Thursday, September 13, 2007

Recap! Green Bay Packers (0-0) vs. Philadelphia Eagles (0-0)

Kenny Albert, Daryl "Moose" Johnston and Tony "Dumbass" Siragusa. Lucky us. This isn't the worst crew, but anytime Siragusa is involved I'm a little concerned. Putting this guy on tv, even for his supposed expertise, seems like a warning sign on the road to idiocy. On the plus side Mike Carey is our Ref today. He must be good, I actually bothered to remember his name.

As a recap, when the Packers have the ball the comments are normal, when the opponent has the ball the comments are italicized.

1st Quarter
14:44 - Philadelphia receives and looks awful on offense. McNabb is called for intentional grounding. Favre emphatically begs the Refs to make the call and they do. Kenny and Daryl immediately start in on how smart Favre is. I love Favre but every qb in the league knew that was the call. Good news for those of you who had Favre's first uncomfortable worshipping clocking in under 1 minute of the season. And the Packers don't even have the ball!

14:10 - Frank Caliendo, apparently dressed as John Madden, is singing some terrible song. Normally in this situation I'd ask someone to kill me, but clearly I'm not the problem here. Kill Frank Caliendo. Make it happen people. Just make it happen.
Oh, by the way the Packers go three and out on their first possession. Mike III admits that he had timid playcalls last year according to the guys in the booth. Good, step one is admitting it.

13:10 - On the ensuing punt Greg Lewis of Philly muffs the punt around the 25. Both teams play kick the can into the end zone and Tracy White of the Packers recovers. Touchdown!

GREEN BAY 7 - PHILADELPHIA 0

11:14 - Philly has to call a timeout to avoid a delay of game penalty. They're basically averaging a mistake a minute, be it penalty, timeout or muff. And what a muff!

10:34 - The Swordsman, Nick Barnett, makes a nice recovery to pick off McFab around the 35 of Philly. I know he's got his detractors, particularly in night clubs, but I still like Nick.

9:40 - The offense does nothing but the rookie kicker doesn't care. Mason Crosby drills it from 53. His first kick in the league is 50+. Nice. He looked calm there, I feel good about this kid.

GREEN BAY 10 - PHILADELPHIA 0

9:29 - A 15 yard facemask on Philly during the kick return. This is the least disciplined team I've seen since the Vikings.

7:25 - On punt coverage Al Harris is drilled by Atari Bigby and leaves the game holding his arm. Fantastic. Someone tell the new guy not to mess with the old guys please?

7:05 - This really isn't anything special but it should be noted. #89 had back to back catches for the Packers and remained in the game. I still haven't recovered from the Turd Ferguson years but this is a good start. James Jones, working to redeem the number 89, the name "james jones" from koolaid man, I mean, what can't he do?

4:46 - Bubba, continuing a somewhat less than awesome trend, gets outplayed for the ball and Favre has an interception. Yay. I still love Bubba, it was a tough play, but it's not the way to start out.

:20 - With Al Harris in the locker room being examined the Packers give up a 43 yard pass by Tramon Williams. I think that's his name. Anyway, he clearly needs to be kept on the bench.

2nd Quarter

14:10 - The Eagles had 1st and goal from the 6 and couldn't get in. Nice work by the defense. Akers hits from 33 after yet another penalty.

GREEN BAY 10 - PHILADELPHIA 3

10:20 - Al's back. And with him is his new 19 pound elbow wrap. I'm sure no one in Philly is planning to attack our one armed Popeye.

6:00 - The Eagles cap off a nice drive with a TD to Jason Avant. Kampman just missed sacking McNabb earlier in the drive. I have no real agenda here. On a side note, the announcers tell us that right before game time an Emergency message was played over the PA system calling for the evacuation of the field. It was a false alarm. I'm only mentioning this because Tony "the Tool" Siragusa said "Eagle fans ain't leaving though". Tony, I hate to break this to you but yeah, they would have left if they had to, just like Packer fans. Also, if they had stayed they would have blown up if a bomb was near them, also like Packer fans. The only difference between the two is Packer fans don't bitch about everything all day and then claim they're just being tough or honest.

