motife
11-20-2007, 07:10 PM
INSIDE FOOTBALL with Eric Baranczyk: Week 10
Posted: Nov. 19, 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.
Playing with confidence
I think what you're seeing right now is a team that's playing very confident football. And it was always my experience that when you're playing that well, you just walk out on the field and know you're going to win. I think you could just sense that as soon as the Packers scored their first touchdown on the pooch punt. They knew they were going to win. Some people say when you play with that kind of confidence you play beyond your abilities, but I think it's more a case of you're more comfortable. You're more comfortable taking a chance - running into make a tackle, throwing a ball, anything like that - because you don't think there is any way that you're going to mess up.
But the one thing that will happen sometimes when you're playing with that kind of confidence is that you'll have a tendency to take the foot off the pedal and I think you saw a little bit of that against the Panthers. Toward the end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, after they got up, 28-3, I think the Packers kind of took their foot off the pedal. I think they could have scored 50 points if they had wanted to, but it was like, 'We know we're in control of the game,' and there was a let-up. Maybe the coaches decided to take the foot off the gas a little bit because they know they have three games in 11 days. And you can do that when you're confident and playing well; you can still win the game. I think that was a big part of that 61-yard drive, where the Panthers ran the ball 12 times. You didn't see the Packers running around, flying to the ball after they got that big lead. I don't think it was an issue of the Packers looking ahead. I just felt as though they were steamrolling their way to victory and then all of a sudden they let up.
If you watched New England in the night game Sunday, they didn't let up one bit. They went gangbusters and didn't care. I don't know which way is better, but New England doesn't have to play three games in 11 days, either.
Right now, the best defense the Packers have is their offense. All those long drives the Packers are getting is demoralizing for the other team. Again, in the first half Sunday, the Packers had a 71-yard drive, a 73-yard drive. It's demoralizing not only for the other team's defense, but the other team's offense. They're standing on the other sideline and they see what's happening. And it was obvious, when the Packers really wanted to, they could move the ball. I think the defense just played as well as it had to. But, again, late in the game the emotion factor seemed to be out of it.
Special teams
Special teams played a big part, too. Sometimes people overlook that, but that's an improved part of that team. They're covering kicks and punts better. Tramon Williams ran the pooch punt back. Koren Robinson ran the kickoff back 67 yards. Again, we've talked about that in the past. But that happens when you have better talent on a team, all areas get better. And I think that was a big part of that win. Field position was good. And you could just see the effort on special teams.
But I think they should look at somebody else on punt returns, so they don't get the old guy hurt. I know they like Charles Woodson's sure-handedness. But you can't tell me there isn't anybody else on that team who couldn't stand back there and catch a football. They have 58 guys in that locker room. Somebody has to be able to catch a punt, so they don't have to put that old codger back there. Woodson isn't explosive at all. Why not Tramon Williams? And I think maybe they'd find that the guys would block better for him. That's important, too. I think that's part of it with Devin Hester of the Bears. He ran one or two back. Then, all of a sudden he was running more back because the guys got excited and wanted to block for him. Plus, if Woodson got hurt, it would be a bad deal for the Packers. And he took a pretty good shot against Carolina, although he jumped right back up.
Offense
Offensively, the Packers are playing outstanding football right now. I think they are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the other team's defensive backfield with those four and five wide receiver sets. First of all, if the other team blitzes, it's playing Russian roulette. And if they don't, the Packers are putting a ton of pressure on those defensive backs. Take Donald Lee's 26-yard touchdown. The Packers ran four guys vertical on that play. That's not uncommon for teams to do that. But here's the kicker. The Packers run four verticals and then they still have a wide receiver running a crossing route under those four verticals. In a normal set where you do that, where you have twins (two wide receivers) on each side, the check-off valve is the running back who is maybe two, three yards downfield or off in the flat. But what the Packers are doing is running four guys vertical and running the fifth receiver on a crossing pattern at 10 yards. That's a bitch for a defense to cover and you saw the Packers hit that a couple times when the verticals were covered. What the Packers are doing is this: Whatever guy a safety doesn't drift to, that's where they're going with the ball. Plus, most teams are going to keep a backer in the game and that backer is going to be covering somebody.
