Packers @ Bengals

[Vin+ 3,121]

 

http://hosted.stats.com/fb/preview.asp?g=20130922004&home=4&vis=9

 

(AP) -- Though both the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals discovered a running game last week, this matchup could easily turn into an aerial shootout.

 

A.J. Green, Andy Dalton and the Bengals try to keep up with Aaron Rodgers and maybe the league's best receiving corps as Green Bay's top-ranked offense heads to Cincinnati on Sunday.

 

Whereas it appears the Bengals offense is improving, the defense is expected to be among the league's best and could challenge a Packers team averaging a league-high 482.5 yards. None of the last five teams to visit Cincinnati have scored more than 20 points while averaging 290.8 yards.

 

The Bengals (1-1) are giving up 300.5 per game to rank seventh in the NFL after finishing sixth last year and compiling 51 sacks. They have only two this season - both in Monday's 20-10 win over Pittsburgh - but now face a Packers offensive line which has allowed 57 since the start of 2012 after giving up four in last Sunday's 38-20 win over Washington.

 

Rodgers still threw for a career-high 480 yards and four touchdowns, and the line created enough holes to help James Starks rush for a career-best 132 yards and a score. As Starks became the first Green Bay running back to crack the century mark since Brandon Jackson in October 2010, the Packers said they became the first team in NFL history to have a 450-yard passer and a 125-yard rusher in the same game.

 

"We have the opportunity, with the guys that we have in this locker room, to do that week in and week out," said wideout Randall Cobb, who scored and surpassed 100 yards for the second straight game.

 

"As long as we continue to prepare ourselves right and communicate throughout the week and be prepared and execute the plays, I think the stats should continue to look the way they do."

 

Starks continuing to put up big numbers would give defenses an even bigger headache when facing Green Bay (1-1), long considered one-dimensional offensively despite its success. A fourth-year back who had a team-high 578 yards rushing in 2011 but saw limited action last season, Starks will start again with rookie Eddie Lacy likely out due to a concussion.

 

"I'm very happy for James as he was able to maximize his opportunity," coach Mike McCarthy said. "We had a good plan and it was well-executed up front. ... James, for the most part, had clean reads, made good decisions and didn't waste any steps at the hole. When James gets that big stride going and gets leaning forward, he's a tough guy to handle."

 

The entire receiving corps for the Packers has been hard to handle. Besides Cobb's hot start, Jordy Nelson has 196 yards with three touchdowns, James Jones had career highs of 11 catches and 178 yards last week, and tight end Jermichael Finley has scored in both games while totaling 121 yards.

 

"They're an offense that can score a lot and can score really quick," Dalton said. "(Our) offense has to come to play this week. We've gotta do whatever we can to keep scoring, keep drives going."

 

Dalton has reached 280 yards passing in each of the first two games despite not having the wide array of talented targets Rogers does, though Green feels the Bengals are getting closer.

 

"A lot of weapons, man," said the All-Pro receiver, who has 15 catches for 203 yards. "That's the biggest thing."

 

Besides Green developing into one of the game's most unstoppable receivers, tight end Tyler Eifert and fellow rookie Giovanni Bernard could be fixtures for years to come. Eifert has eight receptions, including a 61-yarder against the Steelers while Bernard scored one touchdown rushing and another receiving.

 

"It's definitely exciting," left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "We have a young nucleus that's back and has a (promising) figure ahead of it.

 

"... We've got a good group, and if we can continue to do things right, we can be really good."

 

Bernard had 38 yards on eight carries and may end up taking even more from veteran BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who ran for 75 yards last week but is averaging 2.8 per carry. Cincinnati had 127 yards rushing after averaging 51.0 in its previous four games, including a playoff loss at Houston.

 

Green Bay has dropped the last two meetings, most recently falling 31-24 at Cincinnati in 2009. Rodgers threw for 261 yards but had only one TD and was sacked six times.

 

[KempBolt 498]

If Aaron Rodgers can continue playing hot against a good Bengal defense, I wouldn't put too much faith in Dalton to keep up.

 

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21

[BigBen07 285]

[theMileHighGuy 656]

Could be a great game. Will depend on how well the Bengals' D contains Aaron Rodgers and his trio of wideouts. Don't sleep on James Starks either.

 

35

31

[NFL-Lady 1]

Gotta go with CINCY to win this one...

 

GO BENGALS, WHO DEY!

[DonovanMcnabb for H.O.F 2,241]

27-21 Packers... bleh...

