NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Senior writer jclombardi reviews & grades Packers win over Falcons.

Summary: QB Rodgers threw 3 touchdowns and rushed for 1 touchdown as the Packers crushed the Falcons 48-21. Next Sunday, the Packers face the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game.

Game balls: QB Rodgers; WR Nelson; WR Jones; CB Williams; LB Matthews.

Injury Report: CB Lee (hip). FB Kuhn (neck stinger) and NT Raji (head) are okay.

Report Card–Good, Bad, & Ugly: JC vs SE:

Pass Offense–A vs A-. QB Rodgers was unstoppable making clutch throws while avoiding pressure and throwing accurate deep passes. He completed 36 passes for 366 yards, three touchdowns, and 136.8 passer rating ripping overmatched Falcons secondary. He completed passes to eight different receivers. WRs Jennings, Driver, Jones and Nelson combined for an amazing 26 catches for 331 yards. WR Jennings had 8 catches for 101 yards and 1 big fumble. WR Nelson made 8 clutch catches for 79 yards and 1 touchdown. WR Driver had 6 clutch catches for 76 yards. WR Jones made 4 clutch catches for 75 yards and 1 big touchdown. Also, FB Kuhn had 2 catches for 14 yards and 1 touchdown. While rookie RT Bulaga generally played solid overall game giving up only 1 sack, no pressure, and solid run blocking. RT Clifton struggled in pass protection giving up soft protection and 1 sack.

Rush Offense–C+ vs C. The Packers rushed a pedestrian 96 yards on 31 carries averaging 3.1 yards. RB Starks had his moments running with power and speed getting 66 yards on 25 carries. In the first half, he got only 14 yards on 9 carries. In the second half, he got 4 carries for 27 yards on a big touchdown drive. RB Jackson had 1 carry for 13 yards. FB Kuhn rushed for 1 touchdown. QB Rodgers had 1 red zone touchdown.

Pass Defense–B+ vs A-. DC Capers defensive plan worked getting strong blitz pressure defense to rattle Falcons QB Ryan. Facing blitz pressure and tight coverage, Falcons QB Ryan completed only 20 of 29 passes for 1 touchdown, 186 yards, 2 big interceptions, 1 fumble, and horrible 69 passer rating. WR White had 6 catches for 57 yards and 1 touchdown. In the span of two and one-half minutes before the first half, CB Williams had a touchback interception and then scored on a momentum changing interception. The Packers had five big sacks on blitzes.

Rush Defense—C+ vs C+. In the first half, RB Turner had 9 carries for 37 yards and 1 touchdown. In the second half, with the Falcons facing a rout, he had only 1 carry. For the game, RB Turner had only 10 carries for 39 yards averaging 3.9 yards. The effective weapon against Turner was to force the Falcons into their passing game and make Ryan commit mistakes. CB Woodson had 6 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, 1 sack and 1 QB hit, while LB Bishop had 6 tackles and 1 fumble recovery. OLB Matthews had an overall impressive game with 4 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss, 2 sacks and 2 QB hits.

Special teams—D+ vs D. Punter Masthay, who wasn’t needed to punt once, was off the hook from a lot of blame to go around with another lousy performance by the special-teams units. Eric Weems added to Green Bay’s malaise in the early going with a record-setting 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to put the Falcons up 14-7. Then, Starks inexplicably tried to field the ensuing kickoff as it sailed toward the sideline and the ball glanced off him out of bounds inside the Packers’ 10. Starks averaged just 10 yards in two runbacks. Also, the Packers tried Pat Lee on another kickoff. Williams didn’t have a punt return with two fair catches. Crosby rallied after a 50-yard field-goal attempt hit off the left upright with makes of 43 and 32 yards.

Coaching–A- vs B. Maligned special teams coordinator Slocum can thank his colleagues for bailing him out with a dominating performance by the offense and defense. Head coach/play caller McCarthy had his finest hours in orchestrating the offense on an injury-marred secondary. McCarthy didn’t abandon the effective running game to do so intermixing runs to soften up the Falcons even more on play-action. DC Capers also applied the full-court pressure in the indoor venue, shaking, rattling and rolling Ryan out of his unflappable tendencies in the pocket with a heavy dose of blitzes. The Packers finished with big advantages in total yards (442-194) and time of possession (38:19-21:41). The Packers were 8 for 12 in third down conversions and 4 for 6 in the red zone. They had 6 penalties for 65 yards and 1 fumble.

Overall Game—A- vs. A (CBS Sportsline). With the score tied at 14, QB Rodgers took over & never looked back. Rodgers threw for 366 yards and 3 touchdowns. Despite team’s No. 6 seed, Packers are likely favorite to represent NFC in Super Bowl.

1. A Very Good Defense – The Steelers may have what many feel is the best defense in the league, but the Jets are not all that far behind. They did something Sunday many felt no team could do, and that is contain the Pats and more so Tom Brady. Take away the late TD that made the score more closer than it should have been, and the Jets dominated that game in New England from start to finish. Darrelle Revis is the best cover CB in the league, and up front their front four get pressure and do a good job on the run. From a positive standpoint for the Steelers, they did have 378 total yards, and if they would have scored on that last play, many more would be on the Steelers bandwagon today. With that though, the Steelers have to have a good gameplan for the Jets D Sunday night.

2. Holmes and Edwards – Would the Jets be where they are without the trade for Santonio Holmes? Probably not. He won the game in Cleveland in OT, and had a big play in the OT in Detroit, two games the team needed to be a wild card. Holmes is a game breaker, much the like of Mike Wallace. He can’t be overlooked, and the Steelers did a good job on him in the first game when he had 6 grabs for 40 yards. Edwards made a couple big plays in New England, and had a big grab at the end of the that Colts game as well. He had a bigger day the first time out, 8 grabs for 100 yards with a 38-yard catch. Mark Sanchez will look to these two often.

3. Sanchez can’t be counted out – Out of the four QB’s left in the playoffs, Sanchez is probably the one you would want the least, but if there’s something he’s proven in two years, he knows how to win. Last time vs the Steelers he was 19-for-29 for 170 yards, but didn’t make a turnover, and even ran in a score and had 3 runs for 15 yards and a score. The Steelers need to put their usual pressure on him, and it would be nice to see pressure from up the middle like they did against Joe Flacco in the 2nd half Saturday. The first game the Steelers had one sack for 0 yards, they need to do a better job this time out.

4. A shift in their kick return game - The first game Brad Smith ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown, putting the Steelers down right off the bat. Smith though, is hurt with a groin injury, and it’s unknown if he will play Sunday. The Jets have turned kick returns to cornerback Antonio Cromartie, and he’s done a nice job, putting 25.8 yards on four attempts with a long gain of 37 yards. The Jets special teams need to be shut down and put in some bad spots on the field for the Steelers to have an edge.

5. Kicking game - This game could come down to the kickers, and the Jets have a pretty good one in Nick Folk, who was 30-for-39 this season. Heinz Field is a tough place to kick, we all know that, and Shaun Suisham can’t miss from 43-42 yards in, like he did Saturday that could have given the Steelers momentum heading into the half. Folk can boom em’, he showed that with a 56-yard field goal at Denver, but then again, lots of kickers have had their longest kicks in Denver. Here’s hoping that the game is well in the Steelers pockets so they won’t have to worry about a last second kick.

It for sure wasn’t the way he wanted to go out, but it seems like it’s finally time for Vikings quarterback Brett Favre to walk away from the NFL. Today Favre officially filed his retirement papers with the NFL, the league confirmed. He had already said that after the season finale in Detroit, a game in which he didn’t play due to a concussion, that the game would be his last.

“I know it’s time, and that’s OK. It is,” Favre said after the game that day. “Again, I hold no regrets, and I can’t think of too many players offhand that can walk away and say that. Individually and from a team standpoint, it was way more than I ever dreamed of.”

Favre though is well known for putting people on hold with talk of retirement. The first time he walked away was 2008 with the Packers on March 6th, and then he came back that summer and eventually was traded to the New York Jets.

In 2009 with the Jets he retired again, only to come back and ink with the Vikings, and he had a huge season, leading the team to the NFC Title Game before they folded to the Saints in OT.

This past season he came back, but the season was a disaster, as the team not only didn’t play well, but Favre ended up getting hurt and his consecutive game streak was eventually snapped.

