all about da packers said:
Journal Sentinel writer Greg Bedard was with the Dolphins during the time Bates was their DC, so it should be interesting to see if he has any articles out that analyze the Broncos D, looking at how prevalent Bates style is in what the Broncos are running.
It'd make for an interesting read to see what, if any, changes might have been employed by Bates compared to what he did during his sole season with the Packers.
I wrote about this today - I can't believe there hasn't been more pub about this - The Broncos spent the bye week junking Bates' system and went back to the scheme they ran last year, plus they added a lot of Tampa-2 to the defensive calls - which is exactly what you didn't want to hear if you're a Packer fan...
Scrapping Bates system or not, a couple of things I seen last night is the key beating the Broncos..
1) The interior of the defensive line is soft, which may force them to play the linebackers up if we can run at all between the tackles.
2) With the speed of their Lbers and the aggressiveness of the DE, running outside on them might be tough sledding..
3) attack the center of the field between 10 and 20 yards.. it was open all day with the tampa two they were running last night. Lynch is still smart but can't run like he used to.
4) In the redzone and for the fact, playaction this team to death, they are very aggressive in the front 7 getting up field.. even if we can't run the ball it will slow up the DE a little.. I see Cliffy having a tough day with the speed they have on the edges.
Keys to containing their offense...
1)Stopping their offense shouldn't be any different than say the chargers.. stop the run and force them to pass.
2)Stokley in the slot is the most dangerous weapon they have. Play inside on him with the nickelback with a safety watching the fade or the nine route.
3)Jam the hell out the other wideouts.. especially Marshall.. don't want him getting deep.
4) Poppinga better be ready to cover this week.. they have a couple of decent TE's.. one got nicked up again last night.
5) Force Golden boy two to move around in the pocket.. he isn't as accurate when moving around.. hit him early and often as well, didn't do really well with being hurried.