With rookie Q Ryan leading the Falcons offense against a struggling Packers defense, the Falcons beat the Packers 27-24.

Using a game plan that took advantage of continuing Packers’ weaknesses and executed a strong running game, the Bucs beat the struggling Packers 30-21.

The theme for 2008 continues to be injuries.

Using a well-executed running game, an effective passing game, and a dominating defense, the Cowboys overpowered the Packers 26-17.

QB Rodgers threw three touchdowns, RB Jackson ran for one touchdown, and the defense got two crucial interceptions for returned touchdowns to beat the Lions 48-25.

QB Rodgers threw one touchdown & ran for another touchdown, RB Grant rushed for 92 yards, & KR Blackmon got a touchdown punt return leading a Packers’ team effort over the Vikings 24-19.

With the 2008 NFL season approaching, the Packers released 19 players to reach the 53 players roster limit. The released players included RB Herron, RB Morency, WR Smith, WR Allen, WR Swain, WR Quinn, FB White, TE Haynos, CB Porter, CB Babers, S Culver, LB Havner, LB Lansanah, G Keenan, C Carvalho, T Thompson, DT Bolston, DT Muir, DT Malone. Next, the team signed LS Goode and P Frost. Then, they released P Ryan and LB Hodge.

The Packers had an overall good draft taking the best players available, addressing specific needs, and building quality depth at skilled positions to create competition for 2008 team.

With the coming 2008 NFL draft and an exciting new 2008 Packer season, it's time to take a preliminary look ahead at the Packers' draft needs and what the mock drafts say about it. The Pack have eight picks including two each in the second and fourth rounds. Overall, the Packers have three picks in the top 60 and six in the top 135.

Holy Ghost Lois Lane! GM Ted Thompson signed unrestricted free agent LB Brandon Chillar away from the St. Louis Rams. The Packers got much needed depth at LB.

With legendary Favre's official retirement, the Packers look forward to the 2008 season during Fan Fest. All pro wide receiver Donald Driver said it best: "...You have to move on."

Legendary future Hall of Famer QB Bret Favre is retiring after 17 years leading the Packers in a new era of glory and championships.

Q Favre's interception leads to a field goal in 23-20 OT upset playoff loss to the "underdog" Giants. News briefs & report cards.

Let's go straight to the links...

No more Dallas, Seattle, Washington or Tampa Bay. Just the Pack and Giants. Which team will reign supreme in the NFC?

Q Favre threw 3 touchdowns & RB Grant rushed for 201 yards & 3 touchdowns to lead the Packers over the Seahawks 42-10. The defense dominated the game limiting the Seahawks to 200 total yards.

In our divisional playoff home game against the Seahawks, the Packers are favored by eight points with some very good previews & predictions.

In the NFL annual awards, Packers coach Mike McCarthy was named Coach of the Year and Q Favre was named Mr. Remarkable & Comeback Player of the Year..

In the latest NFL Power Rankings, the Packers are ranked 3rd, 4th or 5th.

Q Favre threw 2 touchdowns & rookie RB Jackson rushed for 113 yards leading the Packers to an easy win over the toothless Lions. The defense forced two passing interceptions & allowed only 47 rushing yards.

With the loss to the Bears, the Packers dropped in rankings to 4th or 5th in the NFL Power Rankings.

The Packers were outplayed in all phases of the game, offense, special teams, & defense, losing to the spoilers archrival Bears in tough weather conditions. The Bears blocked two punts & had two interceptions leading to four scoring touchdowns

ESPN's Bill Simmons daydreams about a potential Pack-Pats Superbowl rematch.

With the easy win against the Rams, the Packers are ranked 3rd or 4th in the NFL Power Rankings.

Favre threw for 227 yards & two touchdowns to help the Pack rout the Rams 33-14 & to clinch a 1st round playoff bye. Favre overtook Marino to become the NFL career pass yards leader. Outstanding performances by the special teams helped to win the game.

Around the links before the Rams game.

Here is the NFC playoff situation as of the start of week 15.

After the dominating win against Oakland,the Packers are still ranked 3rd and 4th.

The Packers used a balanced offensive, defensive, & special teams performance to beat the Raiders 38-7 & to win the NFC North Division title. Q Favre threw 2 touchdown passes, RB Grant ran for 156 yards & 1 touchdown, & CB Blackmon had two special teams’ touchdowns.

In the NFL Power Rankings, with the ugly tough loss to Dallas last week, the Packers are now generally ranked 4th.

Injury update on Favre, Woodson, KGB and even Rodgers.

