K-town
10-02-2007, 03:56 PM
INSIDE FOOTBALL with Eric Baranczyk: Week 4
Posted: Oct. 2, 2007
As told to former Packer Insider columnist Cliff Christl, Eric Baranczyk, an assistant high school football coach and a former player and coach at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, offers a weekly analysis of the Green Bay Packers with a Inside Football slant.
Brett Favre
I think it's apparent to anybody who has watched Brett Favre over his career that he needed somebody to rein him in. When Holmgren was here, he had him under his reins. Under Ray Rhodes-Mike Sherman, nobody reined him in. It appeared that he just did whatever he wanted and his production was down. Now, when you have a guy like Mike McCarthy who is telling him, "This is the way you're going to do it," I think it makes a big difference.
In the first game against Philadelphia when Favre threw that interception at the end of the first quarter when the Packers were up 10-0 - it turned the momentum for the rest of the half - McCarthy got in his face when he came off the field and just reamed him out.
What also sticks out in my mind is that from Day One, McCarthy said, "Favre is going to do things our way." In the recent past, Favre would throw one or two of those passes every game where you'd go: "Jimmy Johnny." Sometimes players just need a coach and I think Favre is one of those guys.
At the same time, Favre, at 38, is playing like he did at 28 and I think that's partly a testament to how much of a competitor he is. Other than not being able to run around like he used to, he displayed on Sunday all the throws that a quarterback needs to throw. He hit James Jones on that 9 route up-the-field, where he had to get it over the cornerback but not too far where if a safety was coming over the top it would be an interception. It was a nice touch pass. He can still break people's ribs. And he can still throw that deep out. It's pretty impressive how a guy at 38 can still do all that.
Before this season, the personnel people that help Pro Football Weekly rank the top players didn't have Favre in the top 50. They ranked him the 14th best quarterback. The Sporting News didn't have Favre in the top 100 players in its poll of personnel people. Peter King, in his 500 list, ranked Favre 113th and I'm sure he had help from people around the league. I think they were all going on what Favre had done in the recent past. He was throwing the ball around for three, four years there. It was like he was back to where he was at the beginning of his career: When he'd get in a tight situation, he'd throw the ball and you held your breath. He's not doing that now. If he throws the ball now in a tight situation, it's pretty much right on the money. He's not spraying the ball around. He's accurate. His completion percentage right now is 65.9. I think that's top eight in the league. That pass, for example, to Ruvell Martin up the sideline was a perfectly thrown pass. He under-throws it a little bit, it's picked off. He overthrows it a little bit, it's picked off.
Jimmy Johnson said Sunday that there are only three quarterbacks in the league who can make an offense go without a running game: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Favre. Johnson won what? A national championship and a couple Super Bowl wins. The guy knows players. First of all, Favre is able to do that because he can make decisions and he doesn't get rattled. Against the Vikings, there were five, six guys around him sometimes and he just throws the ball in there.
Favre also is the guy who makes that play-action pass work. Kelly Holcomb couldn't make it work. Favre makes it work even without a running game because he's so fluid. He sticks the ball out, pulls it back in, turns his shoulders and throws the ball. When Favre sticks that ball out, it looks like a running play. That's one thing I don't think people give Favre a lot of credit for. There were some quarterbacks who were really good at it: Steve Young, Joe Montana, Boomer Esiason are the guys who come to my mind. And Favre does it very well.
Favre's pump fakes are another thing he doesn't get enough credit for. He gets those defensive linemen off the ground, and when they come back down and gather themselves that's when he can throw over the top of them and get those slants and outs. It slows down the rush, too. When a defensive lineman's hands go up in the air, then the offensive linemen are all over them. No question, Favre is carrying that offense right now. But his offensive line has been pass blocking very, very well. And a lot of times it's just with five guys. You can't say the offensive line is junk because they do pass block. And we've seen in the past that when Favre has time, he can just dissect teams.
Receiving weapons
I also think the Packers have enough weapons on the outside to make things happen. If teams didn't respect Donald Driver and just let him run wild, he could put up huge numbers. That's partly because of Favre. But they've got James Jones, Greg Jennings, Driver. Even Ruvell Martin caught that long ball. They don't have the guy who runs the 9 (route) like a Randy Moss. But that was a great catch by Jones on that 33-yard touchdown. On the record-setting touchdown that was a great catch and run by Jennings. The Packers' receivers maybe aren't the fastest burners, but what I see is that they know how to get to a spot. And Jones has superb hands. I think Jennings has good hands, too. I think those receivers are making a big difference. I never thought Robert Ferguson understood space: How to create space and get to a spot. That's what we're seeing with Jones and Jennings. I think Jennings is very good at that.