Again, on the touchdown to Donald Lee, the Packers had four wide receivers lined up with him and Lee was split wide. The Packers had three to the top and two on the bottom. Lee was the guy on the inside seam, closest to the tackle. Koren Robinson ran the crossing underneath. Greg Jennings, James Jones, Donald Driver and Lee ran the verticals. Driver was on the other side. The Panthers brought in six defensive backs, so they had two safeties over the top and they were manned up across with the linebacker covering the inside receiver. So the linebacker was covering Donald Lee and he got burned. And what happened was the safety on that side was too deep because the two outside receivers on that side were deeper than Donald Lee; and the safety on the other side had to stay over the top on Driver. So Favre was able to drop it over the linebacker and under the safety.
With the inverted wishbone, the two fullback set, I think what the Packers are doing is trying to balance it up. With two fullbacks, you can run a power to the left or a power to the right. So which way are they going to run the ball? If you have just one off-set fullback, chances are you're running that way. I also think where they get miles out of it is if they run to the left, for example - a stretch to the left - the backside fullback also goes to the left. That way, he might be able to pick off a backer and open the cutback lane. In the second quarter, on Ryan Grant's 23-yard run, that's what happened. The fullback led through and the backside fullback picked off a backer. Grant cut inside off that block. So I think the Packers are using it as a way to help out with cutback blocks.
I think putting Driver behind center in the shotgun was maybe a fun thing to do, a different look. Maybe they're setting it up for Detroit or Dallas, where they throw a lateral out to Favre and he throws it downfield. I don't know what they're doing, but it gives those teams something to think about.
Chad Clifton continues to be a black hole for the other team on pass blocking. I thought Mark Tauscher, for going up against Julius Peppers on a bum ankle, did all right. I thought the guards were okay. Kris Jenkins didn't dominate. So I think the guards are playing better, but they still need to get better, get a better push.
Defense
I thought the pass rush was spotty. They were only sending four guys, but they have to get home. When they play against Detroit and Dallas, they have to get home with four guys. Again, football is such an emotional game and when they're up 21-3, 28-3, sometimes that emotion fades. But Corey Williams had those big two sacks. I like all three of those defensive tackles: Ryan Pickett, Johnny Jolly and Williams. And I think they have a tough decision with Williams. Do they really think that a rotation of Pickett, Jolly and the rook (Justin Harrell) would be just as good? It's pretty nice the way it is now and they're all making plays. And what Williams brings to the table that Pickett doesn't is up-field pressure. Pickett is great laterally and he's an anchor. But Williams on Sunday was quick off the ball. That's the biggest thing. But his pad level also was outstanding. Wherever you're playing on the line of scrimmage, the guy with the lowest pad level almost always wins. And you need strong legs to get good pad level and that's what Williams has.
People complain that A.J. Hawk doesn't make plays, but I'll tell you what: I think he had another good game. He was covering downfield; he was all over the field. They don't use him to blitz the passer. They don't use him like Shawne Merriman. But they can line up A.J. Hawk on a running back, a tight end, even a wide-out, and he's able to wheel around with them. Guys like that don't come around very often. Look what happens when they get a bad matchup with Brady Poppinga on the tight end.
I think Nick Barnett is still playing well. He's not overrunning plays as much as he used to. He's a high motor guy. In my opinion, since the first Minnesota game, when they were overrunning plays, I think all three of those linebackers have buttoned it down. Plus, with the linebackers, it depends where other teams are running the ball and what their scheme is. For example, if they're running to the edge all the time, sometimes it's tough for a middle linebacker to get out there. And I think the last few weeks teams have been running to the edge more against the Packers. I think they've decided it's pretty tough sledding to get anything up the gut because of the way the Packers' tackles are playing.
Atari Bigby needs to start playing a little smarter. On that 43-yard pass to Drew Carter, he turned into the post and then he had to turn all the way back around. That's bad. Carter ran the post from the right side. Bigby was backpedaling and he turned his right shoulder into the pattern. What he has to do is open up and run with the post. You don't expect to see that at this level and it could be a big issue. If a guy like Terrell Owens sees that, he'll be running posts all day. And Terrell Owens will run right by him.
I thought Aaron Rouse played pretty well. He might have been a little excited and flown in there a couple times. But he's physical and he did a really nice job on that interception. There were two receivers there: One guy working out, one guy working in. Sometimes defensive backs stay with the guy going to the flat too long. Whereas Rouse saw the guy going to the flat and that Al Harris was there to pick him up, so he settled back and right into the ball. That was an alert play.
