After a rough start to the 2022 season, the Green Bay Packers’ defense arrived on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The defense got diced up by Justin Jefferson and the Vikings’ passing game in week one, then got slashed and dashed by the Chicago Bears’ run game in week two. Not that the latter ended up mattering much, when the Bears got only 70 yards out of Justin Fields due to an unwillingness to put the ball in his hands and the quarterback’s own ball-throwing deficiencies.

But for the first time this season, this unit resembled exactly what many had hoped for out of it coming into the season: a complete, shutdown force capable of carrying a team to the promised land.

Now, of course, it’s just one game, and it’s still September. It’s far too early to be making any grand statements about this defense or the team’s potential. But you have to feel good about what you saw out of the team. 

Tom Brady did get off to an efficient start throwing the football, but as the day wore on, there was very little room for the Bucs to go. The Packers kept the Bucs out of the endzone for almost the entirety of the game and forced numerous three and outs. The defense blanketed the Bucs’ receivers after the first quarter, the running game got nowhere, and the pass rush was effective in plays where Brady wasn’t simply getting the ball out as quickly as possible.

Kenny Clark is quietly off to the best start of his career, and this is reflected in both PFF and Andy Herman’s grades. He’s been a force along the defensive line, and it’s helped in part by the addition of Jarran Reed, who’s been strong in relief. 

Rashan Gary has been a force to be reckoned with and has a sack in each game so far. In both the pass rush and run defense he has been excellent. His bookend, Preston Smith, has kept up his momentum from his bounceback 2021 season and has been an extremely valuable piece of the defense.

After a tough week one, De’Vondre Campbell has bounced back in a big way. He was all over the field on Sunday, and the presence of Quay Walker has only helped the middle of the field. It’s almost impossible to believe Walker is a rookie; his football instincts are so strong and his decision making so fast that when you couple that with his natural speed and strength he looks like a guy who’s been playing at a high level for at least five years in the league already. 

The secondary took its lumps in the first week, but has rebounded since. Eric Stokes completely shut down his side of the field on Sunday. Rasul Douglas played well, especially once put to the outside to fill in for the injured Jaire Alexander. You’re getting contributions out of guys like Keisean Nixon, for goodness’ sake. 

There are still improvements to be made. Darnell Savage has not yet shown signs of rebounding from a really rocky 2021 campaign. Adrian Amos has not played up to expectations that he’s set for himself so far. Amos did have a slow start last year, but was back to playing excellent football by October, so maybe there’s a bit of a warm-up period needed. And Alexander himself hasn’t been great yet, though he didn’t have to do much against the Bears and barely played against the Bucs. 

But boy, you have to feel good about the effort the defense put forth this week. The naysayers will be certain to say they were playing against a depleted Bucs team, and that’s true, but this is also a team quarterbacked by the greatest quarterback in NFL history. Sure, he may be 45 years old, but he’s coming off a season in which he could easily have won the league’s MVP award. Regardless of who he’s throwing to, a quarterback of that caliber is dangerous.

This was a victory the Packers earned because of their defense and special teams. If they’re able to consistently win these kinds of games, they’re going to be tough to beat later in the season.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

This past Saturday I was able to attend the Milwaukee release of the official beer of CheeseheadTV, Carry the G, brewed by Gathering Place Brewing Company. It was good to see Aaron and Corey in person, and to talk to some loyal CHTV followers!

The event just so happened to be held at a bar located about four doors down from where I lived in my Shorewood days, around a decade ago now. It was a little wild to be thrown back into my old neighborhood, which has changed mightily since then, but it was a good time!

There aren’t a whole ton of places in the Milwaukee area selling Carry the G (you can find it at a bunch of local Sendiks’ and a few other local liquor stores), so this Shorewood location was the best place for me to find it. 

I knew Gathering Place did good work–I’ve been to their brewery and had some of their other brews before–so I felt pretty good assuming Carry the G would also be of high quality. And I was right! 

At 5.1 percent ABV, this cream ale is easy drinking and an absolutely ideal tailgate beer. I can imagine it pairing perfectly with a brat and some kraut. You can drink one and sip it, you can drink a bunch and not feel like garbage. It’s light enough for hot weather, but also malty enough that it will hit the spot all the way through the fall and until the end of the football season. 

Plus, the can design is great!

