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well worth reading the whole thing
quote:
Packers defense studies the read-option
jsonline.com

by Tyler Dunne on 06-10-13

A lack of preparation backfired last season at Candlestick Park. Two players said the Packers practiced next to no read-option during the week leading up to the loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs. Defensive coordinator Dom Capers says Green Bay did touch on it but admitted the 49ers ran more of it than they expected.

Either way, Capers — a coach many fans wanted fired after that 45-31 loss — is taking no chances. The Packers couldn't afford to go into a game that blind again.

Packers coaches first visited Texas A&M. The two entire defensive staffs congregated, diagramming sets on the board and analyzing film. They conversed through a comprehensive one-day visit/clinic.

Aggies defensive coordinator Mark Snyder watched Green Bay's loss at San Francisco. As Kaepernick shredded Green Bay for a quarterback-record 181 rushing yards, a lack of preparation was obvious.

So the coaches at Texas A&M, the ones who face Heisman Trophy-winner Johnny Manziel daily, dissected the offense for Capers' staff. It's simple enough. A quarterback rides a handoff to a running back and decides to give or keep. In the "pistol," the quarterback takes a shotgun snap about 4 yards behind the center with the running back farther back.

Defensive ends and outside linebackers are trained...to rush the passer. To storm upfield. To stay in blood-thirsty, vertical attack mode.

And the option exploits this. As the quarterback slides down the line, a split-second of patience makes those hard-charging pass rushers pay.

The option demands a more horizontal mentality.

"In the NFL, you get paid a lot of money to rush the quarterback — going up the field," Snyder said. "That's what these teams want you to do. That's where the creases, the seams are created for the offense. It's just a little bit different mind-set. You have to take a different mind-set into those games and play a little bit more at the line of scrimmage than up the field."

Such a fundamental change in approach, in muscle memory, takes weeks of repetition. If Snyder saw a read-option team on his schedule, he said he'd hypothetically spend time in spring camp, fall camp and the bye week to practice it.

"Your assignment in the NFL is to rush the quarterback," Snyder said. "In this offense, it's not. It's assignment football. It's more horizontal than vertical."

When outside linebackers coach Kevin Greene met with Illinois State assistant head coach/defensive line coach Spence Nowinsky, they talked read-option. Nowinsky's message was that the option is a progression of reads.

First, read the offensive tackle. Then, the near running back. Then, the tight end.

This third read, Nowinsky said, caused problems for Green Bay...continue
Fantastic article as always from Tyler Dunne. Again, well worth the click.

I'd bet anything one of the two players that said they barely practiced it was Woodson. I wonder who the other was?
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Best line from the article:

"Coaches aren't dumb in the NFL," Nowinsky said. "They're going to defend that and they're going to make that quarterback run the ball and that quarterback is going to be taken out on a stretcher. The people are just too damn good. The defensive linemen run too well. The linebackers run too well. The safeties are bigger than hell.
IMO the zebras will still go out of their way to protect QBs even if they are "runners". Not as pussified as if they are in the pocket, but more than they'd be entitled to as runners.
quote:
Aggies defensive coordinator Mark Snyder watched Green Bay's loss at San Francisco. As Kaepernick shredded Green Bay for a quarterback-record 181 rushing yards, a lack of preparation was obvious.



....I posted as much after the game & was soundly booed by many.
I was kind of alarmed by this:

"A lack of preparation backfired last season at Candlestick Park. Two players said the Packers practiced next to no read-option during the week leading up to the loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs. Defensive coordinator Dom Capers says Green Bay did touch on it but admitted the 49ers ran more of it than they expected."
I said this after the playoff game, having film will be the biggest advantage to dissecting this monster. There's so much information that can be gathered from dissecting film that really not having a ton of film before that game was a huge disadvantage. Harbaugh played that absolutely perfect, but the cat is out of the bag now. Capers has spent an offseason dissecting the whole thing and the players have spent an entire offseason stewing...I anticipate a rude awakening for that punk Kaepernick. Bishop is back and hungry, Datone adds a new element, Neal is becoming more versatile, Perry (a strong run defender) is back and more knowledgeable, etc. Oh and Clay Matthews is looking for payback.
quote:
Originally posted by Boris:
using the quote feature in this situation was probably unnecessary


