Just seems wrong without Preston Smiff next to him saying "mmhmm...dig..." after his comments.
Apparently he doesn't make rash decisions after two games either.
That said, I don't believe Pettine was the problem. Need to upgrade ILB, need to upgrade the guy next to Kenny Clark.
Defense did a lot to get to the NFC Championship Game.
Did we all forget the 2 games vs. the Vikings? How about game #1 vs. the Bears in Chicago? Playoffs vs. Seattle. The Dallas game (but they did have trouble after Savage went out in 4th Q)
The defense needs an upgrade in a couple spots to get to CHAMPIONSHIP level. Pettine has done well so far & it's not time to get rid of him yet. Proper decision to keep him on at this time.
Would have been very surprised if they dumped Pettine. Defense did play really well at times and in big games... certainly the season numbers were helped by Daniel Jones, David Blaugh, Dwayne Haskins, Matt Moore, Kyle Allen, Mitch Trubisky, etc....
Obviously have to fix the run defense. Packers defense was 25th in opponent YPC last year.
Then the NFCCC game where Mostert went for a record 220 yards and 4 Touchdowns. Read where Pettine stayed in 3 man fronts 78.2% of the plays. That seems criminal.
Still have doubts about Pettine, but have to give him better tools at ILB and DE to fully complete the defense before overreacting.
"Then the NFCCC game where Mostert went for a record 220 yards and 4 Touchdowns. Read where Pettine stayed in 3 man fronts 78.2% of the plays. That seems criminal."
That was almost Dom-like in his response to Kapernick....
Staying in a run defense against a team running the ball?
Three man front is a run defense? that would assume we have talented linebackers.
The players got beat plain and simple. Guys like Lowry and Lancaster were a joke and Pettine put in as much beef as possible. Dom didn't adjust for RPO. Pettine and the players just plain got beat.
One fucking game in a rebuild year and they made it to the NFCC. Jesus.
I don't know how often, but there were sometimes scheme issues. In one, the Packer defender was lined up at the LoS on his right side. He blitzed and there wasn't a player near him. The 49'er left tackle ran upfield and to the right and was at the second level before he needed to block somebody. The RB had a wide open freeway to run through and was not touched for I don't know how many yards. I forget, but something like 10 yards.
It was a play I saw a video of and the writeup said it happened more than once.
That is scheme. But, again, I don't know how often a poor scheme was the issue.
Savage, Alexander and King will be one year wiser, one year more experienced in Pettine's defense, and years 2-3 is usually when the game slows down for them.
That only helps angry bald man and along with it, his D
From Dougherty's chat about Martinez's comments:
Early last season an offensive line coach for another team told me that a weakness in the Rex Ryan/Pettine scheme is that it's not gap conscious against the run, so it can be run on. The defense is more concerned with being disruptive on the DL and getting to the QB, and it just doesn't emphasize gap assignments like other defenses (the coach cited Pete Carroll as being maybe the best at teaching gap responsibilities). So Martinez's comments yesterday in effect confirmed. Playing that way has advantages for stopping the passing game but as we saw can be a big problem if a team runs the ball well. Agreed they have to change that approach or we'll see the same thing against teams such as the 49ers this season.
After getting shit canned in Cleveland Pettine observed/consulted with Carroll and his defense. I'm curious if we'll see the defense evolve more especially after the NFCC run game beatdown.
Like most defenses today, they are schemed for stopping the pass. Teams that can RTFFB break that down. The antidote is to score early and often. See if Lafleur year 2 (in 2021) makes a difference.
Good podcast from Bukowski yesterday about the comments from Blartinez. Basically he states Packers don't value ILB in this scheme as much as other positionsons and all they really need from someone at ILB is someone to clean up the holes in the middle...something Blartinez wasn't able to do very well. Today's pod be goes into the fact a big, fast safety that can cover from that ILB spot may be a bigger need.
IMO Blartinez would have been a better fit if they had someone better than Lowery or Lancaster in front of him.
Not 100% sold on Pettine ... BUT ... to be fair you can't judge a defensive scheme until it plays with a full set of pieces. Packer defense lost it's best hybrid LB (Greene) early in the season and the LB2(Burks) was colossally bad. Failure of Montravious gave Lancaster and Lowry too many snaps. (Keke take next step??). Blark just doesn't have the skill to cover or fill at a high level.
Fixable.
I think the idea of âclean upâ is misconstrued to mean that the ILB just handles anything the OLBâs miss. I donât think thatâs the case at all. It means ILBs are free to attack the ball and arenât relegated to gap containment. Carrollâs scheme flows everything to the Safeties, which is why Chancellor and Thomas were the key cogs in that defense. When they went out things were less cohesive. Pettineâs scheme relies heavily on his DL/OLBs to disrupt the timing of the play and force the ball where they want it to go. Ideally they were forcing everything TO Martinez, which is why he has had such inflated tackle numbers. The problem, and this was magnified in SF, is that our DL couldnât maintain integrity and the misdirection really confused Martinez making him a step slow. In NY, Pettine had two high football IQ players in Bart Scott and David Harris. Those guys were always where they needed to be...and Pettine was free to play cover 2 a higher % of time with 2 FS instead of relying on a box Safety and playing Cover 1. I have high hopes for a healthy Kirksey and potentially guys like Murray or Queen or even Harrison after R1. If you listen to Martinezâs actual quote, itâs not as critical as reporter summaries made it seem. I think he just meant heâs a better fit in a different scheme.
I'm not convinced we go LB in R1 mainly because I think they can address the need in round 2 or 3 with a hybrid S/LB. RT and WR are pretty big needs and I think the drop off between the R1 and R2 guys and everyone else is steep.
I believe we can get long-term starters at RT and WR with our first two picks.
Is that guy out there though? I would prioritize RT over ILB but even one sideline to sideline guy would be a huge help.
Grant Delpit from Bama
Jeremy Chinn from Southern Illinois (don't laugh, dude can ball)
Akeem Davis-Gaither from Appalachian State
All 3 would be physical/speed upgrades to Raven Greene
Delpit and Chinn likely can be gotten in the top of round 2 if Packers can trade down. Davis-Gaither is slipping because he had a stress fracture that required surgery so he won't be able to show anything post-surgery before the draft.
I think Rex Ryan was a great defensive mind. When he was DC at Baltimore and HC with the Jets they had top level defenses - and guess what, they were strong against the run too except for a few outliers, so not sure what that OL coach meant. Maybe more directed at Pettine after he separated from Rex ??
I've said it before, I think Rex was the mastermind and Pettine was his lacky. Has Pettine been successful on his own ? Bottom half defenses in Cleveland and GB.
No doubt Rex was a risk taker, maybe they were able to overcome the lack of gap discipline with back end scheme and/or talent at LB and DB positions.
Don't mean to be too critical of Pettine. Still have high hopes for the "D" and think we are only a few pieces away from having a complete defense. There were some really good signs last season.