Corey gave me the overview of how the beer came to be, and I must say, everyone involved has done really solid work with this. If you have the opportunity to pick up a four pack near you, I’d highly recommend it. It’s a great small brewery here in Milwaukee that you’re supporting, plus, of course, everyone at CHTV! From the sounds of it, this beer is selling FAST, so pick up yours as soon as you have the chance.

Early props merited for special teams

I have to say, I was a bit worried about the performance of the Packers’ special teams in the preseason. It seemed like we were heading on a collision course toward a repeat of 2021 at times.

But so far, through three games, special teams has been anywhere from adequate to actively good, and this week the group had its best performance yet.

Punter Pat O’Donnell is off to an outstanding start. He’s been extremely reliable at pinning the ball deep and hasn’t had a single shank or poor play. He’s also doing good work on his holds in the field goal unit. 

There are other players that are making a big difference in the unit that were not here in 2021. Rudy Ford has been a heat-seeking missile at the gunner position (or the “flyer,” as Matt LaFleur called it in a press conference). Keisean Nixon has been a difference maker in coverage as well–and then stepped in for Jaire Alexander and made several big plays on defense this week to boot.

The Packers’ investment in special teams this offseason, both in terms of coaching and personnel, is clearly already paying off. That’s not to say it’s been perfect, but this game against the Bucs was basically the same game as the team played in the playoffs against San Francisco, just without the special teams gaffes. It can really make a big difference.

Brett Favre belongs in prison

Every day there seems to be a new twist added to the Brett Favre/Mississippi Welfare scandal. Just when you think it can’t get any worse… it does.

Favre was the first Packers quarterback I ever knew growing up. As someone born in the late 80s, my football consciousness took off in the early-mid 90s, and Favre became a childhood hero. 

It’s starting to appear obvious that he was a likely scumbag the entire time. Certainly there are rumors of his indiscretions in the 90s, but it wasn’t really until the late 2000s that the general public began to get a look behind the veil, so to speak, to the real Brett Favre after his sexting scandal. 

Favre has repeatedly put his foot in his mouth in the years since his retirement, and this Mississippi Welfare story has been brewing for a couple years now. But it seems like lately the revelations are coming hot and fast. 

The latest came yesterday, when it was revealed in an article by the fantastic Kalyn Kahler and Katie Strang that Favre’s charity, geared toward supporting children with cancer, diverted money toward athletics at the University of Southern Mississippi. 

This means Favre has defrauded the State of Mississippi, robbed from the poorest of its citizens (who are, in turn, the poorest in the United States) and now we’re finding out he used kids with cancer as a vehicle to rake in money for pet projects at USM.

Talk about utter trash. The man will likely never see the inside of a jail cell because there is no such thing as justice for the rich, but he absolutely deserves it.

In addition, the Packers should give serious consideration to removing his name from the walls of Lambeau Field. I would not advocate for removing him from the Green Bay Packers or Pro Football Hall of Fame: he earned those honors with his play on the field. But a place on the facade of football’s Mecca has a greater honor to it, something that goes beyond the gridiron. It should be reserved for those who represented the sport’s greatest and most historic franchise in the greatest way both on and off the field.

Favre has earned every football accolade he’s received, but this one is different. He doesn’t deserve to have his name emblazoned on one of the NFL’s crown jewels.

Romeo Doubs off to a fine start

Romeo Doubs saw the football a lot on Sunday, largely out of necessity due to Christian Watson and Sammy Watkins being unavailable.

All he did was catch everything thrown to him.

Doubs is off to a fine start this season, and after his performance on Sunday it’s going to be hard for the Packers to take him off the field, even with Watson and Watkins eventually returning. Watson simply is way behind Doubs in terms of actual on-field NFL experience right now due to missing basically all of training camp and then getting injured again after week two, and with Watkins, we know exactly what he is by now.

This was the kind of game that will earn a young receiver some favor with a quarterback who is famously slow to trust players at that position. And for the guys determining who will get on the field, seeing Doubs come out and catch a bunch of balls on the road in tough conditions in just his third game will make them want to see more of what he can do.

Doubs was a deep ball threat all throughout his collegiate career. It’s only a matter of time before the Packers open up his route tree and really get a chance to see what he can do now that he’s at the next level.

And of course, Watson will have plenty of chances as well when he returns. But as of the moment, Doubs has taken a sizable lead in terms of who has earned more of those chances.

Around the NFC North

Once again we’ll take a quick look around the NFC North at what the Packers’ rivals are doing.

