Sunday, December 27, 2009

Halftime: Packers 24 - Seahawks 3

On the Seahawks' first series of the 2nd quarter, they moved the ball steadily down field, eventually getting inside the Packers' 10-yard line. On 3rd down, Matt Hasselbeck's pass was tipped by Johnny Jolly and was intercepted in the endzone by Atari Bigby.

The Packers did nothing with the turnover, however, and soon the Seahawks were again down to the Packers' 10-yard line. A holding penalty sidetracked the 'hawks and they wound up having to settle for a field goal. 14-3 Packers.

On the Packers next series, RB Ryan Grant broke a handoff up the middle and took it 56 yards to the endzone. Packers 21-Seahawks 3.

The Packers got one more shot at the end zone on their last series, after some hard running by backup RB Ahman Green and another long pass and run from Aaron Rodgers to Greg Jennings.

Down in the redzone, however, there was some curious clock management by head coach Mike McCarthy as they had they let the clock run from about 50 seconds down 15 before taking a time out. On the next play, 3rd down, a pass down to about the 2-yard line set up 4th and goal with 8 seconds on the clock as the Packers took their final timeout. Eschewing (look it up) the field goal, the Pack went for it on 4th down. Rodgers threw a pass to a wide open TE/LB Spencer Havner for a TD...except, the refs called a penalty on Havner for pushing off the defender. Replays showed Havner merely disengaging from the defender...a rather ticky-tack call by the refs on that one. But, it then gave K Mason Crosby a chance to get some practice in on his field goals. Crosby converted the 29-yarder to put the Pack up 24-3 at half.

The other thing to note here at halftime is that currently in the 3rd quarter, Carolina is whupping the Giants 31-0 at the Meadowlands. With a Packers' win -- let's assume -- and a Giants' loss -- let's assume, the Packers will get a lock on a wildcard spot regardless of what the Cowboys do tonight.

Go Pack Go!