Posted: Nov. 19, 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.
Playing with confidence
I think what you're seeing right now is a team that's playing very confident football. And it was always my experience that when you're playing that well, you just walk out on the field and know you're going to win. I think you could just sense that as soon as the Packers scored their first touchdown on the pooch punt. They knew they were going to win. Some people say when you play with that kind of confidence you play beyond your abilities, but I think it's more a case of you're more comfortable. You're more comfortable taking a chance - running into make a tackle, throwing a ball, anything like that - because you don't think there is any way that you're going to mess up.
But the one thing that will happen sometimes when you're playing with that kind of confidence is that you'll have a tendency to take the foot off the pedal and I think you saw a little bit of that against the Panthers. Toward the end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, after they got up, 28-3, I think the Packers kind of took their foot off the pedal. I think they could have scored 50 points if they had wanted to, but it was like, 'We know we're in control of the game,' and there was a let-up. Maybe the coaches decided to take the foot off the gas a little bit because they know they have three games in 11 days. And you can do that when you're confident and playing well; you can still win the game. I think that was a big part of that 61-yard drive, where the Panthers ran the ball 12 times. You didn't see the Packers running around, flying to the ball after they got that big lead. I don't think it was an issue of the Packers looking ahead. I just felt as though they were steamrolling their way to victory and then all of a sudden they let up.
If you watched New England in the night game Sunday, they didn't let up one bit. They went gangbusters and didn't care. I don't know which way is better, but New England doesn't have to play three games in 11 days, either.
Right now, the best defense the Packers have is their offense. All those long drives the Packers are getting is demoralizing for the other team. Again, in the first half Sunday, the Packers had a 71-yard drive, a 73-yard drive. It's demoralizing not only for the other team's defense, but the other team's offense. They're standing on the other sideline and they see what's happening. And it was obvious, when the Packers really wanted to, they could move the ball. I think the defense just played as well as it had to. But, again, late in the game the emotion factor seemed to be out of it.
Special teams
Special teams played a big part, too. Sometimes people overlook that, but that's an improved part of that team. They're covering kicks and punts better. Tramon Williams ran the pooch punt back. Koren Robinson ran the kickoff back 67 yards. Again, we've talked about that in the past. But that happens when you have better talent on a team, all areas get better. And I think that was a big part of that win. Field position was good. And you could just see the effort on special teams.
But I think they should look at somebody else on punt returns, so they don't get the old guy hurt. I know they like Charles Woodson's sure-handedness. But you can't tell me there isn't anybody else on that team who couldn't stand back there and catch a football. They have 58 guys in that locker room. Somebody has to be able to catch a punt, so they don't have to put that old codger back there. Woodson isn't explosive at all. Why not Tramon Williams? And I think maybe they'd find that the guys would block better for him. That's important, too. I think that's part of it with Devin Hester of the Bears. He ran one or two back. Then, all of a sudden he was running more back because the guys got excited and wanted to block for him. Plus, if Woodson got hurt, it would be a bad deal for the Packers. And he took a pretty good shot against Carolina, although he jumped right back up.
Offense
Offensively, the Packers are playing outstanding football right now. I think they are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the other team's defensive backfield with those four and five wide receiver sets. First of all, if the other team blitzes, it's playing Russian roulette. And if they don't, the Packers are putting a ton of pressure on those defensive backs. Take Donald Lee's 26-yard touchdown. The Packers ran four guys vertical on that play. That's not uncommon for teams to do that. But here's the kicker. The Packers run four verticals and then they still have a wide receiver running a crossing route under those four verticals. In a normal set where you do that, where you have twins (two wide receivers) on each side, the check-off valve is the running back who is maybe two, three yards downfield or off in the flat. But what the Packers are doing is running four guys vertical and running the fifth receiver on a crossing pattern at 10 yards. That's a bitch for a defense to cover and you saw the Packers hit that a couple times when the verticals were covered. What the Packers are doing is this: Whatever guy a safety doesn't drift to, that's where they're going with the ball. Plus, most teams are going to keep a backer in the game and that backer is going to be covering somebody.