• The CHICAGO BEARS are a surprising 2-1, but I don’t think there’s a team in the league that’s worried about taking them on. The two teams they beat, the 49ers and the Texans, have both looked pretty bad. Speaking of pretty bad… Justin Fields. Yikes. Everyone knew Bears fans were putting the cart before the horse when they started talking about Fields as though he was going to take over the division this year, but I don’t think anyone could have been prepared for just how bad he’s been. And what’s more, he clearly doesn’t have the trust of his coaching staff, who simply refuse to keep the ball in his hands. It won’t be long before the natural order re-establishes itself and the Bears are at the bottom of the division.

• The DETROIT LIONS are so close to breaking out, but they still have to wipe out the stench of losing that has plagued the organization for decades. Over the first three weeks of the season they’ve played better than they’ve really had any right to. They should have been able to beat the Vikings on the road this past week, but in true Detroit sports fashion they managed to completely choke away the lead in the fourth quarter. This is a fun team with some enjoyable young stars and a goofball coach, but the fun will only last for so long if they keep losing. They’re going to need to start holding on to these leads if that coach is going to want to last for long.

• The MINNESOTA VIKINGS have been on kind of a bender since taking down the Green Bay Packers in the season-opening Super Bowl. They sleepwalked through their week 2 embarrassment against Philadelphia, and nearly let the Lions pull one out in their own stadium. Something interesting: after week one, teams haven’t really had a whole lot of difficulty holding Justin Jefferson in check. What are they doing that the Packers weren’t? Well, putting their best defender on him probably has something to do with it…

News from the Milwaukee beer scene

There have been some shakeups to craft brewing in Wisconsin recently. Ale Asylum in Madison announced over the summer that it would be closing up shop. More recently (and more locally for me), Milwaukee Brewing Company announced it would be selling its facility (that the company just moved into in 2018) and was seeking a buyer for its branding and beer.

It was touch and go there for a moment–it looked like Milwaukee Brewing Company beers would be gone from the market completely. While Milwaukee Brewing Company hasn’t managed to get the same degree of distribution or acclaim as fellow local stalwart Lakefront Brewery, it has been around for a while and was pretty influential in Milwaukee’s craft brewing scene. It would have been a loss to the area for sure to lose some of its regular offerings.

However, Eagle Park Brewing Company recently announced it had purchased MBC’s branding and recipes, and would be continuing productions on those beers. In essence, MBC will still operate as a separate entity owned by Eagle Park, which will continue producing its own beers.

This is a big move for Eagle Park, which started as a tiny little brewery in the upper floor of a Milwaukee warehouse with a door at which you had to buzz to enter. Eagle Park now has its primary Milwaukee location, its larger Muskego taproom, its distilling operation AND the rights to all Milwaukee Brewing Company beers and branding. That has significantly increased Eagle Park’s value.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes next for Eagle Park as well. It’s regularly considered one of Milwaukee’s best breweries. I’d certainly place it in the top tier, though behind 1840 Brewing which is, to me, far and away the best in the city (and quite possibly the state). If Eagle Park is capable of purchasing the branding for such a recognizable city fixture, they’re clearly doing well for themselves. Could future expansion and locations be a possibility as well? 

Anyway, good for us all that Milwaukee Brewing Company isn’t completely going away, and good for Eagle Park as well.

Final look: Patriots at Packers and Week Four Picks

The Patriots still have the greatest head coach since the NFL/AFL merger, but they’re likely going to be playing Brian Hoyer at quarterback this weekend, on the road in Green Bay with an offense that already struggles. I don’t really see a way that this ends well for them.

If the Packers’ defense puts up the same fight it did against the Bucs, this one could end up turning into a blowout.

Give me the Packers 27, Patriots 10.

Here are my picks for week four. For the third week in a row I finished 8-8 and am looking more and more mediocre by the week. Perhaps now by the fourth week of the season I’ll have at least some sort of better understanding over who these teams are!

BENGALS over Dolphins

SAINTS over Vikings

LIONS over Seahawks

STEELERS over Jets

GIANTS over Bears

COLTS over Titans

CHARGERS over Texans

BROWNS over Falcons

COWBOYS over Commanders

EAGLES over Jaguars

RAVENS over Bills

CARDINALS over Panthers

RAIDERS over Broncos

PACKERS over Patriots

CHIEFS over Bucs

RAMS over Niners

Last week: 8-8

Season: 24-24