Quote Originally Posted by Maxie the Taxi View Post
You may be right. I'm operating with a memory like a sieve. If what you say is accurate, Dom apparently has changed his philosophy. I mean in his early days he had bigger defensive linemen, didn't he? And guys like Cullen Jenkins?
Yes, though Cullen Jenkins would look small on the lines of 2010-2012 (well, skinny anyway). He was a tweener DT, 6' 4" and grew to 300 pounds. While he was in the League position demands morphed to make him suitable to play DE in a 3-4. And the bad run D in '11 and '12 don't augur well for the big lineman theory of run D. That only seemed to work for a few games in 2013.

But Jenkins only started in 2009 at DE. He was replaced to get Raji in at Nose and that moved Pickett to End. Jenkins then became the designated pass rusher. He was effective and he and Clay were almost, but not quite, enough to put the Packers D deep into the playoffs. His departure marked a lessening of pass rush but there were other problems that we are still experiencing now.

I really do think Patler nailed it and something about how the team is put together and trained leaves some holes. I don't think its hitting during the season (virtually no one does that anymore including the Seahawks) or live tackling in camp (less than half of teams do). The Packers have added the half line drill back for the last two years, but even last year it took some time before it seemed to be helping and I am not sure that last year's running success wasn't more Bach/Barclay/Lacy/Starks(healthy) related than half-line drill related. Half line drills aren't a panacea this year for certain.

But the same problems keep cropping up with new casts of characters. Its systemic and I don't find it convincing that Capers has forgotten how to game plan.