Sports Illustrated named the 2007 Sportsman of the Year: Packer quarterback Brett Favre. The award is a first for the iconic Favre with only four quarterbacks ever to receive the award in its history.

Former Redskins Pro Bowler Mark Murphy will replace Bob Harlan as the Packers President and CEO.

The Cowboys held off the Packers with a late 4th quarter touchdown drive to win 37-27. After a rattled & injured Q Favre left the game, Q Rodgers rallied the Packers back into the game completing 18 passes for 201 yards & 1 touchdown.

This just in...

The NFL Network vs. your local cable company.

Before Thursday’s big NFC showdown between the Packers vs Dallas previewing the probable NFC title game, the Packers are generally ranked 2nd or 3rd with minipreviews of showdown:

Game prep reading for Thursday's NFC match-up.

Two polls this week. The Pack face the 'Boys on Thursday night to decide the NFC and it's on the NFL network. Who will win? And can you watch?

Favre's 3 touchdowns carved up the Lions in a brutal 37-26 Packers win. Iconic Favre got two new records: 63 three touchdown games (NFL record) and 20 straight completions (team record). RB Grant had a solid game rushing for 101 yards. The Pack are 10-1.

In the NFL Power Rankings Week 12, the Packers are generally ranked at 2nd or 3rd.

Given the short week, and Thanksgiving travel, look to this space next week for an expanded examination of this week's thwomping of Carolina and (hoped) thwomping of Detroit. Happy Thanksgiving! Make sure to give thanks for McCarthy tomorrow...

Favre threw three touchdowns leading the Packers to an easy 31-17 win over the Panthers. In another milestone, Favre tied Marino with sixty-two 3 touchdowns games.

Leader of the Pack Q Favre tops Manning, Brady, Romo, and others in the NFL balloting for the 2008 Pro Bowl.

With the emergence of RB Grant, the Packers see similarities of Grant's running style to the Packer great RB Dorsey Levens. Levens says, "It's kind of eerie"

620AM in Milwaukee wants to find the guy who

In the NFL Power Rankings Week 11, the Packers are ranked from 2nd to 5th after the Patriots.

With balanced offensive & defensive performances, the Packers shut out the Vikings 34-0 going 8-1. Supported by an improving running game & by a dominating defense, Q Favre completed 33 of 46 passes for 351 yards with 3 touchdowns.

In the NFL midseason reviews, awards, and predictions, the Packers get high marks, are picked to win the North Division, & are predicted to play in the NFC title game. DT Williams is most improved NFL player. Coach McCarthy is Coach of the year.

We here at the watch are still recovering from our pumpkin stabbing disaster of last week. Getting much better thanks! However, we are still experiencing typing pain so we're going to be straightforward, shorter, and bit more to the point this week. Fortunately, things are going reasonably well in Packerland these days and so a ton of commentary is unneeded. A couple keys points that need to be addressed however...

In week 10 of the NFL Power Rankings, the Packers are ranked from 3rd to 5th in the sports polls, after the Patriots & Colts.

Post-game links after Sunday's win in KC.

Using offensive and defensive big plays, the Packers rallied to beat the Chiefs 33-22. After a shaky first half with 2 interceptions & 2 fumbles, Favre rebounded to complete 24 passes for 360 yards with two big touchdown passes to WR Jennings. While Favre led the offense to his 40th career 4th quarter comeback victory, the defense got five sacks & two crucial interceptions leading to touchdowns.

Jennings: "This is a game of inches".

QB Favre threw two thunderbolts, touchdown bombs, to lead the Packers to a 19-13 overtime win over the Broncos. Favre completed 21 of 27 passes for 331 yards & two touchdowns. Favre's second dramatic touchdown bomb in overtime hit WR Jennings....

Packers blew the lead but pull out a win in OT on a 82 yard bomb from Farve to Jennings.

In the coming weeks, the Packers will face opponents using a version f the tough Cover 2 defense. As far as the Denver Broncos, former Pack defensive coordinator Jim Bates installed our bump-and-run scheme. Our NFC North rivals run a version of the Cover-2 defense, including several opposing teams on our schedule: Kansas City, Carolina and St. Louis. The best offensive weapon...

The Packers defense forced three turnovers, including a big play by CB Woodson to recover a forced fumble for a defensive touchdown, to outlast the Redskins 17-14 in a wet cold day game. After a sluggish start, the defense took over in the second half shutting down the Redskins to preserve the victory. The Packers offense struggled throughout the game....

