Zero2Cool
14 years ago
http://packersnews.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20110109/PKR01/110109052/Oh-what-a-difference-a-year-and-a-better-defense-makes 

PHILADELPHIA If nothing else, the first round of the NFL playoffs revealed the stark difference between the Green Bay Packers of the 2009 season and the Packers of 2010.

A year ago, their defense hemorrhaged against first-rate quarterbacks, including giving up 379 yards passing and five touchdown passes to Kurt Warner in an overtime loss of a wild-card game at Arizona.

This year? Different story.

The always frightening Michael Vick came into Sunday at the helm of a Philadelphia Eagles offense that is among the NFLs best. But unlike a year ago, the Packers are moving on to the divisional round of the postseason because they had the goods to deal with an explosive offense that ranked No. 2 in the league in yards and No. 2 in points.

With the right mix of playmakers, blitzes, coverages and spies, the Packers kept Vick from taking control of the game and then made the clinching interception in the end zone with 33 seconds to play in their 21-16 win at Lincoln Financial Field.

Its tough for teams to score on us, I dont care who they are, Packers defensive end Ryan Pickett said. Vick is probably the worst were so happy to have that behind, hes such a headache to prepare for because he can throw it and run it. We do a good job keeping people out of the end zone. I think were much better this year.

The win means the sixth-seeded Packers (10-6) will play at top-seeded Atlanta (13-3) next Saturday night in an NFC divisional-round re-match of a game earlier this season that the Falcons won at the Georgia Dome, 20-17. The winner advances to the NFC championship game against the winner of the conferences other divisional-round game, Chicago vs. Seattle.

The Falcons are a daunting 20-2 at the Georgia Dome in games started by their fine young quarterback, Matt Ryan.

We feel like we left a lot of football out on the field in that (first Atlanta) game, Packers cornerback Charles Woodson said. We had points defensively where we could have gotten off the field, third-down situations, missed tackles our tackling was probably the poorest weve been all season,. We dont foresee that happening again. We look forward to going down there.

To get there, the Packers charge on Sunday was to make Vick a pocket passer, at least as much as is possible against the games premier scrambler. Though Vick has been a much more accurate passer in his second incarnation in the NFL, hes still at his most dangerous when hes gashing a defense with a big scramble on one play, then breaking out of the pocket and throwing a dart down field to his explosive receivers (DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin) or tight end (Brent Celek) on the next.

A big part of defensive coordinator Dom Capers plan was for the pass rushers to hold their lanes whether it was a conventional four-man rush, or a five- or six-man blitz, and sacrifice possible sacks to prevent Vick from getting outside the pocket. The Packers also did all they could to push the left-handed Vick to his right, like defending a left-handed scorer in basketball. Thats why Capers dialed up several blitzes overloading Vicks left.

Even if youre in the blitz lanes, some of the times (Vick) still can break loose, Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop said. But we definitely made an emphasis of staying in our blitz lanes and not letting him escape left, thats where he wants to escape. Play defenses where we can keep our eye on him, zone. And also being in throwing lanes. The combination of things helped us contain him.

The Packers sacked Vick three times and held him to a passer rating of only 79.9 points, a full 20 points less than his regular-season rating of 100.2 points, which was fourth-best in the NFL. He also gained only 33 yards on eight runs, with a long scramble of 14 yards. That counts as an excellent day against a quarterback who can dominate games with his running.

Capers also kept Vick off balance by varying defensive calls like a veteran pitcher mixing up his pitches. Capers played his nickel or dime passing down defenses virtually the entire game and blitzed regularly but not all the time. He also occasionally deployed either cornerback Charles Woodson or outside linebacker Erik Walden to mirror Vick as a spy, on maybe one-quarter of the defensive snaps.

Its all about limiting Vicks playmaking ability, outside linebacker Clay Matthews said.

While Vick was only able to flash his abilities, his counterpart, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, played a steady, mistake-free game.

Rodgers didnt have a huge day his 180 yards passing was his season low aside from when he was knocked out of the game at Detroit because of a concussion in the first half but he didnt throw an interception and made enough plays to put up three touchdowns. Probably his best was a tough scramble and throw for a nine-yard touchdown to receiver James Jones that put the Packers ahead 14-0 in the second quarter.

The key, though, was the Packers defense being good enough to help make that lead stand.

Vick had a final shot at winning the game in the final 1:45 of the game. But on first down from the Packers 27, he made the mistake Rodgers refused to and floated a ball to receiver Riley Cooper on a go route to the end zone. Vick might not have realized that the Packers best cover man, cornerback Tramon Williams, was the matchup, and Williams easily out-jumped Cooper for the game-clinching interception.

(Vick) just tossed it up, Tramon went up, made a (heck) of a play, safety Nick Collins said, and were moving on.

