Packers Strength: Rodgers and The Run Defense

by Brandon on Oct 12, 2009 1:01 PM CDT in Analysis Comment 11 comments

I started out by looking at what the Green Bay Packers need to fix. Bottom line: the pass protection and the secondary can be better as soon as next week. Despite a mediocre 2-2 record, there is still a lot of football yet to play, and some good reasons to remain optimistic.

Build around QB Aaron Rodgers: After four weeks, he's listed as only the No. 13 QB overall by Football Outsiders, but consider that they count sacks against the QB. He's currently sitting with a QB rating of 101.1. And that's with a disappointing season from WR Greg Jennings and awful pass protection. And as I described in an earlier post, the pass protection can be fixed.

Build around the run defense: You would have never caught me saying that last season. The 141 yards they allowed to RB Cedric Benson is still a nasty bruise, but they've also had big games shutting down RB Matt Forte and RB Adrian Peterson. This is a much better unit than last season, and now they've proven it in more than one game. The entire defense has struggled with consistency, which isn't too surprising since it's going to take some time getting used to playing for Dom Capers. The same goes for Capers; he's got to figure out who are his best players. The big moment for them was the 4th quarter against the Vikings. Last season, the run defense would have struggled and let Peterson run out the clock. But last week, the Vikings were held to 1 first down in the 4th quarter, and the defense gave the offense a chance at a comeback.

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I'm with you 100 percent

I like Rodgers more every game I watch. And shutting down Peterson like that was really impressive. I’m glad we’ve got the two easy games coming up though, need to get some confidence built up.

by Pack Man on Oct 12, 2009 1:44 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree

The run D has been pretty good except that game against Cincy. However, Benson has looked like the RB the Bears wanted him to be when they drafted him… (over 100 yards against the Ravens first time in 40 games their D has given up a 100 yards.)

I truly believe this team will be a different team in the games to come. I keep telling my bear/ Viking friends that this will not be the same team they faced earlier. Clif and Tauscher coming back only allowed 18 sacks in 12 games last season and the OL has allowed 20 in 4 games without Tauscher and some without Clifton. So once we get Tauscher back in game shape and Clifton healthy everyone will be going back to their natural positions. This should upgrade the OL with no major issues. The secondary having Bigby back will pretty much do the samething as the OL.. put players back to their natural positions. Collins will once again be on the prowl for INTs instead of having to worry about the run. Bigby knowing the blitz schemes will be up on the line stopping the run/ rushing the QB/ doing whatever else we didnt think he was good at until he was gone. This team will be better without any major changes except Tauscher but to me it was just another injuried player the Pack had waiting to return.

With the OL hopefully being able to protect Rodgers with the addition of health and Tauscher more time will be given to Rodgers which will hopefully result in a couple of things. More 5 wide sets or aleast more options not having to have a TE and a RB helping block! This should in return open up Jennings, teams won’t be able to double him unless they are leaving someone open! Expect BIG things for the rest of the season by this team!

by bizzle4 on Oct 12, 2009 2:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Run D

The problem is they had to sell out to stop both Forte and AD… THey had to put all their eggs into the basket of stopping them. At least w/ Peterson they had to do that… Maybe not so much w/ Forte and the bares… The Pack played basically a very heavy run D and gave up far too much in terms of pass coverage and pass rush to accomplish it. Thats why #4 was able to win the game for the viqueens!

I would much more encouraged, if they were able to stop AD by playing base D and still cover and pass rush. Don’t get me wrong, they NEEDED to stop AD, to have a chance, but next game, they will have to back off the heavy run D a little.

by Strohman on Oct 12, 2009 2:59 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

not at all with Forte...

If they sold out on the Bears to stop the run 4 ints would never have happened. With the Viking game we had 2 safeties out of position. One well should never have even been on the field but injuries happen. And Collins has had to play out of position due to the injury to Bigby. I think the next game we should be able to control both AD and Favre to some extent.

by bizzle4 on Oct 12, 2009 3:07 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

agree

Bigby being back will help, especially getting Collins back to his natural position. Either way they did had to sell out to stop AD, and if they cant stop him w/ base D in Nov. that game might be a rerun… THey will have to be able to stop AD and play coverage and rush the passer to beat the viqueens. Though getting them in GB will help too.

Bigby is the type of safety that can excel in the box, but he hasn’t been that since 07. I like bigby alot, we need the 07 Bigby, not the shell of him we have had since then!

by Strohman on Oct 12, 2009 4:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sell out?

We didn’t sell out at all against the Bears. After all we did have 4 INTs. We also really didn’t sell out against the Vikes. We had 7 in the box pretty much the whole game. Our dline played great, and did a great job of stuffing the cut back lanes.

by packallday555 on Oct 12, 2009 9:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

what a cliff hanger!

by blackoutsox on Oct 13, 2009 11:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Haha man

I’m not sure why that i is there…??

Haha I promise my posts are usually a bit more organized and structured then the last 2 of mine you have seen were.

by packallday555 on Oct 14, 2009 12:43 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

They played 8 in the box nearly the entire game. Plus nobody tried to penetrate, they held the gaps but didn’t penetrate giving AD nowhere to cut. So yeah I would say they sold out to stop AD!!! Maybe not so much against the bares, but then Forte is pedestrian compared to AD.

Dont get me wrong, the Packers did what they needed to do to stop AD and give themselves a chance to win. But they had no penetration that will be needed to hold #4 in check. They will have to stop AD in strictly base D to win in November.

by Strohman on Oct 12, 2009 11:44 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

They didn't sell out

They played nickel for half of the game against the Bears (just like last season) and shut down Forte and they had 7 not 8 in the box for much of the Vikings game. It was the Rams game that they kept bringing down Chillar as the 8th man LB/SS and Jackson did pretty well. They completely shut down AP and Forte without selling out though. The reason Favre went nuts wasn’t because they sold out for the run but because Al Harris was overhyped like he gets in the playoffs (similarly to Favre coincidentally) and Derrick Martin was lost. I really think that if Bigby wasn’t hurt and he played in that Viking game, it would’ve been a different story. That long Favre TD would’ve never happened with Collins back there instead of Martin.

by GGGamer on Oct 13, 2009 10:25 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Exactly

We really didn’t sell out against the run in any our games this year besides the Rams game. Haha why can’t people just give us credit for the things we have done well? It seems like there is always an underlying factor that people feel the need to mention after pointing out where we have been successful.

by packallday555 on Oct 13, 2009 11:08 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs