motife
12-04-2007, 09:22 AM
INSIDE FOOTBALL with Eric Baranczyk: Week 12
Posted: Dec. 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.
After thinking about it another day and watching the game a couple more times, I think there's more for the Packers to be encouraged about than I first thought. No. 1, it's a young team, a young coaching staff and that was the first big game they played in. They tried some things early and then they figured out what they've been doing all year is a good plan. And if they keep doing it, I think they'll be okay. My other point would be that if you take out a double-digit sack guy, a starting cornerback and then lose a starting quarterback in the second quarter, almost any team without three big cogs like that against the Dallas Cowboys would get blown out and the Packers didn't.
The game plan
From what Mike McCarthy said that was their game plan going in: To throw deep early. Sometimes in a big game with a young team, you want to get up on top of the home team early and go from there. It had to be the game plan because it was constant - Favre going deep until he got hurt. So it wasn't Favre out on his own. However, I think when he went deep he could have gone underneath at least a couple times. On the third-and-one on the first series when he went deep to Donald Driver, Donald Lee had (linebacker) Bradie James beat by 10 yards. Favre could have played pitch and catch with Lee, and I think it might have been 6. There was another play where Greg Jennings was wide open underneath and Favre threw deep with two guys over the top.
Over the course of the season, when the Packers have thrown deep with success I think it has been mostly in the third and fourth quarters. That's because Favre throws so much underneath, opposing safeties start getting antsy and then Favre throws it over the top. On Thursday, the Packers started throwing it over the top right away and I think that could have been a mistake. The Dallas safeties were off and running. Plus, the Packers were running only two verticals when they were throwing deep. When they've been having success, I think they've been running three or four verticals, and a post. That really puts pressure on the safeties. I know the Dallas secondary isn't very good, but I still think the Packers should have softened them up first. I understand the theory - young team, get up early - but that's why it was almost a good thing when (Aaron) Rodgers came in. The Packers went back to running their offense.
Help needed on O-line
The other problem was there wasn't the protection to go deep. If Favre could have stood back there like Tony Romo, he maybe hits on a couple of those deep throws. But when he's standing back there and getting buried, it wasn't going to work. The protection was sick. I liked James Campen as a player. He was self-made and a tough nut, but that offensive line has big problems. I think the Packers' offense is two players away and both of those players are offensive linemen. Daryn Colledge couldn't block his way out of a wet paper bag right now. Even Scott Wells missed a couple. On that first interception, Favre couldn't step up because Colledge's guy was right in his face. Colledge's feet were all over the place. His pad level was way too high and I think that's a problem with all of those interior guys. And they just don't play tough. They're not strong, either. I don't think Jason Spitz is strong enough. Junius Coston certainly isn't strong enough. And Colledge has regressed a lot. Maybe this is a sophomore slump, but I think they're going to have to go out, overspend and get two offensive linemen this off-season.
I think it's also time for them to tell Mark Tauscher, you're going to be a guard. He's at that point where it's time for a change. I know he's playing on a bad ankle. I'll give him that. But his feet aren't textbook tackle. If you watch Chad Clifton, his feet never get closer than two feet away from each other. He's just textbook: Good knee bed, feet apart and he's right there. Tauscher struggles to get out there and then when he has an injury like this, it's tough for him to move because he has always relied on his quick feet, not his technique. Now with that bum wheel, his poor technique with his feet is really showing. DeMarcus Ware beat Clifton to the outside for a sack. (Ware) is a beast and Clifton isn't where he used to be getting that first kick-step back, but he's still solid. I think Clifton gave up one sack and one noticeable hurry. A lot of times with a speed rusher, a tackle will have a tendency to lower his base and turn his shoulders, allowing the guy to come inside for a big sack. But Clifton, at least, stayed square and made Ware come around the corner. That's what tackles are taught: If you're going to get beat, get beat around the corner, not inside.
Jennings No. 1 receiver?
Boy, Greg Jennings was moving on that play where he had all the yards after the catch. That was awesome. He stopped on a dime, then turned it up. And if he had gotten one more block, he would have had six points. He just looked like he was running by guys. That's like Terrell Owens. Everyone says he doesn't have a good 40 time. But, man, on the field, he plays fast. I see that with Jennings. I don't think the Packers would admit this, but, slowly, I think Jennings has become the No. 1 guy. You get in a big game like this and it's Jennings, not Driver, who makes the big play. Driver is the sure-handed guy and he's very good. But I think Jennings has become their No. 1 guy. And when they need to make a play, it looks to me like that's the guy they want to get the ball to.
Rodgers' poise
Aaron Rodgers showed some live feet. You could tell he has to work on his touch passes a little bit. Some of that might have been jitters. But I thought he looked poised and played within the system. He didn't make any dumb mistakes. When you come off the bench, sometimes that alone can be a pretty big feat. He appeared to turn wrong on a running play. But I thought his feet were alive. He made some first downs scrambling. He moved around on bootlegs. I thought he showed a little more zip on the ball than I thought he had. It's only one game. You can't anoint him a starting quarterback based on that. And I thought the game still looked a little fast for him. On two of the three sacks, he held onto the ball too long. But I thought he was pretty solid.
Contrasting defenses
The first play of the game, the Cowboys brought five guys. The Cowboys were blitzing and the Packers had five guys blocking five guys. That's pretty tough to do. But if the Packers want to line up in their spread offense if they play the Cowboys again, there are some adjustments they can make. On the play Favre got hurt, for example, it was a cornerback blitz. One of the things they could have done on that play was take the slot receiver and line him up about three yards wider. That takes away that blitz. Driver was the slot and he did a nice job. He read the blitz and ran like a five-yard in. Favre just looked like he didn't see the blitz. But all you do is put the receiver three or four more yards out, and then that makes the corner run three or four more steps if he's going to blitz. Plus, there's more width there. If the receiver is three, four more yards out he can run a slant rather than a little in and that's a more dangerous play for the defense.
The Cowboys play aggressive defense, the Packers don't. I think Bob Sanders is a pretty good defensive coordinator, but I wish he had a little more Fritz Shurmur and a little less Jim Bates in him. Sanders sat in that 43-under all night long. Instead of putting a backer up on the tight end, he had the defensive ends chipping against the tight end. Right out of the blocks, they were chipping the tight end with a defensive end. From my experience, defensive line coaches pull their hair out when that happens. Either a defensive end is going to chip the tight end or rush the passer. He can't do both. But they had Aaron Kampman chipping on the tight end. He had no opportunity to rush the passer when he was doing it and I thought that was a huge mistake. I counted only three times where Romo got hit the entire game. Plus, the Packers were rushing only four guys against one-thousand pounds of man. Good luck. Those Cowboys' offensive linemen are big and they're good. I realize one of the reasons the Packers didn't blitz was because they didn't feel good about their secondary. But I think they still should have blitzed every once in awhile and come up the gut, not from the edge. That's just my opinion. But Romo was able to sit back there and pick them apart.
That was the first game all year where I saw Ryan Pickett getting driven back three, four yards. I thought he still played pretty well. But at the point of attack there were plays where he just got worked. Injuries were an issue with the defensive line. The Packers not having their usual depth at defensive tackle was a killer. And it showed in the fourth quarter, especially that last drive where the Cowboys ran the ball, killed the clock and got a field goal. Plus, the Packers missed Kabeer (Gbaja-Biamila's) outside presence against the pass. Cullen Jenkins just didn't get it done out there. For example, on that third-and-19 play, Kampman came off the edge and flushed Romo. But Jenkins all night long, for whatever reason, kept trying an inside spin move against Flozell Adams. And on that one play had Jenkins just gotten up-field three yards and stalemated Adams, Romo would have had to stop his feet. Instead, Jenkins tries his inside spin, gets washed down; Kampman chases Romo out of the pocket and Romo runs free and throws it over the top. All the Packers needed was somebody coming up the field on that other side. Jenkins played the run okay, but Adams ate him up on the pass. Plus, that meant Corey Williams had to play more snaps and I think he got gassed.
To me, Justin Harrell didn't show up. Did you see him? It surprises me he played close to 20 snaps. You didn't see any big plays. You didn't see him get any pressure.
I thought A.J. Hawk and Brady Poppinga played nice games. I thought they did a good job turning plays in. On the other hand, the Dallas running backs ran the ball 26 times and I counted Nick Barnett being out of position six times. Hawk is just so versatile. He runs the field and he gets good leverage. He plays smart and that's his game. I'd like to see him be a little more physical, but I don't think the Packers are ever going to get that out of him. Poppinga is the more physical guy.
Horrible secondary
Where do you start with the secondary? I've got two pages of notes. I guess they didn't want to line up Al Harris and let him just run with Terrell Owens. I know you're going to have traffic issues. But I'm guessing they didn't run Harris with Owens because with Charles Woodson out, they were worried about the other guys picking up the switches. Plus, if Harris chases the guy all off the field and he gets picked off that's six points. So they kept Harris on the edge, but then the safeties have to be smart enough to recognize the motion and pick Owens up. I think the Packers played a lot of zone when Owens went in motion, but it wasn't a stationary zone. That's why I think if Woodson had been in the game, they would have been okay. Still, Harris did some boneheaded things. Like that one up the sideline when he kept running and Owens stopped. It was like Harris fell asleep.
Nick Collins and Atari Bigby were just horrible about peeking in the backfield. Collins, for example, was looking in the backfield when Owens had that nice slant across the middle. It was late in the first quarter on that quarterback boot. Owens, the top receiver on the Dallas team, one of the big guys in the league, and Collins is staring in the backfield. That's hard to even fathom. The receiver ran right across his face. That's like going into a strip club and staring at a guy next to you instead of at the stripper. Bigby did it, too. Plus, how many more games can you go with Bigby making those stupid mistakes? I'm talking 15-yard penalties. Bigby is still playing the run okay, but Aaron Rouse can play the run, too. They've got decisions to make there. I said earlier, they're two players away on offense. I think they're one player away on defense, a safety, and they might need two. They need one for sure. But I think they need to go with Rouse and see if they have at least one already on the roster.
I don't know what you can say about Jarrett Bush and I'm not sold on Tramon Williams, either. That's what they get for sticking with Woodson on punts. Yeah, that was a cheap call against Williams. And I think they're better off with Williams than Bush. But on that interference, Williams was still burned over the top. Bad call, but he still got burned. He's trailing the play. If he's in front of the play, I don't think Romo throws the ball.
The next time
All that said, I think if the Packers play the Cowboys again, they can win if they play their game. As it was, they had the Cowboys on the ropes a little bit at the end. Sometimes, offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators out-think themselves. And I think that happened -- McCarthy throwing deep right away. And there's always a hole in every defense. It's just whether your strengths can cover up the holes. And with the Packers' injuries, they didn't have the strengths to cover up their holes this time. But if they're healthy, they might be able to do it the next time.
Posted: Dec. 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.
After thinking about it another day and watching the game a couple more times, I think there's more for the Packers to be encouraged about than I first thought. No. 1, it's a young team, a young coaching staff and that was the first big game they played in. They tried some things early and then they figured out what they've been doing all year is a good plan. And if they keep doing it, I think they'll be okay. My other point would be that if you take out a double-digit sack guy, a starting cornerback and then lose a starting quarterback in the second quarter, almost any team without three big cogs like that against the Dallas Cowboys would get blown out and the Packers didn't.
The game plan
From what Mike McCarthy said that was their game plan going in: To throw deep early. Sometimes in a big game with a young team, you want to get up on top of the home team early and go from there. It had to be the game plan because it was constant - Favre going deep until he got hurt. So it wasn't Favre out on his own. However, I think when he went deep he could have gone underneath at least a couple times. On the third-and-one on the first series when he went deep to Donald Driver, Donald Lee had (linebacker) Bradie James beat by 10 yards. Favre could have played pitch and catch with Lee, and I think it might have been 6. There was another play where Greg Jennings was wide open underneath and Favre threw deep with two guys over the top.
Over the course of the season, when the Packers have thrown deep with success I think it has been mostly in the third and fourth quarters. That's because Favre throws so much underneath, opposing safeties start getting antsy and then Favre throws it over the top. On Thursday, the Packers started throwing it over the top right away and I think that could have been a mistake. The Dallas safeties were off and running. Plus, the Packers were running only two verticals when they were throwing deep. When they've been having success, I think they've been running three or four verticals, and a post. That really puts pressure on the safeties. I know the Dallas secondary isn't very good, but I still think the Packers should have softened them up first. I understand the theory - young team, get up early - but that's why it was almost a good thing when (Aaron) Rodgers came in. The Packers went back to running their offense.
Help needed on O-line
The other problem was there wasn't the protection to go deep. If Favre could have stood back there like Tony Romo, he maybe hits on a couple of those deep throws. But when he's standing back there and getting buried, it wasn't going to work. The protection was sick. I liked James Campen as a player. He was self-made and a tough nut, but that offensive line has big problems. I think the Packers' offense is two players away and both of those players are offensive linemen. Daryn Colledge couldn't block his way out of a wet paper bag right now. Even Scott Wells missed a couple. On that first interception, Favre couldn't step up because Colledge's guy was right in his face. Colledge's feet were all over the place. His pad level was way too high and I think that's a problem with all of those interior guys. And they just don't play tough. They're not strong, either. I don't think Jason Spitz is strong enough. Junius Coston certainly isn't strong enough. And Colledge has regressed a lot. Maybe this is a sophomore slump, but I think they're going to have to go out, overspend and get two offensive linemen this off-season.
I think it's also time for them to tell Mark Tauscher, you're going to be a guard. He's at that point where it's time for a change. I know he's playing on a bad ankle. I'll give him that. But his feet aren't textbook tackle. If you watch Chad Clifton, his feet never get closer than two feet away from each other. He's just textbook: Good knee bed, feet apart and he's right there. Tauscher struggles to get out there and then when he has an injury like this, it's tough for him to move because he has always relied on his quick feet, not his technique. Now with that bum wheel, his poor technique with his feet is really showing. DeMarcus Ware beat Clifton to the outside for a sack. (Ware) is a beast and Clifton isn't where he used to be getting that first kick-step back, but he's still solid. I think Clifton gave up one sack and one noticeable hurry. A lot of times with a speed rusher, a tackle will have a tendency to lower his base and turn his shoulders, allowing the guy to come inside for a big sack. But Clifton, at least, stayed square and made Ware come around the corner. That's what tackles are taught: If you're going to get beat, get beat around the corner, not inside.
Jennings No. 1 receiver?
Boy, Greg Jennings was moving on that play where he had all the yards after the catch. That was awesome. He stopped on a dime, then turned it up. And if he had gotten one more block, he would have had six points. He just looked like he was running by guys. That's like Terrell Owens. Everyone says he doesn't have a good 40 time. But, man, on the field, he plays fast. I see that with Jennings. I don't think the Packers would admit this, but, slowly, I think Jennings has become the No. 1 guy. You get in a big game like this and it's Jennings, not Driver, who makes the big play. Driver is the sure-handed guy and he's very good. But I think Jennings has become their No. 1 guy. And when they need to make a play, it looks to me like that's the guy they want to get the ball to.
Rodgers' poise
Aaron Rodgers showed some live feet. You could tell he has to work on his touch passes a little bit. Some of that might have been jitters. But I thought he looked poised and played within the system. He didn't make any dumb mistakes. When you come off the bench, sometimes that alone can be a pretty big feat. He appeared to turn wrong on a running play. But I thought his feet were alive. He made some first downs scrambling. He moved around on bootlegs. I thought he showed a little more zip on the ball than I thought he had. It's only one game. You can't anoint him a starting quarterback based on that. And I thought the game still looked a little fast for him. On two of the three sacks, he held onto the ball too long. But I thought he was pretty solid.
Contrasting defenses
The first play of the game, the Cowboys brought five guys. The Cowboys were blitzing and the Packers had five guys blocking five guys. That's pretty tough to do. But if the Packers want to line up in their spread offense if they play the Cowboys again, there are some adjustments they can make. On the play Favre got hurt, for example, it was a cornerback blitz. One of the things they could have done on that play was take the slot receiver and line him up about three yards wider. That takes away that blitz. Driver was the slot and he did a nice job. He read the blitz and ran like a five-yard in. Favre just looked like he didn't see the blitz. But all you do is put the receiver three or four more yards out, and then that makes the corner run three or four more steps if he's going to blitz. Plus, there's more width there. If the receiver is three, four more yards out he can run a slant rather than a little in and that's a more dangerous play for the defense.
The Cowboys play aggressive defense, the Packers don't. I think Bob Sanders is a pretty good defensive coordinator, but I wish he had a little more Fritz Shurmur and a little less Jim Bates in him. Sanders sat in that 43-under all night long. Instead of putting a backer up on the tight end, he had the defensive ends chipping against the tight end. Right out of the blocks, they were chipping the tight end with a defensive end. From my experience, defensive line coaches pull their hair out when that happens. Either a defensive end is going to chip the tight end or rush the passer. He can't do both. But they had Aaron Kampman chipping on the tight end. He had no opportunity to rush the passer when he was doing it and I thought that was a huge mistake. I counted only three times where Romo got hit the entire game. Plus, the Packers were rushing only four guys against one-thousand pounds of man. Good luck. Those Cowboys' offensive linemen are big and they're good. I realize one of the reasons the Packers didn't blitz was because they didn't feel good about their secondary. But I think they still should have blitzed every once in awhile and come up the gut, not from the edge. That's just my opinion. But Romo was able to sit back there and pick them apart.
That was the first game all year where I saw Ryan Pickett getting driven back three, four yards. I thought he still played pretty well. But at the point of attack there were plays where he just got worked. Injuries were an issue with the defensive line. The Packers not having their usual depth at defensive tackle was a killer. And it showed in the fourth quarter, especially that last drive where the Cowboys ran the ball, killed the clock and got a field goal. Plus, the Packers missed Kabeer (Gbaja-Biamila's) outside presence against the pass. Cullen Jenkins just didn't get it done out there. For example, on that third-and-19 play, Kampman came off the edge and flushed Romo. But Jenkins all night long, for whatever reason, kept trying an inside spin move against Flozell Adams. And on that one play had Jenkins just gotten up-field three yards and stalemated Adams, Romo would have had to stop his feet. Instead, Jenkins tries his inside spin, gets washed down; Kampman chases Romo out of the pocket and Romo runs free and throws it over the top. All the Packers needed was somebody coming up the field on that other side. Jenkins played the run okay, but Adams ate him up on the pass. Plus, that meant Corey Williams had to play more snaps and I think he got gassed.
To me, Justin Harrell didn't show up. Did you see him? It surprises me he played close to 20 snaps. You didn't see any big plays. You didn't see him get any pressure.
I thought A.J. Hawk and Brady Poppinga played nice games. I thought they did a good job turning plays in. On the other hand, the Dallas running backs ran the ball 26 times and I counted Nick Barnett being out of position six times. Hawk is just so versatile. He runs the field and he gets good leverage. He plays smart and that's his game. I'd like to see him be a little more physical, but I don't think the Packers are ever going to get that out of him. Poppinga is the more physical guy.
Horrible secondary
Where do you start with the secondary? I've got two pages of notes. I guess they didn't want to line up Al Harris and let him just run with Terrell Owens. I know you're going to have traffic issues. But I'm guessing they didn't run Harris with Owens because with Charles Woodson out, they were worried about the other guys picking up the switches. Plus, if Harris chases the guy all off the field and he gets picked off that's six points. So they kept Harris on the edge, but then the safeties have to be smart enough to recognize the motion and pick Owens up. I think the Packers played a lot of zone when Owens went in motion, but it wasn't a stationary zone. That's why I think if Woodson had been in the game, they would have been okay. Still, Harris did some boneheaded things. Like that one up the sideline when he kept running and Owens stopped. It was like Harris fell asleep.
Nick Collins and Atari Bigby were just horrible about peeking in the backfield. Collins, for example, was looking in the backfield when Owens had that nice slant across the middle. It was late in the first quarter on that quarterback boot. Owens, the top receiver on the Dallas team, one of the big guys in the league, and Collins is staring in the backfield. That's hard to even fathom. The receiver ran right across his face. That's like going into a strip club and staring at a guy next to you instead of at the stripper. Bigby did it, too. Plus, how many more games can you go with Bigby making those stupid mistakes? I'm talking 15-yard penalties. Bigby is still playing the run okay, but Aaron Rouse can play the run, too. They've got decisions to make there. I said earlier, they're two players away on offense. I think they're one player away on defense, a safety, and they might need two. They need one for sure. But I think they need to go with Rouse and see if they have at least one already on the roster.
I don't know what you can say about Jarrett Bush and I'm not sold on Tramon Williams, either. That's what they get for sticking with Woodson on punts. Yeah, that was a cheap call against Williams. And I think they're better off with Williams than Bush. But on that interference, Williams was still burned over the top. Bad call, but he still got burned. He's trailing the play. If he's in front of the play, I don't think Romo throws the ball.
The next time
All that said, I think if the Packers play the Cowboys again, they can win if they play their game. As it was, they had the Cowboys on the ropes a little bit at the end. Sometimes, offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators out-think themselves. And I think that happened -- McCarthy throwing deep right away. And there's always a hole in every defense. It's just whether your strengths can cover up the holes. And with the Packers' injuries, they didn't have the strengths to cover up their holes this time. But if they're healthy, they might be able to do it the next time.