Green & Gold Express 1009

WOLF RIVER MEDIA WEEK 5 — PACKERS vs. RAMS

ALSO INSIDE: • Power Rankings • Seymour Column • Beat the Expert • Schedule • Standings

OCTOBER 9, 2015

RUN STOPPERSSmart, athletic linebacker play

allows line to do its job

SEE PAGE 2

PHOTO BY JIM LEUENBERGER

WOLF RIVER MEDIA2 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2015 GREEN & GOLD EXPRESS

Packers limit foes’ room to runMatthews key to success in stopping runsBy Paul ImigFor Green & Gold Express

It wasn’t pretty for the Packers’ run defense in Week 1. The 141-yard rush-ing performance by Chi-cago’s Matt Forte showed signs of Green Bay having many of the same problems that existed last season.

In the three games since then, however, the Packers have shut down some of the best running backs the NFL has to offer.

Against Seattle’s Mar-shawn Lynch, Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles and San Francisco’s Carlos Hyde, Green Bay allowed a total of 110 rushing yards in three games. Charles had the most success of that group with 49 yards and an average of 4.5 yards per carry. He also had three touchdowns, though two of them came late in the fourth quarter once the Packers had a commanding 24-point lead.

Lynch and Hyde couldn’t move the ball whatsoever. Lynch had a 2.7-yard aver-age. Hyde had a 2.5-yard average.

“We’re very, I don’t want to say satisfied, but we’re very pleased with our run defense — outside of Week 1, thus far,” nose tackle B.J. Raji said.

Don’t be fooled by the statistic of total rushing yards allowed and jump to a conclusion that Green Bay hasn’t been good at stop-

ping the run this season. Yes, the Packers rank 21st in the league in that category. However, those numbers include rushing yards from quarterbacks, and Green Bay did allow the NFL’s two most mobile quarterbacks, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick, to run for a com-bined 135 yards.

But with the excep-tion of Week 1 at Chicago, there is an unquestioned drastic uptick in the Pack-ers’ ability to contain top-

notch running backs.“It’s all about everybody’s

mindset this year,” defen-sive lineman Mike Pennel said. “We don’t want to be anything from last year. We learned from it.”

For Raji, the answer is fairly simple as to how Green Bay has turned it around. It’s all about the difference in who’s playing inside linebacker.

“Having Clay (Matthews) and Nate (Palmer) back there, they’re athletic,” Raji

said. “So I think upfront we feel like we can take more chances because they’re athletic enough and they’re sensible enough to play off of us. Whereas in the past, that wasn’t always the case.”

With Raji mentioning the past, that brings up A.J. Hawk and Brad Jones. Hawk was a nine-year starter on the Packers defense, and Jones started 36 games over the past six seasons. Hawk is now a member of the Cin-cinnati Bengals and Jones

is a Philadelphia Eagle after both were let go this offsea-son by general manager Ted Thompson.

Matthews was moved to inside linebacker during Green Bay’s midseason bye in 2014. And from that point, as Matthews teamed up with Sam Barrington, the Pack-ers became a significantly better defense against the run.

Palmer entered the start-

PHOTO BY JIM LEUENBERGER

Clay Matthews’ versatility from the inside linebacker position has allowed the defensive line to be more aggressive in attacking opposing offenses. The D will be tested by rookie running back Todd Gurley and the Rams this week.

SEE PACKERS, PAGE 3

Game VitalsGREEN BAY PACKERS (4-0) VS. ST. LOUIS RAMS (2-2)WHEN: 12 p.m. SundayWHERE: Lambeau FieldTV: FoxRADIO: 620 WTMJ, 92.3 WJMQ-FM, 101.1 WIXX-FM.

Locker Room“Their ability to create penetration really sets

the whole tone for their defense. It’s a big test for us.”

MIKE MCCARTHY, on the Rams’ defense that has

recorded 17 sacks this year

•••

•••The Series

All-time, regular season: 44-45-2All-time, postseason: 1-1All-time, at Lambeau Field: 28-19-0Streaks: The Packers have won each of the last four regular-sea-son meetings.Last meeting, regular season: Oct. 21, 2012; Packers won, 30-20, Edward Jones Dome

•••Schedule

Date Opponent Time TVSept. 13 at Chicago Win 31-23Sept. 20 Seattle Win 27-17Sept. 28 Kansas City Win 38-28Oct. 4 at San Francisco Win 17-3Oct. 11 St. Louis 12 p.m. CBSOct. 18 San Diego 3:25 p.m. CBSOct. 25 BYENov. 1 at Denver 7:30 p.m. NBCNov. 8 at Carolina 12 p.m. FoxNov. 15 Detroit 12 p.m. FoxNov. 22 at Minnesota 12 p.m. FoxNov. 26 Chicago 7:30 p.m. NBCDec. 3 at Detroit 7:25 p.m. CBS/NFLDec. 13 Dallas 3:25 p.m. FoxDec. 20 at Oakland 3:05 p.m. FoxDec. 27 at Arizona 3:25 p.m. FoxJan. 3 Minnesota 12 p.m. Fox

ON THE COVERGreen Bay Packers defensive lineman Mike Daniels tackles Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith during the Packers’ victory in Week 3. With improved linebacker play, the Packers have been able to get after quarterbacks more often.

1. New England Patri-ots (Record: 3-0; Previous Rank: 1)

The Patriots had a Week 4 bye, and they’re not going to lose the top spot without playing a game. New Eng-land scored 91 points in its past two games and will go to Dallas this weekend.

2. Green Bay Pack-ers (Record: 4-0; Previous Rank: 2)

Aaron Rodgers didn’t have a Michael Jordan-esque performance in San Francisco, and injuries on offense might have caught up with the Packers. Green Bay’s defense has contin-ued shutting down oppos-ing running backs, though.

3. Denver Broncos (Re-cord: 4-0; Previous Rank: 4)

Denver withstood a tough challenge from the Vikings in Week 4. The pass-rushing duo of Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware has been incredible, total-ing 30 QB hurries between them.

4. Arizona Cardinals (Record: 3-1; Previous Rank: 3)

Arizona dominated its first three games, win-ning by 77 points. Losing at home Week 4 against St. Louis is a step back, obvi-ously, but it was a close game (24-22 final), and the Rams are a good team.

5. Seattle Seahawks (Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 5)

Since getting Kam Chancellor back, the Se-ahawks have not allowed a defensive touchdown. Yes, those games were against the Bears and Lions (com-bined 1-7 record), but it’s still NFL competition that Seattle has completely shut down.

6. Atlanta Falcons (Re-

cord: 4-0; Previous Rank: 6)

The Falcons have scored 87 points in their last two games, includ-ing putting up five offen-sive touchdowns against a usually strong Texans defense. Julio Jones has been terrific, Matt Ryan has been consistently effi-cient (only two INTs so far) and Devonta Freeman has been a revelation.

7. Cincinnati Bengals (Record: 4-0; Previous Rank: 7)

The Bengals keep win-ning. In Week 4, they beat Kansas City, 36-21. Cincin-nati faces two very tough defensive challenges coming up in Seattle and Buffalo.

8. Carolina Panthers (Record: 4-0; Previous Rank: 10)

Carolina’s four wins have come against teams with a combined 4-12 re-cord, and the Panthers have only won those games by a total of 28 points. Af-ter a Week 5 bye, we’ll see how good Carolina really is when facing Seattle, Phila-delphia, Indianapolis and Green Bay in consecutive matchups.

9. St. Louis Rams (Re-cord: 2-2; Previous Rank: 15)

Beating previously un-defeated Arizona was a huge win for the Rams, especially doing so on the road. St. Louis has a great test at Lambeau Field this weekend.

10. Minnesota Vikings (Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 9)

The Vikings fought tough on the road at Den-ver in Week 4, only losing by two. Since the Week 1 clunker, Minnesota has been a good team.

11. Buffalo Bills (Re-cord: 2-2; Previous Rank: 8)

Buffalo has either been very good or quite bad. Perhaps that matches the personality of head coach Rex Ryan. After destroying the Dolphins in Miami, the Bills came home and lost to the Giants by 14.

12. New York Jets (Re-cord: 3-1; Previous Rank: 18)

Led by a strong defense, the Jets enter their bye week with a surprising 3-1 start.

13. Pittsburgh Steel-ers (Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 11)

The Steelers gave a Week 4 game away to the previously winless Ravens. Pittsburgh has to get by another few weeks without Ben Roethlisberger.

14. New York Giants (Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 13)

The Giants picked up an impressive Week 4 win at Buffalo. Their upcoming schedule isn’t very difficult, either.

15. Dallas Cowboys (Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 12)

The Cowboys are 0-2 since losing Tony Romo. Life won’t get any easier in Dallas this weekend against the Patriots. Fortunately for the Cowboys, they’re still first in the NFC East.

16. Kansas City Chiefs (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 14)

Somewhere, a very good Chiefs team is just wait-ing to show up. Kansas City’s three losses are to teams with a combined 12-0 record.

17. San Diego Char-gers (Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 19)

The Chargers have al-lowed more points than they’ve scored, and their two wins are against teams with a 1-7 record.

18. Indianapolis Colts

(Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 20)

The Colts won in over-time without Andrew Luck, but it was at home against Jacksonville. So …

19. Washington Red-skins (Record: 2-2; Previ-ous Rank: 21)

Washington continues to be surprisingly decent. Their point differential for the season is minus-1, but respectability is a good start for this team.

20. Oakland Raiders (Record: 2-2; Previous Rank: 16)

Oakland had a chance to start 3-1, but the Raid-ers couldn’t beat the pre-viously winless Bears in Chicago.

21. Tennessee Titans (Record: 1-2; Previous Rank: 22)

Tennessee had a Week 4 bye, but things are looking up for Marcus Mariota and a very good Titans defense.

22. Baltimore Ravens (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 25)

None of Baltimore’s three losses was by more than six points. Now the Ravens finally got their first win, one that arguably saved their season.

23. Philadelphia Ea-gles (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 17)

Room has certainly opened up on the Chip Kel-ly/Eagles bandwagon after another loss. Philadel-phia’s offense has mostly been terrible.

24. New Orleans Saints (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 29)

The Saints got a much-needed win to avoid drop-ping to 0-4. There’s still a lot of work to be done in New Orleans to support Drew Brees.

25. Detroit Lions (Re-cord: 0-4; Previous Rank: 26)

The Lions just can’t find a way to win. Still, all things considered, they’re a talented team that nearly went into Seattle and won.

26. Cleveland Browns (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 30)

The Browns have lost their past two games by a combined 10 points. So at least Cleveland has been competitive.

27. Jacksonville Jag-uars (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 23)

One week after losing to New England by 34 points, the Jaguars couldn’t find a way to beat the Luck-less Colts.

28. Houston Texans (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 27)

In Week 4, the Texans were trailing 42-0 to the Falcons entering the fourth quarter.

29. Chicago Bears (Re-cord: 1-3; Previous Rank: 32)

The Bears got out of the basement of the power rankings by getting their first win. No one is going to confuse Chicago for a good team, though.

30. Miami Dolphins (Record: 1-3; Previous Rank: 24)

Joe Philbin is out as head coach. Let’s see if he was really the problem.

31. Tampa Bay Bucca-neers (Record: 1-3; Previ-ous Rank: 28)

Tampa Bay hasn’t done much well yet this season. The Buccaneers scored just nine points against the previously winless Texans in Week 3.

