Packers (6-6) Beat The Texans In The Snow, 21-13

It's hard to arrive at any conclusions about the Green Bay Packers during a snow game when the elements turned the ordinary into a challenge. Each team had some forgettable moments with turnovers and bad play from their secondaries that could have either made a game of it for the Texans or turned it into a blow out for the Packers. Sometimes it looked like the players were on skis. FB Aaron Ripkowski had a Texans's defensive lineman sliding alongside him on his touchdown run. On the touchdown pass to WR Jordy Nelson, LG Lane Taylor was pushed back like a blocking sled (Rodgers rolled out to his left to avoid him) and slid back a couple feet while standing straight up.

Hard to top watching the @packers score in the #snow @LambeauField#thecrowdgoeswild pic.twitter.com/5li4vJJBVZ

— Mike Seidel (@mikeseidel) December 4, 2016

The offense still can't run the ball much and it's kind of strange how it's hard to tell whether its RB Christine Michael or WR Wes Montgomery carrying the ball. No receiver other than Nelson had more than 19 yards receiving and WR Davante Adams had one of those forgettable home games (1 catch on 7 targets) that he had too often last season. The offensive line was great in protection (1 sack, 4 QB hits) and rookie RG Jason Spriggs looked a lot better this week in place of T.J. Lang than he did last week, when he had to hold off All-Pro DT Fletcher Cox. They didn't have much success on 3rd down (33% conversion rate) which is why they lost the time of possession battle and didn't have much offensive yardage (309 in total) for the game.

A long final drive helped push QB Brock Osweiler's stats up to about the same as Rodgers, and it soured what was looking like a decent performance by the Packers' secondary. While it still didn't look great for Osweiler, remember that he's arguably the worst full time starting QB in the NFL and the Texans' passing "attack" is also the worst. The run defense was weirdly good; great most of the time on early downs but then they would give up big chunks of yards (multiple times for 1st downs) on long draw plays that shouldn't have worked that well. They're looking much better against lesser offensives but they haven't turned the corner either.

It was a game they had to win to keep their weak playoff dreams alive. Onward next week to face the Seahawks in a much tougher game when they'll need everything to go right for them in order to win it.

Packers QB Rodgers named 2014 NFL MVP

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers has been named the 2014 NFL MVP.

Rodgers, who threw for 38 touchdowns and just five intereceptions this season, received 31 of 50 possible votes, by far the most of any candidate. Texans DE J.J. Watt was second with 13, while the Cowboys' DeMarco Murray and Tony Romo each had two. 

Rodgers had a 112.2 passer rating this year, the second best one in the league. He was also second with an average of 8.43 yards per attempt. 

This is the second time Rodgers has won the honor, having also done so in 2011.

Packers hire Steve Marshall as new Assistant OL Coach

Following the resignation of Joel Hilgenberg earlier this week, the Packers hired a new Assistant Offensive Line Coach in veteran Steve Marshall yesterday, NBC Sports.com's Mike Wilkening reports. 

Marshall, who served as the OL Coach at New Mexico State University last season, is no stranger to the NFL, as he has previously served positions in the league with Texans from 2002-2005 and the Browns from 2007-2008.

During that time in the pros, Marshall's Texans usually struggled pretty largely, averaging just 223.3 yards/game in 2002 (last in the NFL), 269.1 in 2003 (31st), 320.5 in 2004 (19th), and 253.3 in 2005 (30th). 

When he went to Cleveland that all at least somewhat changed, as the Browns put up a solid 351.3 yards/game in 2007 (8th) before dropping back down to 249.1 (last) the following year, but still, he was definitely consistently bad. In his defense, pretty much all of his career the club's he's helped coach have been bad (the Texans went just 18-46 and the Browns 14-18 during his tenures with them), and since those numbers did come with overall weak rosters you probably can't put their existing completely on him.

Packers to go after TE Garret Graham if he becomes a Free Agent

The Packers are planning on pursuing Texans TE Garret Graham if he hits free agency, NFL.com's Ian Rapoport reports. Last season, Graham had a career year for 2-14 Houston, a terrible team with terrible quarterbacks, catching a solid 49 passes for 545 yards. 

Now while those numbers overall are pretty good, I'm still not sure that this guy, or any TE about to hit the market, is worth signing. I mean, Jermichael Finley could still play in 2014, so shouldn't the Pack at least try to find out his statues for this fall before they just completely replace him?