Cullen Jenkins is one of many frustrated Packers defenders: but is there a crisis afoot or merely a week-to-week frustration bubbling over?

Ahoy there, and welcome to November! We’re beginning our three-month stretch where football is the second-most important thing in the world (behind pumpkin pie at thanksgiving, of course). The World Series has concluded; NASCAR, thankfully, is in its seasonal death throes; the NBA and NHL are in the infant stages of their years. The sports calendar is ours for the taking! In honor of this illustrious occasion, I’ll dispense of the introductory statements and launch right into another weekly six-pack. One final note: you can always contact me via the comment box below, my email (selfserve@gmail.com), or on Twitter: @greenbayblog. Football and pop-culture references welcome; shirtless pictures may be censored.

PACKERS AT BUCCANEERS

1. After last week’s hard-to-swallow 38-26 loss at Lambeau to the hated Vikings, most critics and fans of the Packers focused their scorn on the waffling Packers defense. Yes, they had come into the game outscoring their latest two opponents 57-3. Yes, those opponents were the hapless Lions and the even more hapless Browns. Still, that’s an impressive enough number in the modern NFL, so what gives with barely brushing Brett Favre on his way to an unadulterated four-touchdown performance? Although Adrian Peterson didn’t have a stellar day by his standards, he still managed roughly four yards a carry and scored a hard-nosed first-quarter touchdown on fourth-and-goal. Did anything go right for this team? Well, let’s keep in mind that this team can definitely play some defense: check out this enlightening statistical graph compiled over at ESPN.com. The team is in the top-ten of every major defensive statistical category, and is tops in the league when it comes to turnover-differential. I suspect the latter can be attributed as much to Aaron Rodgers’ miniscule total of two interceptions as the ballhawking abilities of defensive playmakers like Charles Woodson, Al Harris, and Clay Matthews.
2. Despite those gaudy numbers, the team has three losses, two of which have come at home. During the summer, Pro Bowl lineman Aaron Kampman refused to endorse (or reject, it must be noted) his new position of outside linebacker. His success at OLB is hard to gauge at this point, but his sack and pressure numbers are way down. After the first Vikings loss, Charles Woodson criticized Dom Capers’ scheme–although, in that game, communication breakdowns (cue the Led Zeppelin track) between starting corners Harris and Woodson and third-string safety Derrick Martin were mostly to blame.
   

   “I’m having a nervous breakdown! Enough to drive me insane!” Zeppelin lyric or frustrated Packers fans?

   This week, it was Cullen Jenkins’ turn to sound off, claiming that some of the better defensive players were being “handcuffed” by the scheme. True to form, Wednesday he recanted much of what he said, wishing he’d spoken to the coaching staff privately instead of taking it to the media. Let’s keep in mind that two of Green Bay’s three losses thus far have come at the hands of the Vikings; it may be possible that their game planning combined with their personnel were simply too much for the Packers this year (yet, I hope for a rematch in the playoffs…) and that this team is pretty good against teams not from the Twin Cities. Again, the season isn’t even half-over yet. Let’s not pronounce a team with talent D.O.A.

3. On the other hand, the Buccaneers seem about as fun to watch as any of the post-Janet Super Bowl halftime shows, only without the aging white guys (Jeff Garcia, thanks for the memories). They’ve decided just this week to turn their offense over to their third quarterback in eight games, 21-year-old rookie Josh Freeman. Behind Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez, Freeman was the third quarterback drafted in 2009, and you might be saying, huh? Yep, Josh Freeman, of Kansas State fame – he used to ball with current Packers WR Jordy Nelson – will take the field at home this weekend. There may be an element of surprise here, since advance Packers scouts will have precious little film on which to dissect Freeman’s style. Still, the track record for quarterbacks starting their first games in their rookie season is not good. As you might expect, no rookie quarterback has taken a team to a Super Bowl and only one – Mr. Dan Marino – has made the Pro Bowl. Now, second-year QBs such as Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger have had some success. As talented as this guy might be, Bucs fans, it’s going to take some time for the game to slow down for him.
4. It was neat to see Ahman Green back returning kicks last week, wasn’t it? Coach Mike McCarthy praised his “downfield” running ability, even though during a third-quarter return, Green tripped over what appeared to be the white paint at the fifteen-yard line. I suppose “downfield” could also mean “rolling down a hill into a field.” It’d be nice to see a little juice in the return game; the Packers currently rank 14th in kickoff return average and a dreadful 23rd in punt return average and a total of 0 touchdowns. I don’t have the numbers, but I suspect those averages have trended downward since the season-ending injury of Will Blackmon in week 4. Furthermore, the Bucs shockingly have one of the better special teams units. They are 12th in the league in punt return average and return kicks an average of 28.1 yards, best in the league. They even have a kickoff return touchdown, marking the second straight year the team has gotten one after three-plus decades without a single runback for a score.
5. Yep, Aaron Rodgers has finally succumbed a bit to the beating he has taken (31 sacks over 7 games, worst in the league). He has a sprained toe on his left foot and what is being called a “sore right foot.” McCarthy expects him to be full-tilt on Sunday, but he’s limiting Rodgers’ practice through the week to give him a rest period. Meanwhile, the status of second-year tight end Jermichael Finley is still up in the air. The official injury updates out of the team peg him somewhere between questionable and doubtful, and his Twitter account provides maddeningly vague hints about his comeback. On the O-line, it appears we might at long last see the return of Mark Tauscher to right tackle.
   

