With the season now underway, and the Packers at 1-0, it’s time to look at what went well in that win over the Seahawks. And to do that, we’re going to take from another sport: hockey.
After each hockey game, the home team announces their “Three Stars” of the game, who then come out, wave, and usually give some sort of souvenir to a kid in the stands. Without the giveaway, let’s do the same here for the Packers 17-9 win over the Seahawks.
3rd Star: Nick Perry
Perry was absolutely dominant in the first few series on defense, racking up a sack, numerous pressures and thoroughly embarrassing Seattle’s left tackle over and over again. And while his production may have been quiet in the second half comparatively, there’s a reason. After that first series, we could see Darrell Bevell move his blocking schemes to slow down Perry. He was consistently double-teamed and chipped by running backs and tight ends. Yet he still got to Wilson in the third quarter with Mike Daniels while the Seahawks were backed up on their own goal line. He ended up with 1.5 sacks on the game, and is looking like a very good investment this past offseason.
2nd Star: Randall Cobb
Cobb sought to make sure that teams hadn’t forgotten about him when he stepped onto Lambeau Field Sunday afternoon, and he succeeded. Consistently matched up with Seattle’s third (or fourth) corner throughout the game, Cobb was able to get open it seemed at will and was the key to Aaron Rodgers finding his rhythm as the game went on. A valuable safety net on the intermediate crossing and out routes, Randall ended up with 9 catches for 85 yards. It also should be said that even when he didn’t see the ball, his success in the early portions of the game made the linebackers for Seattle play off the line a little bit more in the fourth quarter, opening up some running lanes for Ty Montgomery to salt the game away.
1st Star: Mike Daniels
The most obvious decision I will have to make this week, Mike Daniels was, using the old cliche, a man among boys Sunday afternoon. He simply could not be moved, and in most snaps was the one moving the Seattle offense backwards. Usually it was a guard and a tackle on him, but he still was able to bull rush with reckless abandon. But it wasn’t just his consistent dominance that gives him the first star. His takeover on the drive early in the third quarter swung the game completely. Sharing a sack with Nick Perry on first down, he then blew by former #2 overall pick Luke Joeckel to strip Russell Wilson at the Seattle 6 yard line. Fackrell recovered, Ty Montgomery scored one play layer an the Packers never trailed again. This was a performance not seen in Green Bay since the mid-1990s by some guy named Reggie White. Packer fans have long known that Mike Daniels is an All-Pro caliber player, and he played an All-Pro game against the Seahawks.
Who do you guys think should have been the three stars from the Packers win? Let us know in the comments or feel free to tweet at me as well.
——————Mike Wendlandt is originally from Iola, Wisconsin and graduated from Drake University in 2015 with a degree in History. With a significant journalism background both in writing and broadcasting, Mike can be heard as the play-by-play voice of Central Wisconsin High School sports on WDUX FM 92.7 and on Twitter @MikeWendlandt.
Mike Wendlandt is a writer covering the Green Bay Packers for PackersTalk.com.
——————
