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I’ve just got through watching the Green Bay-Dallas game from last week. Here are a few notes and observations I made that I believe are pertinent to this game tomorrow (in no particular order) …
1) I was surprised as just how much emphasis the Packers made upon establishing the run early on in that game. 7 of the first 8 plays in the game were runs to Eddie Lacy and early on, Green Bay heavily favored the run. I charted it and had the play selection in the game as: 38 pass plays … 26 run plays, but it wasn’t until midway through the 3rd quarter that the Packers really began throwing the ball more than they ran it. It seemed to me to be a bit of the Seahawks formula – beat the defense in to submission with the run early and gash them with the big plays later in the game. With how banged up Rodgers looked out there, I fully expect the Packers to employ a similar approach in this game.
2) Speaking of the calf, it was clearly affecting Rodgers in that game. He made some great plays, but also sailed several throws in that game, threw low at times, and was just flat out off target as well. I must have counted 7 or 8 miscues like that throughout the game that were all on Rodgers. In connection with that, I was absolutely shocked at just how little consistent pressure the Cowboys were bringing. I could not believe them not making Aaron Rodgers move at all. Sure he got sacked a couple of times, but he was basically planted like a sequoia tree the entire game. He did not move. The pressure that did come came right up the middle. Therein lies a huge key to this game. Rodgers said that he felt OK moving to his left. So if I were Quinn, I'd working on flushing him to his right. Knock him off his spot. Make him run. Make him gimp away from Bennett, Avril, etc. on that leg. I know we usually pressure with just 4, but I’m curious to see if Quinn is going to look to blitz a bit more in this game, as I believe doing so (and making Rodgers run) could have quite an effect on the overall effectiveness of their passing game.
3) It appeared to me at times as if Green Bay’s receivers were having a lot of trouble with press coverage. Where they really started having success (from what I could see) was later in the game when Dallas got away from being real physical with the Packer receivers. That bodes well for us on Sunday.
4) Everybody in the world is focused on Aaron Rodgers, but from what I can see what REALLY won the day for Green Bay was their offensive line. In combination with lead blocking from Kuhn, those guys were blasting the Cowboys off the ball on big runs (especially early in the 3rd quarter). Bakhtiari, Lang, and those guys were the true MVP’s of that game. The Hawks CANNOT allow those guys to get the kind of 2nd Level penetration that Green Bay’s OL did in that game … and I don’t think that they will.
5) Their defensive line was fairly impressive early, dominating the line of scrimmage. It looked like to me that many times early on Green Bay was stacking the box and focusing on shutting down DeMarco Murray and the run. As the game moved on though (especially in to the 3rd quarter), that certainly changed. Those guys looked as if they were getting pretty gassed by that point. The Green Bay defense got gashed for some big runs by Murray late in the game. Peppers and Matthews were beasts throughout the game, but no one else really blew me away with their play making ability. The eye test confirmed what the numbers also say – this is an average NFL defense.
6) In terms of Green Bay’s secondary – I was seeing a lot of open pasture out there. Tony Romo had a lot of success finding holes in that zone. They got burned a few times for big gains on quick throws over the middle. The Legion of Boom they are not. If the Offensive Line gives Russell Wilson the time, there will be plays to be made down field. Given the pressure that Seattle will undoubtedly experience early, I’d look to hit the Packer defense with a lot of smoke screens (the Cowboys had some effectiveness with screens in that game).
After watching this game, I feel a whole lot more relaxed about tomorrow. As always, I believe the game plan will be to first focus on shutting Lacy and the run down, making this team 1 dimensional, and forcing a hobbled Aaron Rodgers to beat them. From what I saw last Sunday, I’d say the Seahawks will have a lot of success with that formula and against this Packers team. I would say that Rodgers and the Packers were quite lucky to escape Lambeau Field with a win last Sunday. After seeing what I saw, I think they’ll have to have a whole field of 4 leaf clovers to do so against the Hawks and a fired up 12th Man.
1) I was surprised as just how much emphasis the Packers made upon establishing the run early on in that game. 7 of the first 8 plays in the game were runs to Eddie Lacy and early on, Green Bay heavily favored the run. I charted it and had the play selection in the game as: 38 pass plays … 26 run plays, but it wasn’t until midway through the 3rd quarter that the Packers really began throwing the ball more than they ran it. It seemed to me to be a bit of the Seahawks formula – beat the defense in to submission with the run early and gash them with the big plays later in the game. With how banged up Rodgers looked out there, I fully expect the Packers to employ a similar approach in this game.
2) Speaking of the calf, it was clearly affecting Rodgers in that game. He made some great plays, but also sailed several throws in that game, threw low at times, and was just flat out off target as well. I must have counted 7 or 8 miscues like that throughout the game that were all on Rodgers. In connection with that, I was absolutely shocked at just how little consistent pressure the Cowboys were bringing. I could not believe them not making Aaron Rodgers move at all. Sure he got sacked a couple of times, but he was basically planted like a sequoia tree the entire game. He did not move. The pressure that did come came right up the middle. Therein lies a huge key to this game. Rodgers said that he felt OK moving to his left. So if I were Quinn, I'd working on flushing him to his right. Knock him off his spot. Make him run. Make him gimp away from Bennett, Avril, etc. on that leg. I know we usually pressure with just 4, but I’m curious to see if Quinn is going to look to blitz a bit more in this game, as I believe doing so (and making Rodgers run) could have quite an effect on the overall effectiveness of their passing game.
3) It appeared to me at times as if Green Bay’s receivers were having a lot of trouble with press coverage. Where they really started having success (from what I could see) was later in the game when Dallas got away from being real physical with the Packer receivers. That bodes well for us on Sunday.
4) Everybody in the world is focused on Aaron Rodgers, but from what I can see what REALLY won the day for Green Bay was their offensive line. In combination with lead blocking from Kuhn, those guys were blasting the Cowboys off the ball on big runs (especially early in the 3rd quarter). Bakhtiari, Lang, and those guys were the true MVP’s of that game. The Hawks CANNOT allow those guys to get the kind of 2nd Level penetration that Green Bay’s OL did in that game … and I don’t think that they will.
5) Their defensive line was fairly impressive early, dominating the line of scrimmage. It looked like to me that many times early on Green Bay was stacking the box and focusing on shutting down DeMarco Murray and the run. As the game moved on though (especially in to the 3rd quarter), that certainly changed. Those guys looked as if they were getting pretty gassed by that point. The Green Bay defense got gashed for some big runs by Murray late in the game. Peppers and Matthews were beasts throughout the game, but no one else really blew me away with their play making ability. The eye test confirmed what the numbers also say – this is an average NFL defense.
6) In terms of Green Bay’s secondary – I was seeing a lot of open pasture out there. Tony Romo had a lot of success finding holes in that zone. They got burned a few times for big gains on quick throws over the middle. The Legion of Boom they are not. If the Offensive Line gives Russell Wilson the time, there will be plays to be made down field. Given the pressure that Seattle will undoubtedly experience early, I’d look to hit the Packer defense with a lot of smoke screens (the Cowboys had some effectiveness with screens in that game).
After watching this game, I feel a whole lot more relaxed about tomorrow. As always, I believe the game plan will be to first focus on shutting Lacy and the run down, making this team 1 dimensional, and forcing a hobbled Aaron Rodgers to beat them. From what I saw last Sunday, I’d say the Seahawks will have a lot of success with that formula and against this Packers team. I would say that Rodgers and the Packers were quite lucky to escape Lambeau Field with a win last Sunday. After seeing what I saw, I think they’ll have to have a whole field of 4 leaf clovers to do so against the Hawks and a fired up 12th Man.
