On Punches, Late Finishes, The Pass Rush, and The Pass Defense

Here's my commentary on several links to stories about the Green Bay Packers I read over the weekend.

Dirty Laundry: Charles Woodson's punch - NFC North Blog - ESPN. I hadn't written anything about the punch that had Sean Payton calling for his ejection, but I read this essential point last Thursday night. It's a judgment call, and the ejection is not automatic. Kevin Seifert cut-and-paste some of the rules and focused on "the entire action." Apparently the ref didn't see everything leading up to the punch. Another ref might have called it different.

Cardiac Pack Picks Up Where They Left Off | Cheesehead TV. I swear the Packers led the entire game, but it always felt like the Saints were on the verge of coming back. And they almost made it all the way back. Every game is different and it never seems like it's the same thing every week (except the special teams, non-Randall Cobb edition, which always seems to struggle but isn't always the main problem).

Packers Video: The Agony and the Ecstasy - A.J. Hawk Interference and Packers Goal Line Stop | AllGreenBayPackers.Com. Speaking of the last minute comeback. It was hard not to call interference on Hawk, he was airborne over the receiver's shoulders, even if he wasn't in contact with him. My only criticism was that Hawk didn't need to jump over. It looked like he could have jumped in front and knocked the pass away. Of course, everything is going so fast that I'm sure he didn't have time to think, and he could only react instinctively.

Green Bay Packers news | Green Bay Packers DE Jarius Wynn helps make up for absence of Mike Neal | Green Bay Press Gazette. I've always been a fan of his because he showed some early pass rush skills as a rookie back in 2009. And I'm fine with him as their DE Cullen Jenkins replacement, if Neal disappoints again this season, because Wynn has added some hustle to his game since late last season. He finished last Thursday with a solid stat line of 4 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for a loss, and 1 QB hit.

Packers' special teams, defense know there's room to improve - JSOnline. Obviously the kick and punt coverage needs to improve (again), but Capers said "I thought we had good pressure on him." He's right. They had 3 sacks and 6 QB hits. They even had a high number of pass defenses (seven), but Drew Brees still torched them for over 400 yards. I give Brees a lot of credit for playing like the MVP caliber QB, and I won't criticize the Packers pass defense yet. I'll wait and see how they bounce back next week at Carolina.