I’ve been bitching about the O-line for 2 seasons now. You can’t have the most sacked QB in the NFL & win games; unless of course, you have a defense that shows up….SHIT! We’re FUCKED!

I take that last bit back. No we aren’t. Time to find a way to win.

GO PACK GO!

Until the Packers can get a confident Rodgers STANDING in the pocket, and tough, hard-working receivers getting off the jam into open space, this 2 deep safeties look is going to keep killing them.

I question Rodgers’ confidence in his receivers and his O-line at this point. He’s not throwing the ball when he has chances, he’s looking at the wrong reads, and is being too predictable. Defenses are teeing off right now. Expect more of the same.

Until we see Rodgers get through one full game with a chance to stand in the pocket, progress through his reads, and feel confident enough to let it go when he sees an opening, we won’t see much change I’m afraid.

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

Go Pack.

You got it right, though, neither I nor Mike McCarthy watch football. If we did, we would obviously know that the cure to the Packers’ problems would be to throw it short. It is truly amazing how this coaching staff, unlike you, watches every single play over and over again and has spent their whole life in football, and yet can’t figure it out while you sitting at home can.

That’s a hilarious notion.

The 2 deep defense is meant to take away the big play. True. But that isn’t ALL it does, and there are many variations of it you can play.

The big play isn’t the engine that drives the Packer offense. Passes from 5-10 yards downfield ARE.

It is difficult to throw the ball short against the two deep because the underneath coverage guys don’t have to worry about the deep ball and play very aggressive against the underneath patterns. Anyone who has seen the Bears play defense knows this. It is tough to compete short passes against Tillman and Jennings because they are so aggressive on those routes. It is easy for them to be; they don’t have to worry about getting beat deep.

The special variation of the Cover 2 that gives the Packers problems is that teams have gone to playing man-to-man underneath the safeties even on 1st and 2nd down. Teams know this is a rhythm offense and are set against allowing the offense to generate one.

Anyone can watch the tape. When the Packers lined up in the 4 WR set, single RB, against the Giants, after the snap, Rodgers would see a straight line of 5 Giants all within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. All 5 defenders can legally contact the WRs within the 5 yards AND don’t have to play the deep ball. This makes it pretty difficult to throw a 5-10 yard pass.

An obvious vulnerability of this defense is that in order to match up with the Packer WRs, the Giants had to play 3 safeties on the field with Antrel Rolle coming up to cover the slot. This meant that there were usually only 2 LBs on the field during passing downs, making the Giants, at least tactically, vulnerable to the run.

THIS is one of the reasons why the Packers have been running the ball more, because the defense is having to sacrifice some run defense to match up with the offense. It worked against Arizona. It didn’t work against the Giants or Lions.

The weakness to this defense, besides running the football, is the gap between that first line of defenders and the deep safeties.

The Giants illustrated that perfectly on their 25 yard deep out to Nicks on 3rd and 9. The Packers were in the Cover 2 and rushed just 4, essentially the same defense as has been run against them. The Giants max protected, ran Cruz on the short out, and then ran Nicks on the deep out behind that line of defenders. Morgan Burnett had to stay in his backpedal to cover the fly route, leaving the out open to Nicks as long as Manning threw a decent ball, which he did. 25 yards. Easy.

This is what the Packers need to do to start ripping up this defense. They have the personnel to do it. They just need the will.

That’s probably a cue to stop talking about a defensive game play. then.

And furthermore, I think he’s referring to your assessment of what you think two deep defense actually is. I don’t know nearly as much about defenses as that guy does — but I know in 2 deep it leaves the underneath routes open, especially if you run w/ a 5 WR set — not only is someone going to get a mismatch in the secondary, but nonetheless those short underneath routes are going to open.

I’m still curious as to where your whole 50/50 run to pass attack argument is at here? You were all about running the rock a few weeks ago and saying how when GB ran as much as they passed they were such and such — record-wise (link me to that stat BTW), now your talking pass happy. You’ve clearly changed your stance on that — I’m hearing more about Rodgers and the passing game than am I about the running game from you.