The Best and the Wurst is a weekly series wherein I highlight just a few of the things that stuck out to me in last week’s game.  They are not only or merely the best or wurst players overall, but are merely observations from the game.  Sometimes the considerations aren’t even players at all, but play calls, incidents, or various nonsense.

 

 

 

The Best

David Bakhtiari:  This was probably Bakhtiari’s best game on the season thus far.  On Aaron Rodgers’ beautiful 9 yard TD pass to Richard Rodgers in the first quarter, Bakhtiari showed his athleticism, keeping Aaron Lynch out of the play.  Bakhtiari is not the strongest tackle in the league, but when he’s on top of his game, he’s very effective.   In looking back over some of the tape, it doesn’t look like Bakhtiari gave up more than, say, one disruption, and he looked good in run blocking as well.  Barclay looked very good at times (especially in the play below where Ahmad Brooks can barely get him to budge), but his play dropped as the game went on.

Richard Rodgers:  He’s never going to be a Vernon Davis or a Rob Gronkowski, but in just his second year, the other Rodgers from Cal is outperforming everyone’s expectations.  With 45 receiving yards and a TD, Rodgers is becoming one of the more reliable players on the offensive side of the ball.  He’s not amazingly fast or strong, but he’s been showing a tenacity that helps him shake off coverage and get open as well as great hands in bringing in the catch.  There’s no doubt that Rodgers has already cemented himself as a cornerstone of this offense.

Nick Perry:  Perry is finally showing us some glimpses of why the Packers took him as their first round draft choice 3 years ago.  Perry picked up two sacks on Colin Kaepernick, including this nice play below.  This is the type of play that would have gone for 10+ yards in previous meetings with the Niners.

Dom Capers & Defense:  The whole defensive unit deserves a pat on the back for finally getting the Kaepernick monkey off their back.  In the Packers’ 3 matchups with Kaepernick as the starting QB for the Niners they’ve given up a whopping average of 484.7 yards and 34 points to San Francisco.  Yesterday they held the Niners to just 196 yards and 3 points.  This defense is really starting to gain some momentum.  They don’t have to be a top 5 defense to make the Packers very scary come December and January.  This is certainly the best that they’ve looked since 2010.

 

the wurst 3

Don Barclay:  It wasn’t the best outing for the offense as a unit, but Don Barclay stunk up Levi Stadium enough to take this sausage home on his own.  Rodgers was sacked 3 times against the Niners, all 3 of which were given up by Barclay (and linked below).  Also featured is what would have been a 4th sack given up by Barclay had it not been wiped out by a pass interference call.  Tom Clements and Mike McCarthy need to get Barclay some help on the right side especially with the St. Louis Rams and Chris Long coming to Lambeau next Sunday.  Barclay performing like this against Long and maybe the best pass rushing defensive line in football could get someone killed.

——————

Taylor O\'Neill is a Packer fan born and raised in Oshkosh, WI. He currently lives in Florida and is pursuing his PhD. Taylor is a writer with PackersTalk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @TaylorONeill87 for more Packer news.

——————