Did we show our hand yesterday?

Did we show our hand yesterday on defense? Or was it more vanilla?

I think we showed that we have some people on our team who are scared to death to try and tackle Adrian Peterson. I'm not sure if they are scared to get physical with him, scared of getting beat or what, but it just seems that this guy is in the defenses head. They need to figure something out or Saturday night will be the same thing...

Did anyone else notice Jarrett Bush on the field in the 4Q during an attempted goalline stand? Could that be a sign of things to come? He's not afraid to tackle and there isn't much to cover on that team from a receiver standpoint. Maybe insert him more along the line as the 8th in the box.

I'm hopeful Woodson's return will make a difference.

Also, I feel like a lot of AP's yards came after he was bottled up orginally. We got the initial surge and stop and then he bounced it outside. I think we were not disciplined in staying in our gaps, and in doing so, it created a number of holes that he eventually found. Does anyone else agree with this or am I off-base here?

I completely agree with this. We had him bottled up NUMEROUS times in that game, we just flat couldn't bring him down. Our defense just didn't seem like they wanted a piece of him. They would blast right into the backfield and then they almost seemed startled and tried to keep distance and bring him down that way. That will NEVER work on a back like Peterson. Never.

I saw several packer players literally take themselves right out of a hole or completely out of the play by blowing off the ball too fast (eh ehm calling Mr Matthews) Granted in his case more times than not his explosion is going to be disruptive enough that it will make for a play anyways. But it seemed like minnesota saw something on the tape that showed that we were willing to over commit up field and they were able to let AP exploit that tendancy over and over and over again.

Actually, I think MIN showed their hand playing their best game of the season. They will not duplicate it. Their personnel really doesn't change, so we know what we're up against. Unfortunately for them, we get back Cobb and Woodson (TBC)- good luck game planning for that.

I'm trying to look at yesterday's game as the 1st half and this Saturday as the 2nd. And we're pretty good at making 2nd half adjustments.

And rest assured, Tramon will be/has been "checked" by Capers today.

Edit: grammar

When Matthews pushes toward the pocket there should be someone i.e LB or DB to cover where he vacates. Sometimes there was no one there. Other times they whiffed on AP...or simply avoided him.

I agree 110%. I said the same thing in another thread i created about the lack of gap integrity and overpersueing the defense showed yesterday. Bush does suck as a cover man but you never hear anybody say that he wont try to tackle. The fact that the Queens don't have a stellar passing game or an elite wr which is exactly why i would start bush over Williams the next game. I don't think it would be a drop off as the Wr's for the Vikings don't scare anyone...but we need guy's who wanna tackle.

I would prefer benched.

It wasnt Peterson, it was ponder who kicked out ***. AD can get all the yards he wants but ponder plays a sloppy game and we win.

I also agree about having AP bottled up at times. Look at the times were he was stuffed for a loss or no gain. It can be done. He can not be stopped but he can be contained. There was several times the D line got enough push and was in the backfield. I think Capers went a bit vanilla but not entirely. Look at the first game when ponders sucked at lambeau. We played a lot of man coverage in that game, he had no where to throw to. In this game, there was a lot of man look to zone coverage. there was not a lot of bumping going on. I think Dom turns it up this weekend, Lambeau will be rocking, it will be cold and ponder has NEVER been in this situation before.

I dont think weather will matter in the case of Ponder. If we give up 200 yds again to AP we will get beat because we dont have the luxury of handing it off to a stud back who can chew the clock up and keep the other offense on the sidelines. If they slow Rodgers and the wr's down we will get beat.

We've already given up 200 yards to him twice. We won the first one and would've won yesterday if Ponder didn't have the game of his life. That was the X-factor, really.

I'm confident that Green Bay wins this weekend.

But this is more than an All Day problem. Just look at the other NFC playoff teams. Other than Atlanta (and us), they have great running games too. San Francisco did the same thing when they played us in Week 1. And they have a defense to support them.

The linebackers and safeties need to step up. They're not getting out of the divisional round if they're that soft.

I hope our defense really shows up. We need number 69 to be back there making sure Rodgers is on his back. Wouldn't it be awesome if we broke his leg the first set of downs? Who is your backup QB again?

Didn see it, but it probably says alot about Tramon last night

Our back up is about as good as ponder so I would be worried.

Nice to see some smack talk from the west. I guess that's what happens when you finally win a game against the pack

Classy post.