Whoa. A rare occurrence indeed. Rock was actually wrong about something related to the Packers. I'm going to have to slap GLAL's nuts as well.
(Rock's "taste" in music is questionable, but his knowledge of everything Packers makes me look like a noob).
"Rockmolder" wrote:
I'm not that knowledgable about anything. I just act like I am.
And my taste in music is sublime, if I say so myself.
And I'm not backing down just yet.
To GLAL...
But you've seen these games, right? Our OLBs opposite of Clay did very little to help the pass rush. Just recall the plays without the statistics next to them. I think they're kind of skewed in this equation. They'll get there once in a while on their own, but largely, they just come up short, regardless of which one of the OLBs we're talking about (outside of Clay, of course).
For the statistics... You have Clay on one side, someone you're going to try to avoid at all cost, maybe double him up. You have Pickett eating one or two blocks. You have Raji collapsing the middle, getting penetration up the middle like I've barely ever seen a NT doing and you have Cullen, someone who excels at rushing the passer from the 5 and the 3 technique position.
Your other OLB is bound to get some sacks, eventually.
Let me first state that Walden actually showed a slight glimmer of hope rushing the passer before he got injured, but he was getting pushed around quite easily in the running game.
But we're not going to get settled on that one, weak as it sounds. I've had this discussion on PP.O tons of times, with Ray Edwards, in my opinion, benefiting from the rest of that line.
Most of the pre-draft coverage had OLB, OT and CB right up there as our top needs. Most mock drafts had us going OLB somewhere in the first 3/4 rounds.
It's not that we can't survive with a solid rusher opposite of Clay, it's just that having a good pass rush covers up so many problems.
And we have that solid pass rush because of some amazing D-line play and the way that Dom schemes around his players. It's just another OLB would make this defense next to unstoppable. I think we'll see a drop of sacks if Cullen does indeed leave, because he makes one heck of an impact on the D-line when he's healthy in the pass rushing department. More so than any other 3-4 DE in the league, maybe.
"zombieslayer" wrote: