Packer 2022 Defense Thoughts

[Acrobat]

So this is interesting. Personally I have never been a fan of defenses that try to "string out" the run, forcing it to the sideline. In concept it gives the 2nd level time to get there and make a play. In reality, I feel it is too boom and bust. If the runner can get the corner it is a huge gain as there isn't anyone left out there. We ran this type of run defense where I coach and it worked when we had athletes, but didn't when the athletes were lacking. I prefer to set that edge and force everything back inside. To me it just makes sense to force things back to the help. One draw back is that it does hit faster and give the 2nd level less time to adjust.

Does this also help defend play action passes more because the DB don't feel as compelled to fly up the field to help with run support or is that too linear of thinking on my part?

I think you are on the right track, but it doesn't help against play action. Play action would generally only affect those players with eyes on the RB, ie... linebackers. What it does allow us to do is play less zone. It is REALLY tough to spill the running back and play sound run defense without corners or safeties playing run on the edge. In man that's really tough to do as eyes are definitely not in the backfield. At least in zone they are facing the line and eyes can peak. I think it may be the reason we switched after Barry got blasted for playing so much zone.

Sweet, that's good info. Sounds like something that the Packers can adjust based on the team they're facing too.

[Yoop]

I like off man for these same reasons, DB can play the run, watch the QB, and cover from 3 to 4 yrds off pre set.

zone is to restrictive in that if ya leave it to early to make a play it's wide open for a counter play, press man is best when there is no chance of a run.

Dandy Dom the master of nickel defense loved off man

[LombardiTime]

Gary was awesome.

Inexplicable to me that going into a game in which they were facing a backup QB and knowing that the Pats had to run the football that the defense ended up allowing over 165 yards rushing ... with the NE offense being led by a 3rd string, rookie 4th round pick for most of the game.

[go pak go]

Gary was awesome.

Inexplicable to me that going into a game in which they were facing a backup QB and knowing that the Pats had to run the football that the defense ended up allowing over 165 yards rushing ... with the NE offense being led by a 3rd string, rookie 4th round pick for most of the game.

I thought our ILBs really struggled early yesterday. But then the 2nd half it seemed more that their Oline just destroyed our Dline.

[paco]

Gary was awesome.

Inexplicable to me that going into a game in which they were facing a backup QB and knowing that the Pats had to run the football that the defense ended up allowing over 165 yards rushing ... with the NE offense being led by a 3rd string, rookie 4th round pick for most of the game.

I thought our ILBs really struggled early yesterday. But then the 2nd half it seemed more that their Oline just destroyed our Dline.

Lowry has become a bit of a liability, especially in the run game.


But Barry puts out some confusing looks when you know a run is coming. Not putting these guys in position to succeed in the run game.

[go pak go]

If there was any game to play 3 or 4 Dlinemen every play...yesterday was it.

I go back and forth on this defense. Not living to the hype but also I can't get too mad that they haven't allowed an offense more than 20 points in a game yet this year.

[Labrev]

The drop-off at S due to starter injury is worrisome. Our backups are basically just special teams players.

Weird to think we kept hearing about guys like Shawn Davis and Vernon Scott making plays and feeling good about our depth to this.

[Pckfn23]

Gary was awesome.

Inexplicable to me that going into a game in which they were facing a backup QB and knowing that the Pats had to run the football that the defense ended up allowing over 165 yards rushing ... with the NE offense being led by a 3rd string, rookie 4th round pick for most of the game.

I thought our ILBs really struggled early yesterday. But then the 2nd half it seemed more that their Oline just destroyed our Dline.

Lowry has become a bit of a liability, especially in the run game.


But Barry puts out some confusing looks when you know a run is coming. Not putting these guys in position to succeed in the run game.

I would also say he has not been doing well, but to be fair very few are standing up to that kind of double team.

I think you hit the nail on the head though with not putting them in a position to succeed. They are in 11 personnel and we are in nickel with safeties at 10 and 12 yards. Not a recipe for success.