32. San Francisco 49ers (Record: 1-3; Previ-ous Rank: 31)

San Francisco has lost its last three games by a score of 107-28, and there is little sign of things getting better soon.

NFL Power RankingsBy Paul ImigFor Green & Gold Express

WOLF RIVER MEDIA 3FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2015GREEN & GOLD EXPRESS

ing lineup after Week 1 this season once Barrington was placed on injured reserve.

“I like the guys that are behind me, Clay and Nate,” Raji said. “I feel like we can play more aggressive. We have countless conversa-tions with Clay, just about, ‘Hey, Clay, if this happens, do this.’ And Clay is just like, ‘Go ahead, do your thing, and I’ll play off of you.’ He’s athletic and he’s smart enough to be able to play off of me on the move, not necessarily putting us in a bind.

“I think any time you’re talking to defensive linemen, when your linebacker allows you to be aggressive, you’re going to love it.”

The Packers can’t get complacent yet. Their next challenge comes in the form of St. Louis Rams rookie run-ning back Todd Gurley. In his starting debut last week, Gurley ran for 146 yards on 19 carries (7.7 average). Gurley was the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft and was the first running back selected.

“He’s young, and his play style is very aggressive,” Raji said. “He likes to finish. The backs that we played previ-ously will help us as far as the type of talent that’s back there running the ball.”

Before Green Bay can get to its Week 7 bye, the Packers will then have to stop San Di-ego Chargers rookie running back Melvin Gordon. The for-mer Wisconsin Badgers star was drafted five spots after Gurley.

“I know we’re not satisfied at all,” Pennel said. “No one is content. No one’s compla-cent. We just want to keep that level, keep it going and playing at a high level as a defense, and hopefully it can translate to later in the season with playoffs and so forth.”

PACKERSFROM PAGE 3


Keys to the Game: Packers vs. RamsBy Green & Gold Express Staff

The Green Bay Packers are nine-point favorites for Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Rams at Lambeau Field. Here’s the breakdown.

When the Packers have the ballIt will be strength vs. strength when the

Packers have the ball.Green Bay ranks sixth in scoring, 10th in

total offense and third in rushing. While Aaron Rodgers and Eddie Lacy are tremendous tal-ents, the offensive linemen continue to be the unsung heroes.

“I think our offensive line has played ex-cellent,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I’ve said it here in the past: last year was the best offensive line we’ve had here in my time in Green Bay and this group here clearly has a chance to exceed that, and I think they’re off to a great start.”

On the other side of the ball, St. Louis’ de-fensive line might be the best in the NFL. The four starters, defensive ends Chris Long and Robert Quinn and defensive tackles Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers, entered the league as first-round picks.

Behind those four, the Rams have a league-high 162 sacks since Jeff Fisher took over as coach in 2012.

“I think they’ve got some premier pass rushers inside,” Rodgers said. “Most teams

have either great guys outside or guys that are going to move the pocket inside. This front four can all get after the passer. I remember watching film on Donald last year (before the teams’ preseason game) and I remember watching his first couple games and it was re-ally impressive and he just keeps on getting better. He had an incredible year last year and he’s an impact player inside. So is (Mi-chael) Brockers. That guy is a stud. He has been for a long time.”

If the Packers’ offensive line can hold up, Rodgers will attack a Rams defense that will be without standout linebacker Alec Ogletree — yet another former first-round pick. Middle linebacker James Laurinaitis has started 100 consecutive games and has recorded 100-plus tackles for six consecutive seasons. As with another former Ohio State standout, A.J. Hawk, he is vulnerable against the pass.

At cornerback, Janoris Jenkins is an ag-gressive ballhawk with five pick-sixes in his three-plus seasons. Trumaine Johnson is an imposing 6-foot-2. Nickel corner Lamarcus Joyner is on the other end of the measur-ing stick at 5-foot-8. He’s physical and a good blitzer but not great in coverage.

When the Rams have the ballThe Rams and Eagles swung a rare swap of

starting quarterbacks this offseason, with St. Louis dumping overpriced and often-injured Sam Bradford on Philadelphia in exchange

for Nick Foles. Foles had an incredible 2013 season with 27 touchdowns, two interceptions and a 119.2 rating. This season, he’s thrown five touchdowns with just one interception. That includes three touchdowns and no picks in last week’s win at Arizona.

“He hung in the pocket and made some tough throws and took some hits — which we don’t like, but it happens sometimes and he answered,” Fisher said. “He made the plays that we needed to make and of course the run game certainly helped us in the second half.”

The star of the show in Arizona was run-ning back Todd Gurley, the Rams’ first-round pick. He missed part of his final season at Georgia with a torn ACL and wasn’t un-leashed by the Rams until last week. He re-sponded by rushing for more than 100 yards in the fourth quarter alone.

“We drafted him to be the back of our fu-ture,” Fisher said. “We did not draft him to play and win the opener. We drafted him to be that guy that we can count on through years to come.”

The Rams have a young offensive line that includes rookie right tackle Rob Havenstein, a second-round pick out of Wisconsin. That group will be challenged against Green Bay’s quickly improving defense.

“I think it’s been the discipline and the fun-damentals, and the energy’s been excellent,” McCarthy said. “We’re getting off blocks. It starts up front. Our line has done a very good

job with the gap integrity and really the gap discipline, the penetration opportunities based on the scheme and so forth, and we’re doing a great job of rallying to the ball.

Because of the success against the run, Green Bay has 13 sacks the past two weeks and leads the NFL in sack percentage.

