MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Good morning everyone and Merry Christmas to all! The Holiday spirit is in everybody this year and as a special treat we have another column in from the Packer Backer! Enjoy Everyone and have a good holiday hopefully spending time with your families.

The Return O’ Da Packer Backer (Picks at the Bottom)
Joel Finkelman
What should I do? Should I say I messed up? Should I tell the readers that I'm no good? Should I start fresh? What should I do? All jokes aside I pretty much blew that one. This is why I am the guest comic relief writer, and Drew and Odin are the gambling experts. So before we get into Sunday’s breakdown, I have two words to say: Zack Greinke.
First off I have to give some props to Matt Flynn on a pretty good performance. I was simply amazed that the Packers were even competing against the best team in the NFL. So for those of you who took my advice and took the Patriots spread, I’ll have to make up for it this week. There are really so many ways we can take this in dissecting the loss. Statistics have shown that on any particular drive, that when a quarterback is sacked, that particular drive has an 8.0 percent chance of scoring a touchdown. So naturally, Matt Flynn holding onto the ball as long as Michael Vick while having 1/20th the athletic ability led to five sacks spread throughout the game. A pick six with four blown tackles aided in losing as well. And sure, a 71 yard kick return by a 313 pound offensive lineman is ridiculous as well. How about three dropped interceptions from an above average defense? Charles Woodson goes from winning the defensive player of the year last year, to dropping an interception that hit his hands. Tom Brady has thrown four interceptions this entire year. This just goes to show that when facing him, you have to take advantage of every mistake that he makes, even if they are few and far between. I haven’t even gotten to the two minute drive straight from the 9th layer of hell. Why even touch on that, McCarthy put Flynn in a terrible position with spending timeouts on two consecutive plays, and Flynn didn’t help himself out with the notorious 22 seconds left no play call scenario. What I do have though… are some interesting tidbits from the game.
Wind was a non factor in the game shown by two Mason Crosby field goals. But seemingly Hurricane Andrew rolled in on every kick off. Mason Crosby had three kickoffs with yardages of 44, 45, and 44 yards. So let’s get this straight, a guy who hit a 56 yard field goal before halftime in a game this season forgot how to have a successful kickoff?
“But Joel, maybe McCarthy had him do it on purpose so that slower players would catch it and the tackle would be made quicker”.
Interesting idea, well how well did that work out, as earlier stated a 71 return that was a record for an offensive lineman by about 56 yards. Somewhere between that number, and DeSean Jackson’s ridiculous walk off punt return, I got to thinking. When was the last time the Packers had a return for a touchdown. The answer to that would be 2008 when Will Blackmon has two punt returns. Now, that’s not the scariest thing in the world but this next one is. The last time the Green Bay Packers scored a touchdown on a kickoff was in the year 2000. Allen Rossum returned one kick to pay dirt that season. For all the quirks and random things that happen throughout the NFL on kickoffs, the Packers haven’t been able to catch lightening in a bottle. This is possibly due to the fact that we have Sam Shields and Jordy Nelson returning kicks and Tramon Williams averaging 6.5 yards per return last week on punts. But moving on to something much more positive, this weeks...

Tim Donaghy’s Insider Information Picks O Da’ Week (That’s right multiple)
Dallas - 6.5 At Arizona (Saturday). Ok fine, so Arizona is the 31st ranked team in front of Carolina, and Dallas has been playing decently well lately. So naturally, when Derek Anderson is your quarterback, yeah you know what to do here.
Dallas 26 Cardinals 27 Lost
Baltimore – 3.5 At Cleveland. I’ve been using footballlocks.com for my weekly game lines so I found it peculiar that the line is only 3.5. If it stays at this number, Dr. Finkelman says buy buy buy.
Ravens 20 Browns 10 Won
At Packers -3 vs. New York Giants. Yep, I may have been extremely skeptical of the Pack last week, but this week I'm a new man. Packers with a good strong win this week. (I Hope)
Giants 17 Packers 45 Won