. In games where you are underdogs by more than a touchdown, you can’t have those things go wrong. At this point, I’m feeling pretty good.
11:15 – Rodgers rushes for a first down on 3rd-and-10. Second time he’s done this so far today and it’s an invaluable aspect of his game. He rushes for another one two plays later before I finish typing this bullet.
9:17 – Relatively inconsequential drop by James Starks. Difference between 3rd-and-3 and 3rd-and-7. Doesn’t make it right.
9:12 – More consequential drop on the next play by Tom Crabtree on a ball that hit him squarely between the numbers–past the first down marker–and the Packers are forced to punt. It goes into the endzone. Damn.
5:34 – Eli Manning intercepted by Morgan Burnett after being pressured by Bishop! Miraculous what can be achieved when the pass rush works. I would have bet a lot of money on the Packers to win at this point.
3:37 - An unforced John Kuhn fumble KILLS what I was certain was going to be a Packers scoring drive. At the very worst, they were going into halftime tied, likely were going in up 13-10, and maybe going up 17-10. Because the Packers were receiving the ball in the second half, I had expected them to be up 20-10 the next time the Giants had the ball.
1:56 – Packers stop the Giants inside the 10 and force a field goal, and will get the ball back before the half. A little close for comfort but I’m feeling pretty good…
:06 – WTF?! Ahmad Bradshaw gets out of bounds on a 23-yard run that started in the middle of the field. Horrible defense. Good thing the Giants are stupidly going for it instead of kicking the 54-yard field goal…
:00 – WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF??????!!!!!!!!! Hail Mary touchdown to Hakeem Nicks. Third time I’ve seen the Badgers or Packers give up a devastating hail mary touchdown in person this season. This has to be some sort of ignominious record? This play was shellshocking and the 13-minute halftime feels like hours. Lot of ballgame left but allowing the Giants to score from their own 40 with 15 seconds left was egregious. This series really hurt the crowd.
Third Quarter
14:52 – A drop by Ryan Taylor that would have made it 2nd-and-6 instead of 2nd-and-10. Not terribly consequential as the Packers picked up a first down on the next play but these drops have been contagious today.
13:12 – After uncharacteristically missing Jennings, Rodgers runs for another first down on 3rd-and-10. The Giants aren’t giving room for any big plays, though. This is where Favre would have started throwing INTs trying to get everything back at once.
10:28 – Man, after hitting Driver for a huge first down to get to the Giants’ 35, Rodgers gets stripped by Osi Umenyiora and the Giants recover. Jennings was wide open for a touchdown on the play. Split second difference and the Packers are only down a field goal. Every time the offense starts to get into rhythm, there’s a drop or a fumble.
9:06 – Giants go three-and-out. Other than giving up three huge plays, the defense has been pretty solid thus far. “How was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”
6:56 – Ryan Grant drops a perfect pass that will make for at worst 2nd-and-1. Six drops so far for the Packers.
3:55 – Jennings drops a touchdown. Pretty good coverage but the ball was placed directly into his hands. Seven drops. Crosby hits a field goal and the Packers are LUCKY only to be down a TD.
3:30 – The crowd hasn’t been all that great thus far but after a holding call pushes the Giants back to 1st-and-20 (then 2nd-and-20) on their own 10, we come alive. Except in rare cases, the home team has to do something to get the crowd into it. The Packers haven’t really put together a period of football to galvanize the masses yet but the crowd is making a reasonable effort to get into this. We sense that there’s a chance to steal this game even while being severely outplayed. We have faith that this team will find a way. Giants have to punt, if ever there were a time for a big Packers touchdown drive…
:49 – Rodgers picks up ANOTHER first down with his feet. That’s his fifth. Not sliding, he opens up his body for punishment. But if there was ever a time and a place for this risky behavior…
Fourth Quarter
13:00 – Kind of a bad throw, but perhaps a catchable ball that Finley drops on 3rd-and-5. Rodgers is pissed about the route and the drop but Finley was WIDE open and the ball didn’t need to be thrown like a rocket. Not sure who to blame there but it’s an unforced error; Aikman says it’s on Rodgers which I suppose is fair. The frustration on offense had really started to compound. Rodgers gets sacked on 4th-and-5 and the Packers are running out of chances. They had no right to only be down seven points at this point and their tenuous hold on this deficit doesn’t feel sustainable. We can still steal this game but it’s starting to feel precarious.
