Eric Baranczyk and Cliff Christl's thoughts on Packers' Wildcard Game

Packers Defense Recap: A Solid Performance Against A Great Offense
acmepackingcompany.com
by Brandon on Jan 10, 2011 2:01 PM CST

quote:

The biggest problem came on passes into the middle of the field. Almost the Eagles entire offensive output was on crossing patterns and passes down the hash marks. The Packers play man-on-man along the sidelines, but a zone in the middle. Whether the linebackers weren't dropping back far enough, or the safeties were dropping too far back, it's clear the Packers will need to make some adjustments to prevent the Falcons from exploiting the same things next week. continue

Said that in the +/- thread. Soft underbelly re-exposed. Is there a fix or is that just what you give up when you play 3-4? I read somewhere in an article that that is the case. Oh Dom...?

I think the crossing routes were open because of Vick. When you devote a guy to 'spy' the QB, you lose a guy that normally would be in coverage or rushing the passer. I wouldn't be too concerned with this for the Falcons game. I'm more worried about their balanced attack and lack of mistakes.

quote:

The biggest problem came on passes into the middle of the field. Almost the Eagles entire offensive output was on crossing patterns and passes down the hash marks. The Packers play man-on-man along the sidelines, but a zone in the middle. Whether the linebackers weren't dropping back far enough, or the safeties were dropping too far back, it's clear the Packers will need to make some adjustments to prevent the Falcons from exploiting the same things next week. continue

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I think Don Compers was willing to give up the crossing and underneath routes because the Iggles thrive on the downfield play. They like to go long and get the big play, which can tear the heart out of a defense. If he gave up the underneath stuff, Compers had confidence that his linebackers/safeties would make the tackle to prevent huge yardage. Also, patience to take that underneath stuff is not Vick's strong suit. And lastly, going underneath would also chew up a lot more time by keeping guys in-bounds, drops to a minimum, and keep the score down, as our offense hasn't exactly been clicking on all cylinders lately. It paid off because Vick got impatient on that last throw. He could have spiked it or gone underneath again, but he admitted he wanted to try to hurry up and go for the TD on that play.

Compers's strategy worked, with one huge thank goodness for Bishop on that shoestring tackle to keep Jackson from scoring on that underneath route; Bishop is the undersung hero of the game for that play.

are we certain that DeSean would've had a Touchdown?

I know he would've had more yardage, but on the replay I thought I saw two of our DB's coming into the picture....

Granted, no doubt Bishop made a terrific play and stoped a bigger gain...but i would like to see the overhead view to see what options DeSean had if he had broken that tackle...

that's all

Yeah, the D gave up 9 points when not protecting a short field against the second best offense in football averaging 27 a game. You pick your poison against a team like that and sacrifice a few extended drives to eliminate the explosive play.

DeSean might not have scored, but they sure would have been a whole lot closer to the end zone and that might have changed things a lot.

The middle of the field was exposed for two reasons. One, it was late in the game, if you give them yards you do it mid field to run the clock down. Two, you always have to spy on Vick because you never know when he might take off. This leaves the middle open. Given how the game went it was the perfect way to go. Vick didn't run wild and they didn't hit the sidelines to stop the clock. Good calls all around.

I'll add that at least two of those crossing patterns (from what I can recall) occurred on blitzes that didn't get home.

Thanks Tit!

quote:

Originally posted by SanDiegoPackFan:
are we certain that DeSean would've had a Touchdown?

Certain? No. But watching it again it woulda been ugly.

So if Jackson had scored the Packers would have played way different on their last drive too. 2nd and 9 would have been a pass, not a run to force Philly to use their last time out. We will never know what would have transpired.

quote:

Originally posted by CAPackFan95:
Certain? No. But watching it again it woulda been ugly.

Great open field tackle by Bishop.

Clay was hauling ass on that play and closing the distance from behind.

quote:

Originally posted by ammo:
So if Jackson had scored the Packers would have played way different on their last drive too. 2nd and 9 would have been a pass, not a run to force Philly to use their last time out. We will never know what would have transpired.

I think you have the drives mixed up. The Jackson play they are referring to is the one on the first play of the final drive where Vick hit Jackson over the middle and he was off to the races. Bishop's tackle likely saved a TD.

fans and media need to chill a little.

3 weeks ago John Kuhn was teh next Franco Harris
2 weeks ago ERik Walden was the answer opposite Clay MAtthews
now after 1 game Starks is the packers RB of the future?

come on, these were nice individual performances on a system team built(much like NE) where if one player goes down you plug in the backup and keep executing.

but who know which player will step up from week to week. Its great that we have such great mgmt and leadership where the new guy expects to perform at a high level. I just think this will change frequently without the need to
jack off over 1 guys performance in a certain game.

quote:

Originally posted by WolfPack:
3 weeks ago John Kuhn was teh next Franco Harris
2 weeks ago ERik Walden was the answer opposite Clay MAtthews
now after 1 game Starks is the packers RB of the future?

Who is/was saying any of this? I've never seen Kuhn step out of bounds to not get hit.

quote:

Originally posted by WolfPack:
fans and media need to chill a little.

3 weeks ago John Kuhn was teh next Franco Harris
2 weeks ago ERik Walden was the answer opposite Clay MAtthews
now after 1 game Starks is the packers RB of the future?

come on, these were nice individual performances on a system team built(much like NE) where if one player goes down you plug in the backup and keep executing.

but who know which player will step up from week to week. Its great that we have such great mgmt and leadership where the new guy expects to perform at a high level. I just think this will change frequently without the need to
jack off over 1 guys performance in a certain game.

it's called the "Samkan Gado" effect

quote:

Originally posted by WolfPack:
fans and media need to chill a little.

3 weeks ago John Kuhn was teh next Franco Harris
2 weeks ago ERik Walden was the answer opposite Clay MAtthews
now after 1 game Starks is the packers RB of the future?

come on, these were nice individual performances on a system team built(much like NE) where if one player goes down you plug in the backup and keep executing.

but who know which player will step up from week to week. Its great that we have such great mgmt and leadership where the new guy expects to perform at a high level. I just think this will change frequently without the need to
jack off over 1 guys performance in a certain game.

I get the gizz jist of your post but I don't think TT ball washers were saying the above to that extreme. More or less that it's amazing that he has built (and the coaching staff) such good depth. I do think some think Kuhn is the next Rocky Bleier and EW may be the next Tim Harris however.

But we've all been told to wait all season while junk gets stopped for no gain that starksy was the answer so maybe all the stickiness has some merit.

quote:

Originally posted by Tdog:
I'll add that at least two of those crossing patterns (from what I can recall) occurred on blitzes that didn't get home.

Yep, the big one to Maclin.

The Packers will employ a entirely different strategy to beat the Falcons. Yeah, they have to take chances and blitz and whatnot, but the Falcons play disciplined so we will have to play smart as well.

I also thought they tackled better vs. Philly than Chicago.