   How do you think the job interview went? “Can you bend your knees and push? Great, you’re what we’ve been looking for!”

   Incumbent starter Allen Barbre seems to have improved much of his game since his opening-week performance (or lack thereof) that NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth excoriated on-air. Still, McCarthy feels the pass protection could be improved by inserting Tauscher there. Chad Clifton is also expected to be back at left tackle, but center Jason Spitz’s back condition has not improved, and it may be that Scott Wells will take over his old job for the rest of the year. Still, at this point, it’s folly to think the offensive line isn’t broken. You’ve gotta try anything to keep Rodgers upright.

6. Finally, it’s hard to see Tampa mustering up much of a fight for this game. Their offense is in the bottom-five in total yardage and points per game; their defense averages giving up 29 ppg and is third-to-last in rushing yardage allowed; and arguably their best defensive player, young cornerback Aqib Talib who is tied for fourth in the league with 4 interceptions, may not even play this week. The Packers are only ten-point favorites going in to face the team’s only winless franchise in ‘09. I’m with Tom Pelissero, I’ll take those odds any day of the week. (Not to mention, when you tempt the football gods by dressing like this, you’re asking for a loss.)
   Packers by sixteen.

   WEEK EIGHT PREDICTIONS
   
   REDSKINS AT FALCONS
   Let’s see…you’ve got a crappy quarterback with a lame-duck coach playing for an injury-riddled team on the road in a dome against a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback who has many weapons on offense coming off a few hard losses? Why wouldn’t I pick against the ‘Skins? Frankly, I think the two wins they’ve accrued this year are too much. They’ve peaked. It’ll be a race to the finish to see if Detroit or St. Louis can lap Washington!
   Falcons by thirteen.
   
   CARDINALS AT BEARS

   

   He’s great if you want some sort of maritime berry-flinging machine. As far as a dependable quarterback goes…

   Now this is an intriguing game. What’s to be made of this Arizona team, who seems to be sleepwalking their way to an NFC West title? And the Bears always seem to get the benefit of the doubt, why? Because Jay Cutler can throw a “strawberry through a battleship” as Browns defensive coordinator Rob Ryan said. That seems to me to be a bit unfair. Strawberries are very durable, savory, and hardly bitter. Can you say the same about Jay Cutler? I don’t trust this Chicago team. Then again, I don’t trust this Arizona team, either, but Kurt Warner improbably performs leagues better on the road than at home. And as Bill Simmons once astutely noted, betting against Kurt Warner is like betting against God and puppies.
   Cardinals by six.
   
   RAVENS AT BENGALS
   Statement Game #1 of the week! If the Ravens win, they can assert themselves in the conversation for potential AFC North champions, only two weeks removed from a tough three-game losing skid. If the Bengals win, they’ll have swept the Ravens on their way to a 4-0 divisional record and cement their legitimacy as a threat to the Steelers’ crown. This is as tough a game as any to call this week, especially when you look at the running game (Ray Rice and Cedric Benson cancel each other out) and the hard-hitting defenses. In the end, I like Carson Palmer’s ability to move his team down the field and win this year. On several occasions, he’s lobbied head coach Marvin Lewis to go for it on risky fourth-down propositions and the Bengals were directly awarded wins for their labors. I like that gutsiness; it bodes well for late-season games and the playoffs where emotions are tight and decisions become cloudier.
   Bengals by three.
   
