Packers Fix: Pass Protection and the Secondary

by Brandon on Oct 12, 2009 10:15 AM CDT in Analysis Comment 7 comments

There's one way to look at the season so far for the Green Bay Packers: disappointing. They sit at 2-2 and are 2.5 games behind the Vikings. The offensive line is a sieve and the defense is inconsistent. QB Aaron Rodgers is playing well, but he won't be in one piece for much longer. And where did the RB Ryan Grant from 2007 go?

But I'm very optimistic coming off the bye week. Especially coming off the loss in Minnesota. I don't believe in good losses. A loss is a loss. But the things that went wrong in Minneapolis are things that can be fixed, and the things that did work last week are strong foundations going forward. I'll talk about the good in a post later today, and I'll start out with what needs to be fixed.

Fix the Pass Protection: It's been miserable, and it's the worst unit in the league. Everyone, Rodgers included, deserves some blame. But as JJ Cooper pointed out last week, the middle of the line seems to be doing their job. RT Allen Barbre isn't playing well, but he seems to be getting better. If he doesn't, or even if he does keep getting better, he might be replaced soon by RT Mark Tauscher. LT Chad Clifton should be returning from his ankle injury next week. Although he's not as good as he was two seasons ago, he's still better than LG Daryn Colledge, who has just had a terrible season. Moving Colledge (and possibly Barbre) to the bench could improve this group quickly.

Fix the Secondary: After dominating QB Jay Cutler in the opener, each successive QB has had better luck against them. But this is another unit that has been experimenting a lot lately, without much success.

Against the Bengals, SS Aaron Rouse had a bad game and was released shortly thereafter.
Against the Rams, the defense tried out their Big Okie defense and LB Brandon Chillar (who was basically playing safety as the 5th or 6th LB) got burned for two TD passes.
Then SS Derrick Martin made his 2nd career start at safety in Minnesota, he was obviously confused in coverage, and benched mid-game.

Martin was replaced by CB/S Jarrett Bush, who has to be considered the top backup at this point. Even better, SS Atari Bigby could be returning next week from his knee injury. After three straight games of personnel changes, Dom Capers should know what is working and be ready going forward.

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For the secondary it all comes down to that SS spot. Rouse was burned many times against the Bengals, as was Bush. Chillar was burned many times against the Rams. Martin wasn’t so much burned but rather just lost.

When Bigby was in there against the Bears he was not. Getting Bigby back is the most important thing to our defense. Those ILBs that we have all heavily criticized showed up last week against the best back in football, and one of the better 3rd down backs in football.

Barbre has been improving but that really doesn’t say much. Lets look at his play on a scale from 1 to 10. We’ll say 6 is what an average RT is in this league. Barbre was a 0 week 1. He couldn’t block Ogunleye to save his life. He was slightly improved week 2 but still was only a 2 at best, as he gave up 3 sacks. The Rams game he regressed and played at the level of a 1. He was better against the Vikes week 4 but I think the fact that he was going against Edwards, who is average at best says a lot. But I’ll give him a 3 or 4 for his week 4 play.

He just isn’t good. Tauscher likely won’t be at the level he was once was at but I know he will be an improvement from Barbre. Signing him and getting him ready to play asap is crucial. Like you pointed out our interior line has done a fine job so far, it’s just those T positions we need to fix. Clifton coming back clears up 1 problem, and signing Tauscher will clear up the 2nd problem.

by packallday555 on Oct 12, 2009 11:22 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The biggest thing

In regards to the safety situation since Bigby went down, Collins has been playing out of place as well. Not only was Bigby out and the backups are terrible but Collins went from playing FS to basically more SS so it jacked up both positions. When Bigby comes back he will be up towards the line which will allow Collins to go back and start getting some INT’s and more turnover opportunities. It’s almost like the o-line situation, once Bigby went down it wasn’t just the SS spot that was downgraded but both safety spots because Collins had to take on more of Bigby’s role.

by GGGamer on Oct 12, 2009 12:04 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

Why was that, that they changed Collins role? Was it more of the schemes? Instead of teaching the blitzes to some one in a week let them be in coverage and have Collins who probably had a better understanding of them be up towards the line? I havent understood why they did it but with Bigby back i cant wait to see Collins back on the prowl for thos INTS

by bizzle4 on Oct 12, 2009 2:42 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

In Capers' defense...

the safety positions are interchangeable, but have different assignments depending on the pre-snap calls. There’s no dedicated “strong” or “free” safety. It helps disguise the coverages and give them more options. Between Collins and Bigby, Bibgy had a tendency to play closer to the line, but that’s really the only distinction you could make.

However, when one of the safeties is less capable, either due to inexperience or talent, then they were forced to put Collins in the position that has to make more decisions on the fly: that places him closer to the line on every play. They then stuffed the less experience safety further away from the ball, where they would have more time to read the situation post-snap. It’s not really intended to be a “strong” and “free” designation, but it works out that way.

That also makes the secondary more predictable and much easier to read. It gives them fewer options to disguise their coverages. The Capers secondary relies on deception and misdirection to both defend the pass and force turnovers. If you reduce their ability to do that, good QBs can pick apart their zones.

by RobertArthur on Oct 12, 2009 5:41 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

safeties

Clearly the safeties are best served when Bigby plays in the box and Collins plays deep. While the two safeties may be interchangable, Bigby and Collins changed sides a couple times in game 1, to accomodate who played what role. So that Collins was able to play deep and Bigby had more responsibility in the box and the run game.

by Strohman on Oct 12, 2009 6:03 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

clears up?

I don’t know if that is the right word but it makes us less sucky at both positions. The jury is out on both of them right now on if they can still play at a high level.

by TrevorR on Oct 12, 2009 2:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I shouldn’t have used “cleared up” in talking about the oline but I think our defense will certainly be cleared up. We saw how our defense looked and performed with Bigby in there week 1. Capers has expressed many times how fond of Bigby he is, and we saw why that was after Bigby went down.

I think our oline will be improved with the addition of Tauscher. But your right cleared up is not the right term to describe that situation. I guess I just look at it, and see Clifton coming back and hopefully Tauscher beginning to play sometime within the next 3-4 weeks.

by packallday555 on Oct 12, 2009 9:26 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs