Erik Walden Vs. Minnesota (Playoffs)

[Smeefers]

Hey, I read this on PFF, just thought you guys might be interested. He says Erik Walden had a crappy day. He earned a -2.4 grade, which by PFF standards is absolutely horrible.

The Highlights Can Mislead

Watching the game you might be forgiven for thinking Erik Walden had a great outing, as he was routinely around the quarterback or making a nuisance of himself against the run. How can it be then that he ended up with a -2.4 grade overall? He notched a sack, two hits and two more hurries, which is a fine haul for any pass-rusher, but only one of those hurries involved actually beating a man, and that was FB/H-back Rhett Ellison. The rest were either entirely unblocked or came as a result of somebody else flushing the quarterback toward Walden with more dominant and immediate pressure. Walden’s best play in the run game, a tackle for loss of Peterson in the third quarter, came because the pull block of LG Charlie Johnson was blown up to his inside by ILB Brad Jones, forcing Peterson to the outside where he had nowhere to go.

Other than that, Walden had far from a great game in run defense, losing out to his blocker a couple of times and failing to close and finish the play on both Peterson and Webb. Your TV screen might have been full of Walden all night, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he had a great game.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2013/01/06/refo-vikings-packers-nfc-wild-card/

[Freak Out]

Harv pointed this out and it was pretty plain to see on a few occasions.

[pbmax]

That's the problem with PFP's analysis. They don't know and can't consider the play call or defensive role.

On several of Walden's unblocked looks, he was unblocked by design with the expectation that he would buy the fake or be unable to chase and catch the QB. After the first two series, he played those well. Seems hard to penalize him for making a play the offense is coating on him not to make.

[Packers4Glory]

I'm sick of Walden giving up contain on the outside. He seems to get caught crashing at least once a game, esp against mobile QB's and good cutback RB's.

[rbaloha1]

EW is too inconsistent. Only making plays because of the attention given to Clay Matthews.

Stay in your lanes and do not lose containment.

[LEWCWA]

We all know this guy is below average, but sat. night he made a few impact plays and kept AP from bouncing out a bunch. That is what the Packers need from this guy and guess what those impact plays really disrupt drives! I would say Waldon disrupted and helped ruin about 4 of Minney's drives....that is ok in my book!

[Packers4Glory]

I liked the defense better when Moses was in there

[LEWCWA]

I like moses as well, but he gets exposed a little with too many snaps.....walden seems to help with that. Moses should be a great situational guy next year with Perry back. You could probably line Perry up at DE some in passing situations.

[SkinBasket]

Walden is a shit ton better than he was last year. And he still sucks cock.

What happened to all those people from last season who swore he was the next Atari Bigby? Those people who thought that the flu and being beat up by his girlfriend were his only problems last year. They were funny.

[Packers4Glory]

I like moses as well, but he gets exposed a little with too many snaps.....walden seems to help with that. Moses should be a great situational guy next year with Perry back. You could probably line Perry up at DE some in passing situations.

I'm not sure on Moses yet but he def seems to be far better instinctually than Walden. He's a smarter player, more assignment sure than Walden. Walden did seem to learn from his early mistakes and played decent enough. I am interested in seeing how Moses develops.

[pbmax]

I am curious why Moses is in for so much base when you might be thinking run. I would like to know what the staff thinks about their respective strengths and weaknesses.

[mraynrand]

Geezus, they wouldna drafted Perry if they didn't think they need to improve at LOLB and move Claymaker to ROLB. It just didn't work out this year. At least Walden isn't as eye-popping horrible as late last year. Zombo, on the other hand is a total stiff. Like Moses in there more, but he gets confused at times and abused by size in the run game.