   TEXANS AT COLTS
   Being billed as the “biggest game in Texans history,” I don’t see this one being all that competitive. Matt Schaub has not fared well against the Colts, Steve Slaton is banged up, and Indy is a hell of a lot more competitive and well-rounded than the team Houston faced (and trailed going into the third quarter) last week, the Buffalo Bills. I still think Houston’s a wild-card caliber squad, and an upset here would really throw my vision of them out of whack, but Indianapolis is just so. Damn. Solid.
   Colts by ten.
   
   DOLPHINS AT PATRIOTS
   Wes Welker’s statistics from three years on the Dolphins: 96 receptions, 1,111 yards, 1 touchdown. Wes Welker’s average yearly stats from 2007-8 with the Patriots: 110.5 receptions, 1,170 yards, 5.5 touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Dolphins are starting Brian Hartline as their number-one receiver after demoting former first-round pick Ted Ginn Jr., to third-string and kickoff returns (where he is flourishing rather well, thank you). Without even mentioning Tom Brady vs. Jay Fiedler, Daunte Culpepper, Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, et cetera, I think I’ve made my point regarding the past decade of competence between these two AFC East rivals.
   Patriots by ten.
   
   CHIEFS AT JAGUARS
   How weird is it that David Garrard has 1603 yards passing and only 5 touchdowns? That’s five yards less than Carson Palmer (who has 9 TD passes) and roughly 600 more than Donovan McNabb (also with 9).

   

   Jones-Drew is averaging more touchdowns per game than club seats sold at Alltel Stadium.

   I suppose when you have Maurice Jones-Drew bulldozing his way for a league-high 10 rushing touchdowns (through 7 games! That’s LT territory right there) you don’t need Garrard to be tossing scores through the air. You know who won’t be running for touchdowns during this game? Priest Holmes. But also, Larry Johnson, suspended for being a total idiot (I’m paraphrasing here). How many chances is this guy going to receive before he’s tossed out on the street? In a football landscape where Terrell Owens still has a job but Pacman Jones does not, this is a very tough question indeed.
   Jaguars by two.
   
   LIONS AT SEAHAWKS
   Wow. A fun day had by none. Matt Hasselbeck actually isn’t doing that bad when he has the ball (3:1 TD:INT ratio) but the Seahawks just don’t have a running game or an offensive line, and that makes it really easy to gameplan against. Lucky for Seattle, the Lions simply don’t have game. Wake me when it’s over!
   Seahawks by eight.
   
   PANTHERS AT SAINTS
   After all the stories you’ve read about how awful Jake Delhomme is this year, how many games would you have guessed the Panthers to have won: one, maybe zero? Two tops? Somehow, the Panthers are 3-4, the most surprising of those wins coming last week on the road at Arizona in an absolute trouncing of the Cardinals. I don’t see Carolina doing it two weeks in a row on the road, not when Drew Brees is just carving up opposing defenses (one red flag: he’s thrown more INTs than TDs the last two weeks) and the running game offers up three ways to skewer you. Darren Sharper, who was released five years ago as too old by Green Bay, only leads the league with an amazing 7 interceptions in 7 games. This secondary will still give up chunks of yardage and a few touchdowns, but the days are long gone when you could pick your favorite Saints cornerback and taunt him all day with ten-yard outs and pick plays (I’m looking at you, Jason David). If I had to pick a Super Bowl winner right now, it’d be the Saints. Wow, why not take a gamble, eh Ian? To that I say, shut up, I’m being smart.
   Saints by fourteen.
   
   CHARGERS AT GIANTS
   Statement Game #2. These franchises will be linked for the next decade or so by the draft-day deal that sent a cranky Eli Manning, who refused to play in Southern California for a team that already had LaDainian Tomlinson, to New York in exchange for three picks – picks which turned out to be QB Philip Rivers, Shawne Merriman, and Nate Kaeding – all of whom became Pro Bowlers. Still, both sides seem to like what they got out of the deal, and Eli won’t have to face the lusty boos he encountered when these teams last met four years ago in San Diego. He will, however, have to face the lusty boos from the raucous New York fan base, who will tolerate no less than excellence from their vacant-eyed leader. Not after Mariano Rivera showed them that if you do one thing and you do it well, you can succeed over and over again. So, Eli, how about you pick one thing (it can be anything!) and do that well? I know it’s unfashionable to pick against New York right now, and it seems unfathomable that the Giants could lose four straight. Batten down the hatches; I’m going with the Chargers in my UPSET SPECIAL! of the week. Nobody said it’d be easy.
   Chargers by six.
   
