Here's how Rivers distributed his misery:

Shields: 8 catches; 105 yards; targeted for 4.5 INC; below avg. coverage 2
Hayward: 3 catches; 28 yards; targeted for 5 INC; below avg. coverage 1
Randall: 4 catches; 40 yards; targeted for 2 INC; below avg. coverage 1
Hyde: 8 catches; 85 yards (1 TD); targeted for 3 INC; below avg. coverage 5
Rollins: 3 catches; 23 yards; targeted for 1 INC; below avg. coverage 3
Dix: 3 catches; 73 yards; targeted for 2.5 INC; below avg. coverage 2
Banjo: 1 catches; 8 yards; targeted for 1 INC; below avg. coverage 0
Palmer: 8 catches; 60 yards; targeted for 1 INC; below avg. coverage 2
CM3: 2 catches; 29 yards(1 TD); targeted for 1 INC; below avg. coverage 1
Thomas: 1 catch; 6 yards; targeted for 0 INC; below avg. coverage 1
Peppers/Neal mismatched on Oliver or Leprechaun: 4 catches; 60 yards; targeted for 0 INC; below avg. coverage n/a

Note: 1 completion on CM3 for 10 and 1 on Palmer for 7 were erased by penalty; but are included in grading above.

Our pass rush was quite good. 11 times our rush was substandard and 6 of Rivers incompletions came on those 11 plays and in 2 others Shields had elite, if not perfect, coverage on Allen who caught back to back balls for 38 and 16 yards. In those 6 incompletions no one was near Rivers, he threw the ball away because in his head he counted to 2 Mississippi and got rid of the ball. How can you sack a guy under these conditions? Yet we got 3 sacks and 13 hits. On 3rd and 2 Clay jumps on him in 1/10th of a second, its a success just for QB to throw ball away; but Rivers completed the pass for a 1st down. Rivers was ridiculous.

Guion played a below average pass rush game, but I’m certain some of that was scheme; Pennell played better.

Outside of the offside penalty, Daniels was his usual stud self.

Datone was a 3rd down stud. He forced a FG attempt in 1Q by knocking down a pass on 3rd down; pressured Rivers on 3rd down to force a punt in 3Q; got a sack on 3rd down to force a punt in 4Q; and on 3rd down on last drive he got a TFL.

What is absolutely amazing was with Rivers torching us, normally the front 4 and blitzers will try to get Rivers w/ a pathological disregard for their run responsibilities. Take away each rusher’s longest run the D held SD to 18 for 25 yards. And how many times have we seen in the red zone on 3rd and goal from the 5 we have great coverage and a pass rush only to have a RB or QB run up the middle untouched to EZ? SD scouted that weakness and tried to exploit it twice on their last 4 plays, to no avail.

The D:
Blitzed: 9 times [1st half]; and 15 in 2nd.
3 man rush: 1; and 3
Cross dog zone blitz w/ 96 and 56 dropping into coverage: 1; and 4
Psycho: 1; and 3
And countless variables in coverages.

14 blitzes came on final 4 drives [Punt, FG, Punt, Downs] So I think Capers made numerous adjustments that had success after that initial 3Q TD drive. That 3Q TD drive was aided by a 50 yard Dix bad misjudgment and Green getting behind Clay for a 19 yard TD that took certain glory away from our RZ D. The adjustment that didn’t work was having Peppers and Neal covering RBs in the flat for 60 yards on 4 plays; 3 times on the cross dog w/ Neal and Peppers dropping into coverage.

This D w/ 3 starters missing, enduring 38+ minutes of time of possession, and 92 freaking plays [plus those that did not count due to penalty]; played with gusto to the very end. The depth and conditioning of this defense is unprecedented in my recollection of GB defenses.

The Outsiders have our D ranked 6th!!!!! They adjust for quality of opponent and the quality of yards gained. EG, a 5 yard gain on 3rd and 15 is not worth nearly as much as a 5 yard gain on 3rd and 5; and garbage yards at end of game or half are discounted.

There are several things Capers tried once in 1st half to probe SD’s reaction and then he adjusted in second half. Banjo replace Rollins in 2nd half [w/ Hyde moving to slot] and he played well again. Banjo is a wonderful player to have; we are definitely tendering him I’d expect w/ min [and that b!tch McKenzie better leave him alone].

In this game Banjo was the better S over Hyde, and Randall is a stud. Hayward played great in run support as well as coverage. Shields was not terrible. When Burnett comes back it’s Randall that plays the Nickel w/ Hayward to slot. Hyde is dime slot. And Banjo, Rollins, Goodson and Gunter give us the deepest secondary in the league.