Takeaways from Preseason Game Three

Well the Packers lost another preseason game. Their record is now 0-0. See it's funny because wins and losses in preseason don't matter! What matters are the positives and negatives you can take away from the game.  And I honestly think there were positives in all three phases of the game. Of course there were negatives too.

On special teams the main positive is Tim Masthay. He can boom punts and he showed it to us last night. He had several punts that were of 50 yards with great hang time. It was pretty to watch. He also boomed the opening kickoff out of the endzone. The negative is the other side of the kicking game. Masthay kicking off to open the game tells me the Packers still don't know who their kicker will be to start the season. Tavecchio doesn't have the leg that Crosby does. So if they keep him to kick FGs, Masthay could end up being the guy to kick off. Personally I'm still not sold that either of them should be the guy. I just don't know who out there would be better.

Offensively the Packers flashed early. Aaron Rodgers led them right down the field for a FG on the first series of the game. He came out after that series (earlier than you'd expect in the 3rd preseason game) and things went downhill from there. The rookie backs struggled but it's hard to equate that to the regular season because the Seahawks were really stacking the line against the run with Harrell in the game. When Vince Young came in there were more lanes as evidenced by Alex Green's 30 yard run. Jarrett Boykin had a great play to get a 1st down, but that was negated by his fumble a few plays earlier. Jermichael Finley only caught 2 of the 6 passes targeting him and was credited with a drop. Basically what I learned from the game was that as long as Rodgers is healthy the Packers will be in every game. The instant he goes down they are in real trouble. Word has just come down that Harrell has been released so Young has won the backup job at least for now. I'm still not sold on him long term but even with him not being in town for training camp, he really outplayed Harrell.

Defensively we say a lot of good things. The pass rush was able to get a lot of pressure last night. Johnny Jolly was disruptive in the middle, Micah Hyde got good pressure rushing from outside and the Clay Matthews Band netted a sack of Russell Wilson. The run defense is still concerting though. The bruising backs of Seattle had a lot of success running inside against the Packers. The wide receivers also had success outside a few times as well. Hyde is always around the ball, but he got burned on a long pass to Doug Baldwin in the first quarter that got the Hawks into field goal position. I'm not all that concerned about this though. As long as Tramon Williams is ready to go wot the opener I think the DBs be ok.

 Having been laid off in my life, I just want to tell Graham Harrell thank you for your time and good luck in your future. It's not easy to hear the words "Thank you for your time, but your services won't be required any longer" and get led out of the building. I hope you come back from it quickly and find something new and fulfilling.