[BradyFan81 404]

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24

[Vin+ 3,121]

 

Packers RB Eddie Lacy (concussion) is inactive for Week 3 against the Bengals.

As is John Kuhn (hamstring), leaving James Starks and Johnathan Franklin as the Packers' lone backs against the Bengals' stout front seven. Starks will carry the load like he did in Week 3 against Washington, but unlike he did against the Redskins, he's not going to run wild. He's just a middling FLEX option for fantasy purposes.

Also inactive for the Packers are CB Jarrett Bush, CB Casey Hayward, S Morgan Burnett, OG Lane Taylor and DE Josh Boyd.

 

 

 

Bengals declared DE Margus Hunt, CB Brandon Ghee, CB Dre Kirkpatrick, OG Mike Pollak, RB Rex Burkhead, OT Anthony Collins and WR Ryan Whalen inactive for Week 3 against the Packers.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Morgan's injury must have been a lot worse than the Packers were leading on. Hope he, Lacy, and Hayward can all come back after the BYE.

[Dutch 874]

27

 

21

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Yay turnovers. Bunch of losers. Well... one loser

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Defense is keeping us in the game. Unless they can score 24+, the offense better show up soon.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Somehow... We have the lead at halftime. It's a miracle. With 4 turnovers, we should be blowing the Bengals out... But that defense is just so good.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

First career touchdown for young Johnathan Franklin!

[The Burfict Storm 39]

Except for Gio, this offense sucks big moosecock.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Aaron Rodgers is single-handedly losing us this game.

[The Burfict Storm 39]

Aaron Rodgers is single-handedly losing us this game.

 

Don't worry. We still have our other foot to shoot at.

[The Burfict Storm 39]

WTF just happened?????

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Better luck in two weeks, Aaron. Try not to fuck us. Or Mike's horrendous 4th down call... Although who knows if we make a play on D anyway.

Pretty horrible game all around.

[Cherry 1,302]

Always good to win an upset.

[badgers 380]

Lol this team.

 

Also it's not an upset. I hate this shit how people say it's an upset. Cincinnati was and still is as good- no probably slightly better than Green Bay. People are overrating this Packer team. They've ranked us top 5 and even top 3 on NFL.com when I'd say we've barely earned top 10 status only thanks to that Washington beating. But beating a crappy team doesn't really warrant a jump in the rankings.

 

Anyways, it's not like I'm ungrateful that my team will probably contend at the end of this year because I know people are going to say that. It's that I cannot stand the stupid shit that we do to ourselves to put us in a bubble position. We are 1-2 and we should be 2-1 maybe even 3-0 if our defense didn't play so horribly week 1. Our offense is not as good as everybody thinks, and we can see that when Rodgers is off his game even slightly, we're unproductive. Our offense RELIES on Rodgers to be good and that's what I have always feared ever since he started being called elite. The more and more you center yourself around a QB, the more risky everything becomes. McCarthy has an unnatural hatred of running the ball, though it didn't show today thankfully. It seriously takes Rodgers laying an egg out there for him to hand it to the RB. A sad thing I'm about to say is I don't even know what our offensive coordinator does. Actually, I don't even know who it is. Ever since Philbin left, we've had a really unknown factor as far as our OC goes. All I'm gonna say is whether it's McCarthy or the OC, whoever is designing our gameplan needs to balance it out more. We will not win a Super Bowl if we rely 100% on Rodgers to do it. Even if the defense continues to improve, which I think it will, our receivers are average. Jordy Nelson is the only reliable one of the bunch. Jones' route running is "meh" (he's apparently caused 2 interceptions the past week because of his routes), Cobb and Finley drop a ton of balls, and Cobb is really only good when he gets into space. The rest don't see the field much. I guess we're still waiting for Cobb to break out, which I don't think will happen as tremendously as everybody thinks. I've kinda half-doubted him ever since he came into the league. Our offensive line is still terrible. I'm waiting for them to get better. We have talented RB's we just don't use them enough. Which drives me crazy. I love how McCarthy starts running the ball more as soon as our #1 goes down. Great thinking champ.

 

As for the defense, I think we played a hell of a game today. Aside from 2 drives, we held Cincinnati pretty solid. We still need to get more pressure on the QB, as I think that will help our secondary out. They're still a bunch of young guys, developing, and I think that if Tramon took more an active role in being the leader of the group that they'd perhaps find an identity and bond together more, like what happened when Woodson was here. They've each got their flaws, but I think as a group they could be great, in time. Thank god for Brad Jones, and I can't believe I'm saying it but AJ Hawk has played well this year too. He's far more aggressive and actually makes tackles. Matthews is amazing as usual, and Nick Perry has been playing solidly. He's far less of a liability than Walden is when it comes to containing the outside. Our defensive line has been much improved with the addition of Jolly. We drafted another guy on DL who hasn't played much I forget his name though. But I feel like with the additions we've made, we're able to rotate the guys more and keep them fresh. Also, is it just a coincidence that Jolly came back and we've been batting down lots of passes?

 

This isn't really a rant thread, it's just that seeing us blow this game after a 20 point lead drove me to write this. There are some major problems on the team but I don't think that they're difficult to solve. I think we can still go deep into the postseason if we correct this crap early and get on a roll. To sum it all up: let's try to actually fix the offensive line, run the ball more, and get more pressure on the opposing QB.

[BwareDWare94 723]

Lol this team.

 

Also it's not an upset. I hate this shit how people say it's an upset. Cincinnati was and still is as good- no probably slightly better than Green Bay. People are overrating this Packer team. They've ranked us top 5 and even top 3 on NFL.com when I'd say we've barely earned top 10 status only thanks to that Washington beating. But beating a crappy team doesn't really warrant a jump in the rankings.

 

Anyways, it's not like I'm ungrateful that my team will probably contend at the end of this year because I know people are going to say that. It's that I cannot stand the stupid shit that we do to ourselves to put us in a bubble position. We are 1-2 and we should be 2-1 maybe even 3-0 if our defense didn't play so horribly week 1. Our offense is not as good as everybody thinks, and we can see that when Rodgers is off his game even slightly, we're unproductive. Our offense RELIES on Rodgers to be good and that's what I have always feared ever since he started being called elite. The more and more you center yourself around a QB, the more risky everything becomes. McCarthy has an unnatural hatred of running the ball, though it didn't show today thankfully. It seriously takes Rodgers laying an egg out there for him to hand it to the RB. A sad thing I'm about to say is I don't even know what our offensive coordinator does. Actually, I don't even know who it is. Ever since Philbin left, we've had a really unknown factor as far as our OC goes. All I'm gonna say is whether it's McCarthy or the OC, whoever is designing our gameplan needs to balance it out more. We will not win a Super Bowl if we rely 100% on Rodgers to do it. Even if the defense continues to improve, which I think it will, our receivers are average. Jordy Nelson is the only reliable one of the bunch. Jones' route running is "meh" (he's apparently caused 2 interceptions the past week because of his routes), Cobb and Finley drop a ton of balls, and Cobb is really only good when he gets into space. The rest don't see the field much. I guess we're still waiting for Cobb to break out, which I don't think will happen as tremendously as everybody thinks. I've kinda half-doubted him ever since he came into the league. Our offensive line is still terrible. I'm waiting for them to get better. We have talented RB's we just don't use them enough. Which drives me crazy. I love how McCarthy starts running the ball more as soon as our #1 goes down. Great thinking champ.

 

As for the defense, I think we played a hell of a game today. Aside from 2 drives, we held Cincinnati pretty solid. We still need to get more pressure on the QB, as I think that will help our secondary out. They're still a bunch of young guys, developing, and I think that if Tramon took more an active role in being the leader of the group that they'd perhaps find an identity and bond together more, like what happened when Woodson was here. They've each got their flaws, but I think as a group they could be great, in time. Thank god for Brad Jones, and I can't believe I'm saying it but AJ Hawk has played well this year too. He's far more aggressive and actually makes tackles. Matthews is amazing as usual, and Nick Perry has been playing solidly. He's far less of a liability than Walden is when it comes to containing the outside. Our defensive line has been much improved with the addition of Jolly. We drafted another guy on DL who hasn't played much I forget his name though. But I feel like with the additions we've made, we're able to rotate the guys more and keep them fresh. Also, is it just a coincidence that Jolly came back and we've been batting down lots of passes?

 

This isn't really a rant thread, it's just that seeing us blow this game after a 20 point lead drove me to write this. There are some major problems on the team but I don't think that they're difficult to solve. I think we can still go deep into the postseason if we correct this crap early and get on a roll. To sum it all up: let's try to actually fix the offensive line, run the ball more, and get more pressure on the opposing QB.

