Analysis: The Green Bay Packers New Defense
by Brandon on Sep 17, 2009 11:15 PM CDT
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Mike Tanier has an excellent article over at Football Outsiders about all the various looks shown last Sunday by the Packer defense. Warning: very technical, with diagrams!
I hadn't realized how much they had dropped into a 2-4-5 formation. LB Clay Matthews and LB Aaron Kampman were playing like down lineman. I had forgotten to discuss how they had used Matthews. He spent most of the game going against former Pro Bowl LT Orlando Pace. He managed to disrupt several running plays to the outside and abuse LG Frank Omiyale on the INT by DT Johnny Jolly.
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2-4-5
I noticed the 2-4-5 formation right away, and was excited to see it. THey played that basically w/ 2 DT in formation and Kampman and mostly Matthews as stand up DE. I saw the potential in that formation when it was mentioned in the preseason, when others criticized it… From that formation it gives you tremendous flexibility in blitzing and isn’t any more a liability vs the run. 2 DT, Kampman a former DE and Matthews a very physical player is better than last years DL after Jenkins went down!
The various blitzes from that formation is almost endless!!!
by Strohman on Sep 18, 2009 12:00 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
thanks for the FO link
That was really interesting.
by shaftr on Sep 18, 2009 12:06 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Awesome Chalk Talk
I love the way that Capers uses an offense’s blitz pick-up tactics against them. All three of the blitzes shown were brilliant in the manner in which they sucker the blitz safety valve (Forte mostly in the last game) into moving outside to create a perfect blitz lane for someone else. That is brilliant. In conjunction with some of the dekes and drops of DL into coverage, I would hate to be an OC planning to attack this defense.
I knew that Capers was an innovator, but he seems to be taking the zone blitz to higher levels of sophistication than I have previously seen. Maybe he has been doing these exact tactics for a while, but I have never seen the design so clearly explained for us lay people. Further, I love how he designs for the specific players he has right now. He seems like he could take a bunch of one-dimensional players and still design a respectable to good defense by catering to each player’s strengths.
Also, I found it interesting that Football Outsiders spoke about the Packer secondary as a weakness, when the consensus among us fans here is that our DBs represent a strength. I wonder which opinion will prove correct— of course, I hope that we fans who believe that our DBs will play well win out!
by NYCPac on Sep 18, 2009 9:04 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
The new role of our secondary is much different from last year
I think Collins, Bigby, Williams, and Woodson all adapty smoothly into the 3-4 scheme. However, the question marks lie with Al Harris and Aaron Rouse. Rouse is bigger, slower, and viewed as a more ideal safety in the 4-3 defense. Al Harris was best used in press man coverage, especially considering he is not that fast. I think we really outta trade Al Harris as he is aging and is a better fit in the 4-3 defense. I’d hate to see him go after everything he has done for us, but we should really consider getting something out of him. Especially since he is getting old.
by Jabooty on Sep 18, 2009 2:41 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
"secondary as a weakness"
I would contend that they could certainly be our Achilles heel. 277 yards put up by Cutler & his hodge-podge of nobodies. The picks were big but a decent qb won’t be making nearly as many bad throws. I am very concerned that a good passing offense could shred us. Especially if we are having to rely on Hawk to drop into coverage or our safeties to go one on one. Hawk looked better against Chicago but still isn’t great in that area.
It will be paramount that our DB’s keep everything in front of them. If we go up against good receivers, they could be breaking out all over like Hester managed to do. Our safeties are physically gifted but neither are known for their football intellect.
We are going to live and die by the effectiveness of our blitzes. This D leaves a lot of holes in the secondary if the rush fails or if opposing offenses guess the right blitz.
by BSGorilla on Sep 18, 2009 6:56 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
We'll be just fine
Yes, Cutler threw for 277 yards but he did attempt 36 passes, and the play where Woodson got burned was like 70 yards. I think Hawk is just fine dropping into coverage. He wasn’t great last year but he looks like a different player in Capers scheme. He did a damn good job on Olsen, and he won’t see many TEs better then him this year.
The defense really plays to Collins, Woodson’s, and Williams’ strengths. All three are ballhawks, plain and simple. Williams is a very good CB. He anticipates well, has speed, and is quick out of his breaks. Him and Collins proved their ballhwaking abilities in week 1. Even Harris looked great in the zone, jumping that slant route, and coming up and making a few big tackles. People are so quick to write Harris off, but the bottom line he is a SMART CB. His speed isn’t great, but it never has been and he has still managed to be one of the better CBs in the league.
“The picks were big but a decent qb won’t be making nearly as many bad throws. I am very concerned that a good passing offense could shred us.”
Decent QB? Some people honestly don’t think Cutler is a good QB which is absolutely ridiculous. They guy is probably one of the top 3 physically gifted QBs in the league, and probably top 10 overall. Keep in mind he did manage to lead the Broncos to a 8-8 record, despite their defense being even worse then ours! (I think they were like 27th in the league) Cutler threw those bad throws because of the pressure we were putting on him. I don’t know if anyone else has played QB before, but the hardest thing to deal with as a QB is pressure, especially when you don’t know where it’s coming from. All the blitzes we we threw at Cutler had him rattled.
I would agree we could get shredded up by a QB, but probably only Brady, Manning, or Brees. It will be interesting to see how we do against Ochocinco, Coles, Henry, and Palmer. That’s a pretty good group of guys, especially Palmer and Ochocinco.
Will we get burned by the big play every once in a while? Ya, we will. But that’s expected. The bottom line is, all this blitzing Capers does is exactly what we need, because it will create so MANY more opportunities for our CBs to make plays, just like in week 1 when they had 4 picks!
by packallday555 on Sep 19, 2009 11:04 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Always evolving...
It seems Capers has done a nice job of evolving his 3-4 to the talent the Packers have. Now it will have to be seen if Capers can continue to adjust to the adjustments other teams make to the Packers new look as well as whatever injuries are dealt to his squad.
So far so good. I tend to agree that this defense is vulnerable to a few big plays, but with better angles and lanes by our defensive backs (as they get use to playing a full 60 minutes), I think these mistakes can be reduced—let’s remember that last week was their first full game.
For the first time in a very long time, the Packers have a defense that has me excited.
"Truth hurts. Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing, but it hurts." - Leslie Nielson
by LAcarl519 on Sep 18, 2009 9:21 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Facinating read…its exciting to see what an innovator this guy is. He is the opposite of McCarthy on the other side when it comes to his play calling. I hope he rubs off a little bit!
by TrevorR on Sep 18, 2009 11:14 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
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