The Bad & The Ugly of the 2010 Packers

[armand34]

Ok, Let's start with the BAD...

DLINE-does look strong, RAJI ,PICKETT, JENKINS, looks nice, but who is behind them, ROOKIE NEAL,ROOKIE WILSON,2nd year WYNN, and my favorite first round pick HARREL

Secondary-we just got a whole lot younger & inexperienced

Special Teams-another punter prospect and undecided on a return man

The UGLY...

Running Game-3rd & 1, 4th & 1, or goal line...guess who is getting the ball? NOT GRANT it'll be Kuhn or Hall at Fullback, b/c Grant can't get his pad level low enough to plow through, this has been a missing piece for a LONG TIME...1200 back to back doesn't say anything to me, we need a between the tackles runner that get that short yardage when we need it and the defense knows it.

Return Man-it's obvious that NO BODY knows who will be that guy, that's a big deal, and it's like this every year, if we don't have someone that can give us decent field position, it effects everything on offense and makes the packers very predictable in their play selection

DB's- if it's bad, it's also a little ugly against the browns, I know that pass rush directly effects the DB's but it works both ways, if the coverage can hold up for a half a second longer, it could make all the difference, al harris, I love him against the run, i don't like him in coverage, and coming off of a knee, it's a shame, but he may not have much left to offer, bigby, lotta experience and plays through injury, but he is not effective,...........Burnett, Lee, and Underwood going to get a lot of playing time in this season, that is kind of scary....almost half of our secondary is going to be unproven and inexperienced....in a year where we are supposed to be a contender...not brimming with confidence


please comment on this, love to hear what everyone else thinks, agree or disagree let's hear it

 

[JBlood]

I have the same concerns, but I put the 3rd and 4th and short on the o-line more than the backs. The o line hasn't been able to dominate anyone. This has been a huge weakness since McCarthy arrived, and I put a lot of it on Campen, who hasn't been shown to figure out who should play, and where they should play.

The defenses of today have the primary job of stopping the pass--the old adage that defense starts by stopping the run is no longer valid. It is the passing game that decides the outcomes of most contests, and it is the pass rush that will most disturb the passing game by getting it out of sync. If the Browns' game is any indication, we haven't developed a rush good enough to bother even mediocre QBs, let alone the good ones. This is the thing that bothers me the most about the coming season. It's too early to panic , but someone has to step up to Matthew's level in generating pressure on the QB or it will be a very long season.

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[Green_Bay_Packers]

Wooo No Mention Of Mason I agree with your list
HARREL seems more like a waste, if he doesnt get on the playing field this year I would release him

 

[aaronqb]

retired

 

[ivo610]

Special Teams is my biggest concern.

 

[Forget Favre]

I still think it's too early to tell or it's hard to judge just based on one game. A preseason one at that.
The coaches will look at what works and what doesn't and who to cut and who to keep.
Give it a few weeks and we will have the best team for 2010 where we don't have it now.

 

[NYPacker]

Your analysis in the short yardage situation is spot on. I don't think Grant is one of those feature backs that will grind out that extra yard to give us a first down. I think this is also a reason why we kept 3 FBs last season, we need one of those tougher backs that can penetrate to the next level in a goal line or 1 yard situation.

I hope I'm not violating any rules or copyrights as I found this analysis from a guy named Waldo on another forum on his take of the preseason game. A really nice read: NFL Forum :: - Post Game Observations

I'd like to see our #2 DL get some work against 1's. Too bad we don't play Tn this year. Whereas I'd consider the Browns OL #1's vs. our DL #1's a win for the Browns, our #2 DL had their #2 OL for lunch. I'm not so sure that there is much dropoff from our starters to our #'2.

Harrell isn't as stout as Pickett, but close, but he penetrates better, and on pass rushes he drives his guy backwards. He was within inches of 2 batted passes, he has excellent awareness getting his hands up. He contributed to a stop for no gain, beat his man and grabbed the ankle of the back passing by, slowing/tripping him. Someone else finished the back off and likely got the T credit, very nice play by Harrell though. On one of Colts runs, Harrell looped around the formation and was coming in for a sack, woulda had it if Colt didn't run by him full speed, I don't think Harrell saw him (Colt is short) until popped from behind the lineman running by. A QB in the pocket would have been a pancake. Harrell's very good ball awareness though was on display all night, too bad Raji isn't even close to as good as Harrell at that.

I was disappointed last year that Toribio was cut, but very glad he made it to our PS. I'll be downright angry if he is cut this year. Either he's traded or he makes this team. He was very stout all night. He's noticably bigger this year and looks like a NT, a bit on the light side, but not much. That kid can move. He doesn't anchor as well as Pickett, and doesn't have the brute power of Raji, but he isn't that far off either. His bullrush has a lot of power, and he's not a waddling NT, he can move really well (he takes nice angles to the perimeter when the ball bounces outside, and hustles out there). He is hands down better than Cole was, at everything. There are definitely teams in this league he could start for. I thought that he was miscast a bit in a 3-4, but this year he looks like he belongs. The team has put a lot of effort into developing him and it shows. He played with more disciple than Raji and did a nice job playing gaps, and brings a solid pass rush for a NT.

If I number how the rookies look from top to bottom, #1 is Bulaga, #2 is Neal, #3 is Burnett, and Neal/Bulaga is a push for me. Neal anchors against the run really well. I'd like to see him against the same guys Jenkins goes against, as he might anchor better than Jenkins. I saw Jenkins blown off the ball, Neal is barely budged. Gosh is he strong. His bullrush has a lot of power. If he had Jenkins' hand work and pass rushing moves, he'd be a force. The screen that he sniffed out and chased down as a thing of beauty, awesome play. Very Jenkins like in that respect. Neal looks shockingly good for a rookie DT. I want to focus on some of the other rookie DT's, heck Neal could be the best of the bunch, it is very, very rare for a rookie DT to play as good as he is this early. Ted found a gem. Neal's got the workout #'s of a top 10 DT. Why wasn't he considered more highly in the draft?

Chillar looks like an ILB trying to play OLB. He didn't look good at all. His coverage drops were real nice, that is definitely the strength of his game. He looked pitiful at times rushing the passer. He doesn't have a powerful rush, doesn't have T smoking speed/explosion, and doesn't have length. But he is good at keeping the T's off him in the run game. Right now he is our 4th best OLB IMO.

Jones is our 2nd best OLB. I don't even know why there is even competition, it isn't even close IMO. Jones is fluid in coverage and looks good when he drops. His speed rush is very nice, he's got good bend. Unlike Chillar, when Jones doesn't get through, it "looks" like a nice play by the OT, with Chillar it "looks" like a bad play by Chillar. Jones showed some power he didn't have last year. Though he wasn't credited with a pressure, on the near int by Collins, Jones drove a G into the QB's lap. He got close a couple of times. Jones' natural ability at OLB far exceeds Chillar's and Pops'. He's got the cat quickness that allows him to get away from T's on runs, he made an oustanding stop for a short gain on a play where Jenkins and Raji were both blown off the line. Jones misses that tackle and its a big gain, he got off a Thomas block.

Last year Pops looked like an ILB playing OLB, much like Chillar this year. This year Pops looks like an OLB playing OLB. His bullrush had some nice power. Pops' game at OLB is similar to Kamp's at DE. He's gets by with power, technique, and tanacity. He doesn't have the jaw dropping physical ability to wow you, but he played consistently well at OLB and made a number of nice plays. He got close to a couple sacks, was held, he made a nice stop on the boundary (might have been called a sack). His coverage drops were solid all night and he made an awesome PBU, ball skills that he really hasn't shown before. He definitely moved ahead of Chillar in my mind as the 3rd best OLB. On the defensive left I don't think that there is much separation between Pops and Jones, Pops plays with more power. On the right Jones is a significant improvment, Pops isn't going to speed rush by a LT like Jones. Power, technique, and tenacity works against RT's.

Wasn't too high on Bishop's play. He made some nice stops. On one play for a big loss though, Bishop got in there and hit a pulling G, who proceeded to drive Bishop 15 yards downfield as the rest of the defense converged in the backfield. His play awareness wasn't great. If he is touched by a blocker, its over, he wasn't getting off blocks, nor was he stoning or putting blocker on the ground (Hawk is very good at putting pulling G's on the ground). Bishop always played WILB though, I didn't see him line up at SILB.

Hawk did a nice job taking care of the blocking, but didn't get in there and make any big plays aside from that. I've seen it written that Hawk runs into blockers and is content holding them up. That's a good thing, SILB is part of the gap control scheme, so that the SS and WILB are unblocked. Hawk faced a bunch of FB's and pulling guards, he planted them on the ground or stopped them in their tracks. On the TD he gave up in coverage, he played the wrong shoulder, he bit on a studder step outside, despite the fact the fact that he had help there. Perhaps he didn't realize that, both the WR's on the outside went deep, the CB's peeled off coverage shallow in short zones, the S's covered the deep verticals, leaving the TE into the seasom open with no help.

 

[PackersRS]

ST: Browns were #1 ST last year, we #31. It was supposed to struggle. Add the fact that we didn't use a cohesive ST unit, rather we put every 80-man player out there... The coaches weren't trying to get production out of ST, rather see which guys played well.

DL: really not a problem. The 3 you mentioned are very good, and Neal was VERY good in that game. He looks like a beast.

Pass D: The problem was that the DBs were giving too much cushion to the receivers. Commenters at cheeseheadtv.com made some very good points:
1) Tackling. The Packers have been stressing tackling this offseason. Playing with a cushion could be a way to test that.
2) Communication. They could be playing like this so that Burnett gets more time to get used to calling plays.
3) Injuries. They also could be playing off the receivers to lessen the risk of injuries.
Now, they played the same way last year, and it drove me mad. But IMHO you have to consider those possibilities before jumping to any conclusions.

About the short yardage: Quinn Johnson: Unleashed | Packers Lounge

About the return man: It's a problem. At PR, Blackmon, when healthy, is a proven commodity. But at KR, we have noone. Would like the coaches to put Dillon in there, as he did it, with success, in college.

And about the DBs, individually, they did well. Underwood played very well. Lee did ok. Martin played well. In preseason, you evaluate individuals, and not the team.

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Oh, one more thing about the Cleveland game: They gameplanned. It's not that they didn't play vanilla, THEY SPECIFICALLY GAMEPLANNED AGAINST US. Starting with quick throws from bunch formations? They knew it was our weakness and they gameplanned. They needed the morale boost. We know what we have. So take everything with a grain of salt.