Woodson not as Good as Advertised

This obviously sounds a little bit ludicrous, but is Charles Woodson really as good as the media leads us to believe.  Full disclosure, Woodson was a great and still a good player.  He is a borderline hall of famer as he was hit with the injury bug early on and had some great years and then some unnoticeable ones.  He did a very good job last year, but giving him the defensive player of the year over Darrelle Revis of the Jets was an egregious mistake.  Revis constantly shut down whoever was put in front of him where Woodson, who had a great last year statistically, was able to play a lot more flat coverage and was not following receivers all over the place.  He still makes some plays as he is very smart, but I wouldn't put him on a number one receiver and apparently the Packers agree with me as they leave the big boy coverage to Rookie Sam Shields and newcomer Tramon Williams who are playing as good as anybody right now.  The truth is depending on what they decide to do with Al Harris, a move to safety might be a good move for Woodson who can lengthen his career and instantly be one of the better ones in the league.  Woodson is incredibly intelligent when it comes to the game and they could use that back there to help out these young guys.

Mendenhall in Big Trouble if Pouncey can't go

Will Rodgers be celebrating in
two weeks, we wonder

Rashard Mendenhall, coming off one of the biggest games of his career could be in a world of hurt if his center Maurkice Pouncey can't go in the Super Bowl.  BJ Raji is a monster that will eat up any backup center in the NFL.  This will now lead to spending one of your guards on an every down double team to stop Raji, which will leave a very good Green Bay Packer defense with a huge advantage.  This makes the Packers a clear favorite in this game.  The x factor will be Aaron Rodgers, who in my eyes historically does not win these big games and even with a good size lead he comes out with a flat second half, leaving his defense to do the dirty work, which have been more than up to the task.  Problem is you have Ben Roethlisberger on the other side, who has a lot of experience in big games and is a proven winner.  It should be a good game nonetheless.

Aaron Rodgers will Fall Back to Earth this Weekend

Brian Urlacher looks to contain Aaron Rodgers
this weekend.

Before I begin, Aaron Rodgers is a very good quarterback who put up one of the most impressive performances last week in their 48-21 win over the Falcons.  Because of this win the whole world has them raising the Lombardi trophy on the first Sunday in February. It was just a couple of weeks ago where they held a 21-10 lead with about 10 minutes left in the third quarter only to be held scoreless for the rest of the game.  In this game the Eagles usually reliable kicker, David Akers, missed 2 field goals, one a very makeable 34 yarder, Brent Celek steps out of bounds for no reason on a 2 pt conversion and Michael Vick throws a game deciding interception going up top to all people Riley Cooper.  Cooper had a good rookie year but I would not want my playoffs decided throwing a jump ball to him going up against Tramon Williams.

Now, none of this is Rodgers' fault, but at the same time he couldn't put the Eagles away and gave them every chance to take this game away from him.  This is something that still makes it tough for me to name him a big game quarterback as he has done this many times during the regular season.  In the falcons game he was lights out and made many Falcons look foolish as they had open runs at him only to be left empty handed.  With some help from his defense, the Packers very much looked the part of a super bowl participant as they put a whooping on the Falcons.

This week will be very different.  I am not saying the Packers will not win, but they do not have the ideal matchup that everybody thinks.  I realize that Seattle put up 24 points in their loss to Chicago last week, but what many people who didn't watch the game didn't see is that those were all pretty much garbage points.  The game was never in doubt and you could say that human nature took over where the Bear defense was not playing as hard as they were earlier.  This game will be a lot different and the Bears now what is at stake.  Chicago's offense does not run through their receivers which will neutralize the great play of the Packer cornerbacks (Williams and Sam Shields).  Jay Cutler likes to utilize his running backs and tight end Greg Olson, which will bring matchup problems for the very good Packer defense.  The Chicago turf will also be a factor.  Said turf is said to be the worst in the league, which is a key advantage for the home team.  I am pretty sure the grounds crew will do whatever it can to keep it that way and slow down the speedy stable of Packer receivers as well.  The Packer running game will be slowed down to a halt as it is not that good to begin with and I wouldn't expect Julius Peppers and the crew to miss too many sack opportunities as the Atlanta Falcons did this past weekend.

If I had to make a choice I would take the Packers to win, but I would not expect Rodgers to be the reason as I don't expect him to throw for 300 yards this week.  There are two issues in this game that make me still like the Pack to win and the first is Mike Martz is the first.  He loves a big stage and is sure to call some very bad plays at the worst possible time because that is who he is, a gambler.  Mistakes will be the other one and until Cutler can show me he won't make them in key games against good teams, I am going to have to take the Pack.  If I was to take a gamble at this, now realize I am very conservative when it comes to gambling,  I would tease the Pack and the under, but I like the under much more than I like the Pack.