I audibly gasped when ESPN had this graphic up after last night’s coming out performance from AJ Dillon. And I didn’t gasp because of what Dillon had accomplished, I gasped at the other two names on the list. Who could ever forget about the cult hero of a DREADFUL 2005 season, Samkon Gado! The definition of a shooting star. Mike Sherman had a meeting with The Bob’s after that campaign, and Gado never fit into Mike McCarthy’s offense in 2006, but that 2005 season, whooooooo baby. I still smile when I see a random Samkon Gado jersey at a Packer game. And as he talked about often during his playing career, Gado did go on to become a doctor, and has been doing great things for the world at large ever since.
And let’s not sleep on that De’Mond Parker drop! Another shooting star, in this instance one single game, during the ill fated Ray Rhodes season in 1999. I honestly think all mention of that season has been redacted from any correspondence at 1265 Lombardi Ave. But Parker accomplished that feat in a late season win against the Bears that kept the team’s faint playoff hopes alive. Any chance you have to blog about both Samkon Gado and De’Mond Parker, you absolutely have to do it. That’s what I said when I started this thing in 2009 and AJ Dillon finally gave me the chance I’d been waiting for after last night’s performance! The rest:
- Honestly though, how about AJ Dillon. I’m not sure I’m on the ‘they can let Aaron Jones walk!’ train, it was only one game, but I do feel considerably better about next season *IF* that’s what Gutey elects to do. Remember though, Jones is still far more dynamic. He’s proven he can run between the tackles, he’s faster to the edge than Dillon, and he has wide receiver instincts while catching the ball. I understand how everyone got caught up in the Dillon hysteria last night, but in the words of George Costanza, ‘EASSSSYYYYY big fella!’
- The only negative marks from Dillon last night were his two Lambeau Leaps. Shorted the first one, and needed a boost from Lazard on the second. I guess, when you’ve got literal tree trunks for legs, that type of jump isn’t easy. Matt LaFleur may need to incorporate a leap drill this week just to make sure he’s set for the next time he finds the end zone.
- Davante Adams joined Cris Carter (1995) and Randy Moss (2003) as the only wide receivers in the history of the league to have 100+ catches and 16+ touchdowns in a season. Important: Davante has one game left, and missed TWO AND A HALF GAMES. I’m not saying Davante is a future Hall of Famer, I’m thinking it real hard, but I’m not saying it (yet). But this season, in a vacuum, is in Moss/Rice/TO territory. He needs 4 catches and 2 touchdowns against the Bears this weekend to pass Sterling Sharpe as the single-season record holder for both stats in Packer history.
- Two things that Aaron Rodgers has done this year: Resurrected Austin Powers Goldmember references, and won his 3rd career MVP. I’m honestly not sure which is more impressive.
- Last night was Mike Pettine’s best single game as Packer DC. If you want to have a dump in your pants and say, ‘well, not that much of a mountain to climb!’ that’s fine. But in terms of a single performance, that’s as good a Packer defense has looked in a long time. Held the #1 offense in the NFL to 14 points. Forced 2 turnovers, put fairly consistent pressure on Tannehill, and held Derrick Henry in check. All week long analysts and Packer fans alike were dreading what Henry would do to this defense, but they really bottled him up. He had 98 yards but they were hard-earned, and his long run was only 10.
- ^Related: Rashan Gary pressuring a quarterback into throwing an interception to Darnell Savage seems to be a weekly occurrence. Which is odd considering I was told by numerous fans on Twitter and Facebook during draft night in 2019 that both were horrible (horrible!) picks? Weird.
- The one good thing to come out of the blocked field goal mess was watching JK Scott actually make a tackle. The fact that there was a flag on the play means that the tackle will not be officially recorded, but I saw it with my own two eyes. You saw it. I saw it. We all saw it.
- ^Related: I’m already taking aspirin to prepare myself for our special teams making a blunder during a playoff game. Seems inevitable, just a matter of how much it costs the team.
So, it got a little tense after the Tannehill 45 yard touchdown run in the 3rd quarter to make it a 19-14 game, but the Packers basically rolled to a win against a quality team. The only downer of the day was the Rams not winning in Seattle. Had they done that, last night’s win would have clinched the #1 seed. Now the Packers have to win next weekend in Chicago to secure the only bye in this year’s playoff format, and to guarantee that the road to the Super Bowl goes through Lambeau. And how about those Bears! 3 game winning streak to put themselves in a spot where if they can win, they get the final spot in the playoffs. Nothing better than a rivalry game in week 17 with major implications for both teams. The game got flexed from a noon to a 3:25 kickoff, I can already taste the day beers.
PS: Nobody happier that the Packers played in primetime last night than the Milwaukee Bucks. Only the third game of the year, but getting dusted by a TERRIBLE Knicks team (a Knicks team that was also down two of it’s better players) isn’t a great look. The good news is that Giannis signed the Super Max and that’s literally the only thing that matters until the playoffs. Right? Right.
Double PS: There’s no better visual in the NFL than Lambeau Field in the snow in December. It wasn’t as much, but it reminded me of this classic:
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