Sunday, September 23, 2007

Recap! Green Bay Packers (2-0) vs. San Diego SuperChargers (1-1)

Our announcers today are Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. We're on CBS. Always an entertaining change of pace from Fox. If listening to a broadcast is like talking to extended family (and it totally is) then Fox is the drunk cousin 10 years your senior that has lots of jokes aimed at 12 year olds, is going through a divorce and takes the self-deprecation a little too far. The CBS guys are like the boring uncles who talk about mutual funds, upgrades on their Buick Lucerne and college football games when they made the big play...in '72. The experience can't be called entertaining, but given the other options it's workable.

Greg Jennings is playing today. Juice Coston is in again. Vern Morency is still out. The Chargers have a rookie Right Tackle playing but I didn't catch his name. Hopefully I'll hear it a lot in the context of "Kampman blows by..." or "Kampman humps the holy hell out of..."

As always, when the opponent has the ball the comments are italicized. When the Packers have the ball they're awesomecized. You can use that.

1st Quarter

14:42 - Favre hits James Jones for 20. Pass protection was unbelievable. We saw that a bit against the Giants last week, hopefully that remains the norm. Also, the Chargers have a D lineman named Igor. I cannot believe my folks went with "Matt" when Igor was clearly on the table as an option.

12:52 - The drive stalls when Driver gets tackled before the ball gets to him and no flag is called. On a totally unrelated note our Ref today is Jeff Triplette. Mr. Triplette is there to remind us that in all jobs there are always the guys who suck. He's sort of the hero for the temp in your office who makes the coffee without the filter, hangs up on the client and thinks Tuesday is another casual day.

8:10 - Antonio Gates has left the game after picking up a first down. He's doing a handshake routine with a trainer and grimacing. Is he meeting his wife's ex or testing the strength in the hand? We'll never know.

7:10 - Vince Jackson pulls down a 25 yard TD on a simple fly pattern. He not only wore Al Harris, he wore him to the prom. That's tight coverage.

GREEN BAY 0 - SAN DIEGO 7

6:56 - From the 20, Ryan Grant has his third carry of the game. Brandon Jackson hurt? By the way, I totally want to call him "BJack" because I'm lazy and unoriginal. But I just can't bring myself to do it. So I'm going with the lazy and yet modestly original choice of "BranJ". Yes, it sounds like the next Rhiannon-esque R&B star. Sorry BranJ, it just has to be.

5:32 - On a 20 yard pass Driver drops the pass and gets trainwrecked by Marlon McCree. Helmet flying. Flags flying. That's the definition of "spearing" kids. Don't do it.

5:16 - Jones makes back to back catches of 8 and 26 yards. Kid seems like a 5 year vet out there. Breaks tackles like Driver and Sharpe, catches everything. MF likey.

3:01 - Bubba with full extension on a dive can't come up with the TD catch. Tough play and I can't fault him for it. Still, the offense answered, that's big to me. Also big to me...boneless buffalo wings. Crosby drills from 28.

GREEN BAY 3 - SAN DIEGO 7

Nothing much happens. The D stuffs San Diego on their own 10. Chuck returns the punt to the 50. I really like the end zone design with the old school stripes and the 50 year anniversary logo in the corner. Yep, I knew you were waiting on my official opinion on that one.

2nd Quarter

14:47 - 3rd and 3. Driver for 20. He now has the most catches ever in Lambeau. That's pretty dang awesome. I can't believe I didn't hear about that before today. Where's the PR guy?

12:38 - The Packers working well with the short field. Lee for 8. Wynn for 10 and it's a first down on the 5. In what can only be described as "gorgeous" Driver makes a diving catch for a TD in the left corner of the end zone. Full extension, he was the only one who could catch it. Gorgeous.

GREEN BAY 10 - SAN DIEGO 7

11:00 - Gates back to back for 9 yards. LT picks up the 1st. Phil Rivers is 7 for 7 right now. The run game is absolutely stuffed but this bears watching. That kinda snuck up on me.

9:45 - Nick Barnett stuff LT for a loss and then does the swordsman thing while glaring. The thing is, who is he glaring at? Is he picturing the entire city of San Diego? One guy on the sideline?

7:17 - The defense comes up with a stop just outside the Packer 40. KGB had a sack to force 3rd and 23 and the Chargers just couldn't make up for it.

6:38 - Welcome to the NFL season Greg Jennings. He has his 1st catch of the year for 6 yards. Nice to have you back.

4:36 - On 3rd and 10 Driver goes for 46 on a quick slant. I don't know much about the Charger secondary but the safeties seem to miss tackles. There's been a few broken tackles or bad angles so far. That was one of them.

3:58 - Jennings for 10. We've run the ball all of 4 times I think. 22 passes. I'm okay with this. We're on the San Diego 5 by the way.

2:48 - Bubba runs a little stop and go, makes the catch over the umpire's diving head for a Touchdown. 2 weeks in a row for the big man. I like it. The offense, while incredibly uneven in balance, looks really good.

GREEN BAY 17 - SAN DIEGO 7

2:08 - Antonio Gates picks up 15 and steps out of bounds to stop the clock. Johnny Jolly, who is not in the game at the moment, tries to knock the ball out while standing on the sidelines. Jolly's kinda petty. I like it. By the by Phil Rivers is 14 for 14 so far. This definitely bears watching.

:55 - Gates wide open again for 8. I don't know how he does it. That's a big man to lose track of. On a totally awesome side note Jim Nantz said "Instant..........aneous". Taking 12 seconds to say a word meant to convey incredible speed is fun for the whole family.