 

Oh it's an upset. The Bengals have been solid for a couple years but have had some fairly easy schedules, too. They didn't beat the elite teams in the league. Maybe this is part of the next step for them.

[badgers 380]

 

Lol this team.

 

Also it's not an upset. I hate this shit how people say it's an upset. Cincinnati was and still is as good- no probably slightly better than Green Bay. People are overrating this Packer team. They've ranked us top 5 and even top 3 on NFL.com when I'd say we've barely earned top 10 status only thanks to that Washington beating. But beating a crappy team doesn't really warrant a jump in the rankings.

 

Anyways, it's not like I'm ungrateful that my team will probably contend at the end of this year because I know people are going to say that. It's that I cannot stand the stupid shit that we do to ourselves to put us in a bubble position. We are 1-2 and we should be 2-1 maybe even 3-0 if our defense didn't play so horribly week 1. Our offense is not as good as everybody thinks, and we can see that when Rodgers is off his game even slightly, we're unproductive. Our offense RELIES on Rodgers to be good and that's what I have always feared ever since he started being called elite. The more and more you center yourself around a QB, the more risky everything becomes. McCarthy has an unnatural hatred of running the ball, though it didn't show today thankfully. It seriously takes Rodgers laying an egg out there for him to hand it to the RB. A sad thing I'm about to say is I don't even know what our offensive coordinator does. Actually, I don't even know who it is. Ever since Philbin left, we've had a really unknown factor as far as our OC goes. All I'm gonna say is whether it's McCarthy or the OC, whoever is designing our gameplan needs to balance it out more. We will not win a Super Bowl if we rely 100% on Rodgers to do it. Even if the defense continues to improve, which I think it will, our receivers are average. Jordy Nelson is the only reliable one of the bunch. Jones' route running is "meh" (he's apparently caused 2 interceptions the past week because of his routes), Cobb and Finley drop a ton of balls, and Cobb is really only good when he gets into space. The rest don't see the field much. I guess we're still waiting for Cobb to break out, which I don't think will happen as tremendously as everybody thinks. I've kinda half-doubted him ever since he came into the league. Our offensive line is still terrible. I'm waiting for them to get better. We have talented RB's we just don't use them enough. Which drives me crazy. I love how McCarthy starts running the ball more as soon as our #1 goes down. Great thinking champ.

 

As for the defense, I think we played a hell of a game today. Aside from 2 drives, we held Cincinnati pretty solid. We still need to get more pressure on the QB, as I think that will help our secondary out. They're still a bunch of young guys, developing, and I think that if Tramon took more an active role in being the leader of the group that they'd perhaps find an identity and bond together more, like what happened when Woodson was here. They've each got their flaws, but I think as a group they could be great, in time. Thank god for Brad Jones, and I can't believe I'm saying it but AJ Hawk has played well this year too. He's far more aggressive and actually makes tackles. Matthews is amazing as usual, and Nick Perry has been playing solidly. He's far less of a liability than Walden is when it comes to containing the outside. Our defensive line has been much improved with the addition of Jolly. We drafted another guy on DL who hasn't played much I forget his name though. But I feel like with the additions we've made, we're able to rotate the guys more and keep them fresh. Also, is it just a coincidence that Jolly came back and we've been batting down lots of passes?

 

This isn't really a rant thread, it's just that seeing us blow this game after a 20 point lead drove me to write this. There are some major problems on the team but I don't think that they're difficult to solve. I think we can still go deep into the postseason if we correct this crap early and get on a roll. To sum it all up: let's try to actually fix the offensive line, run the ball more, and get more pressure on the opposing QB.

 

Oh it's an upset. The Bengals have been solid for a couple years but have had some fairly easy schedules, too. They didn't beat the elite teams in the league. Maybe this is part of the next step for them.

 

 

Maybe they haven't beaten that many elite teams. But my point was that Green Bay is not as good as everybody thinks. After the Washington game everybody was like "alright there's Green Bay back to domination form" and I wasn't sold.

 

I mean when is the last time Green Bay beat an elite team? October 14 last year we beat Houston. If you ask me we have to prove ourselves to the league too but not many people think that. Everyone seems to forget this is a very different team than we had a few years ago. Even on offense.

[RazorStar 4,025]

That Bengals defense is downright oppressive. They held the Pack and Aaron Rodgers all game. I don't think I've ever seen him throw more INT's than TD's, and never two in one game. I wonder if I should move them into the top three for threats to the Broncos dominance of the AFC this year.