Hi ho, hi ho!

The Packers play Tenneesee at Lambeau Field on Monday night (week 5), otherwise it's doubtful we'd see them here in LaLa land. Despite the game being between teams with losing records, it ought be quite a battle. Tenneesee has also staggered out of the gate and while they don't seem to have the same kind of defensive problems they've been getting little out of long drives. Both teams will have a sense of desperation about them.

Back to the Pack, there was already some serious turmoil with losing twice at home, the record (1-3), losing Grady Jackson and the resulting chaos on defense, losing Flanagan and having his replacement Grey Ruegamer have a really shaky game. Was he at fault for getting bull rushed six yards into the backfield on the play where Favre sustained a concussion? Perhaps, but Brett had nearly 4 seconds before William Joseph got his left hand on him. Hard to say. Perhaps Brett has forgotten what it's like to scramble for your life on a regular basis. They threw a flag for a facemask infraction (on Joseph I think — nope, I went back and checked, it was on Favre's buddy Strahan who was tussling with Marco Rivera in the middle of the field after Tauscher had bounced him over), but it was offset by a flag on Favre for grounding.

Yes, there's more...

Doug Pederson is done for the season (and perhaps his career) and was moved to injured reserve after the hit by Keith Washington during the first drive where Brett was tied to the bench. Craig Nall moves up to second on the depth chart. I just noticed that last week was his first official NFL pass. In a move to remove distractions where possible, Sherman finally made a deal to move malcontent Mike McKenzie to New Orleans on Monday, getting quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan (another young guy with a good season in NFL Europe on his record) in the deal. In another move, Larry Smith was signed to provide help on the defensive line (he was a late cut coming out of camp because of an injury) and is reported to be in shape and ready to play.

And finally, Favre's brother in law died on Wednesday night in an ATV crash. He's expected back from Mississippi before game time. This sort of thing worked out well last year, but every game and situation is different.

Yes, the legend does continue but it's not going to be easy going. Arnie Stapleton (of the The Associated Press) had an interesting take on things early in the week: Packers are a team in turmoil even without McKenzie.

I like the chances for Green Bay if they can pull together the way they did last year in Oakland (also a MNF game if I recall correctly). Otherwise... well let's not go there.

Other stuff

I know I'm geting old, but I was watching iNFL and was shocked to see Josh McCown without a helmet. He looked like a kid out there (think Anthony Michael Hall in the early eighties). You see a guy with a large body in pads and helmets, looking just like everyone else and then he pops off his hat and you wonder what high school he escaped from.

After Dr. Z took a shot at Ray Lewis and his readers piled on, I noted that #54 of the Chiefs (one Brian Waters, a guard it seems) did a job on Lewis, one-on-one in three of the four clips shown by the folks from HBO. I didn't see the game myself, take it for what it is.