He was picked off 19 times this season and his 69.9 quarterback rating is the lowest of his career. The Vikings sunk to the bottom of the NFC North after starting the season with Super Bowl aspirations, coach Brad Childress was fired during the season and Favre was fined $50,000 for failure to cooperate with an NFL investigation into allegations that he sent lewd photos and messages to a team employee when both worked for the New York Jets in 2008.

Favre’s reputation took a serious hit from the humiliating scandal, which tarnished the image of one of the league’s most popular players.

His union with receiver Randy Moss also was a spectacular failure and his cherished streak of 297 straight starts ended, with a sprained throwing shoulder making it impossible for Favre to let those famously zip-filled passes rip from his right arm.

And just for good measure, the Metrodome roof caved in to provide a perfect metaphor for Favre and the Vikings’ 2010, forcing the Vikings to play “home” games at Detroit and at the University of Minnesota’s outdoor stadium in December.

“It’s been a wonderful experience for me,” Favre said. “This year did not work out the way we would have hoped, but that’s football. I don’t regret coming back. I enjoyed my experience here.”

ESPN breaks down some early thoughts on the Jets-Steelers.

Tom Brady, one of the goats from Sunday’s loss to the Jets, spoke this morning on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan Show, and gave his thoughts on the stunning loss to the Jets which ends the Pats season after 14 wins in 16 regular season games.

“Just a rough night, rough day, certainly we had much higher expectations and we just didn’t get the job done,” Brady said. “A great regular season, but just didn’t win the game that mattered most.”

On the Jets’ defense:
“I think the Jets did a good job. They got beat up pretty good by us in the Monday night game, and then watching them play the Colts and they play a lot more zone coverage against the Colts as well, and really kept it a close game and won it in the fourth quarter. I thought that definitely crossed our minds that they’d be doing similar type things. I still felt like they were going to try to match up with our receivers, and they did some of that.”

On the Patriots’ offense:
“Scoring points ultimately comes down to, if you’re not making big plays, comes down to consistent plays and we didn’t do that as an offensive unit.”

On throwing his first interception in three months and difficulty passing:
“The interception on the screen pass was just … you never imagine that happening. And the other one, I think what happens is we drop balls, that’s part of playing receiver, we had a third down play there we could have executed better as well, but you’re right, to have two pretty efficient drives to start the game and really only come out of it with three points, was really, I think gave them a lot of fuel…”

“We certainly added fuel to their fire … They played very well, and I’ve been racking my brain all night last night, realizing all the different things I wish I would have done better, but that’s why they won. That’s why they’re moving on.”

On mistakes
“They pretty much played without any errors and we made our fair share.”

“I think the difference was, they didn’t made any mistakes. They didn’t have any penalties. They didn’t have any turnovers. They played well in field position. They didn’t give up any big plays on defense. And the last game they gave up some big plays against us, a couple of 50 yard gains, a couple of 20 yard gains for touchdowns. I think they really came into this game saying we’re not going to give up those plays when we blitz. We understand there are going to be times when they play man coverage, but I thought they mixed their zones in, and there was some pretty tight coverage in the zones. That was the game plan.”

“I think they wanted to say, ‘here’s what we’re going to do,’ we’re going to play just very similar to the way they played the Colts. We had our opportunities, but we’re not going to win games if we turn the ball over, we can’t make critical plays in critical situations. You’re not going to win those games. Obviously, it’s tough to get over. We will get over it but not for some time.”

On the Patriots’ running game:
“I thought we ran the ball well at times, we really tried to stay balanced. When they had their little guys on the field, we were running the ball a little bit, when they had their big guys on the field, we were trying to take advantage of throwing it. We weren’t effective enough in our play-action pass in making big gains out there to take them out of what they’ were doing, and I think more so than anything, that’s what it came down to.

“I was driving home last night and I said, ‘God, we just never put any pressure on them.’ And when you’re playing at home, and you have a great advantage of playing at home, you really gotta take advantage of those situations, and we didn’t do a very good job of that.”

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A bizarre rant from Jets LB Bart Scott, who seemed to take his pregame trash talking on the field Sunday and stated he played angry while yelling at ESPN reporter Sal Palantonio.

Senior writer jclombardi grades bloggers' reviews.

Commentary: Based upon massive research and conversations with the great fans in the Packers nation, we present the fair and balanced grades about major Packers' bloggers articles with their Packers win over Falcons analysis!