12:48 - Woodson misses a tackle on Hakeem Nicks. Don’t see that often. Difference between 2nd-and-8 and 2nd-and-4.
10:00 – Victor Cruz picks up a huge first down on 3rd-and-5 and you can clearly hear the Giants fans yelling Cruuuuuuuz on TV. I would estimate that there were 7,000 Giants fans in Lambeau. Gotta give them credit. Green Bay isn’t the easiest place to get to–it requires an expensive, two-leg flight or a flight and a two-hour drive from Milwaukee or 3.5-hour drive from Chicago–and the Giants fans mobilized, got this trip scheduled one week’s notice, outbid Packers fans for tickets on Stubhub all week, and showed up in full force to perhaps make a 25% difference in net effect of the Lambeau crowd for a game that they expected to be played in a frigid climate when they bought their seats. Props. These things are more poignant in hindsight but significant nonetheless.
7:51 – Packers defense stands up and holds the Giants to a field goal. Still a chance to steal this game but those chances are wearing thin. Packers have had more than enough and failed as a team to capitalize.
6:53 – And Ryan Grand fumbles, Giants recover and return it inside the Packers’ 5 (great tackle by Rodgers). A touchdown catch by Mario Manningham on the next play will end it. Basically no way to erase three scores in less than seven minutes. Finishing this out would be an exercise in masochism above and beyond what this has been so far. Because my goal was to understand how and why this has loss happened–and I think by and large I do at this point–I’m going to spare myself the rest of this game.
****************
Unlike many big Packer losses over the past ten years or so since I really got into them, this one left me disappointed, not angry. Mistakes were made but they were physical and not mental–and thus more excusable. There were no horrifyingly bad coaching decisions and no lack of effort or passion. It’s hard to be angry at your favorite team when everyone is trying his best and nervous tension causes drops or fumbles.
Therefore, there will be comparatively less long-lasting feelings from this game. This team is full of likable players, is well-coached, and has a tremendous front office and a nucleus that by-and-large will come back strong next year. With the Packers likely still in the first half of their window of opportunity to win championships with Rodgers at quarterback, this game feels more like the end of a chapter than the end of a book.
Off the top of my head, this game was not among the four most hurtful Packers losses of recent memory. I’m not sure whether the 4th-and-26 Eagles game in early 2004 or the Favre-to-Webster-in-overtime game against the Giants in early 2008 was the worst – probably the Giants game because it meant the end of the Favre era and cost the Packers a trip to the Super Bowl – is #1 but they are definitely both 1 and 2. In similarly unclear order, 3 and 4 are the overtime loss to the Cardinals on the Rodgers fumble and the combination of the two games where Favre beat the Packers with the Vikings in 2008. I don’t know if I am more guarded now than in the past but I’m not feeling the sting as badly as I was for those games. I might be overlooking others that also hurt more badly.
That being said, it’s never easy. This was a special team that won the Super Bowl last year and went an emphatic 15-1 in the regular season. I had very high expectations and really didn’t conceive of them losing this game. Until they did. That they had opportunity after opportunity to steal it despite being monumentally outplayed, but failed to sustain any momentum on offense, was quite disappointing. But it’s been a great run and a great season and there is not a sense of finality with this loss.
As frustrating as the Bradshaw-getting-23-yards-and-getting-out-of-bounds/Manning-Nicks hail mary sequence to end the first half was, it definitely could have been overcome–the Packers were 7.5-point favorites in this game and that series accounted for seven of them. The Packers lost this game because drops, turnovers, and, yes, some errant passes prevented the offense from ever getting into a rhythm. Every time it looked like something was building, the drive stalled. They fumbled three times – which should have been four but Jennings’ cough-up was ruled incorrectly – and recovered none of them. Credit to the Giants for forcing many of these errors but this wasn’t the sharp Packers squad that had won 21 of 22 coming into the game. This was the worst game that they played–including the loss to the Chiefs–in that stretch.
The defense is not to blame. It missed some tackles and gave up some big plays generally got its job done. It stopped the Giants several times on short fields and prevented a few red zone possessions from ending in touchdowns. It would be outstanding if they had someone who could get to the quarterback when Clay Matthews is contained but this has been a hole all season. They only allowed two Giants touchdowns before the game was out of hand–it’s hard to blame them for preventing the Manningham TD when the Giants started the drive inside the Packers 5–and did more than enough to keep the Packers in the game while the offense was sputtering.