The little things
I think right now the difference between the Packers being a real good and an even better team is small things. Let's start with the offense. On the Packers' first running play, if Vernand Morency shows just a little bit of patience, it goes for five yards instead of two. All he had to do was wait a half-a-count and the guard washes the guy past the hole, and Morency is running. Instead, Morency puts his head down and meets the guy in the hole.
End of the first half, 12 seconds left, the Packers at the Vikings' 4-yard line, Mark Tauscher - who is very good, but hops around more than I think he should rather than taking a kick-drag, kick-drag step back - took a half-step forward on his pass pro and got beat to the corner. If he takes a step back instead of a step forward, who knows? It could have been a touchdown there and now they've scored two touchdowns in the first half.
In the second half, they try running a sweep the first play, Junius Coston gets pushed back and now the guards can't pull and the fullback can't get to the edge. So they get two yards instead of five or six. There was another play on the same drive, you had four guys blocking perfectly, and Daryn Colledge lets a guy run right by him. It was beautiful on the play side: Tackles, guards, the center, everybody was perfect. Colledge does a pirouette and his guy tackles DeShawn Wynn for no gain on first down.
Again, it's just little things. They score a touchdown at the end of the half, it might be a different ballgame. Maybe they could put teams out earlier in the game instead of having it drag on to the fourth quarter.
Same thing on the defensive side. There's enough going on that's just great, but they need to fix those little things. For example, when the Vikings were gashing the Packers, it wasn't so much that the Packers' defense was playing poorly or the Vikings' offensive line was beating the Packers. On Adrian Peterson's first big run for 10, 12 yards, Nick Barnett over-pursued. He over-pursued one gap and that's where Peterson cut back and ran it up. On Peterson's long one, Brady Poppinga and Barnett both over-pursued. There was a lane and Peterson hit the lane for 55 yards. On Chester Taylor's long one, A.J. Hawk turned his shoulder and got blocked, and Barnett over-ran the play. The Packers stay home and stay in their lanes, none of those three long runs happen. But Peterson is a back who can make a defense pay for its mistakes and that's what the Packers' backs don't do.
Barnett and Poppinga are very, very aggressive players. And I don't know how you rope down those guys from over-pursuing. Some of it you don't want to take away from them. You want them to be aggressive, go after the ball and be headhunters. But they also have to be disciplined and stay in their gaps or a guy like Peterson is going to make them pay.
Peterson is going to cause a lot of problems for the Packers for maybe the next eight years or so if he stays healthy. But they don't give him the ball enough. I don't know why they don't just give him the ball 30 times a game.
I don't think A.J. Hawk hurt the Packers, except on that power play when he turned his shoulders. But I don't think he played downhill enough. Barnett and Poppinga play downhill. Hawk didn't take false steps. He just didn't react fast enough. I don't think he was downhill hard. I know he's wearing a lot of different hats and the Vikings delayed that tight end a little bit. I don't know if he was concerned about that or what.
Up front, I thought Ryan Pickett played well. I thought Colin Cole played well. Of course, Johnny Jolly played well. He's just around the football. He's a big guy and he moves well. I thought Cullen Jenkins was solid and he batted one down. He got caught one time inside and it was a hand-placement type thing.
Again, it was just little things.
Red flags on defense
I think we saw a red flag on defense for the first time. The Packers' corners aren't spring chickens. They're long in the tooth. And if they miss a game they could be in trouble. Al Harris has that back. Charles Woodson doesn't practice. And I think it's obvious Jarrett Bush isn't the answer. Those corners allow them to play Atari Bigby as an eighth man in the box. So the health of those corners has to be a concern.
Zone blocking
You're starting to see some of the same things happening that started happening at the end of last season. The Packers started doing some things more conventionally with their offensive line. They're pulling guys instead of just zone blocking all the time. But when they are zone blocking, the Packers' offensive line just doesn't get to the second level fluidly. I understand they had to stay with Pat Williams and get him blocked. But they were getting him blocked and then the backside backer was making the play.
