Packers defeat Browns 17-11 in Preseason Game #1

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On a night in which Jared Cook made his Packers debut, it was the team’s two young tight ends that had Lambeau Field buzzing during Friday’s preseason opener against the Browns.
Justin Perillo and Kennard Backman , competing for the Packers’ No. 3 tight end job, combined for eight catches for 80 yards in a 17-11 win over Cleveland.
The two tight ends, who were Green Bay’s two leading receivers, each played a pivotal role in the offense’s 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive before halftime.
Late in the series, Perillo and Backman grabbed three consecutive catches for 38 yards to help set up rookie quarterback Joe Callahan ’s 2-yard touchdown pass to running back John Crockett , allowing the Packers to take a 10-5 lead into halftime.
If you factor in Cook and Casey Pierce , the Packers’ tight ends finished the night with 11 catches for 96 yards – roughly half of the passing game’s production.
“It was great to see all the tight ends do well,” said Perillo, who led the offense with five catches for 52 yards. “We had Rich (Rodgers) and Cook start off great for us. Making plays, making good plays. We had K.B. come in and make some plays for us.”
Perillo has 11 catches for 102 yards and a touchdown in 11 regular-season games over the past two seasons, but he’s still looking to make the 53-man roster for the first time out of training camp.
The 6-foot-3, 250-pound tight end is off to a good start. He’s been active in team periods during practice and caught almost everything that’s come his way in camp.

Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy talked this offseason about the offense needing its tight ends to make more plays in the middle of the field.
Perillo did just that on his first of five catches, grabbing a pass across the middle of the field for 18 yards that seemed to get the offense going.
“I’m just going out there doing my job,” said Perillo with a smile. “Just trying to do it the best that I can. I still have things I need to work on, too. I have to work on my blocking and still work on my pass-catching, too.”
Backman started last season on the active roster, but was inactive in 10 of the Packers’ 18 games (including playoffs). Prior to Friday, his last catch came in the Packers’ preseason finale against New Orleans on Sept. 3, 2015.
On the heels of Perillo’s back-to-back catches, Backman made his biggest play in extending a quick pass from Callahan into an 18-yard gain in the middle of the field.

Backman finished the day with three catches for 38 yards.
“It’s something that’s built into the play,” Callahan said. “It’s an option for me. Aaron (Rodgers) does a great job with the run-solution throws, and it’s something we practice all the time. It worked out like it was supposed to.”
Perillo said he’s taken a lot away from both Cook and Rodgers, who entered the league with Perillo in 2014.
“I’m motivated every year,” Perillo said. “Just have to take it one day at a time. I’ve been here for two years. You just have to keep working hard.”

Read more: http://www.packers.com/news-and-eve...ebc-d8a8-4020-94a3-77ec5c2434ba#ixzz4HDNVZ6bS
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Justin Perillo looked good. Led all receivers with 5 catches for 52 yards.
 
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Really hard to see the progression of the WR core starting with Callahan.
I think the most impressive player on the field tonight was Justin Perillo. Cook looked good too, and Callahan was willing to force him the ball in like triple coverage. Honestly tight end just looked better all around.
Really liked Burks at running back. I think that his running style fits what you want in our playbook. On the other hand Ross looked awful.

Defensively I was hoping to see more of Martinez. He had a chance to make a play for a gain of 2 and missed the tackle, and that was really all I saw of him. Joe Thomas thumped someone. Randle got absolutely roasted by Pryor, and the pick was (in my opinion) due to Barnidge making a soft cut and allowing himself to be covered. I think RG3 actually looked pretty good for a guy without an NFL snap in a year.
Looking forward to seeing what the receivers can do with Rodgers and Hundley playing.
 
Martinez did get some pressure and a nice hit on Griffin. Other than that nothing spectacular.

TE's played well. Perillo just always seems to make plays. Cook looked good in limited action.

WR's- I liked Davis's hands. He looks the part. No other WR's stood out.

DL- Still very worried about what they will do in the regular season. They gave up some big runs last night.

First preseason game so everything was pretty, meh. Overall, I think the young guys got some good work in and it does not seem like there were any injuries.
 
oh and I thought Spriggs did well. I know it was 2nd and 3rd stringers but he definitely has the arm length and the feet to play LT, IMO.
 
thumbsup

Perillo - was all over the place esp. with Callahan at QB

Backman - I must have his number wrong because I thought he caught more than 2 balls. Both 3rd stringers looked better than last year.

Lacy - looked tough and quicker. Does not look lean in his uni, but the team and his trainer seem to think he has kept the weight off

Callahan - nice 2 minute drive

Williams - it wasn't always pretty, but with his arm and legs, he might be the emergency starter who wins a game he shouldn't. He is the long term guy you develop.

2nd String O Line - it wasn't a complete success, but had some nice holes for running game
Hyde - nice INT

Bradford - He's buried so he might have other problems but he looked natural in coverage going forward


thumbsdown))

1st String O line - everyone except Tretter blew a run block. Almost always on the backside. That's been a problem forever. Lang and Bulaga did it twice.

Goodson - Personal foul, beat for TD

3rd string D - gave up two TDs that were callback by penalty

Kenny Clark - didn't see him once. Lowry started at 5 tech apparently. Clark is more 1 and 3 technique, but still you would have liked to see him knock someone around. Its tough, as Wood points out in article, he is not starting ahead of Guion or Daniels.
 
It wasn't a good game to really see how good players are. It wasn't even a typical McCarthy type game. The one thing that I thought was important, and was pointed out by Rich Gannon - TEs are open down the middle all the time. You need to use that as a part of your offense. He suggested that ten throws to them a game isn't all that much. I agree. McCarthy was using the TEs, but he just doesn't seem to appreciate them splitting the middle of the field, to keep defenses honest.

It freezes inside linebackers. If forces a safety to stay deep up the middle, or commit a CB to the coverage, if the ILB is blitzing. You can't afford to send an OLB with these guys regularly, because you're susceptible to my favorite Packer play from the Lombardi era, "The Packer sweep." It also makes throwing to the guys on the outside a lot easier, because they can't use over/under coverage of the guys flying on each play.

One negative. There's no way Ripkowski's play resembles that of John Kuhn. He was beaten, knocked over, and pretty much trampled most of the time. He was also out of position to pick up odd rushers, and just plain isn't that valuable. I know this may sound strange, but I'd rather see the Packers work on their TEs to get one who can play back there as a blocker, and be a pass receiving threat, and dump Rip. I just don't see him as being necessary.

If Mortell keeps punting like he has been, I'd be saying adios to Masthay. I think he has one heck of a lot of potential. But, it's only one preseason game so far, and we haven't heard any OMG comments coming out of camp. We'll wait and see.
 
Had a lot of time to rewind and review today.
1st team OL looked solid early, until the safety when Ripowski was forced to block 2 thanks to Tretter or one of the guards (or both).
Watched alot and rewinded alot of ILB. Martinez was shown on the missed tackle in the 1st but looked okay for his 1st game. A little tentative at times but expected. Bradford did some nice things but is not experienced and inconsistent, showed on the long run at 11 minutes in the 2nd quarter.

Overall...not bad. Next week will be the game to watch.
 
Evidently Martinez only played with the starters so that might be why we didn't see much of him. That could be a good sign for him. Clark didn't make much noise but if he was eating up blockers is that necessarily a bad thing?
 
some nice observations and great comments here. more insight than you find in mainstream media. i'm really getting tired of the lack of depth and analysis in the journal-sentinel and press gazette coverage of the packers.
 
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