GREEN BAY As the father of six kids ranging from 8 to 21 years old, Joe Philbin has reviewed his share of homework over the years.
But as the Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator and the rest of the coaching staff particularly head coach Mike McCarthy, defensive coordinator Dom Capers and special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum were picking up the pieces following Monday nights dispiriting 30-23 loss to Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings at the Metrodome, it was one particular assignment that sprung to Philbins mind Tuesday.
My son, they asked him a question in school, What do you do when an obstacle comes your way? Philbin said, one day after the Packers offense rolled up 424 yards but had just 16 points to show for its efforts, in part because of the eight sacks quarterback Aaron Rodgers endured. It was a full-length essay question, and he answered it, Dodge em. And he spelled it D-O-D-G-E-M. Needless to say, he was not on the deans list that semester.
So Im going to take a page from him. Theres no magic to this game; theres no simple answers, either. Eight sacks, thats a lot of sacks. We had a bunch of yards and 16 points. This games about scoring points. You go 81 yards, you get nothing; you turn the ball over twice on their side of the field.
I dont think its a total woe-is-us attitude. We know what the problems are. We need to work to get them corrected quickly.
Theyd better, since theyre entering their bye week with a 2-2 record and looking nothing like the playoff-caliber team most expected them to be this season. While the players will come in on Wednesday to watch film, they have Thursday through Sunday off and will return to practice Monday.
When they do, they have plenty of work to do.
On offense, both the offensive line and Rodgers, who held onto the ball too long on at least two of the eight sacks, will have to work through their protection problems. Rodgers has been sacked 20 times through the first four games, the most a Packers quarterback has suffered since the NFL started keeping individual sack statistics in 1963.
Their problems were encapsulated on a tone-setting turnover on first-and-10 from Minnesotas 24-yard line on the Packers opening possession Monday night. Rodgers held onto the ball too long on a three-step drop and tackles Daryn Colledge and Allen Barbre didnt execute their blocks properly, leading to Vikings defensive ends Jared Allen and Bryan Robison to sack Rodgers and force a fumble, which Chad Greenway recovered.
Thats a basic play, Football 101, the first drop-back pass we put in. Its a simple play. Youve got a million reps in it. Its frustrating, Philbin said. I think both parties (were at fault). Could we have gotten it out quicker? Yeah, I think we couldve. Should we have blocked it better, with both tackles? Absolutely.
Its frustrating.
The offensive line could get a lift when the Packers return to game action Oct. 18 against the Detroit Lions if veteran left tackle Chad Clifton, who has missed the last two games with a sprained ankle suffered against Cincinnati on Sept. 20, returns. While Clifton may not have shut Allen out Monday night, he probably wouldnt have given up 4.5 sacks, either.
Your left tackle has to block the Jared Allens of the world. That's the way we're designed, said McCarthy, whose team is also poised to re-sign veteran right tackle Mark Tauscher.I think it will definitely help. But it's just not one guy. It's really the combination of some of the things in the protection unit that we need to do a better job of, and frankly, some of it falls on the quarterbacks decisions and his time clock.
But the offensive problems go beyond protection. Receivers dropped three more passes including tight end Donald Lees drop of a would-be touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line with 2:12 left in the third quarter and the Packers down 14 points running the Packers league-leading total to 13. And while halfback Ryan Grant gained 51 yards on only 11 carries, Philbin felt he left some yards on the field again.
Were dropping too many balls. Were not protecting well enough. Were not breaking enough tackles when were running the ball. You cant point to one position on this offense where you can say, Those guys are humming. Theyre rolling, Philbin said. The last two weeks, weve gotten over 400 yards both weeks, but were not scoring enough points.
Weve got to play consistently better. Theres too much up-and-down in our offense. Its hard for us to really play with the rhythm and tempo we want to play with the way were playing right now.
Then theres the defense, and veteran cornerback Charles Woodsons pointed criticism of both general manager Ted Thompsons personnel moves and Capers decision not to call more blitzes against Favre (24 for 31, 271 yards, three TDs) on Monday night.
After watching Derrick Martin blow two coverages against the Vikings, Woodson questioned Thompson for releasing safety Anthony Smith (The decision to get rid of a guy who knows this defense in and out and made plays for us in the preseason thats a big dent in this defense), then questioned Capers failure to go after Favre (I dont see why we dont throw the kitchen sink at him, instead of just sitting back ... To run a lot of different things during the week and in the game not get them called, its a little frustrating).
Asked if he might have a problem on his hands with Woodson being so outspoken, McCarthy replied: I don't think I have a problem at all. I have talked to Charles about Anthony Smith, and I'll say this about Charles Woodson: He's as competitive as a player that we have not only on our football team but probably in the National Football League. I'm sure that a lot of that was emotionally driven. These are things that are talked about. I don't ever shy away from an opinion that does not agree with mine. Every decision we do make here is obviously with a lot of thought. I don't think we have an issue.
While McCarthy acknowledged that, after Favre beat a couple of blitzes early, Dom was hesitant at times to probably go back to that, Capers said his decision not to blitz more was because of his focus on stopping running back Adrian Peterson, whom the Packers held to 55 yards on 25 attempts.
We were concerned about big plays in the running game, and their biggest play there was 12 yards, Capers said. If youd have told me going into the game that theyd have 30 rushes for 63 yards and 2.1 a rush, I would take that. Now, what I would like to see us do is be able to disrupt the passing game more and be able to get off the field on third down better. Our priority was to stop the run, we made a big commitment there and we accomplished that. When you do that, you also want to be able to play the pass and not give up the big pass play, and we ended up, I think we had four pass plays that accounted for 122 yards of their offense.
We pressured a little bit early and forced some quick throws early, and then they hit a couple in there on us. And it was obvious that their game-plan was going to be protection conscious and to throw the ball quick, to try to avoid our pressure. You have to make a decision. Because if you decide youre going to come after them every down to try to prove a point, youre probably going to have some big runs coming out of there if theyre handing the ball off to Peterson and youve got everybody up the field.
As for Woodsons criticism, Capers chalked it up to run-of-the-mill player frustration and said he wouldnt take it personally.
Pressures an interesting thing. Ive never been around a defensive player yet that wouldnt like to pressure every down, Capers said. But we spend a lot of time looking at the success and failure of all these things. Its kind of a risk-reward thing, and there are certain times when you feel more comfortable bringing pressure than other times. I would love to pressure every down, but I dont think its the wisest thing to do.
Weve played four games. You go back and critique what was good, what wasnt so good, what areas you feel you need to improve in. So well critique everything that weve been doing and see what we need to add or delete moving forward.