In the third quarter, the Giants didn’t pick up a single first down. A common motif of the Packers’ past two seasons had been winning their games with great starts to the second half as they outscored their opponents in the third quarter 241-84 over a 32-game stretch. But due to forced and unforced errors, they failed to capitalize. The Giants let them hang around far longer than would be advisable but ultimately found a way to put the game solidly out of reach late.
Once again, much credit goes to the Giants organization and their fans for a successful business trip. With the exception of one Giants fan that resembled a Jersey Shore character who took exception to my common “I really,sincerely hope that the Giants lose tomorrow” refrain, said with a smile, that gets a rise out of most people, everybody we encountered was friendly, courteous, and having a blast in Green Bay. After having iceballs thrown at them by Eagles and Jets fans, they could not believe the hospitality that they were received with and were more than appreciative. They loved Lambeau and everything about and around it.
But part of me will always feel that the Packers lost this game under the auspices of controllable factors. Over the past season and a half, we have become accustomed to coming up with a big play that dramatically shifts the momentum in the Packers’ favor. It never came and the Packers couldn’t put enough small ones together to equal a big one at any point in the third quarter or early in the fourth–when they had opportunities to do so and execution was desperately needed–and suffered an early exit as a result.
As it always is, the offseason will be long and harrowing. For me, nothing in sports compares to the beauty and excitement of the Packers on an NFL Sunday and the loss of those will leave a gaping void in my life forever until mid-September. But perhaps the scarcity of these wonderful days is what makes it so special when it’s football season.
Although they certainly could have done it again this year, you can’t win the Super Bowl every season; winning one every 16 years means you are doing it twice as often as expected. It isn’t just greedy to count every season that doesn’t result in a championship as a failure unconditionally, it’s a self-effacing practice that leads to substantially more unhappiness than joy.
I love this team, am proud of what it has accomplished thus far on its journey, and am optimistic for its future. It never feels like we will make it to mid-September, but we always do. Go Pack Go.
Follow me on Twitter @RGSpiegel.
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on December 15, 2011
I wrote a slideshow for The Daily Meal in which I counted down the Top 10 sports bars in America.
Between when I got the assignment and when I made the list, I grappled with the decision as to make Will’s Northwoods Inn #1 or merely to put it on the list. I am obviously biased because I’m a huge Packers and Badgers fan living in Chicago so it makes sense that I would be a regular patron of the bar and didn’t want my personal preferences to compromise the integrity of the list.
The more I thought about it, though, the more secure I was in the decision. Out of everybody I know and perhaps everybody that they know, I am the most qualified to evaluate the quality of sports bars based on (in no particular order) screens, food, drinks, atmosphere, staff, and clientele. I spend a lot of time in sports bars and am consistently thinking about ways that they can improve and how they stack up against each other. Will’s is my favorite sports bar and there isn’t a particularly close second.
Further, even those of my friends who are not blessed to be Wisconsin sports fans love going to Will’s. It’s atmosphere for Packers games is unsurpassed and unlike any other sports bars that I have been too comes as close replicating the experience of being at the game.
If you read this blog and have never been to Will’s for a Packers game, I cannot recommend the experience highly enough. Even if you live in Wisconsin, it is worth adding to your list of destinations to check out.
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on December 12, 2011
Originally published on Sports Rapport.
Packers Highlights
First and foremost, it must be noted that the Packers’ 46-16 victory, which was even more of a blowout than the score indicates, came after the Raiders’ coaching staff spent the entire week telling its squad, “NOBODY BELIEVES YOU CAN WIN THIS GAME!” Every week, the Packers play with a gigantic bullseye on their back and this contest was against a team that came into the weekend in a tie for the lead in its division. The best the Raiders could muster was a game that was over before the first quarter ended. Here are my take-aways from yesterday’s game:
- It was great to see Ryan Grant show a burst that we really haven’t seen out of him in years. Hopefully this means that the first part of this season was spent getting comfortable running on his healed ankle. Yesterday, he stepped up in James Starks’s absence and rushed 10 times for 85 yards and two touchdowns; before that this season he had run 92 times for 316 yards and no touchdowns. I may or may not have been angry every time he got a carry instead of Starks. Perhaps, because he was able to share the load with Starks, he will be fresher than most running backs are headed into the Playoffs and can help the Packers build and protect leads.