Posted: Oct. 2, 2007
As told to former Packer Insider columnist Cliff Christl, Eric Baranczyk, an assistant high school football coach and a former player and coach at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, offers a weekly analysis of the Green Bay Packers with a Inside Football slant.
Brett Favre
I think it's apparent to anybody who has watched Brett Favre over his career that he needed somebody to rein him in. When Holmgren was here, he had him under his reins. Under Ray Rhodes-Mike Sherman, nobody reined him in. It appeared that he just did whatever he wanted and his production was down. Now, when you have a guy like Mike McCarthy who is telling him, "This is the way you're going to do it," I think it makes a big difference.
In the first game against Philadelphia when Favre threw that interception at the end of the first quarter when the Packers were up 10-0 - it turned the momentum for the rest of the half - McCarthy got in his face when he came off the field and just reamed him out.
What also sticks out in my mind is that from Day One, McCarthy said, "Favre is going to do things our way." In the recent past, Favre would throw one or two of those passes every game where you'd go: "Jimmy Johnny." Sometimes players just need a coach and I think Favre is one of those guys.
At the same time, Favre, at 38, is playing like he did at 28 and I think that's partly a testament to how much of a competitor he is. Other than not being able to run around like he used to, he displayed on Sunday all the throws that a quarterback needs to throw. He hit James Jones on that 9 route up-the-field, where he had to get it over the cornerback but not too far where if a safety was coming over the top it would be an interception. It was a nice touch pass. He can still break people's ribs. And he can still throw that deep out. It's pretty impressive how a guy at 38 can still do all that.
Before this season, the personnel people that help Pro Football Weekly rank the top players didn't have Favre in the top 50. They ranked him the 14th best quarterback. The Sporting News didn't have Favre in the top 100 players in its poll of personnel people. Peter King, in his 500 list, ranked Favre 113th and I'm sure he had help from people around the league. I think they were all going on what Favre had done in the recent past. He was throwing the ball around for three, four years there. It was like he was back to where he was at the beginning of his career: When he'd get in a tight situation, he'd throw the ball and you held your breath. He's not doing that now. If he throws the ball now in a tight situation, it's pretty much right on the money. He's not spraying the ball around. He's accurate. His completion percentage right now is 65.9. I think that's top eight in the league. That pass, for example, to Ruvell Martin up the sideline was a perfectly thrown pass. He under-throws it a little bit, it's picked off. He overthrows it a little bit, it's picked off.
Jimmy Johnson said Sunday that there are only three quarterbacks in the league who can make an offense go without a running game: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Favre. Johnson won what? A national championship and a couple Super Bowl wins. The guy knows players. First of all, Favre is able to do that because he can make decisions and he doesn't get rattled. Against the Vikings, there were five, six guys around him sometimes and he just throws the ball in there.
Favre also is the guy who makes that play-action pass work. Kelly Holcomb couldn't make it work. Favre makes it work even without a running game because he's so fluid. He sticks the ball out, pulls it back in, turns his shoulders and throws the ball. When Favre sticks that ball out, it looks like a running play. That's one thing I don't think people give Favre a lot of credit for. There were some quarterbacks who were really good at it: Steve Young, Joe Montana, Boomer Esiason are the guys who come to my mind. And Favre does it very well.
Favre's pump fakes are another thing he doesn't get enough credit for. He gets those defensive linemen off the ground, and when they come back down and gather themselves that's when he can throw over the top of them and get those slants and outs. It slows down the rush, too. When a defensive lineman's hands go up in the air, then the offensive linemen are all over them. No question, Favre is carrying that offense right now. But his offensive line has been pass blocking very, very well. And a lot of times it's just with five guys. You can't say the offensive line is junk because they do pass block. And we've seen in the past that when Favre has time, he can just dissect teams.
Receiving weapons
I also think the Packers have enough weapons on the outside to make things happen. If teams didn't respect Donald Driver and just let him run wild, he could put up huge numbers. That's partly because of Favre. But they've got James Jones, Greg Jennings, Driver. Even Ruvell Martin caught that long ball. They don't have the guy who runs the 9 (route) like a Randy Moss. But that was a great catch by Jones on that 33-yard touchdown. On the record-setting touchdown that was a great catch and run by Jennings. The Packers' receivers maybe aren't the fastest burners, but what I see is that they know how to get to a spot. And Jones has superb hands. I think Jennings has good hands, too. I think those receivers are making a big difference. I never thought Robert Ferguson understood space: How to create space and get to a spot. That's what we're seeing with Jones and Jennings. I think Jennings is very good at that.
