Charles Woodson Wins DPOY and Tex's Season Review
by texwestern on Jan 12, 2010 9:59 AM CST
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PrintFirst, a quick update: Charles Woodson has just won Defensive Player of the Year! Now on to my review.
Randall Avenue in Madison became a river of beer at 7:00 PM on Sunday. We all know what happened, so I won't rehash the last play again, but it was a shocking and disappointing end to an excellent season and an incredible Wild-Card game.
As hard as it is to beat a team twice in one season, it's even tougher to do it in consecutive weeks. The Packers had to play the Cardinals three times this season, and unfortunately, the one game that actually mattered was the one that the Green and Gold couldn't pull off. However, as we have been reminded for the last 36 hours, this team showed incredible toughness, both mentally and physically, to make it a game after trailing 17-0 and 31-10. So if there is one thing we can take away from this loss, it is that the Pack showed incredible strength of will to get to overtime.
Not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty proud of my season preview. I predicted an 11-5 record, and I'm pleased that much of my game analysis was fairly accurate. I was disappointed to see my prediction of a loss to the Buccaneers come true, and I didn't expect a sweep either way in the Bears or Vikings series. In any case, the Pack finished right on par with where I expected, but did so despite losing Aaron Kampman and Al Harris mid-season. The emergence of Clay Matthews and Brad Jones helped to alleviate the the loss of Kampman, and a late-season schedule of teams that had few receiving threats helped with the latter. However, the lack of secondary depth is clearly one of the biggest issues facing this team in the offseason (along with the offensive line).
I'll finish my season in review with my five most memorable moments from the regular season. Unfortunately, not all will be happy memories, but in a season like this, there are enough positives to go around to help us all feel optimistic for next season.
5: Clay Matthews strips Adrian Peterson
I'd rank this much higher if we had won the game, but it was Clay's "Hello, NFL" moment.
4: Jay Cutler implodes in his Bears debut
His poutyness introduced himself to Bears fans in the worst way imaginable: throwing four interceptions to their archrivals in the opening game of the season. Naturally, we loved it.
3: Charles Woodson owns Tony Romo
Chuck was a one-man wrecking crew against the Cowboys, forcing three turnovers and sealing the win with that memorable interception at the goal line, jumping Jason Witten's route and keeping it a two-score game with six minutes to go.
2: Big Ben drives a stake though our hearts
I won't dare post the video, because it will only raise my blood pressure more, and I'm still recovering from Sunday. Regardless of the outcome, the Packers played in two of this season's most gut-wrenching and intense games
1: Packers clinch a playoff spot against the Seahawks
Yes, it's a little cheesy, but as the only game I was able to attend this year, this game will be what I remember most about this season. A complete offensive assault deflated the Seahawks, and vaulted the Packers back into the playoffs. The victory lap around Lambeau by Driver, Jennings, Woodson, et. al. is my favorite moment of the year.
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One of my favorite moments this season was one you didn't mention.
In the opening week, Aaron Rodgers executed a perfect play-action fake on a 3rd-and-1 play, and hurled a 50-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings.
"I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."
-Anne Frank-
by Vermont Cubs Fan on Jan 12, 2010 10:43 AM CST reply actions
that was such a great play
Jennings didn’t have nearly the year we were all expecting but it looked like he was off to a great start after that play
Frye is honestly gotta be one of the top 10 3rd Stringers in all of the NFL right now--colbyb
That Was Definitely my Favorite Play
When Clay stripped Peterson. Also, Congrats to Woodson. He is definitely a beast.
Congratulations to Charles Woodson
He was the NFL’s best defensive player consistently throughout the season. Really a pleasure to watch and deserving of the honor bestowed upoun him. What a leader of the Pack.
Dom Capers is a good coordinator...
when nothing is on the line. When the game really matters, you see his true colors.
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Not Really,
I watched him drive the Texans franchise into the ground for four years. He is a good dude, just a crappy coach is all.
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"drive the Texans franchise in the ground"?
Dude, they were an expansion franchise. The ground was where they started.
Godspeed...
Exactly…AND he was the head coach, not a D coordinator…VERY different things there. I could rattle off DOZENS of great coordinators who absolutely SUCKED as head coaches. Its apples and oranges!
Ok I will re-phrase it.
