Early Season Adjustments

[KalamazooPackerFan]

1. Robert Francois for D.J. Smith on passing downs
2. More Ced lined up 7 yards back in the I formation.
3. More Donald Driver!

[Brando19]

4. Clay on the right side, baby!
5. Cobb in the backfield
6. Screen passes every once in a while

[SkinBasket]

7. Much less Bush on the field
8. Less Jennings, MD.
9. James Jones drops footballs and runs routes wrong. Oh! Wait! That's not new!

[Guiness]

The most frustrating part about Jones is what he occasionally flashes. In the game vs SF there was a series where he took over. 3 catches for about 70 yards and a TD. Of course, he was targeted four times, and dropped the other one.

[Iron Mike]

10. Derpmichael Finley drops passes........oh, wait.

[SkinBasket]

The most frustrating part about Jones is what he occasionally flashes. In the game vs SF there was a series where he took over. 3 catches for about 70 yards and a TD. Of course, he was targeted four times, and dropped the other one.

How many years have we heard this though? At some point you have to accept that those flashes are not the norm, and he is not suddenly going to become better than he is. Everyone else has it figured out - that Jones has to be facing the ball to catch it with any reliability. I wish the coaches would use him accordingly.

[HarveyWallbangers]

1. Robert Francois for D.J. Smith on passing downs
2. More Ced lined up 7 yards back in the I formation.
3. More Donald Driver!

I won't jump overboard on Driver. He looks like he's slowed a lot in the last 2 years. The problem is that Driver and Cobb are slot guys, and he shouldn't be playing over Cobb. You could make an argument for PT over Jones, but Jones fits better on the outside.

[Smidgeon]

How many years have we heard this though? At some point you have to accept that those flashes are not the norm, and he is not suddenly going to become better than he is. Everyone else has it figured out - that Jones has to be facing the ball to catch it with any reliability. I wish the coaches would use him accordingly.

Jones and Finley both. Just put them both on a Juggs machine for two weeks straight running routes with Tramon and Shields covering them with the whole team watching and cheering. They can get open already. They just need to hang onto the ball.

[rbaloha1]

Overall the adjustments are working. Finally the correct personnel are on the field making plays.

[mraynrand]

Overall the adjustments are working. Finally the correct personnel are on the field making plays.


It's just one game, but it looks promising. Remember that the Bears were talking Superbowl after beating last year's worst team. OK, OK, I know, it's just stupid Bears fans....

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq254/mraynrand/Bearsdownandout.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq254/mraynrand/dabears.jpg

[pbmax]

I am not sure the other suggestions are going to help, but I do like the idea of Francois as designated Dime backer. And yes, as Waldo used to say, this is because the only five plays I remember from him included 3 good results from coverages.

[rbaloha1]

It's just one game, but it looks promising. Remember that the Bears were talking Superbowl after beating last year's worst team. OK, OK, I know, it's just stupid Bears fans....

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq254/mraynrand/Bearsdownandout.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq254/mraynrand/dabears.jpg

True. But at least the Packers are making adjustments instead of letting the same problems manifest week to week.

Its probably easier since the roster is better.

[mraynrand]

I am not sure the other suggestions are going to help, but I do like the idea of Francois as designated Dime backer. And yes, as Waldo used to say, this is because the only five plays I remember from him included 3 good results from coverages.

+1 http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/17039/544377-waldo2_small.jpg

[Pugger]

How many years have we heard this though? At some point you have to accept that those flashes are not the norm, and he is not suddenly going to become better than he is. Everyone else has it figured out - that Jones has to be facing the ball to catch it with any reliability. I wish the coaches would use him accordingly.

How come folks don't rail on Jones for not being reliable catching the ball but crucify Finley when he isn't either? If you are bitching cuz of his tweets that's pretty sad. I for one don't give a rats ass what players say - except if they give teams bulletin board material. As long as a player is out there trying and not getting into trouble off the field I don't care what nonsense they tweet.

[wist43]

Replacing players are not "adjustments".

Adjustments are changes to scheme, game plans, alignments, and play calling. Replacing players is the coaches saying their coaching, game plans, and play calling are all correct, but that the players are simply not performing their perfect plans adequately.

McCarthy has 3 running plays - scrum left, scrum right, and scrum up the middle. Never heard of a trap, pulling guard, or sweep - the scrum running game is what needs to be "adjusted" - for my money, needs to be scrapped. As I said in the Alex Green thread, can't blame the RB's when all the defense needs to do to stop the play is plop a fat guy on the ground and make a pile - end of running play.

Capers is the gimmick dwerp - alignments with 1 and 2 DL simply don't cut it in the NFL. Against a good team (like SF), the defense is, of course, going to get bowled over. Chicago ran the ball very effectively against Capers' ballarina alignments. Had they simply committed to the run - we wouldn't have been able to stop them. We didn't stop the Bears, the Bears stopped the Bears - with penalties and an idiotic game plan.