:42 - Well, we finally got an incompletion. That was nice. But then Rivers followed it up with a TD toss to Buster Davis. I prefer Buster Brown* myself. He always gave me balloons.

GREEN BAY 17 - SAN DIEGO 14

3rd Quarter

9:02 - The Chargers just marched down the field. Nice mix of passes to Gates and runs by LT. Tomlinson scores a TD from the 21 on a screen pass. Nice design on that play. I had no idea what was going on. And if I can be fooled, well, the nation has no chance! Think of the possibilities!

GREEN BAY 17 - SAN DIEGO 21

The teams trade stalled drives to run out the quarter. The only real highlight of the last 9 minutes was Jeff Triplette muttering and making constant mistakes and stuttering during an illegal formation penalty call. As an added bonus he did the "false start" hand motion while explaining it. I wouldn't let this guy handle the window at a Wendy's.

4th Quarter

12:51 - The D comes up big again with a sack and a fumble. KGB caused the fumble. Regrettably we could not recover but a punt is coming. Chuck Woodson returns it to the 31.

11:29 - Driver's been destroying Marlon McCree and the Charger secondary since that cheap shot to his chin early in the game. He just juked Marlon out of his jock once, waited for him to put it back on and then juked him again. 24 yards.

8:30 - On 3rd and 12 (after an offensive Pass Interference on Don Lee) Favre goes right back to his TE for 18 and a 1st down. How do you spell redemption? D-O-N -L-E-E. And yes that's the first "Anchorman" quote I've worked into this. Now that I've realized it I'm guessing it won't be the last.

7:09 - Hideous sequence. 1st and goal from the 1 foot line. 5 yard false start penalty on Juice Coston. Timeout wasted. Favre overthrows Brandon Jackson on a screen. Favre gets sacked. Favre hits James Jones on the 1 ft line. 4th and goal. Empty backfield? WTF? Lame pass attempt to Bubba swatted down. Turnover on downs. If we lose, that's the reason why. With Favre 1 pass short of the TD record I wonder if that affected the playcall. I hope not. But I can't say for sure and that troubles me. We've gotten this far in this game because of #4, but it's 1 foot. Hand it off.

2:27 - The Chargers dug out of the hole on the 1 foot line and got out to the 30 thanks to Gates. Man, he's good. I'd prefer to not see Jarrett Bush on him but still, he does this to everyone. 3rd and 3 for the Chargers. Rivers overthrows his man. Punt. Chuck returns to the 44 of Green Bay.

2:03 - Incomplete to Bubba. His man fell down in coverage but he couldn't adjust. That's the difference between Gates and our guy in case you were wondering. Favre follows it up with a quick slant to Greg Jennings. He splits the defenders and races 57 yards for the score! Where the hell did that come from? Oh right, from earlier when it was noted the Chargers secondary takes bad angles. Awesome. Welcome back Greg. We missed ya. Favre has tied the TD record with Marino. 420! Stoners everywhere have an excuse to light up! Jocks and stoners together at last!

1:12 - On third and 10 from the SD 30 Rivers gets intercepted by Nick Barnett. The LB rumbles on down to the 3 yard line before getting shoved out of bounds. And my wife thought she was going to get a little nap in. She claims it's hard to sleep when I'm running around the house high fiving my 12 pound dog.

1:07 - The Packers learn from their mistakes. Jackson carries twice and scores the TD. Nantz and Simms are still arguing over whether they should have put Favre's chance at the record first. Hey guys, no one cares who calls the play all right? Try putting the game first?

GREEN BAY 31 - SAN DIEGO 21

:20 - The Chargers move quickly to the Green Bay 30 and hit a field goal. That's the smartest thing I've seen them do all day. Now they have time, a timeout and a chance if they get the onsides kick.

:19 - They do not get the onsides kick. Driver recovers. Packers win! Again! I don't think the Chargers are done for but man, this was a great win. Favre and Driver get some personal records, the team gets a confidence building win and Detroit and Minnesota lost. That's a good day right there.


*Buster Brown was a shoe store in the 80s. They sold shoes and gave away balloons. They were pretty damn cool.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know--it would have been great for Brett to set the Touchdown record at home, and I do regret that he won't get the chance.

That said, there is a sort of delicious irony that he will get to do it in the one opposing stadium that could be considered unholy ground for him...the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodump !!

And with the absolutely horrible pass defense the queens are playing-the record should belong to the big guy by the end of the first quarter !!

It's time for this team to start kicking ass...and with the vikes-there are 53 asses out there to be kicked !!!!

WOOOOOOOOOO-freakin'-HOOOOOOOOOOOO

Butch said...

I'll take a win and wait a week for the record.

So I'm going with the lazy and yet modestly original choice of "BranJ".

Can we pronounce it Brange?

andyfest said...

That was an awesome game yesterday but that sequence from the one-foot line when we were down 4 was some of the worst coaching I've seen. Focus on winning first, Favre's record second!

I'm glad Favre will break the record at the Metrodome. It would have been nice for him to do it at home but this will almost be sweeter.

MF said...

Butch,
I'm completely on board with the pronunciation being "brange" rather than "branjay". Well done sir.

The sequence on the 1 foot line was utter agony. Wasting a timeout to get it right when they were on the 6 and then rushing it when they got back to the 1 ft line? Gaaaaaah!

Anonymous said...

What a game. Thanks for the recap, my Tivo didn't record the end. Thanks, go Pack!