I watched him coach not to lose games. Instead of coaching to win games, which is just how he coached the Packer D against the cards. So his failing as a head coach is the same reason he fails in meaningful games as a coordinator.
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I think you might have a valid point here CFHTim. At one point in the year we had Woodson, Harris, Williams, and Collins. That is a top 5 secondary in the league. Yet we still looked like we were lost twice against the Vikings. I mean maybe it was that we just didn’t know the scheme great but the bottom line is we weren’t play with insuperior talent.
I think Capers is too zone orientated. Woodson was able to succeed in these schemes but he is an unbelievable talent. Harris is much better in man and Williams is too. I also don’t think Bigby was ever able to adjust to the zone schemes and while Collins had a pretty good year even he didn’t have as big an impact as he did last year.
I get we had Jarret Bush and Underwood as our 3rd and 4th guys, but we still had the DPOY as our #1 guy and Williams as our #2 guy. That’s a pretty darn good 1-2 combination, and with those two guys plus Collins there had to have been something Capers could do to help try and cover up or poor play at the nickel and dime spots.
It just seemed like too many times he went into big games with poor defensive gameplans, and was never able to adjust those gameplans as the game went on.
by packallday555 on Jan 12, 2010 5:44 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Our first game in the NFL was the highlight of Capers time here.
He got increasingly worse, the longer he was in charge. You can say that being a HC is different than being the DC, but he was responsible for the defense, that progressively got worse the longer he was there. He also was partially responsible for bad personel moves, bringing in guys he thought could play in a 3-4. You will regret having him in Green Bay in the future when he convinces your GM to take players that won’t be worthy of playing in the NFL.
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tony romo says hi
after Dallas, teams scored something like 11.4 points against us per game until the Cards. Sounds like progress to me.
TT is his own man and he will listen to any suggestions Capers has but he wont nessecairly carry it out.
You are exageratting one bad game with two white hot offenses, chill
2010 White Sox - Benching our way to the playoffs.
Fuck Tony Romo.
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I agree
after next weekend
2010 White Sox - Benching our way to the playoffs.
by blackoutsox on Jan 12, 2010 10:41 PM CST up reply actions
I disagree.
There are plenty of good coordinators who fail as a head coach. Dick LeBeau comes to mind. William, you’re right on. Capers made the NFC Championship game after the 96 season coaching the expansion Panthers. He’s by no means solely responsible for the Texans’ struggles. Could he have done a better job? Yes. But the way I see it, he was given far less to work with in Houston than he was in Carolina.
About the gameplan for Arizona, maybe he thought that less pressure and more men in coverage was the way to go. Clearly, that wasn’t the case, but look at the personnel in the secondary that we had matched up on Breaston, Doucet, et al. It’s not like he had confidence in Bush or Bell or Giordano to cover those guys on their own.
"Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets." - Bob Uecker
Bottom line is...players still have to make the plays.
how many tackles did Dom miss in the game? right…0
"I agree but dont agree"
by juggernaut400 on Jan 12, 2010 1:22 PM CST up reply actions
Why didn't he dial up some pressure ?
His defense was getting shredded, and he got less agressive, and sat back in zone from what I could see.
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pressure is hard to bring on 3 step drops
you can bring it all you want, but it means nada when the pressure arrives after the ball’s already gone.
We didn’t have the personnel left in the secondary to cover their scheme. End of story.
While this is true, I would still rather us throw a bunch of different blitz schemes at Warner in hopes of forcing a bad throw or getting a big sack rather then just rushing 4 everytime and dropping the rest into zone coverage (which he did all game long).
It seems he starts off trying to blitz and if the first few don’t work he goes into conservative mode, rushing 3-4 and dropping the rest into a zone coverage. Qb’s are going to beat blitzes sometimes, especially veteran ones like Warner, but I don’t think just because their able to exploit it at first means we should immediately go away from the blitzes.
