Interesting article on how to approach the Vikings offense

[Fritz]

Wist makes a good point - you disrupt the rhythm by jamming or disrupting the receivers. I know that Capers' strong suit is adjusting to his players' strengths, so maybe we'll see more of the old bump coverage, and this might help disrupt the Vikings.

Still, you gotta slow Peterson down.

[denverYooper]

This will be Favre's last game.

The oracle has spoken.

[rbaloha1]

Expect more pressure with Bigby staying incoverage. IMO the coverage should roll to Harris and Williams. Favre failed to challenge Woodson (the one time was an interception which was nullified).

Bottom Line is the Defense and fans must dictate the pace of the game not #4.

[RashanGary]

Wist makes a good point - you disrupt the rhythm by jamming or disrupting the receivers. I know that Capers' strong suit is adjusting to his players' strengths, so maybe we'll see more of the old bump coverage, and this might help disrupt the Vikings.

Still, you gotta slow Peterson down.

That is an interesting point. I've noticed more man coverage out of Harris lately. Woodson seems to be playing a lot of zone.

It's nice to mix up coverages. Some plays are designed to beat man coverage. Some plays are designed to beat different types of zone. Don't do the same thing every time. It makes playcalling tougher.

I also think disguising pre-snap is incredibly important. Two of the best defensive performances I've ever seen came with a lot of pre-snap deception.

One of those performances was the Vikings against the Packers. They showed a lot of blitzers at the line, the dropped into coverage. Other times they showed no blitzers, but brought a sneaky blitz. Rodgers got dominated that game.

The other of those performances was the Giants in the Superbowl against Tom Brady. They had extreme pre-snap patience. Tom never knew if they were coming or going and the times they showed and dropped, their front 4 still got there. Brady was completely out of his element. You could see the big, scared eyes like, "I have no clue what they're doing".

I really don't even think we need a performance like that because we're going to score points, but a few plays where we get him off guard with some top notch pre-snap disipline and top notch post-snap execution could go a long way to getting off the field and limiting their point total.

[Maxie the Taxi]

I'm comfortable with our defense containing Minnesota, mainly because of Capers and his new system. The just have to play with controlled abandon.

Minnesota has the bigger problem, trying to contain our offense at home.

McCarthy may be the key to the game:

1) He's got to get and maintain the team in a high emotional state;

2) He's got to get the message across that this game will be one or lost on mistakes, penalties and turnovers. His guys have to keep their heads in the game;

3) McCarthy has to keep his head in the game calling plays. He can't be panicking, trying trick plays on 1st down, or taking three consecutive shots deep downfield for three and outs (taking no time off the clock and administering no punishment to the defense). Three and outs are OK inititally if we're gaining positive yardage per play by running or with short, quick passes and administering hits. MM has to call a New England-style plodding, positive-gain football game. He has to maintain for the rest of the game the same rhythm he usually establishes on his first drive.

I think this is going to be a "wear down" game, where the offensive team that carries it to the other defense, keeping them on the field for the first three quarters (even if only scoring field goals or gaining field position) is going to benefit in the fourth.

The team with the longest time of possession, not the most explosive plays, will probably win.

[pittstang5]

One key for this game on Sunday is to get off the field after 3rd downs - especially 3rd and longs. If I remember correctly, the Pack had the Vikings in some nice 3rd and long situations last game, but Favre kept converting. I also think that there wasn't any pressure on most of those 3rd downs. Stop the stupid penalties and bring the house on 3rd and long.

[The Leaper]

IMO, the biggest key is our play on offense. We need to control the ball and keep their offense off the field. The games where Favre struggled in Green Bay was where the opposing team didn't have a bunch of 3-and-outs and the Packer offense struggled to get into a groove.

Rodgers can't take dumbass sacks on 1st or 2nd down. That leads to 3-and-outs. The Viking secondary is weak right now...if your 1st and 2nd reads aren't open on a quick hit play...throw the ball at someone's feet and move to the next down.

[RashanGary]

IMO, the biggest key is our play on offense. We need to control the ball and keep their offense off the field. The games where Favre struggled in Green Bay was where the opposing team didn't have a bunch of 3-and-outs and the Packer offense struggled to get into a groove.

Rodgers can't take dumbass sacks on 1st or 2nd down. That leads to 3-and-outs. The Viking secondary is weak right now...if your 1st and 2nd reads aren't open on a quick hit play...throw the ball at someone's feet and move to the next down.

This is very true. Early in the season, the Packers were trying to relive their preseason glory where Rodgers looked like Tom Brady dissecting defenses with the precision long ball.

As the season started, the Packers should have quickly found out that their OL wasn't able to execute that type of game plan when defenses are planning to get at Rodgers first and the Packers don't have the run game to slow down the blitz. The result was Rodgers taking a lot of sacks, more than he took as a first year starter.

McCarthy's answer in his press conferences at the time was that he wasn't going to change anything and teh OL needed to get it fixed. Great, demand more. Sometimes that works, but McCarthy was still ignoring the obvious, he just doesn't have a team that can execute that game plan.

After the Viking game, McCarthy stopped saying, "we're not going to change anything". Instead, you read articles with Driver and Jennings saying they were going to get the ball quick and go back to the simple stuff with YAC being the primary mode of yardage.

What happened? Rodgers has taken almost zero sacks in two games. It was a against a couple of bad teams, but the philosophy clearly changed. McCarthy finally admitted to himself that while his receivers and QB are dangerous deep, his OL is the weak link that won't allow that game plan. He finally went back to what works with this team.

I don't picture 8 sacks this time. 2 would probably be closer. But I agree, that was a big problem early in this season, a problem that looks to have been fixed after that disappointing Viking loss.

[mraynrand]

Tom Brady throws a lot of underneath stuff too. Just ask Wes Welker. Packers need a little more of that.

[pbmax]

McCarthy's answer in his press conferences at the time was that he wasn't going to change anything and teh OL needed to get it fixed. Great, demand more. Sometimes that works, but McCarthy was still ignoring the obvious, he just doesn't have a team that can execute that game plan.

There isn't much mystery here and it is the age old problem with criticizing play-calling. McCarthy has said its on the QB to make the reads in the correct progression and get the ball out. He said flat out that the QB gets the progression on each play call and it is up to the QB to go through it. The clear implication is that Rodgers saw single coverage somewhere or a seam (or something else he liked) and felt like he wanted to exploit it outside of the play. Most pass plays have someone going deep to clear out a short zone or occupy a safety to give others some room. Not every play is designed to be thrown deep every time.

He locked on to a route and held the ball waiting for that to happen. Meanwhile, your protection is geared to a specific sequence and you may not have an ideal blocking scheme to hold the ball. If you brought a TE in to slow down the DE while the Tackle blocks down, then holding the ball for a deep throw is unwise.

M3 didn't start calling a different offense for throws down the field until he had two lineman hurt (Clifton and Spitz). Then we saw more screens. In support, I cite Rodgers recent statements that he must stick to the read progression and get the ball out faster. Before this past week, he had been just short of defiant that he wasn't going to change anything. His tune has changed, at least publicly.

[Scott Campbell]

McCarthy's answer in his press conferences at the time was that he wasn't going to change anything and teh OL needed to get it fixed. Great, demand more. Sometimes that works, but McCarthy was still ignoring the obvious, he just doesn't have a team that can execute that game plan.

There isn't much mystery here and it is the age old problem with criticizing play-calling. McCarthy has said its on the QB to make the reads in the correct progression and get the ball out. He said flat out that the QB gets the progression on each play call and it is up to the QB to go through it. The clear implication is that Rodgers saw single coverage somewhere or a seam (or something else he liked) and felt like he wanted to exploit it outside of the play. Most pass plays have someone going deep to clear out a short zone or occupy a safety to give others some room. Not every play is designed to be thrown deep every time.

He locked on to a route and held the ball waiting for that to happen. Meanwhile, your protection is geared to a specific sequence and you may not have an ideal blocking scheme to hold the ball. If you brought a TE in to slow down the DE while the Tackle blocks down, then holding the ball for a deep throw is unwise.

M3 didn't start calling a different offense for throws down the field until he had two lineman hurt (Clifton and Spitz). Then we saw more screens. In support, I cite Rodgers recent statements that he must stick to the read progression and get the ball out faster. Before this past week, he had been just short of defiant that he wasn't going to change anything. His tune has changed, at least publicly.

Nice post, and I agree completely. Rodgers can offset some of the protection issues by getting the ball out quicker, or throwing it away on occasion.