GREEN BAY -- Matt Flynn was sitting in his locker Friday night when some genius (um, that'd be me) pointed out that most folks simply assumed that, by virtue of his seventh-round draft status, he'd be the Packers' third-string quarterback this season while second-round pick Brian Brohm would get the primary backup gig behind Aaron Rodgers.
Flynn only smiled, opting not to point out what happens when you ass-u-me.
"I don't really assume anything here," he said. "I didn't know what the situation was going to be or what it's going to be like at the end of camp. I'm just going to go out and play as hard as I can and let the coaches do their job."
And that's good, since coach Mike McCarthy acknowledged after Wednesday night's practice that the battle between Brohm and Flynn for the backup quarterback job is underway.
"I think Matt's definitely closing the gap, there's no doubt about it," McCarthy said. "I think he's really been pushing Brian here probably about the last eight to 10 days."
Asked if Flynn could conceivably beat out Brohm for the top backup job, general manager Ted Thompson said, "I don't know. Yeah, I suppose he can. Competition's all over this place. You never know how it's going to work out."
Although the Packers have used their 3-2-1 setup for distributing repetitions in practice -- three for Rodgers, two for Brohm, one for Flynn -- throughout camp and McCarthy said they will continue to do so, Flynn may merit some additional snaps after an encouraging performance in Monday night's 20-17 exhibition loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
While Brohm's first NFL pass was intercepted and he ended up completing eight of 17 passes for 70 yards and a 33.9 passer rating, Flynn went 12 for 21 for 97 yards and a touchdown for a 84.8 rating, highlighted by leading the Packers on a 62-yard, 12-play TD drive in the closing minutes of the game. Flynn had the Packers on the move on their final possession, too, but rookie Kregg Lumpkin fumbled after a completion to allow the Bengals to run out the clock.
"After the first (pass), I knew it could only get better," Brohm said. "Overall, I felt like I did a pretty good job of just the mechanics of the offense. Most of the time, I felt like I went to the right place with the ball. Obviously, there were a few times when I made mistakes, went to the wrong place, maybe forced one in there on the first play. But after that, I felt pretty good about the way things were going."
While Brohm admitted he "double-clutched" on a late throw to Ruvell Martin that led to Martin absorbing a wicked hit, the only other throw he made that raised eyebrows was his Hail Mary at the end of the half, a 50-yard heave that didn't make it to the goal line.
Flynn, meanwhile, wasn't particularly high on his performance -- "As a rookie, first game, it's kind of hard to put a grade on it," he said, adding that he sees more of his mistakes than successes when watching film -- and wasn't coming anywhere near a debate about the No. 2 job.
"That's not for me to say," Flynn said. "I'm just going to go out there and play as hard as I can and let the coaches make decisions. I really am here to do what helps the team the most. If that's third-string, then that's going to be my job and I'm going to do that position proudly. I'm going to play it and give it my best and let the coaches make decisions on everything else."
Thompson said he "thought there were some good things in there" for both quarterbacks, enough to solidify his stance that signing a veteran backup won't be necessary.
"You can never say never," Thompson said. "But right this second, we're comfortable with the fellas we have, albeit we're young."
Hawk lands on sideline: Here's something you don't see everyday (or never before, actually) -- A.J. Hawk not practicing.
"He will not be available this week," McCarthy said. Asked if Hawk could play if it were a regular-season game, McCarthy replied, "I don't know. I would say not."
McCarthy said the injury occurred when Hawk broke up a third-down pass to tight end Ben Utecht on the Bengals' third series. Hawk did not leave the game because of the injury.
On guard: While rookie fourth-round pick Josh Sitton was far from perfect in his first NFL game Monday night, he apparently was good enough to keep his spot with the No. 1 offensive line.
With center Scott Wells returning to practice for the first time since suffering a back injury, Sitton remained at right guard with the first-string while Jason Spitz shifted from center to left guard. Spitz opened camp as the starting right guard but moved to center after Wells went down.
Allen Barbre and Daryn Colledge had been alternating at left guard throughout the off-season and first two weeks of camp, but it appears Spitz and Sitton have the inside track on the two starting spots. Junius Coston remains on the periphery of the battle.
"Really, you've got five guys competing for three positions in there," McCarthy said. "We're going to try to keep Sitton at right guard, like to keep Allen at left guard, and the other three obviously have flexibility."
While offensive coordinator Joe Philbin acknowledged that Sitton struggled at times in Monday night's game, the coaches feel they can let the guard competition continue, unlike in 2006, when they wanted to establish starters early in camp.
"You look back two years ago and that was a little different situation. There was a sense of urgency just to get those guys ready to play," Philbin said. "We have a little more time to see how this unfolds. We've got to let these guys play some football."
Not kicking himself: While Mike Stock certainly wasn't thrilled with Jon Ryan's 14- and 15-yard punts in Monday night's preseason-opening loss to Cincinnati, the Green Bay Packers special teams coordinator isn't overly concerned about the punting situation -- and isn't chalking up Ryan's inconsistency in the game to a lack of competition in camp.
"Listen, there's competition," Stock said. "There may not be anybody here, but there are a bunch of guys not in the league or on teams that have two punters in camp. The NFL is `Not For Long.' There's no comfort zone."
Stock likened Ryan's 15-yard shank to not swinging through a short iron shot in golf -- "You decelerate, and you shank the ball; it's the same with punts," Stock said -- and noted the 14-yarder was caused by a protection breakdown to Ryan's left. On his other five punts, Ryan averaged 46.0 gross yards per punt and 38.0 net yards per punt. With the two short punts, his averages were 37.0 gross and 31.3 net.
On the other end of punts, Stock said he liked what he saw from Will Blackmon, who figures to keep the job if he can stay healthy, as well as rookie Jordy Nelson.
Life goes on: Thompson is happy to be focusing on football and not the all-consuming Brett Favre situation anymore.
"I don't know if relief is the right word, but it's good to get back to football and be able to think about emergency lists and advance scouting and college scouting and doing our day-to-day job," Thompson said.
Asked if there was any criticism that he thought was unfair, Thompson replied, "Everyone has their own take on this. I think you could call people in Russia and they would give you an opinion on this one. There is not much that you can do about that. I think you try to just do your job every day and be able to look at yourself in the mirror at night."
Jason Wilde, a Milwaukee native who graduated from Greendale Martin Luther High School and the University of Wisconsin, is a two-time Associated Press Sports Editors award winner and a Wisconsin Newspaper Association award winner.
His daily coverage can be found on the State Journal's Web site and through his Packers blog on madison.com.