- I can’t be the only person who Googled “Taylor 82 Packers” before sending the obligatory “You can’t stop Ryan Taylor, you can only hope to contain him” mass text. Upon further research, he was a 7th-round pick out of North Carolina. This season, he has one catch for four yards, a touchdown, and an awkward Lambeau Leap.
- NEXT GUY UP ALERT: Love seeing DJ Smith and Robert Francois step up with huge interceptions. I’ve said it before and will almost assuredly say it again but it’s a miracle that Ted Thompson and his staff find these people and that Mike McCarthy and his staff develop them into players who can step in and not only avoid being liabilities but also contribute toward a dominant victory.
- Aaron Rodgers continues to have strikingly beautiful eyes (confession: I find these pictures by going on Google Images and searching Aaron Rodgers hot) and play at a historically brilliant level. Yesterday he went 17/30 for 281 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. At 96.7, this performance comprised his worst quarterback rating of the season by a sizable margin; his previous worst was 106.2 in last week’s Giants game. Like almost everyone else, I have no idea what goes into quarterback rating or why it is drawn up so that a perfect rating is 158.3 but I know that it reflects what anyone with eyes would be able to tell you: ARodg is pretty good.
- Quick response to Brandon’s Brent Favre post last week about Jermichael Finley: Brandon wrote, “Personally, I haven’t decided yet what I want the Packers to do. It’s a joy watching Finley play, and there are numerous occasions where it seems like Rodgers is just going to #88 every play until the defense proves it can stop him. But he’s going to cost a lot of money, and Thompson will have some other contracts to extend. There will be a lot of discussion about this after the Super Bowl. Stay tuned.” The Packers are 99.8% going to franchise Finley. The franchise tag for a tight end is only expected to cost $5.4 million next season. Finley may argue that he should be designated as a wide receiver, where the tag would cost the Packers $9.5 million. Perhaps they could meet in the middle? Seems fair. Either way, my prediction is that Finley plays on the Packers next season before they go their separate ways. He’s a match-up nightmare and one of my favorite Packers but I can’t see the Packers paying him what someone else will, especially when they are going to have to figure out extensions for Clay Matthews and BJ Raji before the end of next season.
- Sour note of the week was obviously the Greg Jennings injury. Right now it’s still a little bit murky but it’s looking like an MCL tear which would have about a six-week recovery time? We should know more this afternoon. Hope to have him back in time for the playoffs. His production this season has shifted a little bit to Jordy Nelson this season but it’s important to realize that Nelson often has favorable match-ups because of the attention that defenses must give Jennings and Finley. Update: Jennings is out 2-3 weeks and should return in time for the Playoffs. Thumbs up indeed!
- 13-0. 19 straight wins. Pretty OK time to be a Packers fan.
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on December 6, 2011
Ryan Glasspiegel writes Sports Rapport. Follow him on Twitter @RGSpiegel.
Today, for the fifth time in franchise history and first since 1997, our beloved Green Bay Packers are having a stock offering. The team hopes to raise at least $22 million to help ease the burden of their planned $143 million Lambeau Field renovation.
Amongst non-Packers fans, cynicism pertaining to the actual return on one’s $250 investment has been a hotly discussed subject. ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio writes:
Though most stock purchases arise from a desire to invest money so that the money will grow in value, Packers’ stock represents a rare type of memorabilia. No other team can sell it, and no other fans can own it.
Coincidentally, the shares have become available less than three weeks before Christmas, during what has been so far the most magical year in franchise history.
What’s that, you say? I’m being cynical again? Consider this line from the team’s press release: “Stock in the Packers does not constitute an investment in ‘stock’ in the common sense of the term. . . . Anyone considering the purchase of Packers stock should not purchase the stock to make a profit or to receive a dividend or tax deduction or any other economic benefits.”
During the NBA Lockout, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece on Grantland that differentiated between economic and psychic benefits. Not everything needs to be valued monetarily. Owning a piece of the Packers–even if it doesn’t provide a quantifiable return–has psychic benefits that, as Florio alludes to in the first part of the referenced passage, no other fan group can derive. The only way for other fans to own their favorite team is to become a billionaire which, let’s face it, requires a combination of hard work, sacrifice, and luck (and, in most cases, ruthlessness) that most people are unwilling and (not or) unable to put forth.