The Packers committed five crucial turnovers and twelve costly penalties that the Chicago Bears capitalized upon for a 27-20 come-from-behind victory in a prime time Sunday night home game. Q Favre completed 29 passes for 322 yards with one touchdown and one costly interception. The Packers did establish a good running game rushing for 121 yards with a net of 5.5 per yards. The loss dropped the Packers from the ranks of the unbeaten to 4-1.

Setting several NFL records, Q Favre lead the unbeaten Packers to a tough 23-16 victory in the Vikings Metrodome. Favre completed 32 of 45 passes for 344 yards using a ball control passing game with 2 touchdowns, & no interceptions. Favre set a new NFL record of 422 touchdown passes. The Pack is 4-0.

The Packers resigned wide receiver Shaun Bodiford. They released WR Francies & signed him to the practice squad. WR Bodiford provides better multi-skills at wide receiver, kick returner, & special teams. Good move!

The Green Bay Packers vs San Diego Chargers exciting game will be replayed with highlights on the NFL Network at these times: Tuesday at 7:00-8:30 p.m & Wednesday at noon-1:30 p.m.

The Packers are 3-0. The Cowboys are 3-0. The 49ers are 2-1. And Farve is lighting it up.

Brett Favre rallied the Packers in the final minutes against the Chargers completing a 57 yard TD pass to lead the Packers in a 31-24 victory over the Chargers. Vintage Favre's 38th career comeback victory climaxed with a clutch TD pass to WR Jennings. Favre's 420th touchdown pass to Jennings tied Marino's NFL record. The Packers are 3-0 undefeated in the 2007 NFL season.

Packers surprise Chargers, 31-24, as Favre ties Marino for most TDs ever.

Headlines, Quotes, & Report Card from your Packer Backer John C. Redfern.

QB Favre had a near flawless day leading the Packers to a 35-13 win over the Giants. Favre went 29-for-38 for 286 yards with three touchdown passes. Favre riddled the Giants' passing defense with short passes to set up crucial scoring plays in the red zone. The 149th win of legendary QB Favre’s 17-year career is a new NFL record.

News wires reported that Packers linebacker Nick Barnett will be charged with two misdemeanors counts of disorderly conduct in altercations at the Wet Night Club in Appleton, WI.

On Sunday, rookie K Crosby's 42-yard field goal in the last seconds of the game gave the Packers a 16-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

With the Philly home opener on Sunday, the predictable Pack previews are out with the keys to a successful season.

Today, the Packers reduced the roster to the NFL mandated 53 players by placing 20 players on waivers, trading for running back Grant, and putting 3 players on injured reserve....

On Thursday, the Packers finished the preseason with a 30-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans finishing the preseason at 2-2. The Titans won because they played starters against our reserves into the 3rd quarter. Like in the third game, the starters looked good leaving with a lead, but our reserves looked not so good against their starters losing the game....

Today Packers GM Thompson announced the release of 11 players. The players are quarterback Ingle Martin, center C.J. Blomvall, wide receiver Carlton Brewster, fullback Erryn Cobb, punter Ryan Dougherty, defensive end DeVon Hicks, cornerback Antonio Malone, guard Pat Murray, running back P.J. Pope, linebacker Juwan Simpson and tight end Joe Werner.

After the anemic running game performance in two of the three preseason games, the questions linger about how improved is the offensive line & how well are their adjustments to the zone blocking system for a successful 2007 NFL season. The reviews of the Jaguars game were brutal exposing whiffed blocking assignments & failed cut blocking assignments with blame for everybody.

In the first half, the Pack had strong performances from the offense, defense, and special teams to lead 10-0. In the second half, with the Packers reserves playing poorly, the Jaguars reserves rallied to win the game 21-3. Overall, the Pack had positive indicators, especially the dominating 1st team defense, QBs Favre & Rodgers, and most rookies. Rookie RB Jackson struggled running the ball with few holes, but he scored on a 1 yard TD run and caught 4 catches for 23 yards. Rookie WR Jones shined with six passes for 80 yards. TE Franks had two big catches.

Game summaries and notes from Thursday's game vs. the Jaguars.

Rich Eisen interviewed Brett Favre on the NFL network last Monday. Most of the interview was about the pre-season games. http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d8019f8f0

Now that the BrewCrew seems to be out of a playoff shot (yes, we know they're still in it), we can get back to a PBB tradition of the semi-daily links.

For the first 2007 preseason game, the Packers did okay with the positives outweighing the negatives in a 13-9 win. Packer great Johnnie Gray said it best: "The Pack did okay...took the first step toward being a much better team than many have predicted...."

The training camp reviews indicate the "immediate impact" progress of the drafted rookies is generally good news.