The Packers mostly rushed four today, sometimes three, they flooded the secondary, got three turnovers, and pitched a shutout on the road against one of the best teams in the league.

They blitzed a bit more against the Vikings than they did today, but it looked like mostly four man rushes in that game. The emphasis was on coverage, even on the final defensive stop of the game.

I think the blitz is overrated by fans, at least when it comes to the Packers, who are not a very good blitzing team anyway. If you can get enough pressure with three or four pass rushers to keep the QB from setting up in one spot and scanning the field for a few seconds at a time, you are usually going to be okay.

I started to really hate the blitz against the Redskins, when they got burned several times on blitzes, and the blitz has also made the defense vulnerable to screen passes this year. So I've been very happy that Dom Capers has dialed it down the past couple weeks and let the DBs do their thing. The coverage was fantastic in this game, and there was only one pass interference call (against Chillar). It was just one solid play after another from the secondary and linebackers.

An elite QB on a windless day may have been able to exploit the Packers' D today, but they played the perfect scheme for their opponent and the conditions. They won't be able to do this every week, but when it comes to the blitz, sometimes less is more.

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Depends. I know that isn't the answer you're looking for, Greg, but completely depends.

If it's working, keep bringing it. If it's not, then you got a problem. You might have a situation where the QB can figure out who's going to blitz then exploit that area that that defender would be covering had they not been blitzing.

Ideally, you want to rush four and hope that four can generate pressure. From the little I watched of today's game, it seemed like we could rush 3 and generate some pressure. I hate the 3-man rush as much as anyone, but it was working.

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Good post. If it's effective I don't think fans care too much. Today it was perfect.

You can't beat having great players winning their match ups. If you have Raji, Matthews and Jenkins bringing serious pressure and the rest in coverage you're going to be winning as a D.

I think the problem fans have is that they only see the LOS. They don't see the backfield flooded with Packers covering targets. They see three Packer jerseys getting manhandled by 5 OL and get pissed.

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IMHO I think we're better when we blitz its the nature of a Dom Capers defense.We play better when we blitz more than just playing coverage.I think our players thrive to make a play when we blitz.
The blitz can be overrated and it could be underrated it could go both ways.

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I was thinking the same earlier when I heard several times the radio play by play tell us that "the blitz had been picked up."
However it is not that simple. IF GB can get pressure by rushing only 3 they don't need to blitz. That is pretty doubtful most of the time.
If they don't pressure the QB in some way in some manner they will let the QB sit back there and carve them up. There have been a lot of games in the past couple of years where they sat back in coverage and gave up a lot of yards and points. (Pittsburgh and the AZ games come to mind.)
They need a mixture of both coverage packages and blitzes.

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The pass rushers did not win their matchups, but it was pretty much a draw, and that was good enough with the pass coverage being so good. Pass coverage is the biggest strength of this defense right now. Williams, Woodson, and Collins are all very good, and Charlie Peprah has been better than expected. I've also been pleasantly surprised by Desmond Bishop's pass coverage. A.J. Hawk has been decent too--he made a great play today, jumping up to deflect a pass intended for a receiver who was behind him.

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The loved the Hawk deflection. Outstanding!

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If you can hit Favre, he will throw the ball up for grabs. Sanchez will throw it up anyway.

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exactly. you have to tailor your game plan to the offense. it's alright for us to sit back in coverage with only 4 up front when we're facing sanchez, because he's not going to gash us. when we're playing someone like favre who's going to tear us apart if he has enough time, you have to bring the blitz. so yeah, our defense played spectacularly today without relying on the blitz. but it was against mark sanchez. if we do the same thing against brady later in the season or even against favre after the bye it would probably be a whole different story. capers knows this and he adjusts accordingly

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Huh? Sanchez had only thrown two interceptions coming into this game, and the two he threw today were the result of his receivers having the ball ripped out of their hands. When did he throw the ball up for grabs?

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