Special teamsGreen Bay has bottled up excellent re-

turners the last three weeks. It faces another challenge with Tavon Austin, who has a punt return of 75-plus yards in each of his three seasons, including a 75-yard touchdown in the Week 1 upset of Seattle. “This guy this week, whew, he’s another guy that’s a jitter-bug and can go the distance,” Packers special teams coordinator Ron Zook said. Fourth-year Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein is 6-for-6 on field goals this season and has 14 career field goals of 50-plus yards. Punter Johnny Hek-ker ranked fourth in the NFL in net average last season and has a 3.8-yard edge on Green Bay’s Tim Masthay this season.

CoachingMcCarthy and Fisher are 1-1 in their head-

to-head battles. Fisher, who led the Titans to a Super Bowl, ranks third among active coach-es and 13th all-time with 164 wins. McCarthy is two regular-season wins shy of 100 for his career.


Packers NotebookBy Green & Gold Express Staff

Packers haven’t gone deep yet

The Green Bay Packers have made plenty of big plays through the air to start this season.

They just haven’t made many big plays.

According to STATS, Green Bay ranks second in 25-yard pass-ing gains with 11. That stat, how-ever, camouflages one nagging issue with this year’s offense that quarterback Aaron Rodgers refer-enced shortly after dispatching the 49ers on Sunday: Without Jordy Nelson, the Packers lack a home-run threat in the passing game.

Last season, Nelson had five touchdowns of 60-plus yards. That was more than the total number of 60-yard passing plays by 30 of the 31 other teams. With Nelson, defenses had to be constantly wary of the long ball and had to play accordingly. Without Nel-son, defenses can focus more on the short and intermediate pass-ing game. The 49ers took that away to some extent last week, and it showed with Rodgers tak-ing three sacks and averaging a

season-low 7.0 yards per attempt.Aware of that trend, the Pack-

ers went deep on the opening play last week but rookie Ty Montgom-ery dropped a potential 80-yard touchdown.

“We know how to create big plays,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “Sometimes, you don’t always have to throw the ball 55 yards in the air to get that done, but that was definitely a shot play.”

The lack of a vertical deep threat shows in ProFootballFo-cus.com’s breakdown of Rodgers’ passes. Last season, he threw 69 passes at least 20 yards down the field. With 11 this year, he’s on pace for 44.

“We’ve still had some balls over the top but we just haven’t had kind of the ‘Jordy package,’” Rodgers said on Wednesday. “We haven’t found a guy to do some of that stuff yet but we’re making up for it by running the ball well — I think we’re in the top two or three running the ball — and the offensive line’s been blocking re-ally well. We’re just kind of doing things a little differently and it equals four wins.

Gurley manIn his first extensive playing

time since suffering a torn ACL at Georgia, Rams running back Todd Gurley turned in a remark-able performance in an upset vic-tory over previously undefeated Arizona.

Gurley rushed 19 times for 146 yards — with four runs of 20-plus yards and 106 yards in the fourth quarter alone. At 6-foot-1 and 227 pounds, he’s got a freakish combi-nation of size and speed that have elicited comparisons to Adrian Peterson.

He’ll be a huge challenge for a Packers defense that has domi-nated against the run the past three weeks by holding Marshawn Lynch, Jamaal Charles and Carlos Hyde to a combined 111 yards.

Quarterbacks playing smartTurnovers are the ultimate de-

terminer of who wins and loses most games. Just don’t expect those turnovers to come from the quarterbacks on Sunday.

Rodgers hasn’t thrown an in-terception in 123 attempts this season or in a remarkable 580 at-tempts at home dating to Dec. 12,

2012. His career interception rate of 1.58 percent is the best in NFL history.

Nick Foles has thrown one in-terception in 111 attempts this sea-son. His career interception rate is 1.79 percent would rank second if he had enough attempts to qualify.

Quarterbacks under siegeThe Packers and Rams are

tied for second in the NFL with 17 sacks. What’s perhaps more im-pressive is the balance, with both teams having five players with at least 2.0 sacks.

“That’s one of the things that’s happened by moving Clay (Mat-thews) inside, it’s giving those guys more playing time outside,” Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers said. “We’ve been trying to rotate them because we have confidence in all those guys out there and they’ve all produced. The more you play, the more op-portunities you get, the better you get. Here the last couple games, we’ve been able to work Clay a little bit (outside) like we planned on early on before we had the in-juries. We like that combination.”

Rams coach Jeff Fisher pointed to his personnel. Four of the five Rams with two-plus sacks entered the league as first-round picks, led by defensive tackle Aaron Donald (3.5) and defensive end Robert Quinn (3.0). The undersized but ultraquick Donald is one of the league’s premier defenders.

They will have a challenge get-ting to Rodgers though.

“He’s a mobile quarterback,” Donald said of Rodgers. “He can take off and run. He can move great in the pocket and he can throw on the run. Just keep him contained. Not letting him get too comfortable back there because, the type of quarterback he is, if he gets comfortable back there, it’s going to be a long day.”

Packers can run it, tooOne way the Packers have suc-

ceeded on offense without Nelson is by leaning on their running game. The Packers rank third in the NFL with 136.3 rushing yards per game. They haven’t finished a season ranked that high since 2003, when Ahman Green powered the third-ranked unit.


Rams enjoy breakout game from GurleyThe Associated Press

The Rams have been trying to get their run game going and have been waiting to see what first-round pick Todd Gurley can do.

They got both early in the fourth quarter on Sunday.

With the Rams clinging to a two-point lead, Gurley took a handoff, found a hole on the left side and then broke free for the open field. The stretch play went for 52 yards, deep into Cardinals territory and set up the deciding touchdown in a 24-22 win.

“Oh, man,” Gurley said. “Guys were just excited. I think we were winning at that point and got a good run. Things were just flowing for us, finally, especially as an offense be-cause we kept going three-and-out and three-and-out and the defense was holding us down. So it just felt good to be able to go out there and get a run or two.”

The Rams (2-2), who travel

to face the Packers (4-0) on Sunday, got a little too excited. Gurley’s teammates spent so much time celebrating the long run that they couldn’t get the next play off in time and had to take a delay of game penalty.

“We’ve been kind of strug-gling, throughout the first four games, with trying to establish the run and we finally bust a big one,” wide receiver Sted-man Bailey said.

“We’ve got Todd Gurley, who everybody’s been waiting to see play and he was one of the guys to come out and make a huge play for us when we needed it. Everybody kind of got really excited.”

Rams linebacker Daren Bates, who played against Gur-ley in college, said they knew what the running back was ca-pable of doing.

“We knew he got it, we knew all the things he could do and we were waiting on him for that one run or couple runs to finally go on a roll,” Bates said. “We finally saw it, it finally

got to happen, and we all got excited.”

Gurley proved to be well worth the wait.

Making his first start in just his second NFL game, Gurley rushed for 146 yards on 19 car-ries and added 15 yards on a pair of receptions.

The University of Georgia star, who had his junior sea-son a year ago end because of an ACL injury, also showed the maturity to fall down and keep the clock running at the end of a 30-yard run in the final minutes, effectively securing his team’s second win of the season.

“He’s learned the offense,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. “He knows exactly what to do. Learning hasn’t been a prob-lem. Workload has not been a problem. He’s done all of the extra things. He’s that com-plete back.

“That’s the reason we draft-ed him, because we knew he was like that. All of the infor-mation we got out of the Uni-

versity of Georgia was all true. This is the kind of young man that he is. He’s a real pro.”

The Rams said when they drafted Gurley they would take it slow with his rehabili-tation from his torn left ACL. He didn’t play in the preseason and was inactive the first two weeks of the regular season.

Now, following his break-out performance, he’s working to get better. He felt he could have broken more tackles. He’s focused on getting better at his leg drive, pass protection and reading his keys.

“Just getting better every week,” he said. “Focusing on the little things.”

Packers linebacker Clay Matthews said it looks as if Gurley is coming into his own after his knee injury and the rehabilitation.

“It looks as if now, unfortu-nately, he’s starting to become more comfortable and realizes what he can do and what he’s capable of even at the profes-sional level,” Matthews said.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

St. Louis Rams running back Todd Gurley tries to break a tackle against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in Arizona. Gurley rushed for 146 yards in his NFL start. He goes up against an improved Packers run defense this week.


With the first quarter of the NFL season in the books comes the inevitable discussion about which fast-starters are legit and which are pretenders.

We already know who was best in the first quar-ters of the first quarter. The Green Bay Packers, one of six unbeaten teams left – along with New Eng-land, Cincinnati, Denver, Carolina and Atlanta – are outscoring opponents 38-6 in the first 15 minutes of their games, best of anyone in the NFL.

Carolina and Atlanta have obviously been sur-prises, but as far as which team has impressed the most over the first four weeks, it’s hard to argue against the Packers.

They are getting top-level play from their of-fense, defense and special teams, and when they’re

not knocking out opponents with a first-quarter barrage, they’re making big plays at critical times.

On one of the bigger plays in Sunday’s 17-3 win over San Francisco, Nick Perry left Joe Staley with a slight case of windburn.

San Francisco trailed 7-0 in the second quarter but appeared to have found its offensive stride in driving to a first down at the Packers’ 5-yard line.

With the 49ers’ home

crowd feeling the momen-tum swing and voicing their approval, Perry turned the volume down at Levi’s Stadium.

On first down, the Pack-ers’ outside linebacker was practically untouched in flying past Staley, a four-time Pro Bowl tackle, and sacking quarterback Colin Kaepernick for a 10-yard loss.

On the next play it was Gerald Elliott sacking Kae-pernick again, leaving the 49ers with a third-and-goal at the 22.

Just like that, San Fran-cisco’s hard-fought momen-tum went poof. The “12th man” element, which the 49ers would need every bit of to make an upset run at the Packers, was gone.

San Francisco came away with a moral-victory field goal instead of a tying touchdown. The Niners also

came away with the under-standing that the Packers could stop them whenever they had to.

Perry had a second sack of Kaepernick early in the fourth quarter as part of a San Francisco three-and-out. For the Packers, who had seven sacks the week before, it was one of six sacks.

It might have been the Packers’ most impressive defensive performance of the season, holding San Francisco to eight first downs and 196 total yards.

Packers defensive back Sam Shields had another strong game, and made a big interception of a Kae-pernick pass intended for Anquan Boldin with about six minutes left.

Meanwhile, the more the offense continues to roll, the less we hear of Jordy Nelson. The Packers wide

receiver will be welcomed back with open arms next season after missing this year with knee surgery, but in his absence, wide receiv-ers Ty Montgomery, Ran-dall Cobb and James Jones have been very good. All three made great catches against San Francisco, with Jones’s being especially magnificent.

He deftly stayed in-bounds while reaching out to haul in a perfectly lobbed ball from Aaron Rodgers for a 38-yard gain that gave the Packers a first-and-goal that they converted three plays later on 1-yard plunge by fullback John Kuhn.

An indication of how re-markable the special teams have been this season came at the end of the first half, when Mason Crosby missed a 44-yard field goal wide left by about a foot.

The immediate reaction was surprise, almost confu-sion, because Crosby had been so automatic to that point that you wondered how all of a sudden some-thing went wrong.

Crosby gained redemp-tion late in the third quar-ter, scoring the last points of the game on a perfect 31-yarder, his seventh field goal in eight attempts this season.

No perfect season for Crosby, maybe, but the Packers will take what he’s brought so far. They’ll take 4-0, too. If there is anything more desirable than being a team that gains 500 yards every week, it’s being a team that plays well enough to win every week.

