"There's a lot of interest in the draft. It's great. But quite frankly, most of the people that are commenting on it don't know anything about what they are talking about."--Ted Thompson
But Rodgers leads the league in frumpy expressions and negative body language on the sideline, which makes him, like Josh Allen, a unique double threat.
-Tim Harmston
"Never, never ever support a punk like mraynrand. Rather be as I am and feel real sympathy for his sickness." - Woodbuck
When does Rollins get some snaps in the slot? If he is solid, I don't think Hayward is back. They can't pay everyone and it's clear Raji and Daniels are going to get big contracts - hopefully here.
Never would have guessed that a few years ago. Hayward was a stud but he seems to have regressed a bit.
I think there might be a nugget of truth to wists hyperbolic criticisms of Capers. MM handing off the play calling duties to focus on other stuff might be responsible for some of the defensive improvement. The Mad scientist Capers might be the big picture bean-counter type of general you want coordinating logistics and moving the chess pieces but MM is more the general you want on the field the day of your offensive to make sure its executed. Despite having the same old excuses of injuries forcing us to play a young cast of unprovens it seems like they are playing more assignment sure ball with less mental mistakes.
70% of the Earth is covered by water. The rest is covered by Al Harris.
Good post 31. That may be true. Still capers is no Lt. Dyke.
I haven't run numbers on it but third downs still seem problematic. I bet the packers don't do so well on third and long percentages. That's a guess.
"Never, never ever support a punk like mraynrand. Rather be as I am and feel real sympathy for his sickness." - Woodbuck
I dunno about that. The two big things to come out of last year's M3 input was the 4-3 and NASCAR. The 4-3 was kaput by Week 4 and NASCAR has had its best showings this year.
I don't think M3 makes too many game day calls about alignment or personnel. I think he is more about making that Defense smarter about offense and utilizing multiple personnel.
Bud Adams told me the franchise he admired the most was the Kansas City Chiefs. Then he asked for more hookers and blow.
I'm not talking about improvement from X's and O's. I'm talking about guys screwing up less. Less two guys going into the same gap, less overpursuit, less blown coverages, less shitting their pants at misdirection, more communication etc.
These days everyone has a fixed amount of practice time set by the CBA so its got to be a challenge to get these meatheads to achieve a higher level of preparation than their competition. Coaches like MM willing to challenge everything and reorganize the practices, meeting rooms, and gameday management seems like next level stuff to me. We've known for years he can put together a gameplan and get an offense to run with precision, my theory is that his delegating playcalling duties and preparation frees him up to leverage those organizational skills on defense as well which is why they seem more disciplined.
70% of the Earth is covered by water. The rest is covered by Al Harris.
IMO I think giving up playcalling is working out big time. Clements is doing a great job with Arod, so Stubby ain't missed there. But I do notice that Stubby seems to be into the game more this year. I think he's able to see things happening, relay the info and I get the sense he's not married to the playcalling strategery like he was in years past. It's kind of like he's able to see the forest this year.
One time Lombardi was disgusted with the team in practice and told them they were going to have to start with the basics. He held up a ball and said: "This is a football." McGee immediately called out, "Stop, coach, you're going too fast," and that gave everyone a laugh.
John Maxymuk, Packers By The Numbers
Here is what Capers spent part of his offseason doing. Streamlining his D calls. I could easily see this as work that M3 encouraged. Its been broached before about having to adapt young players to this defense because of Ted's approach to player personnel versus the Steelers approach and Dick LeBeau's preference for vets.
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packe...331183831.html
"Nah," Thomas said, drawing out the word for emphasis. "Dom really simplified everything for us this year. It's really easy for me to come back and pick up where I left off."The result, according to Hayward, was a significant reduction in the number of missed assignments and mental errors by the defense during training camp. "An all-time low," he said.Man, I hope they keep the new guy at JSO.The second item on Capers' revision list was always going to be more difficult as it involved the creation and installation of a brand-new defensive language. Gone were the lengthy play calls whose titles featured as many as six or seven words each — plus contingencies, which we will get to later — and in their place would be a system featuring one or two words per play and an accompanying hand signal.
"It takes time to say, 'Eagle Wide Open Me Special Seven,'" Capers said with a smile. "To where now you have a one-word term. Those guys all know the one-word code terms."
Bud Adams told me the franchise he admired the most was the Kansas City Chiefs. Then he asked for more hookers and blow.
It's funny...almost. A lot of us around here have been calling for the KISS principle for a year or two, ever since defensive breakdowns were blamed on communication problems. Now it's done. Good.
I tend to think this was another fruit of Stubby's decision to give up playcalling and concentrate on the overall big picture? Which, by the way, a lot of us were adamant about for a long time too.
One time Lombardi was disgusted with the team in practice and told them they were going to have to start with the basics. He held up a ball and said: "This is a football." McGee immediately called out, "Stop, coach, you're going too fast," and that gave everyone a laugh.
John Maxymuk, Packers By The Numbers
This begs the question, which of us is actually Ted, Stubby or SPH incognito?
From the JSO article:
"It takes time to say, 'Eagle Wide Open Me Special Seven,'" Capers said with a smile. "To where now you have a one-word term. Those guys all know the one-word code terms."
You know, in my dreams when Drew Barrymore looks up at me from the bed and says "Eagle Wide Open Me, Special Seven," I know exactly what she means. No need to dumb that down.
"The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it."
KYPack
Bud Adams told me the franchise he admired the most was the Kansas City Chiefs. Then he asked for more hookers and blow.
Correct, with a bit of a caveat
http://espn.go.com/nfl/insider/story...ackers-top-nfl
Hopefully the defense tightening the screws against SF was a sign of things to comeThose scrambles are connected to the biggest weakness of Green Bay's defense so far: getting off the field on third downs. According to DVOA, the Packers have been the best defense in the NFL on first downs and rank ninth overall on second downs. But they fall to 30th on third downs, mostly because of their inability to get off the field on third and long.
The average offensive play on third-and-7-or-more gains 6.5 yards. Green Bay has allowed a 9.1-yard average -- and 10 conversions on 28 tries -- on such plays.
But that might be an outlier. All of those conversions have come with the Packers in the lead, and all but one came in the second half.
Go PACK