The SF game was the true measure of what the Packers are all about. It is up to McCarthy and Capers to make the appropriate adjustments to scheme and game plans. They didn't do that at all in the Bear game. They trotted out the same old bullshit. Teams have caught up to the Packers - it is now up to McCarthy to adjust.

[Iron Mike]

How many years have we heard this though? At some point you have to accept that those flashes are not the norm, and he is not suddenly going to become better than he is. Everyone else has it figured out - that Jones has to be facing the ball to catch it with any reliability. I wish the coaches would use him accordingly.

Remember how well Turd Ferguson shined when he went to Minnesota?

http://img.spokeo.com/110-150/uspw_2458561.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJZ4FTLYXN7EZ7C IQ&Expires=1347816387&Signature=i9B6aGv61rD%2FtlLYu4ybjnbSkPM%3D

[pbmax]

McCarthy has 3 running plays - scrum left, scrum right, and scrum up the middle. Never heard of a trap, pulling guard, or sweep - the scrum running game is what needs to be "adjusted" - for my money, needs to be scrapped.


Several times the Packers pulled Sitton over to the opposite A gap on a power play that looked pretty good.

Apparently he has heard of Mike Sherman and the Power running scheme.

[wist43]

Apparently he has heard of Mike Sherman and the Power running scheme.

Actually, I did notice Sitton pull a couple of times - wonders never cease. Certainly didn't see that play "several times"; and it is small consolation to the multitude of scrum runs.

I had hope that McCarthy and Capers would make some fundamental adjustments to their ballarina approach... pulling Sitton a couple of times might be baby steps in the right direction, but a leopard tends not to change his spots. Neither McCarthy nor Capers cares anything about running the ball, or stopping the run - I think they've proven that over and over and over and over...

I could live with McCarthy's wimpy ways - but I hate soft defense to my core... it's painful to watch. Capers has to go.

Go back and look at the SF game - no excuse for that; but that's who the Packers are - a soft team.

[gbgary]

i disagree that personnel changes aren't adjustments. he sat bush and played tighter coverage on passing downs. these two things alone made a big difference from the sf game. the "scrum" up-the-middle worked pretty well i think.

[Packers4Glory]

Geezus. I like jones. He ran a shit route. True. But fucking jordy hasn't been any better at WR this yr dropping pass after pass. Let's be fair.

[Brandon494]

How come folks don't rail on Jones for not being reliable catching the ball but crucify Finley when he isn't either? If you are bitching cuz of his tweets that's pretty sad. I for one don't give a rats ass what players say - except if they give teams bulletin board material. As long as a player is out there trying and not getting into trouble off the field I don't care what nonsense they tweet.

Didn't hear a peep about Jordy's drop passes either.

[Brandon494]

Geezus. I like jones. He ran a shit route. True. But fucking jordy hasn't been any better at WR this yr dropping pass after pass. Let's be fair.

I stand corrected :oops:

[wist43]

Bush is a complete disaster, and shouldn't be in the league.

As for the Bears game - I went thru the tape again (sick today and vegging on the computer and couch :) ). The back end played very well, and getting rid of Bush certainly had a positive effect.

Capers played a good deal of 3-4 in the 2nd half as the Bears did what they should have been doing the whole game - run the ball. When the Bears ran it, we couldn't stop them. They stopped themselves with penalties and Cutler being Cutler. If Cutler had simply managed the game, as opposed to trying to force the ball, it would have been a very close game.

Marshall dropped an easy TD; and Cutler simply tossed us the game with his idiotic play.

Our running game consisted entirely of scrum left-middle-right, save one play where Sitton pulled. We gained 84 yards on 24 carries - a 3.5 yd/carry avg. One 11 yard run was all Benson as he was stuffed behind the LOS. Without his Houdini act on that play, the average would have been 3.0 yd/carry. 2 seperate 3rd and 1's, were stuffed for minus yardage. We scored 1 offensive TD, set up by Cutler, we never really mounted a drive. We gave up 5 sacks, and had 2 turnovers.

Taking out the fake punt TD, we had 294 yds of total offense; taking out Cobbs run, we had 266 yards from our base offense. For the most part, our offense didn't do much of anything; and our defense only had to run thru a sieve OL, and catch passes from Cutler.

For my money, the SF game is still the yard stick that should be used to measure this team. Hopefully they will improve as the season goes on; but to date, we don't have much to hang our hats on. 1-1 will have to do.

[pbmax]

wist, you cant take out the best plays and then bemoan the mediocre leftovers. Cobb had a 28 yard run and it counts whether you wish to consider it conventional and emblematic of power football or not. You choose to include Kuhn's two short yardage plays. Just adding Cobb into your numbers gets you 25 for 112/4.48. That's hard to complain about. Looking for conventional runs? Benson alone was 20 for 81 for better than 4 ypc.

