Every NFL game has a number of near-misses and could-have-beens that decide the outcome.  It’s weak science, to say the least, to try and reconstruct what what would have happened in any given game if things had gone differently.  As the film Mr. Destiny reminds us, each different outcome leads us down a completely different path.  Still, the Chicago Bears complete luck with regards to field goals missed by their opposition has been uncanny this season.  This 2-1 squad could easily be 0-3 if their opponents had made some very make-able kicks.  Let’s have a look, shall we?

Week One
Mason Crosby goes 2 for 3 in field goals, missing a 49-yarder in the 1st quarter.  With that extra three points, the Bears, instead of leading 15-13 and setting the stage for A-Rod’s heroics, would have been trailing 16-15 and would have been forced to play the game much differently.

Actual Score: Green Bay 21, Chicago 15
Adjusted Score: Green Bay 24, Chicago 15

Week Two
Josh Reed goes 0 for 2 and misses two key 4th quarter field goals, one from 38, and one from 43.

Actual score: Chicago 17, Pittsburgh 14
Adjusted score: Pittsburgh 20, Chicago 17

Week Three
Olindo Mare gives an extremely strong performance booting four field goals.  Still he missed two:  one from 43 and one, a chip shot, from 34.

Actual score: Chicago 25, Seattle 19
Adjusted score: Chicago 25, Seattle 25

Again, of course, an opponent will miss some field goals.  And, yes, Robbie Gould missed one in Seattle as well.  And, yes, who knows, even if their opponents had made every kick, the game would have played out entirely differently and they might have won anyway. But of course we’ll never know.

After a disappointing  loss to the Bengals, there could not be a better opponent to rebound off of than the St. Louis Rams.   The Rams have lost 12 games in a row and bottom out ESPN’s Power Rankings.  The Rams are now led by the former Giants defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, whose defense held the Packers to 20 points and had a key interception in overtime to defeat the Packers in the 2007 NFC championship.

St. Louis has struggled on both sides of the ball.  Their passing game has flat out stunk.  Their receivers, Donnie Avery and  Laurent Robinson, have been severely under performing, even though they both have big play potential with their blazing speed.  Quarterback Marc Bugler has not had a good season since 2006, and is not off to a good start either.  Steven Jackson has 171 yds in two games, which looks worse when you take out his long 58 yard run.  The Rams defense, while there are individuals with talent, seems to get scored on at will, giving up 23 points and 400 yards a game so far this year.

The Packers have a chance to come out and make a statement game, and work on their problems.  Also, Packer fans may get to see the debut of B.J. Raji.  The Packers are 6.5 point favorites but I think that its either going to be within 3 points or an all out statement win by the Packers.  Prediction: 30-10 Packers.  GO PACK GO!

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Sunday was a difficult game for any Packers fans to watch.  The Bengals controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, Cedric Benson ran all over the Packers, Rodgers got sacked 6 times, the Packers committed  11 penalties, the Packers star wide receiver was shut-out,  and Ochocinco did get to do his Lambeau Leap.  This game is a classic example of bad football with only a few bright spots.  Which begs the question, what happened in the Packers preseason?

Anybody  who watched the first three Packers preseason games could not help but be impressed.  The issues that the Packers face were not present.  Aaron Rodgers had adequate protection in the pocket and Barbre actually looked good.  The 3-4 defense seemed to work well.  They actually looked like an offensive powerhouse.  As soon as the regular season started, it is watching a completely  different team, with trouble on both sides of the ball.  Were these first games bumps in the road, and the Packers can really play at that level, or is the preseason nonidictive of a teams future performance?  GO PACK GO!

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This week we want to acknowledge a great Packer fan from Peshtigo, Wisconsin.  He singled handedly prevented the Ochocinco Lambeau Leap from being constantly being replayed by giving Chad Ochocinco the one-fingered salute he deserves. The publishers at lombardisweep.com would like to extend our thanks and warm wishes to this gentleman for preventing this video clip from being played non-stop on sports news shows across the country.

The Gentleman on the left is our fan of the week.

The Packers are 9 points favorites going into their weekend  They should be able easily defeat the Bengals.  There is are a few things to watch for.

-  The three concerns for the Packers are Barbre and the line, Aaron Rouse replacing Bigby and the running game.  Aaron Rouse has been inconsistent in the past but I believe that he has the potential to do just fine as starting safety.  As for the running game and Babre, you can read more here.

-   The Bengals defense is supposed to be much improved this year.  They do have a weakness in Roy Williams at safety.  He is still a very hard hitter but is reported to run a 4.85 second forty yard dash these days.  I am looking for him to get at least one pass interference, one personal foul and to be beat deep for a big gain.  I think that the Packers will finally get their vengeance on Roy Williams by embarrassing him at Lambeau.

- Chad Ochocinco loves to see his name in the papers and has been very successful going into this game.  He is planning to Lambeau Leap this Sunday after scoring a touchdown.  Ochocinco has also been sparring on Twitter with Nick Barnett, to read more click here.  Ochocinco has also an on going bet with Al Harris.  The wager being that the player with the better game has to give $50,000 to the charity of the winners choice.  Chad Ochocinco, né Johnson, had only four touchdowns last year and I don’t see any reason why this would increase this year.  Regarding the Lambeau Leap, Mike McCarthy doesn’t think that the Packers have anything to worry about and I agree with him. GO PACK GO!

