Morning Buzz: Packers juggling injuries
Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com. Grab a cup of coffee and get caught up on everything you need to know about the Packers.
Obviously, the biggest story in and around Green Bay when it comes to the Packers is the cascade of injuries the team is being forced to deal with.
In case you were asleep all of Monday and have just stumbled to your computer, let Ryan Wood and Michael Cohen take you through everything. There’s a lot.
As for how the team moves forward on offense, Pete Dougherty makes a smart point that if the Packers plan on going to the short passing game the way they did against the Bears, the offensive line simply can not afford drive-killing holding penalties.
Against the Bears, McCarthy took an approach he’ll likely use for at least several more weeks, based on injuries at running back, and perhaps the rest of the season, depending on how well it works over the next month or so. He used four- and five-receiver sets most of the night, and almost three-quarters of his plays (72.8 percent) were passes (i.e., pass attempts, sacks and Rodgers scrambles). Even in today’s NFL that’s way above the norm — the league average is 59.5 percent.
A lot of those were short throws that, as Rodgers noted after the game, substituted for running the ball.
So in that way, the Packers were like a running team that grinds out long drives. That was evident in their stats — they put up 406 yards in total offense and won the time of possession decisively (39 minutes, 36 seconds to the Bears’ 20:24), yet their point total (26) was relatively modest.
But if they’re going to grind, they have to avoid penalties. Ten-yard holding penalties in particular. Those are drive killers for teams that live or die from first down to first down.
Aaron Ripkowski stopped by "Clubhouse Live" last night. .
Rich Ryman has the goods on the Packers finally unveiling (and marketing) the photo of Bart Starr, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers that the franchise took last Thanksgiving, when Starr was in Green Bay to help honor Favre. Packers fans can have their own copy, for a pretty penny of course, with all profits going to charities chosen by the quarterbacks.
Fantasy players are very interested in how Ty Montgomery is being used.
The Packers aren’t the only team dealing with injuries.
Some numbers to ponder heading into Sunday’s game.
Looks like the reunion between Joe Callahan and the Packers will have to wait.
The Packers aren’t out of anything.
Some old-school Favre for you.