Again, on the touchdown to Donald Lee, the Packers had four wide receivers lined up with him and Lee was split wide. The Packers had three to the top and two on the bottom. Lee was the guy on the inside seam, closest to the tackle. Koren Robinson ran the crossing underneath. Greg Jennings, James Jones, Donald Driver and Lee ran the verticals. Driver was on the other side. The Panthers brought in six defensive backs, so they had two safeties over the top and they were manned up across with the linebacker covering the inside receiver. So the linebacker was covering Donald Lee and he got burned. And what happened was the safety on that side was too deep because the two outside receivers on that side were deeper than Donald Lee; and the safety on the other side had to stay over the top on Driver. So Favre was able to drop it over the linebacker and under the safety.
With the inverted wishbone, the two fullback set, I think what the Packers are doing is trying to balance it up. With two fullbacks, you can run a power to the left or a power to the right. So which way are they going to run the ball? If you have just one off-set fullback, chances are you're running that way. I also think where they get miles out of it is if they run to the left, for example - a stretch to the left - the backside fullback also goes to the left. That way, he might be able to pick off a backer and open the cutback lane. In the second quarter, on Ryan Grant's 23-yard run, that's what happened. The fullback led through and the backside fullback picked off a backer. Grant cut inside off that block. So I think the Packers are using it as a way to help out with cutback blocks.
I think putting Driver behind center in the shotgun was maybe a fun thing to do, a different look. Maybe they're setting it up for Detroit or Dallas, where they throw a lateral out to Favre and he throws it downfield. I don't know what they're doing, but it gives those teams something to think about.
Chad Clifton continues to be a black hole for the other team on pass blocking. I thought Mark Tauscher, for going up against Julius Peppers on a bum ankle, did all right. I thought the guards were okay. Kris Jenkins didn't dominate. So I think the guards are playing better, but they still need to get better, get a better push.
Defense
I thought the pass rush was spotty. They were only sending four guys, but they have to get home. When they play against Detroit and Dallas, they have to get home with four guys. Again, football is such an emotional game and when they're up 21-3, 28-3, sometimes that emotion fades. But Corey Williams had those big two sacks. I like all three of those defensive tackles: Ryan Pickett, Johnny Jolly and Williams. And I think they have a tough decision with Williams. Do they really think that a rotation of Pickett, Jolly and the rook (Justin Harrell) would be just as good? It's pretty nice the way it is now and they're all making plays. And what Williams brings to the table that Pickett doesn't is up-field pressure. Pickett is great laterally and he's an anchor. But Williams on Sunday was quick off the ball. That's the biggest thing. But his pad level also was outstanding. Wherever you're playing on the line of scrimmage, the guy with the lowest pad level almost always wins. And you need strong legs to get good pad level and that's what Williams has.
People complain that A.J. Hawk doesn't make plays, but I'll tell you what: I think he had another good game. He was covering downfield; he was all over the field. They don't use him to blitz the passer. They don't use him like Shawne Merriman. But they can line up A.J. Hawk on a running back, a tight end, even a wide-out, and he's able to wheel around with them. Guys like that don't come around very often. Look what happens when they get a bad matchup with Brady Poppinga on the tight end.
I think Nick Barnett is still playing well. He's not overrunning plays as much as he used to. He's a high motor guy. In my opinion, since the first Minnesota game, when they were overrunning plays, I think all three of those linebackers have buttoned it down. Plus, with the linebackers, it depends where other teams are running the ball and what their scheme is. For example, if they're running to the edge all the time, sometimes it's tough for a middle linebacker to get out there. And I think the last few weeks teams have been running to the edge more against the Packers. I think they've decided it's pretty tough sledding to get anything up the gut because of the way the Packers' tackles are playing.
Atari Bigby needs to start playing a little smarter. On that 43-yard pass to Drew Carter, he turned into the post and then he had to turn all the way back around. That's bad. Carter ran the post from the right side. Bigby was backpedaling and he turned his right shoulder into the pattern. What he has to do is open up and run with the post. You don't expect to see that at this level and it could be a big issue. If a guy like Terrell Owens sees that, he'll be running posts all day. And Terrell Owens will run right by him.
I thought Aaron Rouse played pretty well. He might have been a little excited and flown in there a couple times. But he's physical and he did a really nice job on that interception. There were two receivers there: One guy working out, one guy working in. Sometimes defensive backs stay with the guy going to the flat too long. Whereas Rouse saw the guy going to the flat and that Al Harris was there to pick him up, so he settled back and right into the ball. That was an alert play.