In the second half, the horrible Packer run defense yielded 54 yards on 14 carries for a horrid 3.85 ypc. You're right by golly, the Packers couldn't stop the Bear run game.

Bush can play slot corner and I would not be surprised to see him back in over Hayward at some point. I hope not to see him outside anymore.

Face it, the 49ers game matches your preconceived notions of what the Packers are better than the Bears game. So of course you hang your hat on that game. Considering success against the Bears, Steelers or Falcons simply doesn't comport with your view.

[Smeefers]

Wist is correct in some stances. Our team is going to have problems if they're playing from behind against a good running team. We have to get two scores ahead of a team before we play packer football. Last year that was no problem. It seemed like every time our offense touched the ball, we were going the distance. This year, not so much. Our offense, Aaron especially are not going to be able to keep up the offensive supremecy that they did last year. Luckily I have seen improvements on our defense. We do have a weak running game and MM's play calling always starts the year off very suspect. He usually cools his jets by the end of the first quarter of the season and then we start really hammering teams. I don't know if his scouting improves over time or he's just trying out some gimmicks to see what works and then just sticks with what works, but that is how it seems to go with this team.

One main disagreement is that I wouldn't say we're a soft team. Especially on defense. Just throwing out one DL every once in a while does not make us a gimmick defense.

[MJZiggy]

Maybe we will have some problems this season, but if wist is off the bandwagon and back to bitching about everything, then the universe has righted itself and we should be just fine.

[Pugger]

Maybe we will have some problems this season, but if wist is off the bandwagon and back to bitching about everything, then the universe has righted itself and we should be just fine.

:lol:

[wist43]

wist, you cant take out the best plays and then bemoan the mediocre leftovers. Cobb had a 28 yard run and it counts whether you wish to consider it conventional and emblematic of power football or not. You choose to include Kuhn's two short yardage plays. Just adding Cobb into your numbers gets you 25 for 112/4.48. That's hard to complain about. Looking for conventional runs? Benson alone was 20 for 81 for better than 4 ypc.

In the second half, the horrible Packer run defense yielded 54 yards on 14 carries for a horrid 3.85 ypc. You're right by golly, the Packers couldn't stop the Bear run game.

Bush can play slot corner and I would not be surprised to see him back in over Hayward at some point. I hope not to see him outside anymore.

Face it, the 49ers game matches your preconceived notions of what the Packers are better than the Bears game. So of course you hang your hat on that game. Considering success against the Bears, Steelers or Falcons simply doesn't comport with your view.

I looked at base offense runs. Cobb was a nice wrinkle, was glad to see it; glad to see MM is using him in more ways.

Take the emotion out of the Bear game and just break it down for what really happened on the field, and it was all about Cutler. If Cutler doesn't play like Cutler, it is a very close game that we very well could have lost - and certainly Packer nation would be singing a different tune.

We ran the ball fairly well against their fronts which were geared toward getting after Rodgers. When we had to run it?? of course we could not. As I said for their running game - they shot themselves in the foot with penalties as often as not. They had positive running plays wiped out by penalties that had no effect upon the play itself, and they put themselves in desperately long down and distance situations out of which they ran a few times in effect punting on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down.

The Bears came out with a terrible game plan in the 1st half; made the proper adjustment for the 2nd half, but self destructed on just about every series.

On the plus side Matthew played lights out; and I'm very encouraged by Worthy and Daniels; looking forward to House coming back. On defense, I think our talent is vastly improved - my complaint is Capers.

Offensively, we did not play well. I laid the stats out - 1 offensive TD; < 4 yds/carry; 2 turnovers, etc...

I'm glad we won. 1-1 is a hell of a lot better than 0-2; but we're a long ways from playing well, and unless Capers gets his head out of his ass, I don't expect to see much improvement from the defense as the season wears on. When we go up against good, tough teams, the same old gremlins will be evident unless Capers and McCarthy make adjustments.

[wist43]

Maybe we will have some problems this season, but if wist is off the bandwagon and back to bitching about everything, then the universe has righted itself and we should be just fine.

Agreed, feeling much more like myself these days ;)

[mraynrand]

Capers played a good deal of 3-4 in the 2nd half as the Bears did what they should have been doing the whole game - run the ball. When the Bears ran it, we couldn't stop them. They stopped themselves with penalties and Cutler being Cutler. If Cutler had simply managed the game, as opposed to trying to force the ball, it would have been a very close game.

I thought for sure Tice wouldn't replicate Martz, but you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq254/mraynrand/BarneyTicecopy.jpg

[pbmax]

In order to claim the Packers ran for less than 4 yards per carry, you have had to invent your own class of run plays. Its a statistic without context. You want to convey the idea that the run game is suffering (less than 4ypc), but conventional stats won't make that case for you. So you have invented one. If you provide running stats for the rest of the league using your new definition, it might be worth looking at.

