A lot of people in Packerland are talking about how the Packers didn't look so good in the win, and how they eked it out. The national talking heads are saying Washington gave the game away and wish they could have it back, but I have said time and again that good teams win close games, and that is exactly what happened today.

The Redskins are a good team, they came into the game 3-1, and while The Redskins did shoot themselves in the foot plenty of times, the important thing is the Packers were there to take advantage of those opportunities. Remember, the Redskins D held the Lions to 3 points last week, and at the time the Lions had the #1 passing game in the NFL. Once you get down to it, the Packers did not play a bad game.

Obviously, the highlight of the game for the Packers was the defense. They held the Redskins to 14 points, and shut them out in the second half. They scored 7 points on a fumble returned by Woodson for a touchdown and forced 3 turnovers. Washington amassed 304 total yards, 30 yards below their season average and that would place them 24th in the league based on the season so far.

The offense struggled, but they got raped by the officials. The officials basically took 14 points off the board for the Packers. The touchdown to Jones that was called back by a holding penalty was a weak call at best. If Tauscher got a handful of jersey for a second, that is the most that happened. That happens on just about every play in the NFL. The call against Franks, calling him out of bounds was worse than that. He was clearly pushed out, and it bordered on incompetence not to call it that way.

At first glance it seems like the line did not play that well, but it is important to remember that two starters were down, the center and the right guard. Jason Moll, the fill in right guard is technically third string. Favre mostly had time to throw the ball and was only sacked twice.

The only real downsides to the game were A.J. Hawk and Favre's long ball. Favre threw deep 4 times during the game, and was short every time, twice missing a completely open receiver. While I am an A.J. fan, he did not play that well today. He blitzed at least two times from the left side, and did nothing. Both times he tried a fake to the inside followed by a move to the outside, trying to use his speed to his advantage, and both time ended up being a non-factor on the play.

The other time I was disappointed with Hawk was on the Redskins last real drive attempt, with about 7 min left to play. It was third and 6 on the Green Bay 37 when Cooley caught a pass in the flat. Rather than dropping him on contact, Hawk let Cooley fall forward for another 2 yards, making it a gain of 4 to bring up fourth and 2 from the 33. Cooley is a big guy, but this was a critical play of the game. Contrast it to the next play where Betts caught the pass in the flat and Barnett dropped him for no gain.

This was a good game, and with Dallas looking to lose to New England, it puts Green Bay back atop of the NFC.