TRICK – OR TREAT?

Let the Hype Begin as Pack has Showdown in Denver

Here it is almost Halloween and the biggest, greatest, most spectacular and most important game ever in the history of the entire sporting universe is upon us. No, we’re not talking about the World Series or the opening of the NHL and NBA seasons. Nor are we speaking of the World Cup, the World Series of Poker or the World Tiddlywinks Championship.

But if one is of a mindset to buy into the media hype Sunday night’s nationally televised showdown between the unbeaten (6 - 0) Denver Broncos and the also unbeaten (6- 0) Green Bay Packers this is the Game of the Century. So Far. Yes, the matchup in Denver will pit two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning and both teams are legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Both teams have tremendous offenses but also both teams have impressive defenses.

But time for a reality check.

This is a game. It is only a game. If it had been an actual REALLY important game you would have

received instructions on where to go.

The column under ‘Wins’ and ‘Losses’ and ‘Ties’ in the agate scores and standings is miniscule. Two characters wide to be exact. There is no room for explanation or stats or whatever else one wants to read into it. Black and white, win or loss. It’s just that simple. It is but one more step out of 16 that moves a team towards the Big Party at the end of the season. By that point the solid defeat of Seattle and the last second nail-biting win over San Diego will have been rendered to the pile of plays that made up the season. It is far from a critical or crucial game and will have little to no bearing on the post season.

Keeping this game in perspective is what Mike McCarthy does best. The Packers are not only leading the league in win percentage, well, tied actually with Denver, Carolina, Cincinnati and New England and scoring defense Green Bay is also leading the league in man- games lost to injury. Jordy Nelson won’t play at all this year. Morgan Burnett has missed all but a handful if plays already. Eddie Lacy, Bryan Bulaga, Randall Cobb, David Bahktiari have all been out at one time or another. Sam Barrington is gone on defense, Burnett for all intents and purposes hasn’t even played yet and the list goes on and on and on.

Yet somehow so have the Packers. In spite of the injuries Green Bay has clearly established itself as

one of the Top 2 or 3 (at the most) teams in the NFL. Never in the history of the game have so many teams remained unbeaten at this juncture. Carolina in the NFC and the resurgent Cincinnati Bengals join the perennial powerhouse Patriots in the AFC while the Pack and the Pats have been swapping #1 rankings in the fun but frivolous Power Rankings each week.

It can no longer be said Denver is led by Peyton Manning. This year’s team is led by a ferocious, hard hitting and swarming defense that is on top in the NFL. The Broncos are first against the pass, 4^th against the run and 1^st overall in total yardage surrendered. While Green Bay’s numbers aren’t as spiffy the Pack’s D can lay claim to the fewest points allowed thus far, an even more important number.

Manning’s age is now showing and is has become very apparent the end of the line is quickly approaching. Manning no longer possesses enough arm strength to out throw a defender. It is painful to watch someone like Manning who has been so dominant for so long and done it with grace and class falter. The fan in all of us does not want to see our heroes fade and fail, but that is exactly what Manning is doing. The Broncos are not winning because of Manning; they are winning in spite of Manning.

Manning’s mind is as sharp as it ever was, maybe even more so now that he has all this accumulated

football data. His body is letting him down. Here is a sobering fact. Denver currently ranks 19^th overall in the passing game, 30^th overall in the running game and 29^th overall offensively. Manning is currently the 17^th rated QB and has thrown 10 INT’s to his 7 TD’s, hardly Hall of Fame numbers. Similar to Rodgers in Green Bay Manning lost a huge weapon when TE Julius Thomas left for Jacksonville in free agency. After Demarious Thomas (48 receptions/ 1 TD/ 4^th overall in catches) and Emmanuel Sanders (38/ 3/ #14) the pickings in Denver get thinner than the air in which both teams will compete on Sunday. RB’s Ronnie Hillman (323 yards/ 3 TD’s/ #22 overall) and C. J. Anderson (180/ 0/ #47 overall) are the only backs of merit on a Bronco’s paltry running game.

