I didn't get to see the game, but I heard it on the radio. Hawk's name was called quite a bit. Did Hawk play well, and does he have a future there?

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Well considering that we didn't play a ton of base defense, we played with 5 dbs for the most part.. I think the jury is still out on whether he will be able to handle the heavy traffic when a team forces us to drop into a ton of base with Hawk really and truly playing the middle.

But he was playing more aggressive again yesterday.. more like the Hawk of the first week or two of the season.. he had a bit of attitude about him yesterday.

That was the most interesting part about it for me.. without Barnett on the field he seems more vocal and played a little more intense.. I wonder if it is just him stepping up with Barnett out of there, if is was the added responsibility of donning the headset and making the calls, or if it is something deeper than that...

He and Chillar were on the field for the most part.. they both played very well.

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It was a good test for him,which I think he did good at.Don't know if Saints have another r.b with Bush out they like to pass more and think the d-line will be all over them,our o-line should have another good run game pack is back :icon_smile:

I'm not sure I'm sold on Hawk at MLB. I did think he looked more 'fit' for the position than he does on the outside. Maybe it's the number, but his roaming around reminded me of Singletary a lil bit. He had those wings open a little bit jus waiting to grapple someone an rip them to the turf.


If he succeeds and outperforms even what Barnett did, it'd be interesting to see if Barnett could improve our WLB position in a similar fashion. I think Barnett played Safety in college so he should be able to cover fairly well.

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I was out at deer camp (didn't get the monster buck) so I didn't see the game but it's good to hear that Hawk did well.
I haven't been real happy with his lackluster play up to now.
Hopefully he can build on this game!

It's not that Hawk was great, it's that Barnett wasn't very good this season. With Hawk, you had a linebacker who didn't over pursue and held his own. You had a backer that actually wrapped up instead of going for the big hit. Barnett would over pursue and go for the big hit instead of wrapping up. He was playing way to aggressive for whatever reason.

Hawk was vice versa.

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Zero,

You gotta admit though that Packers did NOT miss a step with Hawk in the middle. Barnett may be the MLB as listed on the Packers brochures but Hawk may be just as good.

At least I thought he held his own. May be it was the scheme that he played in but, I thought he played well for most part.

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I wouldn't mind having AJ Hawk play like Singletary.... but that may just be me 🙂

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Barnett's body is more apt for weak side isn't it?

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I have to disagree a little with you porky, I think in Barnett's earlier years he did over pursue, but this year he wasn't aggressive.

Instead of running into the hole to meet the RB like he did so much of last year, this year Barnett waited for the RB to get in the hole and come to him.

I think the lack of aggressiveness vividly stood out in the Atlanta game, where a RB (Turner, I think) had Barnett solo on the outside, and Turner was shaking and trying to get Barnett to bite. Barnett just stood there, stayed back and waited for Turner to pick the direction and start running towards him.

On NFL Replay they showed last year's match-up against the Chargers in week 3. LT had Barnett in a similar position (outside, solo) and was trying to do what Turner did, shaking to try and get Barnett to bite. As LT started to shake, Barnett just flat out attacked him, and got LT for a minimal gain.

Perhaps it's as simple as Barnett thinking he was backed up on the LT play, and not on the Turner play, which led to the hesitation. But that's sort of the difference between this year and last year, Barnett seemed to lack the aggressive instinct of going after the player, instead chosing to meet him as he came out of the gap.

Hawk was, even in the Nickle LB package, far more aggressive in attacking the line of scrimmage. He over pursued at times too (Z captured one such moment in his highlight video), but it was nice to see that aggressiveness again.

Although I have to say that IMO the past couple of weeks Barnett was returning to that aggressive style of the previous year.

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