Written by A positive, exciting opening game against a tough rival in game one suddenly went sour for the Packers in week two. It seemed like anything that could go wrong, did go wrong against the Bengals.
Bengals Recap
After holding Matt Forte, the Bears’ premier running back, to a meager 2.8 yards per carry. The Packers allowed Cedric Benson to run all over them. Benson was able to amass 141 yards on 29 attempts. That amounts to 4.8 yards per carry. Not a good thing when 4 yards per play will allow a team to score every time they have the ball.
The Packers’ defense did win the turnover battle again this week. They had two interceptions and only gave up a single turnover on a Ryan Grant fumble. Both turnovers were made at the hands of Charles Woodson, one of which Woodson returned for a touchdown. In fact, it seemed Woodson was the only Packer player who really showed up to play against the Bengals.
Aaron Rodgers was sacked six times after the offensive line got a verbal beating for letting so much pressure get to Rodgers in the first week against the Bears. Those six sacks probably had a great deal to do with the fact that Greg Jennings didn’t have a single reception against the Bengals.
Mason Crosby was only 50% on his field goals. Although, to his credit, his one field goal came in crunch time when the pressure was really on.
One of the saddest statistics for the GreenBay Packers was the fact that Woodson, Rouse, and Collins were the leading tacklers on the team against Cincinnati. That’s bad news for any team especially in light of the fact that Collins missed a chunk of the game due to injury. Meanwhile, the linebacker corpse, which is supposed to carry the bulk of the tackling load, only collected 11 tackles. No wonder Benson was able to run all over the Packer defense.
In the end, the Packers had one player that made enough of an impact to make Packer fans proud. Charles Woodson had nine tackles, two interceptions, and one touchdown, and in reality was the only reason the Packers even had a chance to pull out a win.
Looking Forward to the St. Louis Rams
If the Packers can hope to win against a week Rams team, they will need to shore things up on the offensive line. Six sacks is unacceptable, and will almost always ammount to a loss. The Packers will need to find a way to protect Aaron Rodgers long enough to find his receivers.
The receiving corps is the second key to the Packers pulling out a win against the Rams. The Packer receivers need to stop dropping passes. More importantly, GreenBay cannot afford to have Greg Jennings go an entire game without a catch. In short, 222 yards passing is just not enough.
Finally, if the Packers are going to beat the Rams, they’re going to have to stop Steven Jackson. In a losing effort against the Redskins, Jackson was still able to rack up 104 yards rushing. The Rams were only able to put seven points on the board, but the Packers can’t expect that to happen again if Jackson pulls another 100 yard game. The defensive line and linebacking corps needs to find a way to stop the Rams running game.
All in all, the Packers simply need to play much better than they played against the Bengals if they want to beat any team this year, even the St. Louis Rams.