Veteran sportswriter Gary Sey-mour’s column appears weekly in the Leader. To contact him, send an email to [email protected].

Packers making all the right moves through 4 games

Gary Seymour




WRDavante AdamsJames Jones

LTDavid Bakhtiari Don Barclay

LGJosh Sitton Lane Taylor

CCorey LinsleyJC Tretter

RGT.J. Lang Josh Walker

RTBryan Bulaga Don Barclay FB

John Kuhn Aaron Ripkowski

WRRandall Cobb Ty Montgomery

QBAaron Rodgers Scott Tolzien

RBEddie Lacy James Starks

CBTrumaine JohnsonLamarcus Joyner

LOLBAlec OgletreeDaren Bates

SST.J. McDonaldMark Barron

LILBJames LaurinaitisBryce Hager

DTMichael BrockersEthan WestbrooksFS

Rodney McLeodCody Davis

CBJanoris JenkinsMarcus Robinson

RDERobert QuinnEugene Sims

ROLBAkeem AyersCameron Lynch

DTAaron DonaldNick Fairley

LDE Chris LongWilliam Hayes

TERichard Rodgers Kennard Backman

THE DEPTH CHARTPackers vs. Rams

WOLF RIVER MEDIA 11FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2015GREEN & GOLD EXPRESSRCBSam Shields Quinten Rollins

ROLBJulius Peppers Mike Neal

FSHa Ha Clinton-Dix Micah Hyde

SSMorgan Burnett Sean Richardson

MLBNate Palmer Jake Ryan

LOLBClay Matthews Nick Perry

DEMike Pennel Datone Jones

NOSEB.J. Raji Josh Boyd

DTMike Daniels Bruce Gaston

LCBCasey Hayward Damarious Randall

BLBJake RyanClay Matthews

LGJamon BrownGarrett Reynolds

LTGreg RobinsonDarrell Williams

RBTodd GurleyTre Mason

QBNick FolesCase Keenum

TEJared CookLance Kendricks

WRKenny BrittTavon Austin

FBCory Harkey

RGRodger SaffoldDemetrius Rhaney

CTim BarnesDemetrius Rhaney

RTRobert HavensteinAndrew Donnal

THE DEPTH CHARTPackers vs. Rams

WRBrian QuickStedman Bailey

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Around the NorthCHICAGO (1-3) at KANSAS CITY (1-3)Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, Fox

OPENING LINE — Chiefs by 9RECORD VS. SPREAD — Bears

1-3, Chiefs 1-3SERIES RECORD — Bears lead

6-5LAST MEETING — Chiefs beat

Bears 10-3, Dec. 4, 2011LAST WEEK — Bears beat Raid-

ers 22-20; Chiefs lost to Bengals 36-21

AP PRO32 RANKING — Bears No. 26, Chiefs No. 20

BEARS OFFENSE — Overall (26), Rush (11), Pass (29)

BEARS DEFENSE — Overall (7), Rush (24), Pass(4)

CHIEFS OFFENSE — Overall (14), Rush (15), Pass (13)

CHIEFS DEFENSE — Overall(29), Rush (14), Pass (28)

STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES — First trip for Bears to Arrowhead Stadium since Dec. 28, 2003, 31-3 loss. … K Robbie Gould hit winning 49-yard FG last week vs. Oakland with 2 seconds left. … Bears lost C Will Montgomery to broken leg last week. Matt Slauson or rookie Hro-niss Grasu expected to start against

Chiefs. … Bears QB Jay Cutler ex-pected to start second straight game after hamstring injury sidelined him for one week. Cutler needs five TD passes to pass Sid Luckman (137) for most in Bears history. … RB Matt Forte needs two TDs to pass Rick Casares (59) for third most in Bears history. Walter Payton (125) and Neal Anderson (71) have most. … Bears are fourth in NFL in pass defense (189.8 yards per game). … Chiefs QB Alex Smith has thrown for 1,110 yards, fourth most in AFC through four games. … Kansas City RB Jamaal Charles is fourth in NFL with 306 yards rushing. … K Cairo Santos set franchise record with seven FGs in last Sunday’s loss to Bengals. … Chiefs coach Andy Reid is 5-4 against Bears, 1-0 in postsea-son play, all with Philadelphia. … Kansas City is only team in NFL with three players with 20 or more recep-tions (Charles, Jeremy Maclin, Travis Kelce). … Kansas City has had 21 scoring drives of four plays or fewer, third most in NFL behind Cincinnati and Buffalo. … Fantasy Tip: Charles has had just 11 carries each of past two weeks, but he will face defense allowing nearly 120 yards rushing and more than 31 points per game.


Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler will look to direct his team to its second win of the season Sunday when the Bears play at Kansas City.


Jim Caldwell wants to turn his focus to Detroit’s next game — and he’s insist-ing his players do the same.

No more talk about the controversial ending in Monday night’s loss at Se-attle.

“I’m going to tell them not to talk about it,” Caldwell said Tuesday. “We can’t be hanging on something that happened a night ago that we can do nothing about.”

Caldwell says he doesn’t want the Lions to be dis-tracted by more discussion of Calvin Johnson’s fumble on Detroit’s final posses-sion Monday. The ball was knocked out of the back of the end zone by the Se-ahawks’ K.J. Wright. Rather than flag him for illegally batting the ball, officials ruled the play a touchback.

Caldwell said he spoke with NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino on Tuesday, but the Detroit coach would not go into detail about that conversation.

Lions players were not available to reporters Tues-day. Caldwell began his news conference by talk-ing a bit about the disputed play, but was unwilling to say much more about it.

“I don’t want it to linger. I don’t want our guys talking about it because it’s over and done with,” Caldwell said. “As we looked at it from the sideline, we saw Calvin with the ball in his hand. The ball comes out, and then I actu-ally saw the young man bat the ball out.”