...I still think there is a place for the running QB. The obvious advantage is that by having the QB run, it enables the offense to have one more blocker. Funny how football around 1900 was a game of the QB running the ball, no huddle, get off as many plays as quickly as possible to wear out the defense. Everything goes in cycles. However, as many have pointed out, the gamble is the QB injuries it could produce.
Last edited by "We"-Ka-Bong
currently reading about the formation of the Packers and early 1900's football. prior to creating the QB position, the typical game plan was to run the ball well enough to get in position to punt so it was fielded inside the 20 and hope to cause a fumble during the punt return so you were close enough to kick a FG since TDs were rare and difficult. this was back when the ball was larger and more egg shaped and difficult to hold on to when running and being tackled, and almost impossible to pass. your best bet was to punt it deep and hope to get in field position for a FG by causing a TO.
One of my favorite early Packers stories.

quote:

RIOT THREATENED AT BELOIT-PACKERS GAME; BELOIT WINS
An off-side played called by the head linesman on a Green Bay play just as the Packers shoved across a touchdown and tied the score, gave one of the most hotly contested football games ever seen in this vicinity to Beloit at Fairbanks-Morse field yesterday afternoon by a score of 6 to 0. Cries of derision were heard all over the sidelines from the spectators when the penalty was called. For a time, with the 2,000 spectators surging over the field toward the two teams and the referee, it appeared that a riot would be In progress, but the players of both, teams forced the crowd back. The Green Bay players had carried the ball by a series of line plunges through the Beloit line, gradually worked it down the field until they reached their own five-yard line. Beloit then stiffened, threw up a stone wall, and fought back, but though they were heavier than the Bay boys, Beloit couldn't hold. Foot by foot, Green Bay pushed onward until they over the line. The joy of the Packers and their rooters were soon dampened, however, when the linesman ran onto the field to inform the referee that a Green Bay player had been offside. When the ball was taken back, Green Bay tried some running, but it was forced into a criss cross sprint and then the referee penalized the visitors again, this time for an out-of-bounds' play. A beefing match then followed with the referee and the captain of the Green Bay team, chewing the fat over the rule book, and the discovery that the referee was using a 1918 set of rules. Beloit made its points In the end of the second quarter, when after the ball had successively been carried from one sector to the other, neither team seeming to have any advantage over the other. Beloit had won its fourth down and kicked, sending the ball to the 20-yard line. Then began a series of pushes, by which the spheroid was slowly advanced. The Packers endeavored to hold; they made the Line City men fight for every gain; but with 50 seconds to go, Scheibel of Beloit just squeezed over when the gun sounded, ending the quarter. Beloit missed the kick; the ball not rising more than two feet from the ground. The balance of the game was like the first period, constant harrying from one territory to the other, neither team seeming to have much advantage over the other. The advantage, however, seemed to be with the Green Bay boys, who managed to get more chances at their goal, and especially in the final period kept the ball almost entirely within their own land. It was rumored after the game that the Green Bay Packers offered to play Beloit again on a neutral field for a side-bet of $5,000, and would get Walter Ekersall, the famous football authority, to referee the game. About $5.000 was up in bets on the results of yesterday's game, and many Green Bay backers lost.


I read elsewhere that during this game the Beloit fans crossed the field arm-in-arm to assist in defending the Packers from advancing!


Something was certainly up with this game...

Week  Date            Opponent                           Results
                                                         Final score    Team record
1     September 14    North End A.C.                     W 53–0         1–0           Hagemeister Park
2     September 21    Marinette Northerners              W 61–0         2–0           Hagemeister Park
3     September 28    New London                         W 54–0         3–0           Hagemeister Park
4     October 5       Sheboygan Company C                W 87–0         4–0           Hagemeister Park
5     October 12      Racine Iroquois                    W 76–6         5–0           Hagemeister Park
6     October 19      at Ishpeming                       W 33–0         6–0           Ishpeming, MI
7     October 26      Oshkosh Professionals              W 85–0         7–0           Hagemeister Park
8     November 2      Milwaukee Maple Leaf A.C.          W 53–0         8–0           Hagemeister Park
9     November 9      Chicago Chilar A.C.                W 46–0         9–0           Hagemeister Park
10    November 16     at Stambaugh Miners                W 17–0        10–0           Stambaugh, MI
11    November 23     at Beloit Fairies/Professionals    L 0–6         10–1           Beloit, WI
in the 1921-22 time period, Lambeau paid three of Rockne's college players to play in a game for the Packers being held in southern Wis. The Packers had just joined the AFPA and it was agreed that teams should not use college players but I guess most team's fudged the rules on that except supposedly Halas's Decatur Staleys. Notre Dame's football season was over so the players didn't see why they shouldn't but Rockne found out and they weren't allowed to play any college sports at Notre Dame anymore.