In fairness he was put in a really difficult situation after Harris went down. Bush shouldn’t even be on an NFL roster, and Underwood and Bell were both 1st and 2nd year guys. When he only rushed 3-4 against the Vikings x2, Steelers, and Cardinals everyone was on him about not changing it up. If he would have consistently blitzed and it got shredded people would have been complaining about him. It was kind of a lose-lose situation for him but I still would prefer blitz and get shredded as opposed to be conservative and get shredded. I mean our 4 guys weren’t getting pressure fast enough, and our secondary consistently was getting burned..It wasn’t like for some magical reason that was going to change. At least with the blitz there is a chance the o-line is in the wrong protection scheme, allowing a guy to come free and force a bad throw.
by packallday555 on Jan 12, 2010 5:54 PM CST up reply actions
We didn’t have the personnel left in the secondary to cover their scheme. End of story.
Excellent point. Everyone does realize that with Al Harris, Will Blackmon, and Pat Lee being placed in IR the Packers were utilizing their 6th and 7th best options at CB in nickel and dime packages, don’t they?
Godspeed...
You do realize.
That every team has injuries to deal with, building quality depth is hard to do in the era of free agency, but it is possible.
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Every team in every year has injuries to deal with, but to lose 3 of your anticipated top 5 CBs is certainly an anomaly. Five CBs is pretty much standard across the board as far as depth goes. You can’t necessarily plan for losing that much of it unless you want to take the hit on the roster somewhere else in procuring talent.
Godspeed...
RIDICULOUS
Are you frickin kidding dude.
I know you hate the guy cause he was a terrible HC with the Texans but the guys record speaks for itself.
I'm pretty sure I said he was a good dude.
So how you percieve that as me hating the guy, i don’t understand. I just think he has a tendancy to get predictable, and less aggressive when the games are more important.
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They mentioned on ESPN he is a candidate for the Giant DC job. I think and hope it is just speculation because he is much better than other coordinators we have had in the past. I do agreed that he did not blitz Warner nearly enough his game. I don’t care how good Warner or any other QB is against the blitz, they will always be better with 3 or more seconds of time.
I don’t think you send guys on every play but you need to a majority of the time in the 3-4 and from different angles and packages. Make them work a little more than he did.
I don’t care how good Warner or any other QB is against the blitz, they will always be better with 3 or more seconds of time.
Exactly. He approached the Favre situation the exact same way, and it didn’t work.
by packallday555 on Jan 12, 2010 5:55 PM CST up reply actions
Capers
Even if Warner had shreaded a couple of blitz’s he was shreading GB with out the blitz’s. so tell me how much better he would have been after we nailed him to the turf 3-4 times in the first half. like i said he beat us anyway. Having to peal him off the turf would have slowed him down a bit in the second half. By the way. I sold Capers a boat when he lived on Lake Norman in Charlotte. Great guy. We had is Chris Craft done in Panther blue and black.
cpocraig
Even if Warner had shreaded a couple of blitz’s he was shreading GB with out the blitz’s. so tell me how much better he would have been after we nailed him to the turf 3-4 times in the first half. like i said he beat us anyway. Having to peal him off the turf would have slowed him down a bit in the second half.
Exactly, it wasn’t like we were risking making things any easier on him haha.
by packallday555 on Jan 12, 2010 7:40 PM CST up reply actions
How is this not on the list
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCSbmCVe3wo&feature=related
in my eyes, it was the play of the year in the NFL… absolutely ridiculous and considering the stage and how it basically took all momentum away from the Ravens and won us the game… it’s the play that won him the MVP. The Detroit, Dallas, and other games probably didn’t hurt either
by uofmike on Jan 12, 2010 10:04 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
Sorry, but I can't put everything on the list.
Without question, that was a fantastic play. However, I certainly wouldn’t say play of the year…especially with the unfortunate #2 play in my list. And I would argue that Chuck’s INT in front of Witten would be a more impactful and better play.
This is what I love about Chuck, though. Picking his best play of the year is like picking which swimsuit model you’d most want to take to dinner.
"Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets." - Bob Uecker
by texwestern on Jan 12, 2010 11:37 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
even without the INT
in Dallas, I still think we win that game… although it was a sick pick.
That tackle may not be the play of the year… but I think it might be one of my, if not my favorite play I’ve ever seen, just insane how he darted to the tackle and turned his body while jumping to get to Rice
That one is my most memorable chuck play this year.
To be honest I don’t think we win that game if he doesn’t make it.
Also amusing:
Jets fans very worked up about Chuck winning DPOY. While I will agree that Revis may have been more deserving, the vote is not nearly the travesty they are making out to be.
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