Johnson fumbled just be-fore reaching the end zone, but Blandino told NFL Net-work that Wright should have been called for illegally

batting the loose ball, a pen-alty that would have given the ball back to Detroit at the Seattle 1-yard line.

“You can take that situa-tion and drag it out through the week where your play-ers are more focused in on that particular play than on the opposition that we have to face in just a few days,” Caldwell said.

“You can act, ‘Woe is me, that’s a bad call, that went against us,’ and look at all those kinds of things. That’ll distract you and you’ll get your ears kicked in come Sunday afternoon.”

The Lions (0-4) are the only winless team in the NFL, and they face an-other tough opponent this weekend when they host Arizona. The bad news con-tinues to mount for Detroit — Caldwell said defensive tackle Tyrunn Walker is out for the season with a dislo-cated ankle and broken leg.

Caldwell may not want his players to dwell on Monday night’s question-

able call, but it will be hard for Detroit fans to let this go. This is hardly the first

time the Lions have felt ag-

Lions try to look past controversial final play


Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson (81) has the ball knocked loose by Seattle Se-ahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor (31) in the second half of Detroit’s loss Monday in Seattle. The referees missed a call on the play that would’ve given the ball back to Detroit, which faces Arizona this week.

The Associated Press

Arizona is next for winless Detroit

SEE LIONS, PAGE 14

T.J. Clemmings had his hands full.

The Minnesota Vikings were in Denver, facing a loud crowd and a ferocious pass rush led by outside linebacker Von Miller. The rookie right tackle, not surprisingly, struggled at times with such a difficult assignment.

“There were some times T.J. blocked him, but the times he didn’t block him, that’s what shows up,” coach Mike Zimmer said.

Miller had only one of seven sacks the Broncos had on Teddy Bridgewater, but he was in the backfield all afternoon during the 23-20 victory on Sunday over the Vikings. Clemmings, more than once, was unable to keep Miller from wreak-ing havoc on a passing play.

“There’s a lot of good things that he does and when he’s good, he’s good,” Zimmer said. “He’s a young

guy that we’re going to have to keep grinding, with his making sure that every-thing is precise with him and continue to work with him some technically, but he continues to impress in some things. We’ve just got to keep going with him.”

Clemmings, who was thrust into action when stalwart Phil Loadholt tore his Achilles tendon and was lost for the season, has held his own for a raw fourth-round draft pick who was more of a basketball player in high school and started his college career at Pitts-burgh on defense.

But for the Vikings to keep Bridgewater healthy, let alone give him time to throw, Clemmings will have to be a lot better over the final three quarters of the season.

This offensive line is still the biggest question mark against the Vikings this season, though there have been clear improvements

since that rough season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

“I always have a lot of work to do. I’m four games in, so that’s four games for me to learn from, to move forward and to just get bet-ter,” Clemmings said. “I don’t look at how much time I’ve been playing the game. I just look at what I need to get better at, to be able to help the team and to just help myself as a player.”

No matter how the rest of his career plays out, Clem-mings will probably always look back at the game in Denver as one of the build-ing blocks, as humbling as it might have been.

“It was a good experi-ence. We went against two of the best pass rushers in the league,” Clemmings said. “It definitely helped me to learn a few things, learn a few things about myself and how I can just become better to play guys coming up in the season.”

Vikings endure growing painsThe Associated Press

grieved after a crucial call.In 2010, Detroit lost a

game at Chicago when

what initially looked like a game-winning touchdown catch by Johnson was ruled incomplete.

Johnson got both feet and a knee on the ground before putting the ball on

the grass and beginning to celebrate. It was ruled in-complete because he didn’t maintain possession of the ball throughout the entire process of the catch.

On Thanksgiving in 2012, Houston’s Justin Forsett scored on an 81-yard run against the Lions, even though replays clearly showed his knee and elbow touched the turf.

The play almost certainly would have been overturned by replay — all scoring plays are subject to review — but Detroit coach Jim Schwartz had thrown his challenge flag. Thanks to a quirk in the rules, that meant the origi-nal play actually couldn’t be reviewed and the touch-down stood.

Last season, Detroit lost a playoff game at Dal-las after officials reversed themselves, negating what was initially announced as a pass interference call on the Cowboys in the fourth quar-ter. Caldwell said after that game that it might be time to allow more plays to be re-viewed with instant replay.

LIONSFROM PAGE 13

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NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCENorth DivisionTeam W L TGreen Bay 4 0 0Minnesota 2 2 0Chicago 1 3 0Detroit 0 4 0East DivisionTeam W L TDallas 2 2 0N.Y. Giants 2 2 0Washington 2 2 0Philadelphia 1 3 0South DivisionTeam W L TCarolina 4 0 0Atlanta 4 0 0Tampa Bay 1 3 0New Orleans 1 3 0West DivisionTeam W L TArizona 3 1 0St. Louis 2 2 0Seattle 2 2 0San Francisco 1 3 0

AMERICAN FOOTBALL CONFERENCENorth DivisionTeam W L TCincinnati 4 0 0Pittsburgh 2 2 0Baltimore 1 3 0Cleveland 1 3 0East DivisionTeam W L TNew England 3 0 0N.Y. Jets 3 1 0Buffalo 2 2 0Miami 1 3 0South DivisionTeam W L TIndianapolis 2 2 0Tennessee 1 2 0Houston 1 3 0Jacksonville 1 3 0West DivisionTeam W L TDenver 4 0 0Oakland 2 2 0San Diego 2 2 0Kansas City 1 3 0


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NFL Stat LeadersINTERCEPTIONS1. Norman · CAR 42. Lowery · IND 22. Talib · DEN 22. M. Peters · KC 22. Mathieu · ARI 22. Darby · BUF 22. P. Brown · BUF 22. Quin · DET 22. Ji. Smith · BAL 22. Thurmond · PHI 2

SACKS1. Ware · DEN 4.52. Ansah · DET 4.02. Ja. Smith · TB 4.02. J. Watt · HOU 4.05. Jam. Collins · NE 3.55. Donald · STL 3.55. C. Dunlap · CIN 3.55. Peppers · GB 3.55. Tuitt · PIT 3.55. Wilkerson · NYJ 3.5

SCORING NONKICKERSPoints1. D. Freeman · ATL 422. Je. Hill · CIN 323. T. Benjamin · CLE 303. J. Charles · KC 303. Fitzgerald · ARI 306. T. Austin · STL 246. Cobb · GB 246. Gronkowski · NE 246. Da. Johnson · ARI 24

6. Jam. Jones · GB 24

SCORING KICKERSPoints1. Tucker · BAL 392. Jos. Brown · NYG 382. Catanzaro · ARI 382. Santos · KC 385. Hauschka · SEA 375. McManus · DEN 377. Gano · CAR 368. Gostkowski · NE 359. M. Bryant · ATL 339. Crosby · GB 33

LEADING PASSERSRating1. A. Rodgers · GB 125.92. Dalton · CIN 123.03. Brady · NE 119.64. Roethlisberger · PIT 113.15. Mariota · TEN 109.26. Weeden · DAL 108.87. C. Palmer · ARI 106.48. Rivers · SD 105.39. T. Taylor · BUF 104.410. M. Ryan · ATL 101.2

LEADING RECEIVERSYards1. An. Brown · PIT 4781. Ju. Jones · ATL 4783. Fitzgerald · ARI 4324. A. Green · CIN 417

5. De. Hopkins · HOU 4096. B. Marshall · NYJ 4007. Maclin · KC 3988. K. Allen · SD 3879. Smith Sr. · BAL 37310. Dem. Thomas · DEN 361

LEADING RUSHERSYards1. A. Peterson · MIN 3722. Forte · CHI 3673. Ivory · NYJ 3144. J. Charles · KC 3065. Chr. Johnson · ARI 3026. Bernard · CIN 2976. L. Murray · OAK 2978. C. Hyde · SF 2829. D. Martin · TB 28210. Forsett · BAL 274

YARDS FROM SCRIMMAGETotal1. Forte · CHI 5002. An. Brown · PIT 4782. Ju. Jones · ATL 4784. A. Peterson · MIN 4645. J. Charles · KC 4576. D. Freeman · ATL 4487. Fitzgerald · ARI 4328. A. Green · CIN 4179. De. Hopkins · HOU 40910. Ma. Ingram · NO 407

Sunday, Oct. 11Chicago at Kansas City, 1 p.m.St. Louis at Green Bay, 1 p.m.Buffalo at Tennessee, 1 p.m.Seattle at Cincinnati, 1 p.m.Washington at Atlanta, 1 p.m.Jacksonville at Tampa Bay, 1 p.m.New Orleans at Philadelphia, 1 p.m.Cleveland at Baltimore, 1 p.m.

Arizona at Detroit, 4:05 p.m.Denver at Oakland, 4:25 p.m.New England at Dallas, 4:25 p.m.San Francisco at N.Y. Giants, 8:30 p.m.Monday, Oct. 12Pittsburgh at San Diego, 8:30 p.m.(Byes: Carolina, Miami, Minnesota, N.Y. Jets)

NFL Standings & Schedule

PackersWR Davante Adams, ankleT Bryan Bulaga, kneeS Morgan Burnett, calfWR Randall Cobb, shoulderLB Jayrone Elliott, quadricepCB Demetri Goodson, hamstringWR James Jones, hamstring

LB Clay Matthews, quadricepLB Jake Ryan, hamstringRamsS Maurice Alexander, groinLB Alec Ogletree, ankleRB Chase Reynolds, kneeDE Eugene Sims, knee

Injury Report

PASSING ATT COM PCT YARDS TDA. Rodgers 123 89 72.4 995 11RUSHING ATT YARDS AVG LONG TDLacy 50 230 4.6 16 1J. Starks 48 157 3.3 35 0A. Rodgers 19 107 5.6 17 0A. Harris 2 17 8.5 16 0Cobb 1 12 12.0 12 0R. Rodgers 1 11 11.0 11 0Montgomery 2 10 5.0 9 0J. Kuhn 1 1 1.0 1 1RECEIVING NO. YARDS AVG LONG TDCobb 25 289 11.6 29 4Jam. Jones 17 317 18.6 52 4R. Rodgers 13 110 8.5 20 2D. Adams 9 92 10.2 25 0Montgomery 9 66 7.3 17 1J. Starks 7 41 5.9 19 0Lacy 6 58 9.7 26 0Quarless 2 14 7.0 7 0INTERCEPTIONS NO. YARDS AVG TDShields 2 15 7.5 0

Elliott 1 2 2.0 0Cl. Matthews 1 42 42.0 0SACKS NO.Peppers 3.5Cl. Matthews 3.0N. Perry 3.0M. Daniels 2.5Elliott 2.0Neal 1.5J. Thomas 1.0Raji 0.5PUNTING NO. YARDS AVGMasthay 16 686 42.9PUNT RETURNS NO. AVG LONG TDM. Hyde 7 6.3 13 0KICKOFF RETURNS NO. AVG LONG TDT. Montgomery 6 31.5 46 0Ripkowski 1 0.0 0 0SCORE BY QUARTERS 1 2 3 4 TOTPackers 38 16 27 32 113Opponents 6 20 24 21 71

Packers Stats


Documents

Green & Gold Express 1009