The strength of Denver is solidly in the defense. With Demarcus Ware, Von Miller, Brandon Marshall and Aqib Talib the Broncos lead the NFL in sacks with 26. But guess who is right behind the Broncos? Green Bay is currently tied for 2^nd at 23 sacks with St. Louis. Denver is tied for 4^th in INT’s with 9 but the Pack is right behind them with 8. Neither team will give much quarter in the defense department this year.

For the Packers Rodgers and the offense have been, for them at least, in a bit of a funk lately. After opening the season with 10 TD’s and 0 INT’s Rodgers has thrown 5 TD’s but has yielded 3 picks, a very un-Rodgers-esque like stat. Not so coincidentally Eddie Lacy and Davante Adams have both been out with injuries in this stretch. But Green Bay is now winning those games when Rodgers isn’t forced to be Superman unlike years past. The defense has won a few games along the way (Seattle, San Francisco and the highlight reel deflection by rookie Damarious Randall against San Diego) to make the Packers a more rounded, better balanced team. Rodgers has won in a variety of ways and the offense continues to find stars to step up. After Nelson was lost James Jones was literally plucked off the waiver wire the next day. All Jones has done since being cut by both the Raiders and the Giants is to be tied for the NFL lead in TD grabs at 6 with Larry Fitzgerald and Allen Robinson (Jaguars).

Manning and Rodgers do not go head to head but in a game such as this it is hard to discount the

advantage Green Bay has at the single most important position on the field. Taking nothing away from Denver’s D Rodgers and the Pack’s offense stands to fare better against Denver’s defense than Manning does against Green Bay’s. Both D’s are ferocious and will try to bag the other team’s QB. In that matchup it is advantage Green Bay.

The bye week could not have come at a better time for the Packers as it has given them some time to rest and heal. Davante Adams and Lacy have both rolled ankles and Cobb hasn’t been right since the pre-season. The big key in this game is for Rodgers to simply be Rodgers and avoid turning the ball over. Talib and Chris Harris are a formidable duo in the Bronco secondary so avoiding the pick is at the top of Rodgers’ agenda. The Chargers humiliated Green Bay with a 38 minute to 22 minute time of possession battle, a battle the Pack has to rectify to beat the Broncs. Keeping Manning off the field at any age is still the most reliable formula to beat him.

One benchmark of Rodgers’ stellar career is he is not prone to long term stagnation. With a healthy compliment of wideouts Rodgers will have the targets. TE Richard Rodgers is slowly emerging as an option. If Lacy’s ankle has healed as he says it has both he and James Starks provide not just a 1 -2 punch but that’s a pair that packs a wallop. Starks ran wild and carried the Packers past the Chargers and has found the form he had when he carried the Pack all the way to the Super Bowl in his rookie campaign. But now Starks is added to the walking wounded with a hip injury that will keep him out for a while. Thankfully while surrendering yards the Packers defense is become a ready for prime time group of players and is establishing itself as more than capable.

Denver has dodged a few bullets along the way. So has Green Bay. In the showdown in the Wild

West look for the Packers to be a methodical, clock killing machine that will wear down Denver. If Green Bay can get up early and force Manning into more passing situations the field tips wildly in Green Bay’s favor. Manning will be facing a stiff test and Green Bay may just soon be applying to change the city name to Blitz Bay. Clay Matthews, Mike Daniels, B. J. Raji, Nick Perry and Datone Joes have all been a terror to opposing QB’s this year – and none of them were in their 40’s.

This is categorically not the most important game of the year. It is a mid-term test for both squads to see where they are and how they stack up against a quality opponent. Somebody comes out of this with their first loss of the year… but in reality little else.

Say it again – it is NOT the biggest game of the year. Given the parity laden weak sister competition this game is the really just the big game of the weekend.

 

 

 

 

  GREEN BAY  26 

 

 

 

  Denver  23