We don’t put a lot of stock in preseason football, but it’s clear after the Green Bay Packers 27-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Saturday night the Packers defense needs to address some issues. By the time the starters departed in the second quarter, the Browns had a 21-14 lead. The game seems eerily similar to the Packers’ losses at Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Arizona last season, when the opposing offenses marched up and down the field on the Packers defense in what would become three shootouts and ultimately, losses. On the positive side, it should be noted that defensive coordinator Dom Capers did almost no blitzing and the Packers were without starting outside linebacker Clay Matthews. Of course, the Cleveland Browns offense is never going to be confused with that of any of those teams mentioned above, either. On the Browns opening series, quarterback Jake Delhomme completed 6-of-7 passes for 66 yards, on an 80-yard scoring drive. The 35-year-old Delhomme threw 18 interceptions last season against only eight touchdowns before losing his starting job in Carolina to Matt Moore and getting cut. Kurt Warner he is not. Even though he’s been impressive in practice, rookie strong safety Morgan Burnett had a shaky debut. http://www.totalpackers.com/2010/08...alpackers (Total Packers)&utm_content=Twitter
That preseason game meant nothing. I was waiting for a topic about this. Look who our starters were that day, look who was on the sidelines... No Al Harris starting, no Atari Bigby, no Jonny Jolly.. oh and Clay Mathews wasn't playing.. Once Harris gets healthy, and Bigby gets health, the team will be solid. No Jolly for the season, so we have to put Raji in, even though hes good, he has work cut out for him. Mathews needs to heal, and he will be back to his ball stripping and tackling ways from last season. I also don't care that Burnnet had a shaky appearance in his first game.. Its preseason.
I finally got to watch the game last night on NFL Network. Defense was a little shaky and out of shape, but that seems to happen every year. I'm not panicking yet. Someone needs to step up in the secondary, though. I'm not confident Al Harris will come all the way back or make it through the entire season, so a couple of these young guys needs to take it to the next level.
I guess it's just me that's worried about the loss of Aaron Kampman? Jacksonville have got a top player there
Thats a loss, but I think theres talent that can replace him, but not as good right now. Its going to be a different season without him on D, but I think the Packers will still play as well as they have.
The problem is, is that this, and last year were/ are the only real opportunities to do something great. Last year Al Harris got injured (and Kampman, I seem to recall? Which, if I'm right makes me less worried about his absence). This year we've lost our NT, think I heard that somewhere, and Kampman, and Clay will have his 2nd season syndrome, if that exists in the NFL. Also there is no way Charles Woodson can be as good this year
Raji is good, our NT issue doesn't exist in my mind. Why do you think Mathews and Woodson will not be as good? I think your wrong there.
Well people have watched Clay for a year and will have worked out ways to stop him, they know what he's about and how he plays, usual 2nd season stuff, on the other hand he's more experienced and has had a whole year learning how things go in the NFL, so to be fair it could go either way. As for Woodson, he had an unbelievable year last year, and I think that's going to be his best year, so he won't be as good next year by default, especially with his age. I haven't seen much of Raji so I'll trust your judgement on that one.
