25-year old outside linebacker Clay Matthews has been banged up most of this year and his production to this point in the year reflects that.  Matthews has played in all 9 games for the Packers so far this year and he has 28 tackles, 5 sacks, 4 tackles for a loss, 1 forced fumble and 5 passes defensed.  He has now played in 40 games in his first three years with the Packers and he has 139 tackles, 28.5 sacks, 16 tackles for a loss, 4 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 1 interception (he returned it for a TD) and 16 passes defensed.  The Packers hope that Matthews finishes this season strongly.

The Green Bay Packers are going to be without 35-year old starting left tackle Chad Clifton for a while due to a hamstring injury.  He has started all five games for the Packers so far this year.  23-year old Michael Newhouse replaced him at LT against the Falcons and they scored in five of the seven series he played in.  Newhouse has played in 5 games (2 starts) so far this year for the Packers.  The Packers are going to miss Clifton, but they are hoping that Newhouse will be able to step up and lessen the blow.

The Packers have lost safety Nick Collins for the season with a serious neck injury.  Collins played in both games for the Packers this year and he had 12 tackles, 1 pass defensed and 1 forced fumble.  Collins has now played in 95 games in his first 7 years with the Packers and he has 419 tackles, 67 passes defensed, 21 interceptions (4 returned for TDs), 1 sack, 6 forced fumbles, 4 fumble recoveries and 9 tackles for a loss.  Starting strong safety Morgan Burnett will slide back to free safety to replace Collins in the starting lineup.  Burnett has 21 tackles, 2 passes defensed, 1 interception, 1 sack and 1 forced fumble so far this year in the Packers’ first two games.   28-year old Charlie Peprah will replace Burnett as the starting strong safety.  He has 2 tackles in the Packers’ first two games this year.  Peprah played in 14 games for the Packers last year and he had 63 tackles, 2 interceptions, 5 passes defensed and 3 tackles for a loss.  Peprah did a solid job for the Packers when he replace an injured Morgan Burnett at strong safety, so the Packers have confidence in him.

UPDATE:  (10/12/2011) – The Packers have officially placed Nick Collins on the Injured Reserve List, ending his season.

Anyone who watched the Steelers play the Jets in the AFC Championship saw that the Steelers gameplan was to run the ball with Rashard Mendenhall.  He is a very physical inside runner so inside linebackers A.J. Hawk & Desmond Bishop are going to be challenged a lot in the Super Bowl.  27-year old A.J. Hawk played in all 16 games for the Packers this year and he had 111 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, 1/2 sack, 10 passes defensed, 3 interceptions and 1 fumble recovery.  He has 11 tackles in his first 3 playoff games but he hasn’t made any really big plays.  The Packers need him to step up in the Super Bowl.  After Nick Barnett was injured early this year, 26-year old Desmond Bishop moved into the starting lineup and he played well.  Bishop played in 15 games during the regular season for the Packers and he had 103 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, 3 sacks, 8 passes defensed, 1 interception (he returned it 32 yards for a TD) and 2 forced fumbles.  Bishop has 15 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery during the Packers first three post season games.  Hawk & Bishop are big keys to stopping Rashard Mendenhall and forcing the Steelers to pass.

The Steelers have an outstanding run defense but they are vulnerable in the secondary, especially with multiple WR sets.  That is great news for the Packers as they have the receivers to both exploit the Steelers’ weakness and make them pay dearly for blitzing.  Greg Jennings (17 rec, 239 yards), Jordy Nelson (12 rec, 146 yards, TD), Donald Driver (12 rec, 141 yards) and James Jones (6 rec, 94 yards, 2 TD grabs) have all been very productive so far this post-season.  Look for Aaron Rodgers to get rid of the ball quickly trying to hit on short passes and let his receivers do the hard work.

The Packers need a little more out of 22-year old rookie TE Andrew Quarless.  He has seen increased playing time as the year has went on due to the injuries that have ransacked the depth chart at TE for the Packers.  Quarless has played in 10 games for the Packers so far this year and he has caught 17 passes for 205 yards (12.1 avg) with 1 TD grab.  He was a 5th round pick (#154 overall) out of Penn State last April.  When you take that in consideration the Packers are probably happy with him this year.

25-year old QB Matt Flynn will be in the spotlight for the Packers tomorrow night in New England when he starts in the place of the injured Aaron Rodgers.  Flynn has played in 5 games for the Packers so far this year and he has completed 16 of 29 passes (55.2%) for 182 yards with 0 TD passes and 1 INT (59.8 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 6 times for 13 yards (2.2 ypc) so far this year for the Packers.  Flynn has now played in 27 games (mostly as a holder) in the NFL and he has completed 25 of 46 passes (54.3%) for 246 yards with 0 TD passes and 2 INTs (51.5 QB Rating).  Flynn has also carried the ball 15 times for 12 yards (0.8 ypc) so far in his NFL career.  The Packers’ season is on the line tomorrow night in New England so they need Matt Flynn to step up….big time.

The Packers knew they were in trouble when Ryan Grant went down for the year in the season opener.  They were hoping that Brandon Jackson would take over as the featured back but he is proving that he’s just not cut out for that role.  Jackson has carried the ball 45 times for 137 yards (3.0 ypc) with 1 TD run and he has also caught 8 passes for 50 yards (6.3 avg) so far this year.  John Kuhn is the other back that has been getting a lot of action since Grant’s injury but he’s a power running fullback type.  Kuhn has carried the ball 26 times for 121 yards (4.7 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He has also caught 2 passes for 20 yards (10.0 avg) so far this year.  The Packers are only averaging 94.5 yards rushing per game and 3.9 yards per carry so far this year.  They need to average about 20 yards more rushing per game to give Aaron Rodgers some ground support or it’s going to keep getting harder for the Packers to pass the ball.

With Ryan Grant done for the season the Packers need 24-year old Brandon Jackson to step up and be the featured back of the offense.  Jackson carried the ball 18 times for 63 yards (3.5 ypc) and he caught 2 passes for 12 yards (6.0 avg) in the season opener against the Eagles.  He came into this season having played in 36 games in his three years with the Packers.  Jackson came into this season with 626 yards rushing on 157 carries (4.0 ypc) with 4 TD runs.  He also caught 67 passes for 502 yards (7.5 avg) with 1 TD grab in his first three years with the Pack.  This is Jackson’s big chance to shine and the Packers hope he takes advantage of it.

It’s amazing to me that the Packers are averaging 359.6 yards on offense this season with the way the offensive line has blocked this year.  Poor Aaron Rodgers has been sacked 25 times already this season and the Packers are only averaging 101.2 yards per game on the ground which shows how weak the O-Line has played.  The Packers better go with shorter passes the rest of the season or they better sign a better back up QB than Matt Flynn.