I thought the defense played solid in the regular season, but just fell to pieces against the Cards in the playoffs.
Other than CM3, we really had no pass rush. The Packers need another OLB that can pressure the QB. I hope Brad Jones can fill this role, but am not convinced he is the guy.
I really think Tramon Williams will beat out Al Harris as the starter opposite Woodson. The Packers have no solution for RB & TE running over the middle of the field, and this has been an ongoing dilemma for at least 7-8 seasons.
Nickle back is another weak spot that has not improved in 5 or o seasons. How is Jared Bush still on the Packers. With all the cap money GB has, they could not find 1 player in 4 years better than Bush!??!
I'm more concerned with the talent on the defense than the scheme or coach
"dhpackr" wrote:
Woodson - Harris - Williams - Lee - Blackmon - Bush - Underwood.
If you go into your season with the depth chart looking like that, you're not expecting to have Bush in a nickel role. I can not think of a single team that has a nickel caliber CB 6th on their depth chart.
I agree with you on the OLB part. I might've mentioned before that I'd like a DE/OLB in this draft. This defense will be so much better with a real pass rusher opposite of Matthews.
I think that the way we're getting abused over the middle is pretty bad, as well. It's a problem I've seen with Arizona's and Pittsburgh's defenses, as well. I don't know exactly what's going wrong, but there's always a gap between our ILBs in coverage and our safeties.
Especially Bigby seems to lack the range to cover the middle pretty often. Hawk looks horribly slow. Barnett doesn't look like a real cover guy, either.
Apparently, Chillar wasn't the option either, as he barely even played against the Cardinals in the play-off game.
I like what Dom did. I was calling for a 3-4 D before the season. I was thrilled when we hired Capers and went after Nolan. The thing I expected to happen was that our pass defense would've been a lot better. Mainly with the rumors about playing nickel and dime packages with 4 linemen. Having Kampman put his hand on the ground.
Jenkins - Jolly - Pickett - Kampan looked like a line that could generate some pressure. Heck, that same line made our defense one of the best in the league in 2007.
Instead, our rushing defense went from horrible to great. That was a pleasent surprise. Still, I think that you can win it all with the 1st ranked pass defense and the 15th ranked rush defense. It'll be pretty hard to win with the 1st ranked rush defense and 15 ranked pass defense.
Dom did a great job with the guys he had available. That one OLB will make our pass defense so much better.
And I'm not giving up on the psycho defense just yet. Matthews - Barnett - Bishop - Jones - (Rookie) looks like an awesome line-up at the LB position for that formation. Maybe put in Chillar to get some extra coverage skills out there.