The little things
I think right now the difference between the Packers being a real good and an even better team is small things. Let's start with the offense. On the Packers' first running play, if Vernand Morency shows just a little bit of patience, it goes for five yards instead of two. All he had to do was wait a half-a-count and the guard washes the guy past the hole, and Morency is running. Instead, Morency puts his head down and meets the guy in the hole.
End of the first half, 12 seconds left, the Packers at the Vikings' 4-yard line, Mark Tauscher - who is very good, but hops around more than I think he should rather than taking a kick-drag, kick-drag step back - took a half-step forward on his pass pro and got beat to the corner. If he takes a step back instead of a step forward, who knows? It could have been a touchdown there and now they've scored two touchdowns in the first half.
In the second half, they try running a sweep the first play, Junius Coston gets pushed back and now the guards can't pull and the fullback can't get to the edge. So they get two yards instead of five or six. There was another play on the same drive, you had four guys blocking perfectly, and Daryn Colledge lets a guy run right by him. It was beautiful on the play side: Tackles, guards, the center, everybody was perfect. Colledge does a pirouette and his guy tackles DeShawn Wynn for no gain on first down.
Again, it's just little things. They score a touchdown at the end of the half, it might be a different ballgame. Maybe they could put teams out earlier in the game instead of having it drag on to the fourth quarter.
Same thing on the defensive side. There's enough going on that's just great, but they need to fix those little things. For example, when the Vikings were gashing the Packers, it wasn't so much that the Packers' defense was playing poorly or the Vikings' offensive line was beating the Packers. On Adrian Peterson's first big run for 10, 12 yards, Nick Barnett over-pursued. He over-pursued one gap and that's where Peterson cut back and ran it up. On Peterson's long one, Brady Poppinga and Barnett both over-pursued. There was a lane and Peterson hit the lane for 55 yards. On Chester Taylor's long one, A.J. Hawk turned his shoulder and got blocked, and Barnett over-ran the play. The Packers stay home and stay in their lanes, none of those three long runs happen. But Peterson is a back who can make a defense pay for its mistakes and that's what the Packers' backs don't do.
Barnett and Poppinga are very, very aggressive players. And I don't know how you rope down those guys from over-pursuing. Some of it you don't want to take away from them. You want them to be aggressive, go after the ball and be headhunters. But they also have to be disciplined and stay in their gaps or a guy like Peterson is going to make them pay.
Peterson is going to cause a lot of problems for the Packers for maybe the next eight years or so if he stays healthy. But they don't give him the ball enough. I don't know why they don't just give him the ball 30 times a game.
I don't think A.J. Hawk hurt the Packers, except on that power play when he turned his shoulders. But I don't think he played downhill enough. Barnett and Poppinga play downhill. Hawk didn't take false steps. He just didn't react fast enough. I don't think he was downhill hard. I know he's wearing a lot of different hats and the Vikings delayed that tight end a little bit. I don't know if he was concerned about that or what.
Up front, I thought Ryan Pickett played well. I thought Colin Cole played well. Of course, Johnny Jolly played well. He's just around the football. He's a big guy and he moves well. I thought Cullen Jenkins was solid and he batted one down. He got caught one time inside and it was a hand-placement type thing.
Again, it was just little things.
Red flags on defense
I think we saw a red flag on defense for the first time. The Packers' corners aren't spring chickens. They're long in the tooth. And if they miss a game they could be in trouble. Al Harris has that back. Charles Woodson doesn't practice. And I think it's obvious Jarrett Bush isn't the answer. Those corners allow them to play Atari Bigby as an eighth man in the box. So the health of those corners has to be a concern.
Zone blocking
You're starting to see some of the same things happening that started happening at the end of last season. The Packers started doing some things more conventionally with their offensive line. They're pulling guys instead of just zone blocking all the time. But when they are zone blocking, the Packers' offensive line just doesn't get to the second level fluidly. I understand they had to stay with Pat Williams and get him blocked. But they were getting him blocked and then the backside backer was making the play.