The Pittsburgh and Cardinal game exposed a weakness that the Packers have.. which simply is we can't play zone defense effectively enough to save our asses.
Which forced us to stay with our physical brand of coverage with a couple of greenhorns at CB... now throw in some piss poor communication on the field from the QB of the defense at safety and the lack of someone grabbing hold to the leadership reins in the crunch.
Watch the stacks and motion Pittsburgh and Arizona threw at us.. they had short routes all over the place wide open.. which made Capers drop some of his blitz packages in favor of trying to shore up the quick hitting routes..
All this did was minimize the weak ass pressure we already got from ineffective interior blitzing and made our pass rush very predictable and thus ineffective.. which in turn allowed the opposition to sit on the deeper routes and torched another weakness in half of our safety coverage..
Part of that whole breakdown was some effective game planning from the opposition.. but much of it started to snowball with the fact that Capers, IMO, didn't trust our zone coverage at all (don't blame him) and kind of knotted up the variation that Capers could adjust to..
How to improve that:
> Become more effective in Zone Coverage.
> Get more effective blitzing from the interior backers to open up the packages in the pressure aspect.. the only effective blitz from the interior backers was the cross stunt when he sent both of them crashing.. other than that.. they got zero effectiveness when he sent them.
In the 3-4 you have to be able to get pressure from all 4 linebackers for the scheme really to take off.. we didn't get that.
> We need better communication from safeties (the QB of the Defense) prior to the offensive snap.. read it properly and make adjustments accordingly.. then communicate them effectively.. not the monkey humping the football routine that we seen late last season.. embarrassing to watch that level of confusion.. backups or not. Collins and Bigby were there.. it should be cleaner than that.
> We need the down three to provide some pass rushing push.. I understand that Capers had them sitting run first than pass rush to protect our interior backers (can't get off a run block) but our down three have to been able to get a push to at the very least reduce the depth of the pocket.
> Be a bit luckier in the injury department so we can minimize the drop in the level of play in our depth and reduce the responsibility load upon Collins, who has proven that he is a hell of a safety in play but inside overly effective in making defensive adjustments upon the field.. or Bigby whom over the course of the last two seasons has difficulty just staying on the field. Hell he gave up in the Cardinals game.
> Matthews needs to evolve his game to the next level where he can dial up different combination to rush the passer.. the guy goes all out every play.. he just needs to add to his arsenal of pass rushing techniques than beating them around the corner. KGB lived on the speed rush alone for a couple of years.. if Clay wants to better that.. he needs to become a more complete pass rusher.
> We need Jones/Obi/Poppinga/UDFA bloomer to become a more consistently effective pass rusher from that side.. personally I hold little hope for Poppinga.. but I have great hope and excitement for the other two.
> And lastly.. Dom has to trust his zone calls earlier in this year, year two of deployment of his defense so that we can dial up those calls when the opposing offenses game plan effectively for our pressure bump style of play with space and motion. I understand that zone isn't our strong suit, our guys are physical bump type players.. but we have to be able to at least be effective in zone when we have no choice but to drop into them.
There.. Pack93's thoughts upon the 2010 defensive remedies.. peck away. š
"The oranges are dry; the apples are mealy; and the papayas... I don't know what's going on with the papayas!"