Who is Sam Shields?

At the start of the season no one had ever heard of Sam Shields. Now, everybody knows who he is. He is the player that ended the Bears’ late fourth quarter drive, in the NFC championship game, with a huge interception. Shields already had an interception of Jay Cutler earlier in the game. His big plays in clutch time have helped get his name out there, but some people still might not know about enough him.

Sam Shields attended the University of Miami (FL). His first three seasons there he was a wide receiver. This helps explain his ability to go up and take the football from the receivers. At the start of his senior season at Miami, he was asked to switch over to defense to play cornerback. Many offensive players would put up a fight and not want to go over to defense, but Sam just did what was best for his team. During his senior season he recorded 41 tackles (ranking sixth on the team), had a forced fumble and fumble recovery, and he also contributed on special teams. Because of his transition to defense and his stellar performance, he was awarded the teams most improved player award his senior season. I think this shows that Sam just loves to play football and will do whatever it takes to help his team win. That is what the Green Bay Packers look for in a player.

The NFL draft was April 22-24, 2010; Sam’s name was not called. He kept his head up and stayed positive and on April 30 he got a call from the Packers. He was signed as an undrafted free agent. Little did the Packers’ organization know that he would be a key contributor on their path to the Super Bowl. He played in 14 of their 16 games this year and had 29 tackles and 2 interceptions. This isn’t a bad year coming from a rookie, but his best was yet to come. In just three playoff games he recorded 11 tackles and 2 key interceptions. During the NFC championship game, he became the only NFL rookie to have 2 interceptions, a sack, and a forced fumble in a playoff game. His best play of the game was definitely his interception in the last minute of the game to punch the Packers' ticket to the Super Bowl. Sam played his best during the very critical moments of that game. Without him, I don’t think the Packers would be heading to the Super Bowl.

Hopefully, there are more big plays to come from Sam during the Super Bowl. Who would have thought that the Packers would need big plays from someone who wasn’t even drafted to win the NFC championship. I am looking forward to watching Sam continue to make a name for himself during the Super Bowl and the rest of his Packer career.

Packers To The Super Bowl!

Green Bay is the first number 6 seed from the NFC to win 3 road playoff games and make the Super Bowl. This is an incredible accomplishment.

Their road to the Super Bowl was on the road, but not in unfamiliar territory. Everywhere the Packers played in the playoffs, they had already visited during the regular season. In week 1, they opened their season in Philadelphia with a 27-20 win over the Eagles. In week 3, they lost their first game of the season at Soldier Field in Chicago, 20-17. And Finally, they traveled to Atlanta in week 12, losing, 20-17 to the Falcons. Little did Green Bay know that they would get to have post season rematches with these teams. I think this helped the Packers a lot because they knew what to expect from each team and they knew how to handle the crowd noise. This was a huge key to their success.

The Packers can outscore teams and they can beat teams with their defense. They showed that during their playoff run. The games at Philadelphia and Chicago were won by late defensive heroics. The game at Atlanta showed that in a dome, Green Bay's offensive is the best in the game. The Packers put up 48 points, while the defense still held it's ground and only gave up 14 points to Matt Ryan and his high flying Falcon offense.

Hopefully, the Packers can continue their historic playoff run and become the first 6 seeded team from the NFC to win the ultimate prize, a Super Bowl.