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The last time the Packers played the Bengals was a memorable game to say the least.  While most fans of the NFL found it to be humorous and fun, I found it to be upsetting.  The most memorable moment of the game was the Greg Gall incident. The Packers were trailing the Bengals 14-21 with about 30 seconds on the clock.  The Packers had driven from their own 5 yard line deep into Bengals territory, albeit with help from a pass interference penalty.  Brett Favre dropped back in the pocket and then Greg Gall, a drunken Bengals fan, sprinted across the field and snatched the ball out of Brett Favre’s hand.  Gall then ran towards the Bengals goal line until he was tackled by security, you can watch it here.

After the commotion ended, the Packers tried to finish the drive.  However, Favre was sacked on the following play, and then he was flagged for illegal forward pass while scrambling on the next play to end the game.  The Packers had great momentum going into that final drive that was killed by Greg Gall.    I believe that Favre would have pulled off some fourth quarter magic to bring that game into overtime, if the rhythm and momentum of that last drive was not broken.  This Sunday, the Bengals do not have the Greg Gall edge, and the Packers should soundly beat the Bengals.  GO PACK GO!

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Nick Barnett and Chad Ochocinco are exchanging some Twitter-based trash talking.

Chad says:

To which Barnett says:

It’s all in good fun.  Nick tweets, “lol you are crazy if you think you gonna knock me out lol… But it will be a fun game!!” Chad responds, “yeah it will be fun running circles around your 3-4, remember your are [sic] facing a very deep and talented recieving [sic] core [sic]“

There will probably be only one of ya having good fun on Sunday.

After a tough win against the Chicago Bears, the Packers have a fairly easy road to 3-0.  They play the Cincinnati Bengals this week, followed by the St. Louis Rams in week 3.  The Bengals have seemed to have fallen apart in recent years.  They have been plagued by locker room problems, legal problems, injuries and just bad performances over the last couple years.  The Rams have been just simply bad in recent years.  These are not only great opportunities for the Packers to rack up wins, but also great opportunities to work on the problems they ran into Sunday night.  The Packers should win these games and solve the following issues along the way, so they are ready for the Vikings.

- Babre has the physical capablities to succeed, but has really struggled with technique and looked flat out bad against the Bears.  His feet always seemed to be in the wrong place.  McCarthy has two weeks to get Babre playing at a professional level, give him blocking help or find a replacement

- Aaron Rodgers should get his break out week in these two games.  He lead his first 4th quarter come back last week (except two against the Lions) to put any remaining doubter to rest. He needs to start hitting his receivers in stride and prove to the world he is an NFL elite.  Playing the Bengals and the Rams should give him a great opportunity to do this.  The drive for the Packers offense to fire on all cylinders, improvement on the offensive line and playing weak teams leads me to believe Rodgers will have a career game in the next two weeks.

- The Packers will hopefully get more oppertunities to establish the running game in the coming two weeks.  They really need to prevent themselves from being one dimensional on offense.  If they can run less inconsistantly, it will make Rodgers life much easier.

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On the “Opening Drive” on NFL Sirius Radio 124 this morning, Randy Cross wanted to talk about bad calls over the weekend. The first one he mentioned? The phantom, critical, 4th quarter Illegal Contact called on Al Harris Sunday night. The Press-Gazette’s blog rightly calls it “dubious”.

Update: Kevin Seifert at ESPN’s NFC North Blog weighs in.  His analysis?  There is a rulebook reading that would make it a penalty, but he agrees it’s not called very often.  (I don’t remember ever seeing it.)  Apparently, according to the rulebook, the defender “may not make original contact in the back of a receiver” even within five yards.

Looking around the stands in Lambeau field at the end of the third quarter, I realized that the Bears fans and the Packers fans shared a common emotion.  They were both very disappointed with their team.  The Bears big acquisition Jay Cutler was beyond awful, and it appeared that the high powered offense they hoped for was all hype.  I could see the looks of disgust and disappointment on all the Bears fan’s faces around me.  The bad news is, all the Packers fans faces had the same looks.

Coming into the season, the Packers having a high producing offense was thought to be a given.  Three quarters of football into the regular season and this assumption was filled with doubt.  There had seen big drops by Driver and Nelson, an ineffective running game, Rodgers  had not hit his receivers and an abysmal performance by the offensive line highlighted by Allen Barbre’s performance.  While the Packers special teams had a solid performance with the exception of a missed field goal, the defense was dominate the offense was far from perfect.  The Packers did finish the night with a win thanks to a touchdown pass from Rodgers to Jennings and a huge interception by Al Harris.    However, the Packers victory leaves us with different concerns and questions.

How will the Packers establish a running game?  Will the offensive line be able to protect Rodgers?  Was Babre a victim of opening night jitters or is his technique that bad?  When is Rodgers going to start passing with the accuracy he had last year?  Will our receivers be able to improve their hands?  Playing two weak teams, the Bengals and the Rams,  in the next two weeks gives the Packers time to try to solve these problems.  Hopefully McCarthy can come up with some answers. GO PACK GO

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