Preston Smith has been a liability in the run game thus far. On this particular play a TE essentially stands him up.

[paco]

Barry better get people in the right spots on run-D this week. Saquon is just a little better than Rhamondre Stevenson.

[Acrobat]

Barry better get people in the right spots on run-D this week. Saquon is just a little better than Rhamondre Stevenson.

Looks like tackling is equally important.

[paco]

Barry better get people in the right spots on run-D this week. Saquon is just a little better than Rhamondre Stevenson.

Looks like tackling is equally important.

Which hasn't been great so far. It's time for Campbell to return to form. And long past time that Savage learns how to tackle. Saw him get bullozed at least once yesterday.

[BF004]

Defense getting results on points allowed. Run defense is a bit of a concern. I get we wanna stay in nickel and what not, but against a 3rd string QB, and team brining in a 6th OL for TE, you gotta go stop that run better, just gotta.

I think this reflects reality, better than average D, pretty good against the pass, pretty bad against the run.

image.png (179.76 KiB) Viewed 143 times

[paco]

The drop-off at S due to starter injury is worrisome. Our backups are basically just special teams players.

Weird to think we kept hearing about guys like Shawn Davis and Vernon Scott making plays and feeling good about our depth to this.

Rudy Ford has been better than I expected at safety. He nearly had a pick there at the end too. He's adequate. But I really don't want Amos down for long. Per his twitter, he sounds good though.

[Labrev]

I thought our ILBs really struggled early yesterday. But then the 2nd half it seemed more that their Oline just destroyed our Dline.

Lowry has become a bit of a liability, especially in the run game.


But Barry puts out some confusing looks when you know a run is coming. Not putting these guys in position to succeed in the run game.

I would also say he has not been doing well, but to be fair very few are standing up to that kind of double team.

I think you hit the nail on the head though with not putting them in a position to succeed. They are in 11 personnel and we are in nickel with safeties at 10 and 12 yards. Not a recipe for success.

Preston Smith has been a liability in the run game thus far. On this particular play a TE essentially stands him up.

Belichick teams have the right idea: exploit matchups/weaknesses. Lowry is not a great run-defender straight up, smart move to run at him.

Every other coach gets so focused on how to win with their system, Belichick just figures out how to beat you.

[LombardiTime]

The drop-off at S due to starter injury is worrisome. Our backups are basically just special teams players.

Weird to think we kept hearing about guys like Shawn Davis and Vernon Scott making plays and feeling good about our depth to this.

Gonna be honest, of the issues I saw on defense yesterday, Rudy Ford in for Amos was not in my top 5.

And, FWIW PFF graded Ford out as the second best defensive player.

I was far more concerned by what I saw or did not see from pretty much the entire front 6-7, other than Gary of course.

While I chalk up the repeated gashing in the run D primarily to scheme, OLB 3-4 is, in my opinion, becoming an issue.

[Yoop]

Lowry has become a bit of a liability, especially in the run game.


But Barry puts out some confusing looks when you know a run is coming. Not putting these guys in position to succeed in the run game.

I would also say he has not been doing well, but to be fair very few are standing up to that kind of double team.

I think you hit the nail on the head though with not putting them in a position to succeed. They are in 11 personnel and we are in nickel with safeties at 10 and 12 yards. Not a recipe for success.

Preston Smith has been a liability in the run game thus far. On this particular play a TE essentially stands him up.

Belichick teams have the right idea: exploit matchups/weaknesses. Lowry is not a great run-defender straight up, smart move to run at him.

Every other coach gets so focused on how to win with their system, Belichick just figures out how to beat you.

Lowry is tied with Reed with 16 tackles, they lead our DT's, Clark has 15 tackles, so why people say Lowry is weak against the run doesn't make sense, it's the best tech he has, NE has a pretty good OL.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/stats/_/n ... ay-packers

[Yoop]

The drop-off at S due to starter injury is worrisome. Our backups are basically just special teams players.

Weird to think we kept hearing about guys like Shawn Davis and Vernon Scott making plays and feeling good about our depth to this.

Gonna be honest, of the issues I saw on defense yesterday, Rudy Ford in for Amos was not in my top 5.

And, FWIW PFF graded Ford out as the second best defensive player.

I was far more concerned by what I saw or did not see from pretty much the entire front 6-7, other than Gary of course.

While I chalk up the repeated gashing in the run D primarily to scheme, OLB 3-4 is, in my opinion, becoming an issue.

Barry likes to two gap and spread the OLB's out wide, why he felt the urgency to do that against a 3rd string rookie QB is the million dollar question, it puts a lot of pressure on the ILB's to fill those inside gaps, and against a decent NE offense, proficient at hooking and holding it failed to often.

[go pak go]

The drop-off at S due to starter injury is worrisome. Our backups are basically just special teams players.

Weird to think we kept hearing about guys like Shawn Davis and Vernon Scott making plays and feeling good about our depth to this.

I have a few thoughts on this:

1. I never felt comfortable going into the season with our safety depth. It was always the clear largest dropoff in terms of caliber player from starter to backups.

2. There is always a cost to everything in the league. We took a monumental shift in team building approach by adding pure STs this year compared to focusing on "playing from scrimmage" and this is your result. Our STs are clearly better but we now hold our breath if #3 or #4 safety goes down.

Long run, it is hard to evaluate how Ford actually did. But when we are healthy at CB, you would hope we could put Dougals at a safety spot and we could keep going.

[paco]

I would also say he has not been doing well, but to be fair very few are standing up to that kind of double team.

I think you hit the nail on the head though with not putting them in a position to succeed. They are in 11 personnel and we are in nickel with safeties at 10 and 12 yards. Not a recipe for success.

Preston Smith has been a liability in the run game thus far. On this particular play a TE essentially stands him up.

Belichick teams have the right idea: exploit matchups/weaknesses. Lowry is not a great run-defender straight up, smart move to run at him.

Every other coach gets so focused on how to win with their system, Belichick just figures out how to beat you.

Lowry is tied with Reed with 16 tackles, they lead our DT's, Clark has 15 tackles, so why people say Lowry is weak against the run doesn't make sense, it's the best tech he has, NE has a pretty good OL.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/stats/_/n ... ay-packers

Tackles is not the best indicator of play good defense. We've had numerous defenders over the years get blasted by this forum and fans in general who put up big tackle numbers (Ha Ha and Hawk to name a couple). Doesn't mean you are tackling them where you should.

I'm a Lowry fan. But he has been getting pushed back far too often. He's either hot or cold it seems. Much credit to the Pat's O-line. But Lowry isn't quite cutting the mustard right now. Hope we see the light come on for Wyatt soon.

[Yoop]

The drop-off at S due to starter injury is worrisome. Our backups are basically just special teams players.

Weird to think we kept hearing about guys like Shawn Davis and Vernon Scott making plays and feeling good about our depth to this.

I have a few thoughts on this:

1. I never felt comfortable going into the season with our safety depth. It was always the clear largest dropoff in terms of caliber player from starter to backups.

2. There is always a cost to everything in the league. We took a monumental shift in team building approach by adding pure STs this year compared to focusing on "playing from scrimmage" and this is your result. Our STs are clearly better but we now hold our breath if #3 or #4 safety goes down.

Long run, it is hard to evaluate how Ford actually did. But when we are healthy at CB, you would hope we could put Dougals at a safety spot and we could keep going.

so then you must agree that players are sliding some buckaroos to the PFF graders to get more performance recognition cause they sure liked how Rudy Ford did, I think we missed ol Rudy on ST's this week, hope Amos is good to go next Sunday.

2. Rudy Ford: 78.4 (Above Avg)