Bears vs. Packers Wrap

Thank you Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers for making me look like a giant idiot. I said the Bears would win and I gave very confident answers, now that the game is over the Packers won, but not because the Bears couldn't have won this game. There are huge things that happened that lead to the Bears eventually losing this game. It's not like it was a blowout either, it came down to the wire and had people thinking if the Bears would actually come back or not. So lets get at breaking down this game.
The Packers got the ball first and from the first play you could tell they came prepared to attack our defense. They watched a lot of film and exploited every little error in that first drive. When I saw that first drive, I said to myself I hope the offense is doing well today. Then the Bears got out on the field and they went 3 and out. From that point on I was worried. I'm not saying I knew they would lose after that, because there was a lot of time left for the Bears to get into their groove. The Packers offense was crazy good and just took advantage of everything our defense did wrong in the first half. The first half was all Packers. I was pissed off and really drunk by then because I kind of turned the game into a drinking game by saying that every time the Packers had a good play I took a drink, I was hammered. This game was making me very mad, I was ready to turn it off, but I knew the Bears would not give up and that they would not lose this game unless they played super bad, which they did.
Then, I was on twitter and everyone was talking about Cutler. I didn't understand because I saw him leave and he didn't look like he was limping that much and I never saw him take a big hit. Then he came out and played the first drive. After that drive Jay Cutler was sitting with his coat and I saw the worst quarterback in the NFL warming up. I was deathly afraid when I saw that because I hate Todd Collins with a burning passion. Ever since the Giants game where he came in at the end and the receiver was 10 yards away and Collins throws it without getting hit and it gets like halfway. Since that moment I have hated him, and he made some bad throws like that in this game. I don't fully agree with the fact that they should have taken him out before the 4th quarter, because if for some reason Jay Cutler had fought off all the coaches telling him not to play he could have played in the last few minutes. I also agree with the decision, because the less he plays the better. The only reason he is the number two is because he is older and has way more ezperience than Hanie. Hanie is so much better and we saw that today.
Hanie played for a small part of the third quarter and all of the fourth quarter. I have thought since he was the third string behind orton when Rex Grossman was just ending his time with the Bears that he deserved a chance. Now he got his chance and he proved that he can step up in big situations and make some pretty big plays, but he also can do some Cutler things, like throw interceptions. He threw two of them in that short time but also balanced it out with two great passes. The end of the game was great and I was holding my breath hoping that this kid would bring us to the Super Bowl. It didn't end well, but he has a lot of talent that we can use either in a trade or after Cutler leaves. I like Hanie and he is very young, if in the future he becomes the next Aaron "thrusting" Rodgers I would not be surprised. I just wish he could have lead us to victory.

Packers at Bears

What better way to determine the NFC champion than to have the Packers play the Bears. These two teams have a combined 21 NFL World Championships (Packers-12, Bears-9). It is only right that one of these two historically dominant teams will once again be on football’s greatest stage.

This game will eventually come down to who wants it more. These teams play each other twice every year and are the oldest rivals in the NFL. They know what to expect from each other. This makes it very difficult to predict the winner but I, obviously, am picking the Packers. Below are some key factors as to why I think the Packers will come away with a victory:

1. I AM A PACKER FAN. If I picked the Bears I would be disowned by the Packer nation.

2. Clay Matthews: He has truly emerged as one of the league’s top defenders and is a leading candidate for the Defensive MVP. Separate from this, Matthews plays with pure passion every time he steps on the field. During his two playoffs starts this year he has 3 sacks, including one on the very elusive Mike Vick. If Matthews can once again show off his pass rushing skills and consistently pressure Jay Cutler, the Packers will be in good shape to pull off a win. Cutler is known to make some bad decisions when he is under pressure so getting to him early and often will be huge for Matthews and the rest of the Packer defense.

3. Green Bay’s Running Game: The Packers struggled running the ball during the regular season and were very one dimensional. Although, Aaron Rodgers and his very talented receivers can take control of a game, it is always nice to have a consistent running game. Surprisingly, the Packers have found a solid ground game for the playoffs. James Starks has the most rushing yards out of anyone this postseason with 189 yards. He broke out onto the scene in the wildcard round in Philadelphia, when he carried the ball 23 times for 123 yards. This was more than he had the whole regular season due to him being on the physically unable to perform list. If Starks can gain positive yards consistently against the Bears’ greedy defense, it will open up the play action passes and help Green Bay’s already dangerous passing game.

4. Special Teams: Green Bay’s special teams unit has always struggled. If they want to win this game they will have to contain Devin Hester and Danieal Manning. In week 3, when the Packers lost to the Bears, it was due to a lack of punt coverage. Devin Hester returned a punt all the way and that swung the momentum to the Bears and carried them to victory. Green Bay certainly can’t match the explosiveness of the Bears’ special teams, but they can try to eliminate the big plays by just staying in their coverage lanes and finishing their tackles.

I’m sure there are many other factors that will play into the outcome of this game but these are some that I found most important. If you disagree please comment and let me know what you think.