How much does Bulaga being out effect this game?

Listening to Brock & Salk this morning and Salk said he saw some PFF numbers that showed a big difference in Cliff Avril's play when Bryan was out, and when he was in. I thought that he also played some guard but I'm not sure. Here's what I found from last year:

"Cliff Avril in Week 1 (Bulaga played 20 snaps): +3.2 @PFF grade.

Cliff Avril in NFCCG (Bulaga healthy): -4.5"

https://twitter.com/zachkruse2



"The Packers will probably start Don Barclay, who is coming off an ACL injury of his own, at right tackle against the Seahawks. Barclay, who started in Bulaga's place in 2013, missed all of last season."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13678 ... nee-injury

67 Barclay, Don T/G 6-4 305 26 4 West Virginia

http://www.packers.com/team/players.html



LOSING BULAGA GIVES GREEN BAY A HEADACHE AT RT

"The sacks conceded by Sherrod were on consecutive dropbacks and couldn’t have had worse results for the Green Bay offense, resulting in a fourth down stop and a safety respectively. What was perhaps most worrying for Green Bay fans was the speed in which Sherrod was beaten on the plays.

On the fourth down play the quarterback was hit in 2.1 seconds, and for the safety, Seattle defensive lineman Michael Bennett was around him in 1.7 seconds only for Aaron Rodgers to buy a little more time before finally going down"


https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2 ... ht-tackle/

Hopefully this creates consistent mismatches, not just at RT.

If that's the case, we don't have to blitz as much. Which would be really, really swell.

I am hoping fervently that this results in Rodgers being on his back most of the evening. Preferably looking out his ear-hole while we recover another turnover. Preferably as we take it back for 6.

I don't think it will really affect the game much. Sure we will get to Rodgers a few times, but I think their game plan will be to do what the Pats did to us. Dink, dunk, dink & dunk before we really can lay the wood on him.

I would never encourage injury to gain an edge in any game... but the damage has been done. Now we need to exploit it. You know Rodgers will be doing the same with our Secondary.

Show no mercy! :192215: :smiley_boxin:

I've noticed that whenever other teams have a Oline problem, our players play down to their level. Watch us make the backup look like an all pro.

ludakrishna":9sui2zug said:

I've noticed that whenever other teams have a Oline problem, our players play down to their level. Watch us make the backup look like an all pro.

Click to expand...

Im hearing ya. In the first game last season weren't we suppose to blow up their rookie center?
Here's to hoping it changes!

you know every time we are supposed to get excited at the opportunity some new lineman comes in for the other team and they're going to be destroyed by the Hawks or the noise at clink. NOTHING HAPPENS. So I'm not going to get excited about it at all.

coorslighthawk":1tjkei22 said:

ludakrishna":1tjkei22 said:

I've noticed that whenever other teams have a Oline problem, our players play down to their level. Watch us make the backup look like an all pro.

Click to expand...

Im hearing ya. In the first game last season weren't we suppose to blow up their rookie center?
Here's to hoping it changes!

Click to expand...

I don't know if we blew up the rookie center, but IIRC Lacy couldn't run, and Rodgers didn't exactly have a field day. Final score turned out OKAY!

ludakrishna":15iz1fqz said:

I've noticed that whenever other teams have a Oline problem, our players play down to their level. Watch us make the backup look like an all pro.

Click to expand...

Case in point: Our supposedly dynamite DL vs. Rams playing an all-rookie OL. While we contained the run and knocked Foles around a little, we didn't knock Foles around enough to force his passer rating below fantastic.

Rodgers >>>> Foles

According to Football Outsiders, last year STL was 23rd in pass protection and had the entire OL reshuffled. GB was 13th in pass protection.

So facing a far better QB and a somewhat better OL (we think), I'm glad Bulaga is out but if the prognosis was dissection by AR before Bulaga's outage, it remains pretty much the same afterwards.

Please Frank Clark go on a rampage and prove me wrong.

coorslighthawk":1xso1xsn said:

ludakrishna":1xso1xsn said:

I've noticed that whenever other teams have a Oline problem, our players play down to their level. Watch us make the backup look like an all pro.

Click to expand...

Im hearing ya. In the first game last season weren't we suppose to blow up their rookie center?
Here's to hoping it changes!

Click to expand...

I really don't understand where this feeling is coming from. It feels like I've been watching a totally different team than you guys the last two years. The Hawks had a devastating pass rush in 2013, and near the end of last year it was pretty good until Jordan Hill went down (not to mention Avril in the Super Bowl).

This exact same situation, i.e. Bulaga getting injured, happened mid-game in the opener last season. As the OP points out, Avril had a field day. Does no one remember the back-to-back sacks of Rodgers after the backup RT came in? Does no one remember the safety on the second sack? Bulaga being out is a big deal. The defense will probably still have issues in coverage (especially if Simon can't go), but now there's an exploitable weakness. I don't know if it will be enough, but short of Rodgers going down I struggle to imagine a more consequential injury.

Alexander":29x9uyxk said:

coorslighthawk":29x9uyxk said:

ludakrishna":29x9uyxk said:

I've noticed that whenever other teams have a Oline problem, our players play down to their level. Watch us make the backup look like an all pro.

Click to expand...

Im hearing ya. In the first game last season weren't we suppose to blow up their rookie center?
Here's to hoping it changes!

Click to expand...

I really don't understand where this feeling is coming from. It feels like I've been watching a totally different team than you guys the last two years. The Hawks had a devastating pass rush in 2013, and near the end of last year it was pretty good until Jordan Hill went down (not to mention Avril in the Super Bowl).

This exact same situation, i.e. Bulaga getting injured, happened mid-game in the opener last season. As the OP points out, Avril had a field day. Does no one remember the back-to-back sacks of Rodgers after the backup RT came in? Does no one remember the safety on the second sack? Bulaga being out is a big deal. The defense will probably still have issues in coverage (especially if Simon can't go), but now there's an exploitable weakness. I don't know if it will be enough, but short of Rodgers going down I struggle to imagine a more consequential injury.

Click to expand...

I hope your take is closer to the truth than mine.

Our big-pressure games were all at home. At Lambeau I don't expect to reproduce those results, especially when Rodgers is flawless at home, near-invincible.

And again I point to the Rams game where we weren't able to bother Foles enough to stop him from dicing us up. Nick Foles. Despite the all-rookie line.

So there is where the feeling is coming from to a large extent, at least from me.

We lose our second best offensive player (Nelson)...Fine.
We lose our two best run defenders for this game.... Fine...
We lose our RT..... Catastrophe. Rodgers better keep his head on a swivel...
Just effing once could we be relatively healthy AND at home when we play you guys? Once????

ptisme":1rktj1b9 said:

We lose our second best offensive player (Nelson)...Fine.
We lose our two best run defenders for this game.... Fine...
We lose our RT..... Catastrophe. Rodgers better keep his head on a swivel...
Just effing once could we be relatively healthy AND at home when we play you guys? Once????

Click to expand...

It's a tough break, that's for sure. Fortunately for you guys, Bulaga's injury doesn't look like it will keep him out for an extended period of time. Doesn't help for this week, but playing at Lambeau is a big advantage.

ptisme":lfd62u6n said:

We lose our second best offensive player (Nelson)...Fine.
We lose our two best run defenders for this game.... Fine...
We lose our RT..... Catastrophe. Rodgers better keep his head on a swivel...
Just effing once could we be relatively healthy AND at home when we play you guys? Once????

Click to expand...

The loss of Kam = all of above.

hawk45":2xho1gr9 said:

Alexander":2xho1gr9 said:

coorslighthawk":2xho1gr9 said:

ludakrishna":2xho1gr9 said:

I've noticed that whenever other teams have a Oline problem, our players play down to their level. Watch us make the backup look like an all pro.

Click to expand...

Im hearing ya. In the first game last season weren't we suppose to blow up their rookie center?
Here's to hoping it changes!

Click to expand...

I really don't understand where this feeling is coming from. It feels like I've been watching a totally different team than you guys the last two years. The Hawks had a devastating pass rush in 2013, and near the end of last year it was pretty good until Jordan Hill went down (not to mention Avril in the Super Bowl).

This exact same situation, i.e. Bulaga getting injured, happened mid-game in the opener last season. As the OP points out, Avril had a field day. Does no one remember the back-to-back sacks of Rodgers after the backup RT came in? Does no one remember the safety on the second sack? Bulaga being out is a big deal. The defense will probably still have issues in coverage (especially if Simon can't go), but now there's an exploitable weakness. I don't know if it will be enough, but short of Rodgers going down I struggle to imagine a more consequential injury.

Click to expand...

I hope your take is closer to the truth than mine.

Our big-pressure games were all at home. At Lambeau I don't expect to reproduce those results, especially when Rodgers is flawless at home, near-invincible.

And again I point to the Rams game where we weren't able to bother Foles enough to stop him from dicing us up. Nick Foles. Despite the all-rookie line.

So there is where the feeling is coming from to a large extent, at least from me.

Click to expand...

In the late Holmgren era, there was definitely a HUGE disparity in the effectiveness of the pass rush between home and road games. With the current team, I feel like the disparity is not so big. There are some road games where the pass rush seems to disappear, but I think the issue there may have more to do with the surface they play on. Some surfaces seem to nullify the speed of the defense.

Regarding the Rams game, on several of those big pass plays I recall Foles getting hit right after his release. So while the pressure didn't get to him in time, it didn't seem to me like they were getting stonewalled. The bigger issue was the piss-poor pass coverage. When a receiver has a 10-yard cushion between him and the nearest defender, it's hard to blame the pass rush for the breakdown. There's a symbiotic relationship between pass rush and pass coverage, and the latter was a no-show last week.

I also think Richard may have gotten overly aggressive with the blitzes, perhaps thinking that Foles would fold under pressure. That didn't happen, and they paid for it. I expect the defense to rely much more heavily on a four-man rush to keep as many people in coverage as possible, because honestly you'd be stupid to go blitz happy against Rodgers. The Bulaga injury matters is because it means a four-man rush should be enough to generate consistent pressure.

I have noticed in the past that an injury to a player like this never seems to have the impact on the game that many think it would. Look for the Packers to scheme plays that limit the time he is needed to hold up in pass pro or find ways to always have help for him.

Blitzer88":14i5vn8b said:

I have noticed in the past that an injury to a player like this never seems to have the impact on the game that many think it would. Look for the Packers to scheme plays that limit the time he is needed to hold up in pass pro or find ways to always have help for him.

Click to expand...

Well, it did have an impact a year ago when Bulaga had to leave the opener. Having said that, you're probably right that they'll scheme to cover up this weakness. But that comes at a cost to them. If they give the RT help, it means having one less receiver to draw coverage. It they try to get the ball out quicker, they have to rely on shorter developing pass plays, which in turn means fewer explosive plays. Obviously if the Hawks tackle and cover like they did in Week 1, those things will work out fine for the Packers. But I'm hoping for a bit of regression to the mean on defense.

Considering that ARodg will get the ball out in under 2 seconds consistently against the void in our secondary of Bailey and CWill, whoever they play at RT should be irrelevant.

Bulaga's replacement is a liability (McCarthy hasn't named the starter yet, because BOTH potential replacements have performed poorly when called upon.) Without Jordy Nelson to stretch the field, and being mindful of pressure from his right, Rodgers will undoubtedly play it cautiously to start. No doubt GB will lean heavily on Eddie Lacey to try and take advantage of Kam's absence.

This game pits strength against strength; it will be tough for either team to dominate. Here in Packerland, fans are of course hopeful that a little Lambeau magic will be the difference. But most recognize that it could go either way, depending on how the ball bounces, the wind blows -- or whatever you want to call the sometimes forced, but more often unforced errors that turn a tough match in one team's favor.

IOW, it could come down to who wins the coin toss in OT.

I'll watch Sunday night believing that the Seahawks can win this game, right up until the final play of the game. Packers fans believe their team can - and will win, too. But tbh, most of them are a lot less confident today than they were before Bulaga got hurt.