But the funny thing to me was that people were clamoring to have the Packers kicked out the AFPA citing their use of college players and that Green Bay was such a small market team it would never make it anyway. But it was pointed out that the GB fans travelled to see their team incredibly well whereas hardly any fans of other teams travelled to see their teams on the road.

some things never change!
every time kaepernick got hit after the handoffs in the playsoff (not gb of course) and super bowl he would turn to the refs and cry for a flag. Big turd is going to have that **** eating grin whiped off his face this year. I can't wait. Hopefully he gets his face planted in the turf in game one.
I don't know what makes people think SF is going to run the same RO plays vs. GB and the rest of the league as they ran in the playoffs. They'll have counters in place just like the opposing D's will. CK is a decent pocket and running thrower so they have more tools in their shed as well.

I certainly think we'll be better prepared this go around for reasons many have mentioned but I'm sure we'll see more wrinkles out of them too.
quote:
Originally posted by Grave Digger:
He also got a taunting penalty and generally acts like a sore winner. He's young and he needs to learn how to be professional.


I've never noticed anything like that. He kisses his biceps or something like that...maybe that is what you mean. Seems like a very mature young player to me so far...
quote:
Packers go back to school to learn how to defend the read-option
yahoo.com

by Doug Farrar on 06-11-13

The Packers have an additional handicap in that their cornerbacks play a high percentage of tight man coverage, in which the defender turns his back to run with his receiver. As a result -- and this happened over and over in the 49ers game -- the running quarterback has a distinct advantage at the second level, because his potential tacklers have to turn back, adjust, and pursue. You give a guy as fast as Colin Kaepernick that much time, and you get what the Packers got. continue
I'd like to say the article is worth a click but it seems like he just re-worded Tyler Dunne's earlier piece.
quote:
Originally posted by Tdog:
currently reading about the formation of the Packers and early 1900's football. prior to creating the QB position, the typical game plan was to run the ball well enough to get in position to punt so it was fielded inside the 20 and hope to cause a fumble during the punt return so you were close enough to kick a FG since TDs were rare and difficult. this was back when the ball was larger and more egg shaped and difficult to hold on to when running and being tackled, and almost impossible to pass. your best bet was to punt it deep and hope to get in field position for a FG by causing a TO.


What year were capital letters at the beginning of sentences invented?
quote:
Originally posted by PackFoo:
Best line from the article:

"Coaches aren't dumb in the NFL," Nowinsky said. "They're going to defend that and they're going to make that quarterback run the ball and that quarterback is going to be taken out on a stretcher. The people are just too damn good. The defensive linemen run too well. The linebackers run too well. The safeties are bigger than hell.


Spence is a good guy and a respected coach. Was lucky enough to have him at our house when he recruited my youngest son. As is apparent in this article, he says what he thinks.

Grave Digger and others honorably defended Capers and blamed the talent, but Capers should have been embarrassed at how ill-prepared the Packers defense was that day. I think Walden is still in full pass rush mode and Brad Jones is diving inside to tackle Gore (without the ball) while the gangsta QB runs untouched.
I have a feeling that won't happen again.

Even if it does a few times, I have a better feeling AR and the boys are going to unleash hounds the likes the NFL hasn't seen from the Pack in years.

They won't. The Niners might use it a little bit but we'll need to stop the run with Gore & whoever else. We'll also get to see how well Kaep can read a defense. But since we have the Redskins in game #2, I understand why all the work on the read option.

 

TBH, If the Packers offense shows up, I don't think the Niners can stop us. Even without Bulaga

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