Chargers had 7 20+ yard passes (and another 2 that went 19 yds). 3 in the 1Q, 1 in 3Q, 3 in the 4Q. 19 yd completions were 3Q & 4Q.

Total yards/Q:
170 yds 1Q (2 TDs); 29 yds 2Q (1 FG); 84 yds 3Q (1 TD); 172 yds 4Q (2 TDs).

Outside of the turnovers, we stopped them twice and made them punt. 3 times, if you include the FG. The ther 5 drives, they scored TDs.

Too many guys getting wide open in the secondary, and too many guys getting wide open behind everyone in the secondary.

On the plus side, we're 1/2 through the season and have 8 more games to straighten things out before the playoffs.

Originally Posted by: macbob 

Sacks are not as important as pressure. They are getting a lot of pressure. That is forcing a lot of interceptions. We are not bad in sacks. Kind of middle of the NFL. But we are around the top in pressure.

I think a lot of the problem is perception. Not actually a problem.

When the Opponents come out with a scripted drive that is designed to exploit Capers scheme and jumps out to an early lead, even when we followed that up with a gaff that cost us even more points given up. The D shuts down the opponents long enough to not only get us back, but pull ahead by 2-3 scores. Sometime more than a 21 point turn around. We go into the second half pulling away and end up in prevent with a big lead.

I think a lot of the yards and points given up are after they have that huge lead.

The D seems to be able to step up and shut down opponents when they have to. Like the end of the Charger game when the O couldn't run out the clock on back to back possessions. The D stepped up and got a critical stop and a pick on back to back possessions.

If the D is under pressure more, they probably put up a lot better numbers. But I would prefer a D that is ranked in the middle of the NFL in scoring if it means we are always playing with a big lead.

Originally Posted by: Dexter_Sinister 

While I love int and turning them into a pick 6 I am genuinely concerned when the team leans too heavily on them.

Originally Posted by: wpr 

Do they rely on them or benefit from them?

I do agree with the notion the Packers defense is high risk, high reward. I also think the Packers defense has scored the most points thus far, right? (speculation on my part).


One example I can think of ... if Tramon Williams misses the ball on that pick six, that's a helluva huge gain for the offense.


I do think the Packers defense will get better in the coming weeks and finish strong. Maybe I'm being naive, but I am thinking the biggest problem is poor communication in the secondary. I've seen Tramon go to Peprah a few times an give an expression that says 'wtf dude, what happened to you?'.

Charles Woodson thinks the Packers can and will go 19 - 0. He has faith ... I'm sort of blindly putting my faith in his hands, lol.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

How about the other 7 games. One example doesn't prove or disprove anything.

Originally Posted by: Dexter_Sinister 

Sure. The other 7 games. Packers D is giving up an AVERAGE of 400 yds/game (OK to be fair, it's 399.6 yds/game), even with stopping the opponents 16 times with INTs over 8 games.

To give some perspective to those numbers, here's the yds/game of the WORST D in terms of total yds for the past years (as far back as I could easily go on ESPN):

2010 - Den 390.8
2009 - Det 392.1
2008 - Det 404.4
2007 - Det 377.6
2006 - Ten 369.7
2005 - SF 391.2
2004 - NO 383.8
2003 - Atl 381.8
2002 - KC 390.5

The only team with a worse yds/game over that period were the 0-16 Lions in 2008. This year, we've got some company, but it's company that I'd rather not be keeping: Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, and New England (with the last two giving up over 400 yds/game).

It's not just the yardage. It's the wide open receivers, the too-frequent lack of over-the-top help that the CBs were expecting from the safetys.

My focus is repeating in the SB. Anything else (19-0) is gravy. So, does the D need to step it up this week/next week/next week? Not in my opinion. We've got 8 games to fine-tune the D, and as long as the D is hitting on all cylinders by the playoffs we'll be very hard to beat.

Originally Posted by: macbob