The share certificate that my father, a Milwaukee-born Packers transplant residing in Connecticut, purchased in the 1997 offering proudly hangs framed in our living room. The pleasure from looking at it every day and using it as a talking point–as one would do with an interesting or beautiful work of art–has provided our family with pride and happiness that would cost much more than $250 to buy in the form of traditional goods and services.
The Packers give us a sense of joy in our lives that cannot be replicated. Buying a share enables us to feel as though we are giving back to the franchise and have some part, however small, in its continued existence. The Packers may reside in Green Bay, a city of just over 100,000, but they galvanize the entire statewide community and transplants nationwide. They are worth paying to sustain. In buying shares to help it continue to do so on a competitive basis with the rest of the league, we get more than fair value in return.
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on December 5, 2011
Originally posted, along with running diary of trip to the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis, on Sports Rapport.
Another great win for the Packers. They are playing with a confident swagger right now and it just feels like no matter how much adversity they face, they will overcome it and win. There’s a fine line between that and being overconfident but they appear sufficiently motivated to keep up their high level.
Highlights:
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Takeways:
- While everyone else is playing checkers, Aaron Rodgers is playing chess. Was there ANY doubt he was going to lead a scoring drive in the final minute?
- On a related note, I love the move by Mike McCarthy to tell Cobb to take a touchback on that kickoff. It is unlikely that the yards Cobb gained past the 20 would have been worth the time that the kickoff return took off the clock.
- Drops continue to be an issue for the whole offense but especially for Jermichael Finley. Finley had at least two brutal drops yesterday and needs to get this issue in order before the playoffs. Perhaps the optimal strategy with Finley might be not to throw him perfect passes? He seems to have the most trouble with those.
- Mason Crosby had another tackle saving a long kick return yesterday. How many of those do he and Masthay have over the past few years? How awesome is it that the Packers have the best tackling kicker AND punter in the league?
- So awesome and classy to see Charles Woodson give Hakeem Nicks dap.
- Nerdy NFL stat time: When the Packers scored a touchdown to go up 8 with 3:30 to go, Bill Barnwell tweeted that they should go for 2 to try to make it a two-possession game. His logic was that if you convert it, you force the Giants to score, recover an onside kick, and score again–virtually impossible in the given time frame and way more difficult than executing a two-point conversion. He said something similar about a month ago and at the time I dismissed it as unrealistic but the more I’ve thought about it, the more it makes sense. The first coach that tries it, though, better hope and prey it works out. If it doesn’t, that coach will get crucified for thinking outside the box.
What did everyone else think?
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on December 4, 2011
In the third quarter of today’s game, Hakeem Nicks had as pretty a touchdown reception as you’ll ever see. Charles Woodson had excellent coverage on Nicks but the execution between Eli Manning’s pass and Nicks’s catch was flawless. The play was so nasty that Woodson had to give Nicks some dap. Video linked below:
Woodson Gives Nicks Dap
It is very special to have the opportunity to root for a player who is as talented and classy as Charles Woodson. It seems pretty safe to say at this point that he will one day be entering Canton as a member of the Green Bay Packers.
Hopefully, he will have a speedy recovery from the concussion he suffered later in the game; the Packers will need him as they continue their Super Bowl title defense.
Hat tip: Shutdown Corner
Ryan Glasspiegel writes Sports Rapport. Follow him on Twitter @RGSpiegel.
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on December 2, 2011
On this, the 28th anniversary of the birth of our valiant leader Aaron Rodgers, yet another piece about his historically brilliant season (I’ve read so many over the past month that I’ve lost count) was penned. This one came from Mike Tanier, a writer at the inimitable Football Outsiders, on the New York Times Fifth Down blog. If you don’t click through, you probably hate puppies.
Every word is smile-inducing but this paragraph was particularly enjoyable:
Rodgers is having a historic season by every possible measure, including the kinds of high-tech statistics that are designed to adjust for historic eras, schedule strength and other variables. In the statistic known as DVOA used by the Web site Football Outsiders, Rodgers’s current season ranks below Manning’s in 2004 and Brady’s in 2007 but above the best seasons by Young and Warner. When using Pro Football Reference’s adjusted-net-yards-per-attempt statistic, the season ranks just below Manning’s in 2004 and above Dan Marino’s 5,084-yard season in 1984. Under the circumstances, praise for Rodgers seems somewhat faint: calling this season M.V.P.-caliber is a little like calling a “Mona Lisa” exhibition worthy.
