Thoughts from the south end zone on the Packers beating the Patriots
I was at Lambeau Field on Sunday to see the Packers beat the Patriots. What a game. I’m not sure there’s much more to be said about the win that hasn’t already been said, but I’ll try and offer up a few more nuggets on what I observed from my seats in the south end zone, section 138, row 44, seat 18.
- Before packing up our tailgating supplies and walking to the stadium, a middle-aged guy approached us and asked if we had any lobster or marijuana. Unfortunately, we had neither.
- Not saying I told you so, but…..well, I told you so. Sam Barrington can play. Barrington delivered more hard hits in one game than A.J. Hawk has delivered in three years.
- Eddie Lacy misses some obvious holes. Too often, he chooses to bounce outside instead of making a hard cut and hitting the lane. Part of me wonders if he’s a little hesitant to put his head down and plow every single carry because of past concussions.
- I have no idea why teams don’t sit with two deep safeties against Green Bay 100 percent of the time. Whenever there’s only one safety deep, it’s not just Aaron Rodgers who gets excited. The entire stadium starts buzzing. It also feels like so much more of a struggle for the Packers against two-high safeties, even if they’re moving the ball.
- There was a middle-aged gentleman sitting in front of me who was about 100 pounds overweight and whose mustache connected directly with his nose hair. His family also referred to him as “Pud.” Heckuva nice guy. We high-fived after the Rodgers-to-Rodgers touchdown. Now I can tell people that I high-fived a guy named “Pud.”
- Rob Gronkowski is unbelievable to watch in-person. He’s unguardable. On a play deep in Packers’ territory, Gronk lined up wide one-on-one against Morgan Burnett, and before the ball was snapped, I knew what the result would be. Sure enough, Gronk beat Burnett, then ran over like eight Packers after the catch. Somehow the Packers dragged him down before he stomped into the end zone.
- If the Packers’ offensive line continues playing like this, Green Bay will win the Super Bowl.
- Hats off to Mike McCarthy. He really worked hard to get favorable matchups for Cobb and others and it showed. However, the first time Cobb lined up in the backfield, Darrelle Revis followed him and stood in the middle of the defense, waiting to track Cobb wherever he went. It spooked Aaron Rodgers, who called a time out. But Revis never followed Cobb out of the backfield again. Strange.
- Watching the Packers’ defense pre-snap reminds me of watching pre-schoolers during snack time. Just complete chaos and confusion. Everyone is pointing, yelling, moving, looking around, scattering. But hey, it worked, so perhaps all that chaos is by design.
- Tramon Williams blew a couple of coverages, but also made some great open-field tackles. Speaking of tackling, that was the best I’ve seen the Packers tackle against a quality opponent in a long time.
- Unfortunately, we could not hear Tom Brady’s barrage of F-bombs from our seats.
- The vibe in Lambeau was off-the-charts. People were amped up for this game, and rightfully so. During the Packers’ final drive, the offensive line and Jordy Nelson had to admonish the fans for cheering too loud.
- My wife and I have had the privilege of seeing Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Tom Brady all play at Lambeau Field and get beat by the Packers. We’ve also seen the Packers beat Vinny Testaverde, Shaun Hill, Kyle Orton and Joe Webb at Lambeau. The one quarterback the Packers couldn’t beat with my wife and I in the stands? Christian Ponder. Go figure.
That’s all for my thoughts from the south end zone. Now where’d I put my lobster and marijuana…
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