1:00 - Each team's offense looks pretty rough now. Which is also a way of saying each defense is looking pretty good. They've alternated back and forth with the ball and neither team has threatened. For the first time all day Brandon Jackson makes a nice play. 13 yard catch and run with some shiftiness.

:14 - With little time and no timeouts the Packers try to rush a play. Jackson makes another nice play but doesn't go down. He should have flopped so the kicker would have a chance. Rookies... Sigh.

3rd Quarter

14:09 - Bubba with another drop. It was a tough, diving attempt, but still. All eyes are on you big man. C'mon! Ooh, redemption! Bubba for 14 and a first down!

11:02 - Avant is wide open for a 30 yard catch and run on 3rd and 7. I thought we all agreed these monster plays for 30 yards at a chunk were a bad thing?

8:15 - Akers finishes off the drive with a FG from 47. The D made 'em earn it, but they still gave up points.

GREEN BAY 10 - PHILADELPHIA 13

4:48 - Favre, about to be sacked, flips a 1 yard pass to DeShawn Wynn, who promptly shuffles for 18 yards and a first down. Nice craftiness by the veteran and some nice moves by the rookie. I don't know why but I've got high hopes for Wynn. I'm hoping he earns it at some point.

3:20 - As Favre is going down he completes a pass for 7 yards to Donald Lee. The linebacker sitting on top of Favre seems to say something along the lines of "I am very disappointed. I felt that I had made a play for my team but you have thwarted my efforts with your guile." Or he may have said "Dammit", I'm really not sure, his lips didn't seem to be moving that long.

:49 - Crosby again drills a kick. This time from 37. The offense hasn't done much but we're in this game thanks to vastly improved special teams, defense, and the Philly Penalty Fest.

GREEN BAY 13 - PHILADELPHIA 13

4th Quarter

12:55 - Corey Williams comes up with a big sack on 3rd and 2 to force a punt. Cullen Jenkins had a sack taken back earlier in the drive too. D-line looking good.

8:25 - After a quick failed drive by the Pack the Eagles are working again. Kampman with a sweet tackle of McNabb. I don't know how he held onto the ball.

8:00 - Nick Collins misses an interception despite being in perfect position. It forces 4th down so it's not all bad.

6:46 - On 3rd and 1 Favre misses James Jones down the right sideline. He had his man beat and it could have gone for a TD. Nice play call, just need to work on the execution. Favre looks like an extra on one of those old Excedrin commercials right now.

5:53 - Eagles driving in a tie game and it's late. How do you think I feel? If you guessed "Jolly" you'd be right. Johnny Jolly knocks down his third pass of the day. 3rd and 5 coming.

5:45 - Bush and Hawk smother a short pass to force the punt. Thanks to yet another penalty on the Eagles the Packers are starting on their 49. This is what you might call a golden opportunity.

4:20 - And by "golden opportunity" I did not mean "a chance for the O-line to whiff on pass protection and allow Favre to get stripped of the ball". I thought I should clarify that. Eagles ball on our 38. And they have Akers. At the moment I'm trying to focus on how good the wife looks in her Reggie White jersey rather than the fate of our boys. C'mon D!

3:00 - Third and 12 from the Packer 40. The D has done it's job to this point but it won't matter if we give up points. Cullen Jenkins gets held. 10 yard penalty! 3rd and 22 coming! That's a lot of exclamatin points! McNabb throws out of bounds, missing his man pretty badly. Nice work Mr. Defense!

1:13 - The Packer "drive" stalls out on the 40 with a Driver drop.

:59 - Greg Lewis has been replaced on punt return by JR Reed. He's never returned them before. He apparently learned how to do it by watching Greg Lewis earlier today. Another muff! Muffs all over this place! Green Bay recovers on the Philly 31.

:02 - After the standard runs to move the ball forward slightly they call in the rookie kicker again. He drills the FG from 43 for the win! Ice! In his veins! 1000% awesome!

GREEN BAY 16 - PHILADELPHIA 13

Penalties, muffs and some nice defense and special teams pull off the win. That was a lot of fun. Someone ask Tony Siragusa if Philly fans are willing to leave or if they'll force both teams to play until the Eagles come out on top. I just want to know.

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