   TITANS AT 49ERS
   Well, well. If it isn’t Vince Young vs. Alex Smith. How fortuitous! We can call this the “Cade McNown Bowl” if we want. I really have no idea what to expect. You’d think the offensive coordinators would want to let Chris Johnson and Frank Gore decide the game, so why not just put the two of them at midfield with a ball between them and have them wrestle over it, XFL coin-toss style? The first person to scoop the ball and get into the end zone wins the game. Same level of unpredictability, same outcome-based-on-best-player, same excitability factor, only everyone gets to go home three hours sooner. Win-win! (And if the game does get really really boring, relax: everyone can head over to Tim Lincecum’s place and take some of his special medicine.)
   49ers by three.
   
   COWBOYS AT EAGLES (8:20 PM, NBC, SNF)
   Statement Game #3: The winner of this game takes an early lead in the NFC East and a leg-up on tiebreakers. Why is everyone suddenly on the Dallas bandwagon again? Who, exactly, have the Cowboys beaten? Tampa Bay, Carolina, Kansas City (OT), Atlanta, and Seattle. Only Atlanta is a competitive team out of that group. Dallas has lost its only two matchups against real competition, Denver and the Giants. Even now, at 5-2, Tony Romo has to deal with yet another wide receiver controversy: this time it’s Roy Williams saying he’s not on the same page as his quarterback.

   

   More lethal than a pack-a-day habit.

   You know which receivers are on the same page as their quarterback? Jeremy Maclin, DeSean Jackson, and Brent Celek. And the Eagles get Brian Westbrook back this week from a concussion, the one man who has killed more Cowboys than Marlboro cigarettes. Maybe if this game were in Dallas would I feel a different outcome, but let’s see Romo and the ‘Boys accomplish anything of merit before we anoint them leaders of the NFC East.
   Eagles by seven.
   
   STEELERS AT BRONCOS (8:30 PM, ESPN, MNF)
   Statement Game #4: Which team will relinquish momentum in their division to their pursuers? The Bengals and Ravens are hot on the heels of the Steelers. The Broncos have to be careful of those feisty Chargers, who always seem to make their run in the second half. I don’t know if this game is going to be as close as people imagine it to be. The Steelers should clog up the running lanes, forcing Kyle Orton to beat them. While Orton has better YAC-able receivers in Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal than he ever had in Chicago (that is, when Rex Grossman wasn’t beating him out for the starting job), they have to be open first to then pick up yardage after the catch. I see this Steelers team as one of the elites, and despite the gaudy 6-1 record, this Broncos team has been using a lot of sleight-of-hand to get where they are. That doesn’t mean they’re not good; on the contrary, it means that their coaching staff is a hell of a lot better than anyone gave them credit for. But personnel is personnel, and Pittsburgh’s got the upper hand.
   Steelers by ten.

   BYE WEEK BITES
   
   Bills: Terrell Owens tries to subsidize the Erie Canal in return for naming it “The Terrell Owens Memorial Gateway to Humility.”
   
   Browns: Former “The Price is Right” host Bob Barker gives speech in Cleveland commending the “Dawg Pound” for being so wonderfully neutered.
   
   Raiders: Unsurprisingly, Tom Cable’s idea to raise funds for new weightlifting equipment by setting up a kissing booth does not end well.
   
   Rams: What is this? The NFL mercifully scheduled four of the crappiest teams to sit on the same week in a massive league-wide time-out! The Rams will spend their week thinking very hard about what they’ve done wrong (which is, to be frank, everything).
   
   Vikings: Brett Favre unwittingly stumbles upon the perfect job once he hangs up the cleats for good: spokesman for the universally-loved event, No-Shave November.
   
   Jets: Investigators are called to the scene of the derailing of one of the biggest hype trains in recent memory; few survivors are expected.
   
   Last week: 8-5
   Overall: 78-38
   Upset Special: 4-4