Sacks: Is It Rodgers or The O-Line?

by Brandon on Oct 9, 2009 7:15 AM CDT in Analysis Comment 10 comments

Great article by JJ Cooper about the Green Bay Packers sack debacle. His title focuses on QB Aaron Rodgers, but there's plenty of blame to go around. From Fanhouse:

Barbre has allowed five sacks, Colledge has allowed four, Lang has allowed two and Clifton has allowed one. Those 12 sacks are more than all but six teams have given up this season. The Packers' interior linemen have allowed only two sacks, so when it comes to pass rushing, the problem is limited to the edges...

But Rodgers deserves some of the blame as well, as he showed on Monday. On four of the Vikings eight sacks, Rodgers held the ball for more than three seconds (as much as 5.7 seconds on one sack) and another turned into a sack because of a busted play...

The average sack occurs somewhere between 2.7 and 2.8 seconds after the snap of the ball.

Given the poor play of the offensive tackles, he's holding the ball too long. Given his style of play, looking to move around the pocket or rollout when the pocket collapses, it doesn't look like he's doing anything wrong. Since he's very good at throwing on the run, he might be better off keeping the play alive and looking for a receiver. It might disrupt the offense to look for the checkdown receiver instead of the man downfield. Should they change the offense until the tackles prove their able to protect him?

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I think that the only responsible thing to do IS change the offense until the OT's fix themselves, otherwise we'll have a David Carr-worthy season.

by Thaddeus? on Oct 9, 2009 7:34 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Results

90% O-Line
10% Rodgers

= 100% bad football

Green and Gold / Black, and White

by OznCoop on Oct 9, 2009 8:08 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

if you cant hold back a four man rush

no one is going to be open for Rodgers, thus the long waits, thus the more sacks

its inescapable!

Or if Peterson's "troublesome" back gives out. Because he's, you know, carrying the team. And some of those guys are heavy.

Mitchell M

by blackoutsox on Oct 9, 2009 10:23 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

That’s part of the problem is that teams are getting pressure with 4 guys rushing 6 or seven blockers.

It means the Packers are sending three or four guys out to be covered by seven defenders.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the Packers run more screens and draws. The screens actually looked pretty good on Monday. They also need to be able to run the ball, but it gets tough when they are trailinf in the second half.

Its a vicious death spiral.

by grant76 on Oct 9, 2009 1:06 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Throw it Away

by Wade V on Oct 9, 2009 7:07 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's a Mix

Rodgers has been sacked 20 times.
Rodgers deserves the direct credit for 4-5 of those.
The o-line with amazing help from the RB’s, FB’s and TE’s deserves the other 15-16.

I like how Rodgers is playing overall but it honestly just amazes me that the o-line can’t block followed by the RB’s/FB’s/TE’s not chipping or picking up the extra guys properly, and then Rodgers has held the ball too long. It’s like 3 levels of incompetence.

I didn’t think the Packers o-line would be good going into this season but I didn’t think they would be terrible either. I knew Barbre or Breno would struggle because they both didn’t look good throughout training camp and pre-season but I thought the rest of the group would make them average. I was guessing Barbre would struggle, Clifton and Colledge would be average, and Spitz and Sitton would start dominating to create a solid overall unit. Guess I was wrong.

by GGGamer on Oct 9, 2009 11:20 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

My Hope

I was looking at the free agents after this season and a couple of things stuck out. Number one, there are a handful of good running backs that won’t command huge salaries and number two, there are a handful of offensive tackles that could also help out if Thompson is willing to throw around some money for once.

Charlie Johnson, the LT of the Colts and Alex Barron, the LT of the Rams would be like Reggie White and Keith Jackson for this team. If TT ever does anthing in regards to free agents, I would love for him to pick up Johnson to play LT and Barron to play RT. I could see the Packers at 4-0 right now if those two guys were the tackles.

by GGGamer on Oct 10, 2009 11:46 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The Colts won't let Johnson go

unless they want to make Peyton angry.

And Barron is a headcase. A large, physically gifted headcase, but a headcase nonetheless. His work ethic is downright Antoine Walker-esque, and he makes more stupid decisions than Jarrett Bush.

Either one might be decent options, but I’m skeptical. I still like Ted Thompson’s approach to build the line through the draft…although I’m begginning to question whether or not Thompson can be trusted to supply the team with good rookie linemen.

"Brandon Jennings needs a nickname before he gives himself one. Oh wait, Young Money, he already did."

by Mitchell_M on Oct 10, 2009 2:38 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's a possibility

The Colts have Tony Ugoh waiting in the wings Mitchell. If they feel like Ugoh is ready to step up, I could see them letting Johnson go if someone like the Packers are willing to give him a big contract. It wouldn’t make any sense for them to keep Ugoh as a backup when he’s started ahead of Johnson for a couple of seasons. And if the Pack can’t get Johnson, maybe they should think about trading for Ugoh.

I know exactly what you’re saying about Barron, but the guy would be a good RT. He’s a below average LT but a really good RT and maybe the good guys the Pack have on their o-line would keep him in check. Barbre is a headcase himself and I’d rather deal with Barron’s crap than Barbre’s.

I only want to see Thompson get a LT in the draft if it’s in the first round otherwise I’m not interested. There are a few good free agents and a few good LT’s that he could get in the first round. I don’t want to see another Jamon Meredith come in here green as can be and getting Rodgers killed for another season.

by GGGamer on Oct 11, 2009 12:10 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

We have to do something. I also would like to see a LT in the 1st round of next years draft. Really, our whole draft should be olinemen. We’re good at pretty much all the skill position spots (besides rb, which I hope TT will solve by grabbing one of the many rb options in next years FA.), and our defense is pretty set as well. Maybe we could grab some secondary guys, and an ILB, but otherwise it really should be all olineman. We’re really an o-line away from likely being 4-0 or 3-1. TT needs to do something there.

by packallday555 on Oct 12, 2009 12:51 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs