Join us at the Packer Fan Forum during the game.

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• Weekend Forum Activity

OFFENSE:

• Falcon and Rhino All Day Long

With the expected return of fullback Korey Hall, McCarthy can finally get back to his two fullback, two tight end sets. Dubbed ‘Falcon’, ‘Rhino’, and various other things, these formations were used to great effect in the playoff win against the Seahawks last season, the difference being (apart from the snow) that this time McCarthy should use them to open the game, rather than to put the game away, as he did last year. The Giants made the Seahawks defense look silly last week in the Meadowlands, but everybody knows the Seahawks have a different defensive squad at Qwest Field. The deafening crowd noise causes nightmares for visiting offenses, especially offensive linemen trying to react to the snap count. The best way for McCarthy to combat this will be to pound the football early. The Packers power formations match up well against the Seahawks and their lighter front seven. The right side in particular, with Spitz and Tauscher working against Bernard and Kerney, should be exploited by the Packers’ running game.

• Don’t Underestimate The Seahawks Pass Rush

Mark Tauscher handled Patrick Kerney last season without any help. He was so dominate that Kerney’s name failed to appear on the stat sheet one time for any reason. That won’t happen on Sunday. For whatever reason (Greg Bedard intimated that Tauscher is playing hurt in the JSOnline weekly chat - sorry, sub req) Tauscher is not playing up to his usual standards. Neither is Chad Clifton. And Seattle is not where you go when you’re having problems protecting the quarterback. Their pass rush is simply a completely different animal at Qwest Field. One need look no further than the film from the Seahawks games in Seattle against St. Louis and San Francisco and then compare it to last weeks defeat against the Giants in New York. It’s night and day. McCarthy should use ample shifts of his tight-ends, like the touchdown play to Driver, to shore up the protection. And he should look to get Greg Jennings matched up on Seahawk corner Kelly Jennings, who simply won’t be able to cover him one-on-one.

DEFENSE:

• Put Eight In the Box on Every Play
  

Seriously. The Seahawks likely starting receivers are Billy McMullen and Keary Colbert. There’s simply no way the Packers should get beat on the edges. Sanders must commit a safety to the line of scrimmage throughout the game and take away even the pretense of a Seahawks running game. Of course, this assumes Sanders employs a few run blitzes with his linebackers. If the past few weeks have taught us anything, its that the defensive line can not be trusted to control the line of scrimmage. It’s imperative that Sanders recognize that his usual M.O. of having his linebackers 5-8 yards off the line of scrimmage and reacting at the snap of the ball simply is not getting anything done against either the run or the pass. This game should be tailor-made for the Packers defense, as the Seahawks, outside of Matt Hasselbeck and possibly Julius Jones and Maurice Morris, don’t have any playmakers on offense. (Although watch rookie tight end Jon Carlson who has looked impressive)

• Help Will Blackmon - Preferably By Demoting Him

The good news: When the Seahawks go to their three wide receiver package, putting veteran Bobby Engram in the slot, the Packers counter by putting Charles Woodson against him. The bad news: This leaves Will Blackmon outside to handle someone in space. This is bad. Blackmon - for all his kick return prowess - has simply looked lost in coverage and not nearly physical enough for the style of football the Packers want to play on defense. Rookie Pat Lee, while raw, has simply looked better in coverage up to this point, and much more physical at the line. Yes, he was the victim of a ludicrous pass interference penalty this past week - but as McCarthty says, you can live with combative penalties.

One of the things that doomed Mike Sherman’s defenses were his and Ed Donatell’s stubborn refusal to go with rookies when their defensive veterans were clearly struggling. This is a mistake, especially in today’s NFL. One need look no further than last years champions, the New York Giants, to see an example of a team unafraid to play youth in the secondary. Patrick Lee, it is said, is a ‘project’ - well of course he is. But there’s no way he will progress if he’s not allowed to play. That said, he is already better than Blackmon, who struggles to locate the ball and loses his relationship between his man and the quarterback far too easily. Throw in the fact that he seems scared to be physical with receivers on the line, something Lee has seemingly taken a liking to, and it’s a no-brainer that Lee should be allowed to work as the nickel back until Al Harris’ return.

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• Too Hard On Jarrett Bush?

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.
From a question about Nick Barnett for Winston Moss on Greg Bedard’s ‘Mondays With Mikey’s Men’ feature over at JSOnline, where Bedard lets ordinary schleps like you and me posit questions to the assistant coaches:

You’re OK with how Nick is playing?

Moss: Versus his opportunities, he’s making the plays versus his opportunities.

Do you need to free him up, get him more opportunities?

Moss: You’re asking the wrong guy.

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• Top 5 Seattle Game Thoughts

Mike McCarthty, when asked about possible changes on the offensive line:

I want to get healthy there. That’s the thing. When you talk about health, and you’ve heard me say it here time and time again, there are no excuses when it comes Sunday, but the thing about being healthy is it kind of runs through your whole program. The way you practice, you’ve got line, linebackers playing tight end, things are just not as clean as you would like. It’s no different for the offensive line. Chad is having some medical issues and we’re trying to get him over that, so with that that you are working a different five. I just really want to stay clean to the approach we are having them because the guys that are being challenged are Jason Spitz, Daryn Colledge because they are playing positions during the week that they are not potentially playing in Sunday. So we’ve just got to keep repping those guys and try to get the continuity there that we really haven’t had since training camp.

You hear it all the time - the most important thing on the offensive line is continuity. The Packers line has been the polar opposite. Different bodies from game to game, indeed, from practice to practice. McCarthy would definitely like to sit Clifton this week and possibly next week and then head into the bye so that Clifton can get three full weeks of rest for his hamstring and the offense can have the same five guys play in the games that practice together all week.

The problem, of course, is Daryn Colledge. Corey and I have both been exceedingly critical of Colledge and his play, but he has definitely shown major improvement so far this year in almost all phases of the game. His biggest challenge, however, remains the same. Colledge is prone to having one absolute killer mental lapse per game. I mean, it’s a Lead Pipe Lock. The kid has one play in every single game where he just completely misses an assignment or gets caught flat footed or allows instant pressure. And they always turn into drive killing, if not game changing, plays. This past Sunday was no exception.

When Clifton went out and I saw Colledge in at left tackle, I assumed the game was over. All I could remember were flashes of his performance against Miami two years ago when Clifton was out. ‘Nightmarish’ is a charitable way to describe his performance in that game. (In his defense, he was lined up against Jason Taylor most of the day) Last Sunday, he was handed the assignment of blocking, mostly without help, the Falcons’ John Abraham, who is having a  Defensive-Player-of-the-Year-type season. And shockingly, Colledge was up to the task. Snap after snap, Colledge used good leverage and occasional power to keep Abraham off of quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

But then.

Colledge had one of his horrible, once-per-game mental breakdowns, completely whiffing on Abraham and allowing him to crash inside and flush Rodgers out before the quarterback could even complete his drop. Rodgers, almost in the grasp, threw the ball away, but was no where near outside the tackle box. Intentional grounding was called and a 2nd and 7 became a 3rd and 19. Rodgers was intercepted on the next play.

The interception, of course, is not Colledge’s fault. But it illustrates how his breakdown at the worst possible time put the offense in a horrible position and greatly affected the outcome of the game. He had these mental lapses almost every game last year, including so many in the Dallas game that he was benched. (Funnily enough, his breakdowns also contributed to two of Favre’s most brilliant plays last year - the 54 yard touchdown to Jennings against the Chiefs and Favre’s last great improvisational play as a Packer, the shovel pass to Donald Lee while falling down in the snow against Seattle) Colledge simply MUST maintain his focus throughout all four quarters of each game if he is to fill in for Clifton for any amount of time.

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• “Offensive” Line

Clearly, Bill Parcells is keeping tabs on the Packer’s practice squad.

Tracy White, who was cut late yesterday afternoon to make room for the elevation of rookie linebacker Danny Lansanah, tells Bob McGinn that the Dolphins had planned on singing Lansanah to their 53 man roster. It would have marked the second poaching of a Packer practice squad player by the Dolphins in less than a month, with Miami having signed tight end Joey Haynos a few weeks ago. It’s interesting that Parcells is zeroed in on these young players while he builds his squad in Miami. It makes you wish guys like Jarrett Bush had never been on the roster in the first place to make room for one of these guys.

And now we’ve lost White. I understand why he’s the one to get the ax and not Bush - the Packers are down to their fourth safety and Bush took snaps there throughout the offseason and training camp. They need the body there. But losing White hurts, and what hurts even worse is the intimation by White that the Vikings are interested in signing him. I bet they are, especially after having Reggie Bush make their coverage units look like little boys on national television. White would immediately improve their coverage units.

That said, White was a disaster from scrimmage, the play where he let Tampa Bay tight end Alex Smith free on a naked bootleg just one of many instances where he was less than up to the task. Going back and quickly watching some preseason action, Lansanah looks competent, if not special. If nothing else, he’ll bring speed and athleticism to a linebacking corps that has been missing both so far this season.

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• A Note About Abdul Hodge

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• Packer Transplants episode 32 now online

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/falcons-27-packers-24

Aaron Rodgers

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/in-praise-of-aaron-rodgers

Fire Bob Sanders

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/the-packers-need-to-hire-jim-bates

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/mccarthys-shoop-phase-continues

This Week In the Packer Blogosphere

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/live-chat-tonight-new-feature

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• Working Where I Do…

I’d like to second Corey’s invitation for all of you to join us tonight between 8PM - 9PM EDT for our first ever live chat here at Cheesehead TV. You only need to sign up for the Forum (it’s free!) and then join the fun right here. There are no shortage of things to chat about in Packer Nation, so it should make for some good discussion. Hope to hear from you tonight!

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• Working Where I Do…