"Pete Dougherty" wrote:


UserPostedImage
Fan Shout
Zero2Cool (4h) : Jaire played in just 34 of a possible 68 games since the start of the 2021 season
Zero2Cool (4h) : reported, but not expected to practice
Zero2Cool (4h) : Jenkins has REPORTED for mandatory camp
Zero2Cool (5h) : I really thought he'd play for Packers.
buckeyepackfan (5h) : Packers releasing Jaire Alexander.
Mucky Tundra (22h) : (Context: he wants his defense to create turnovers)
Mucky Tundra (22h) : Giants DC Shane Bowen tells players to “be a damn pirate."
dfosterf (6-Jun) : Semper fi !
Cheesey (6-Jun) : This is why I have so much respect for those that have gone through battles
Cheesey (6-Jun) : I can't even imagine what that would have been like
wpr (6-Jun) : "Come on, you sons of bitches. Do you want to live forever?"
wpr (6-Jun) : Facing a line of machine guns 2 time medal of Honor recipient, First Sergeant Dan Daly told his men,
wpr (6-Jun) : Another detachment went into the Belleau Wood.
wpr (6-Jun) : On the 6th the Marines took Hill 142 but suffered terrible losses.
wpr (6-Jun) : It’s time to remember dfoster’s Marine brothers in Belleau Wood. The battle went on from June 1-26. Nearly 10,000 casualties.
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : Nick Collins and Morgan Burnett have signed with the PACK
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : he won't be wearing #12, maybe he will wear number two
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : He will fail this season, should have retired
Mucky Tundra (5-Jun) : Thus the cycle of Hall of Fame Packer QBs going to the Jets and then the Vikings is broken
bboystyle (5-Jun) : Rodgers to steelers on 1 year contract
Zero2Cool (5-Jun) : It's the cycle of civilizations. Get lazier, lazier, softer, softer and vanish.
Martha Careful (5-Jun) : great point. every aspect of society, including art, culture and sports has degraded.
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Green Bay sweep meant something to society about stopping pure excellence. We have the tush push now
dfosterf (4-Jun) : We old Martha.
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : *front four
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : Re frout four, I wish we had some Green "People Eaters" or a fearsome foursome
dfosterf (4-Jun) : *directions*
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Just don't ask him for driving direct
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Jim Marshall was an all-time great DE for the Purple People Eaters. Didn't like him. That's a compliment. RIP
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : ooppppss
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : “Kenny Clark played all of last season hurt by the way and got surgery to fix it in January”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood How much did the injury affect him last fall? “A lot.”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood Kenny Clark said he had foot surgery in January. Injured his foot in opener against Eagles and played through it all year.
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : Golden is wearing guardian cap again. I bet he plays with it on too.
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : All the stuff I'm reading from Lions fans are pointing at his toe; he more or less has permanent turf toe in one of his big toes
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Kenny played through it, and a shame he gets little credit for that, imo
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Big men. I hope it's not the undoing of Kenny Clark
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Probably his toe. Pretty much a great center. Toe injuries are brutal to bigen
Mucky Tundra (2-Jun) : Lions All-Pro C Frank Ragnow retires
wpr (30-May) : It's all good.
beast (30-May) : Yeah, and I enjoyed your comments and just attempted to add to it. Sorry if I did it incorrectly.
wpr (30-May) : Beast I never said Henderson was the salt of the earth. Nor even that he was correct. Just quoting the guy.
Zero2Cool (29-May) : What did you do??
Zero2Cool (29-May) : Whoa
beast (29-May) : OMG the website is now all white, even some white on white text
beast (29-May) : Henderson, who admits to taking cocaine during the Super Bowl against the Steelers, might dislike Bradshaw as he lost two Superbowls to him
wpr (28-May) : Hollywood Henderson said Bradshaw “is so dumb, he couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the C and an A.”
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : Cooper stock=BUY BUY BUY
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : Also notes he’s playing with more confidence.
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : @AndyHermanNFL MLF says there was a time last year where Cooper was at 220 pounds. Now he’s at 240 and still flying around.
Please sign in to use Fan Shout
2025 Packers Schedule
Sunday, Sep 7 @ 3:25 PM
LIONS
Thursday, Sep 11 @ 7:15 PM
COMMANDERS
Sunday, Sep 21 @ 12:00 PM
Browns
Sunday, Sep 28 @ 7:20 PM
Cowboys
Sunday, Oct 12 @ 3:25 PM
BENGALS
Sunday, Oct 19 @ 3:25 PM
Cardinals
Sunday, Oct 26 @ 7:20 PM
Steelers
Sunday, Nov 2 @ 12:00 PM
PANTHERS
Monday, Nov 10 @ 7:15 PM
EAGLES
Sunday, Nov 16 @ 12:00 PM
Giants
Sunday, Nov 23 @ 12:00 PM
VIKINGS
Thursday, Nov 27 @ 12:00 PM
Lions
Sunday, Dec 7 @ 12:00 PM
BEARS
Sunday, Dec 14 @ 3:25 PM
Broncos
Friday, Dec 19 @ 11:00 PM
Bears
Friday, Dec 26 @ 11:00 PM
RAVENS
Saturday, Jan 3 @ 11:00 PM
Vikings
Recent Topics
3h / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

5h / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

7-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / Mucky Tundra

6-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

5-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

5-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

1-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

29-May / Green Bay Packers Talk / Martha Careful

27-May / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

27-May / Random Babble / Martha Careful

24-May / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

23-May / Green Bay Packers Talk / greengold

23-May / Green Bay Packers Talk / earthquake

22-May / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

22-May / Green Bay Packers Talk / bboystyle

Headlines
Copyright © 2006 - 2025 PackersHome.com™. All Rights Reserved.