But it should be unnecessary. The offense is not firing on all cylinders and its obvious. The Bears game just doesn't follow your narrative that the Packers aren't physical enough.

As for short yardage, its a small sample size.

As for Cutler being Cutler, 4 Ints and 7 sacks was listed on the broadcast as not having been achieved by any player in nearly a decade. So not even Cutler can do it to himself that often.

[wist43]

In order to claim the Packers ran for less than 4 yards per carry, you have had to invent your own class of run plays. Its a statistic without context. You want to convey the idea that the run game is suffering (less than 4ypc), but conventional stats won't make that case for you. So you have invented one. If you provide running stats for the rest of the league using your new definition, it might be worth looking at.

But it should be unnecessary. The offense is not firing on all cylinders and its obvious. The Bears game just doesn't follow your narrative that the Packers aren't physical enough.

As for short yardage, its a small sample size.

As for Cutler being Cutler, 4 Ints and 7 sacks was listed on the broadcast as not having been achieved by any player in nearly a decade. So not even Cutler can do it to himself that often.

Give it up max... I said I was only looking at base run plays; and in going back and looking at the tape, Capers did run a 3-4 base predominately in the 2nd half. Still, his 2-4 nickel base, and 1-10 dime are gimmick bullshit, and a good team beats the hell of 'em. I have an entire season of record setting woefulness to back me up on that. You do realize that Capers and the Packers set the all-time NFL record for passing yds allowed last season?? That said, Cutler to the rescue.

If you want to go on thinking the '12 Packers are the '86 Bears, go right on thinking that.

[pbmax]

I hold out no hope the Packers are the '86 Bears defense. But I think they stand a good chance of being the '10 Packers D. Which should be good enough.

[Smeefers]

Take the emotion out of the Bear game and just break it down for what really happened on the field, and it was all about Cutler. If Cutler doesn't play like Cutler, it is a very close game that we very well could have lost - and certainly Packer nation would be singing a different tune.


You know, if Cutler played lights out, but thier defense stunk, then we would have won. Or, if Cutler played good and we didn't have those drops by Jordy and Jones, then we still probably would have won. Oh, If Forte hadn't gotten injured, but our defense found a way to stop him, and then Jones played better, but that corner of theirs played worse and Lance Briggs only played marginally better, I'm sure the Bears would have won.

[denverYooper]

You know, if Cutler played lights out, but thier defense stunk, then we would have won. Or, if Cutler played good and we didn't have those drops by Jordy and Jones, then we still probably would have won. Oh, If Forte hadn't gotten injured, but our defense found a way to stop him, and then Jones played better, but that corner of theirs played worse and Lance Briggs only played marginally better, I'm sure the Bears would have won.

It was odd. Their line played lights out but Cutler still stank. I mean, usually when you see a guy get that kind of protection he's just lighting it up.

[pbmax]

wrong thread

[Joemailman]

I hold out no hope the Packers are the '86 Bears defense. But I think they stand a good chance of being the '10 Packers D. Which should be good enough.

Yes it would. Tramon and Shields look pretty close to being where they were in 2010. That's the good news. The bad news is Burnett isn't making me forget about Nick Collins. Whether Burnett can improve enough to get the defense to 2010 remains to be seen.

[Smidgeon]

Yes it would. Tramon and Shields look pretty close to being where they were in 2010. That's the good news. The bad news is Burnett isn't making me forget about Nick Collins. Whether Burnett can improve enough to get the defense to 2010 remains to be seen.

My prognostication is that McMillian will be closer to being a Collins replacement than Burnett will. The boy can run, hit, he fills the lanes, and he likes catching the ball. Give him experience, and he'll be a terror. I like Burnett too, but he just seems a little more finesse.

[gbgary]

lineup-shakeup (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/lineup-shakeup-benefits-the-defense-sl6sjpr-169986986.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter)

[Packers4Glory]

lineup-shakeup (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/lineup-shakeup-benefits-the-defense-sl6sjpr-169986986.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter)

keep playn em. get this young defense experience. They'll only get better. Pus we have House sitting there recovering who showed a lot of promise early in camp.

[mraynrand]

Six rookies - Hayward, McMillian, Moses, Daniels, Nick Perry and Jerel Worthy - played integral parts in a game the Packers couldn't afford to lose. It takes some guts to make that call.

6 rookies - 6 - on defense alone. That tells you everything you need to know about how bad this defense was last year...and last week.

[rbaloha1]

6 rookies - 6 - on defense alone. That tells you everything you need to know about how bad this defense was last year...and last week.

These guys should have played more in the niner game.

Finally Capers admitted personnel mistakes.