Packers Defense - 2024

[LombardiTime]

SF is banged up on offense.
Purdy has been limited and may not play (had an MRI on his throwing arm this week and Niners have not disclosed the results).
Hall of Fame LT Trent Williams is limping on a bad ankle and may not play.
Kittle missed last week's game with a hammy.
Aiyuk is out with an ACL.
McCaffrey still not 100% with the achilles.

I'd expect to see Shanahan try and run the ball down the Pack's collective throat with McCaffrey, Guerendo, and Mason.

Seattle held SF to 17 last week on the road.

Would love to see GB hold the 49ers to 20 or fewer points.

[Pckfn23]

[Yoop]

Gary had been our RDE almost exclusively, P. Smith our LDE, simple terminology, and less confusing stuff about who's playing against which OT would have made this simpler to understand.

[Pckfn23]

It was never hard to understand in the first place. Gary has primarily been our LDE. 182 pass rush snaps at LDE vs 54 pass rush snaps at RDE

[Yoop]

It was never hard to understand in the first place. Gary has primarily been our LDE. 182 pass rush snaps at LDE vs 54 pass rush snaps at RDE

this season only, all the talk about O-LT, and O-RT, just mucks up the conversation

[APB]

The bigger picture:

[LombardiTime]

Except for a lull at the end of the first half and beginng of the second half the D beat down a depleted offense.

Holding SF to 10 points and getting 3 TOs is a winning performance.

Much bigger challenge coming up Thursday night.

[NCF]

Except for a lull at the end of the first half and beginng of the second half

It has become problematic. I don't know if I am making too much of it and the results have actually not been terrible, but I have been really discouraged by the clock management at the end of the first half (on both sides of the ball) and too often putting our defense in a position where they are going to have to defend back-to-back possessions.

[BSA]

.
Couple of notes on the 2024 Defense as we roll into Thanksgiving weekend

As of today, the Packers are a Top 10 defense in points allowed, coming in at 20.3 pts / game

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/o ... -per-game

They've also shown a nice progression as they've learned Hafley's defense and Hafley learned how to battle NFL OCs
Their worst 2 outings came in the 1st 4 contests of the year ( albeit vs very talented teams)

The last 4 weeks have seen the Packer defense give up 27,24,19,10 points... showing another encouraging trend

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... b/2024.htm

[APB]

[Labrev]

That is pretty shocking re:LVN.

[musclestang]

LVN to this point is basically a bullrushing beast. He's good at it, he moves guys. But he's often a tick or 2 slow to the QB to get a sack because of it. Doesn't show up on stat sheet and doesn't look all that impressive on the field unless you're focusing on how far he's moving guys. If he learns some moves and his hands better, which I expect will happen, he's going to be just fine.

Maybe it was just last game, but if he ever learns to bull rush with outside leverage and couple that with some feel for QB's getting ready to leave the pocket and gets a spin back to the inside he's going to throw a ton of QB's off their game in the coming years.

[Yoop]

LVN has 2 sacks, 5 (five) pressures, 22 combined tackles, and an FF. The run stop seems good, but Morely's pass rush grades seem absurd. He has to do better shedding blocks and actually forcing the quarterback to reset.

same with Gary, 4.5 sacks, 20 total pressures, 32 combined tackles, tackles are good, but pass rush is on pace with last year and 30 total pass rush pressures wasn't what we expected from him then or now with just 20.

I thought maybe Hafley contain and gap control schemes were responsible for a little less pass rush, but stats point out that these two have not played as well as they should.

[salmar80]

LVN has 2 sacks, 5 (five) pressures, 22 combined tackles, and an FF. The run stop seems good, but Morely's pass rush grades seem absurd. He has to do better shedding blocks and actually forcing the quarterback to reset.

same with Gary, 4.5 sacks, 20 total pressures, 32 combined tackles, tackles are good, but pass rush is on pace with last year and 30 total pass rush pressures wasn't what we expected from him then or now with just 20.

I thought maybe Hafley contain and gap control schemes were responsible for a little less pass rush, but stats point out that these two have not played as well as they should.

It's not a grade. It's "Pass rush win rate *since the Smith trade*". And I don't know how Morley defines "pass rush win".

Gotta remember there have only been 2 games since the Smith trade, so the sample size is minuscule. Van Ness has played a total of 43 defensive snaps in those games, and probably barely 20 pass rush snaps. Mere 4-5 pass rush wins would get him to the 21.1%, and it can be a total fluke. Or it's possible he's picked up his game since Smith left. Too early to know.

In any case, I agree we should have waaaay better pressure and sack production, especially from our premier guys.

[BSA]

.
Packers pass defense is currently allowing an opponent passer rating of 86.6 vs last season at this point it was a 93.7
GB is currently 12th in the league in that category and 12th in sacks per game.

If the Packers can add an additional 1/2 sack per game, it boosts them into the Top 10 in that category

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/o ... ser-rating

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/sacks-per-game

[Pckfn23]

Still my contention that it is/was taking these guys a while to transition to being 4-3 DEs. It's a different beast as they can't pin their ears back as much. With the threat of the run they must occupy the OT to keep the LBers clean. That isn't always the case in a 3-4 for OLBs. It looks to be turning the corner though.

[APB]

LVN has 2 sacks, 5 (five) pressures, 22 combined tackles, and an FF. The run stop seems good, but Morely's pass rush grades seem absurd. He has to do better shedding blocks and actually forcing the quarterback to reset.

same with Gary, 4.5 sacks, 20 total pressures, 32 combined tackles, tackles are good, but pass rush is on pace with last year and 30 total pass rush pressures wasn't what we expected from him then or now with just 20.

I thought maybe Hafley contain and gap control schemes were responsible for a little less pass rush, but stats point out that these two have not played as well as they should.

I'm pretty sure he's getting his information from one of the major analytical sites that do this stuff. I doubt he's watching and rating every play of every player on his own and ranking them accordingly in micro-subsets of weeks.

And, as @salmar80 aptly pointed out, it's a small subset. He could very easily be riding a one-game outlier performance to bolster his performance ranking.

The point of the post was to highlight that, hey, maybe there's a trend starting here that could bode well going forward. Not dissect his overall season stats which we already know to be lacking.

[Pckfn23]

Morley uses PFF.

[APB]

Morley uses PFF.

Figured as much. Just didn't see it credited in his post or thread.

[Yoop]

LVN has 2 sacks, 5 (five) pressures, 22 combined tackles, and an FF. The run stop seems good, but Morely's pass rush grades seem absurd. He has to do better shedding blocks and actually forcing the quarterback to reset.

same with Gary, 4.5 sacks, 20 total pressures, 32 combined tackles, tackles are good, but pass rush is on pace with last year and 30 total pass rush pressures wasn't what we expected from him then or now with just 20.

I thought maybe Hafley contain and gap control schemes were responsible for a little less pass rush, but stats point out that these two have not played as well as they should.

It's not a grade. It's "Pass rush win rate *since the Smith trade*". And I don't know how Morley defines "pass rush win".

Gotta remember there have only been 2 games since the Smith trade, so the sample size is minuscule. Van Ness has played a total of 43 defensive snaps in those games, and probably barely 20 pass rush snaps. Mere 4-5 pass rush wins would get him to the 21.1%, and it can be a total fluke. Or it's possible he's picked up his game since Smith left. Too early to know.

In any case, I agree we should have waaaay better pressure and sack production, especially from our premier guys.

that was mostly my point, we need better pressure from our edge guys, which would also help our DT's, and it is a new scheme, so that adds another degree of difficulty