 Old Man and the Pack Well, it's finally here. Kickoff is less than seven hours away, so it's time to take a look at the Packers' lifeless-corpse of a QB, lack of a running game, injured receivers and over-hyped defense. If you're interested in what a Packers blogger has to say, check out this preview from Acme Packing Company.My preview is going to be short and sweet. I expect Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook to have good games, possibly explosive games, but I really don't think this game will come down to the Eagles' offense. I think the defense wins this game. Favre is the Julio Franco of the NFL, only the Braves don't bat Julio cleanup. In his prime, he had the arm strength to make stupid throws and fit them into tight spots. As he's gotten older those throws have wound up in the opposing team's hands at an alarming rate. Expect the Eagles ball-hawking secondary to get their hands on a couple of Favre's errant throws. To make matters worse for the Packers, they aren't capable of taking advantage of the Eagles weak run defense (I'm going to consider this the team's Achilles heel until they prove otherwise). Their starting running back is Vernand Morency, two underwhelming rookies are backing him up. One more point in the Eagles favor is Donal Driver's health (he's questionable for the game). Don't worry if the Eagle offense isn't clicking early on. If need be, they can sit back, play field position and let Favre beat himself. I don't think this will be the case, but no matter what happens there will be plenty of ways to win this game. I'll be shocked if the Eagles aren't 1-0 come 4 p.m. Player to watch: Brian Dawkins. Injuries: The only major contributor listed as questionable for the game is L.J. Smith. It looks like it's 50/50 whether he plays or not. How do these people have jobs? Scouts Inc. does a breakdown of every game for ESPN. Their take on this game is comical. They go position by position and say which team has the advantage. At QB, they give the edge to the Packers. Hilarious.
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Watching Favre play now is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I respect what he's done over his career, but for the past three years, emotions and sentimentality aside, he's been a liability to that team. The Iggle management would have cut him over four years ago which explains the differences in fate of the two teams.
I recall some analyst last year saying that good teams make good business decisions, bad teams make emotional ones.
He also said on bad teams, player's demands/attitudes run the team instead of the coaches. He was referring to Favre. The rest of the guys on that panel jumped all over him and acted like they were ready to hang him for being a war criminal/terrorist/puppy killer just for voicing dissent on the greatness of Brett Favre. No one wanted to acknowledge that Favre was no longer effective.
Favre has been through two farewell tours around the NFL now. This year will be another, and we'll all have to tolerate old farts like John Madden raving about Favre while he's putting up three or four INTs a game. Actually, it does any team that has to face the Pack a favor as it means a "W" for the opposition. So as an Eagle fan, I guess I'm glad he's still playing.
I'm over my optimism after that game. Something needs to be done about special teams, they'd be better off just not having a returner back there.