Pieces like this remind us of how lucky we truly are to be watching this team with these players with this quarterback with this coaching staff with this front office. Aaron Rodgers is playing at a historically brilliant level but he doesn’t do it without the help of everyone else in the Packers organization. We are watching a team that has already won a Super Bowl and has a window of opportunity to sustain greatness for a decade.
They have not done it yet but they certainly have the potential to match the legacy of the Lombardi Packers. There is a chance that we will one day speak to our children about Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson and Charles Woodson and Clay Matthews and Donald Driver the way our fathers and grandfathers speak of Bart Starr and Vince Lombardi and Jerry Kramer and Ray Nitschke and Paul Hornung.
It is NOT a forgone conclusion. In 1997, the above paragraph could have been written about the Brett Favre, Reggie White, Mike Holmgren, and Ron Wolf Packers. That team also won a Super Bowl and will undoubtedly be remembered fondly for years to come but its potential for historical greatness unfortunately did not come to fruition.
At this moment in time, though, we need to realize how lucky we are right now. This all may have only just begun.
Ryan Glasspiegel writes Sports Rapport. Follow him on Twitter @RGSpiegel.
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on December 1, 2011
Originally posted on Sports Rapport
Instant Replay, the diary of the 1967 Packers season by Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaap, is a testament to what can happen when outstanding candor and beautiful writing converge with outrageously fortuitous luck. What begins as an arduous challenge for Kramer to persevere through yet another torturous Vince Lombardi training camp culminates in the Packers’ triumph in the Ice Bowl–on a final-minute Bart Starr quarterback sneak for a touchdown where Kramer threw the key block–and, somewhat anti-climatically, the Packers’ Super Bowl II victory over the Raiders.
For insight into the daily preparation and psyche of a football player, football coach, and football team alone, Instant Replay would be an exceptional read. That it captures one of the most heralded plays in NFL history, however, leads its relevance to endure more than 40 years later.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
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Posted by Ryan Glasspiegel on November 30, 2011
Tyler Dunne penned an excellent profile of Packers left guard T.J. Lang in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, detailing the extent to which his maturity off the field has led him to earn his starting role this year:
The last three years, the personable, ultra-honest guard has matured from out-all-night 21-year-old to lights-out-by-10 father. Lang is the first to admit it. He didn’t take this job seriously enough and nearly paid the price. This past summer, his career was pushed to a make-or-break training camp.
He needed to quit treating morning meetings as college lectures. He couldn’t show up to work on two hours of sleep. Lang changed his ways. And now, it’s paying off.
“I’m living a lot different these days,” Lang said after the Packers’ 27-15 win at Detroit, “just from having more responsibilities and taking things more serious.”
The profile details a series of wake-up calls, ranging from Lang’s college coach Chris Symington who told Lang to “evaluate yourself and you let me know if you would draft you,” to Packers right guard Josh Sitton who told Lang that, with Daryn Colledge gone, “we needed him this year.”
The piece also encapsulates Lang’s life as a new father as well as his receiving the terrible news that his own father, who has never missed any of Lang’s home games at Lambeau Field, is battling a life threatening illness. I could not recommend clicking through to the link above highly enough.
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Even though I watch virtually every down of every Packers season and consume about as much NFL broadcasts and coverage as humanly possible, I have absolutely no basis on which to evaluate whether an offensive lineman is playing well. Ironically, the only ways that I can figure out if this is the case are from trusted sources like the Journal-Sentinel’s Bob McGinn or through anonymity. This is to say that if an offensive lineman isn’t a matador giving up a free path to the quarterback and isn’t drawing penalties for false starts, holding, or illegal chop blocks, I assume he is doing his job well. This has been the case for Lang this season, who, as best I can tell, has only been called for six false starts and zero holds this season.
Any readers who have played football–especially offensive or defensive line–and have a better grasp of how Lang’s play has been are HIGHLY encouraged to comment.
Ryan Glasspiegel writes Sports Rapport. Follow him on Twitter @RGSpiegel.
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