I'm So Angry...at the JSO

[RashanGary]

What got me most was the suggestion that yesterday was some great revelation; as if no one knew how to beat the Packer defense until Pittsburgh and Ben Roethlisberger showed them how. Now everyone knows! If only the Packers could have kept the secret that Bush, Bell and the others are not very good corners!

I didn't think they were as bad as they looked yesterday until yesterday. I honestly had hope that they had improved since weeks 4 and 7 and the back 7 was more ready to take on an upper tier QB. Last nights game cemented it for me, even if I turn out wrong. I now believe they have a weak link that cannot be covered for. I agreed with the main point of the story, so my disagreements with the story are minor and overall view of the story is positive (not that I like JS or anything but TS is that best of that bunch IMO).

No discredit to Roethlisberger, but he was phenomenally accurate yesterday, and he had to be. If they played again next week Capers might have a new wrinkle for them, just as Pittsburgh might. The result could be different, because as the score indicated, these are closely matched teams overall.

They had 10 days to prepare, 10 days to rest and it was at home. They were ready for Green Bay and we still looked like an equal team to them.



Not all is bad, but some of it was. This story highlighted the story of the game IMO. If they won, the story would have been Rodgers like pb suggested in another thread. They lost and they have a weakness that stood out that is going to be amplified with the good QB's in the playoffs.

[Freak Out]

Bigby of course, was 20 feet away.

It did seem like Bigby was all by himself in the endzone.

[rbaloha1]

IMO the Packer defense is overrated. Too much emphasis on stats. This so called great defense gave up 500 passing yards. Any criticism is justified at this juncture.

[Fritz]

Any criticism?

This has been a solid defense that has come together as the season has progressed. They played the run well yesterday but did not play the pass well - at all.

My gosh, early in the year people were moaning that MM couldn't get Greg Williams or Mike Nolan as DC. But that's stopped, finally. Now one bad game and any criticism is warranted?

You're chicken littling, I think.

[Cheesehead Craig]

Big Ben did make some unbelievably good throws this game. If he's an inch or two off on several of those and this game is a W for us.

We got beat by a QB who was on fire all game long with little pass rush to worry about.

[Waldo]

What got me most was the suggestion that yesterday was some great revelation; as if no one knew how to beat the Packer defense until Pittsburgh and Ben Roethlisberger showed them how. Now everyone knows! If only the Packers could have kept the secret that Bush, Bell and the others are not very good corners!

I didn't think they were as bad as they looked yesterday until yesterday. I honestly had hope that they had improved since weeks 4 and 7 and the back 7 was more ready to take on an upper tier QB. Last nights game cemented it for me, even if I turn out wrong. I now believe they have a weak link that cannot be covered for.

A lot of QB's around the league take practice reps against their own D's first stringers, running the scout team, just to stay sharp during the week. Ben and Aaron are both like this. We run a D that uses a lot of trickery and confusion, and they run basically the same thing. Trickery and confusion only works if the opposing QB is tricked and confused. Top QB's might not be as tricked and confused as the bad ones, but it still bothers them. Ben was not tricked and confused at all. Nor was Aaron. The QB in the league most able to torch the Packers is Big Ben. The QB in the league most able to torch the Steelers is Aaron Rodgers (like Big Ben did to us, that was the most passing yards the Steelers D has given up in several years). They see that D week after week all year long. It is different than say a tampa-2 team playing a tampa-2, those defenses do not prey on QB confusion like a zone blitz 3-4.

You also cannot discount the friendly rivalry. Most more knowledgeable fans are aware, but I don't think that the casual fans are (nor are the GB beat or the game announcers), that Aaron and Ben are good friends off the field. I'm sure that played no small part in why both QB's played very well.

I don't think that this is the kind of success that you'd expect out of good QB's. Good QB's not named Ben or Aaron would be more flustered by the pressure packages and unusual coverages. Even the old hands. They may have seen it several times, but the few times a year (at most) they see it over the years pales in comparison to daily practices that Aaron and Ben see it.

[RashanGary]

You might be right, Waldo but I have a feeling there are few QB's by the names of:

Kurt, Drew and Brett that could also do similar things to Jarrett Bush and Mike Bell.

The Steelers laid out a nice blueprint too. I don't think we're going to scrap the whole scheme in week 16. It's not like we're playing Cutler and Stafford in the playoffs. We're going to face some SB winners with a lot of experience again and if we lose next time, we go home.

And if we somehow make it to the SB, we'll probably have to play a Tom or Peyton.

As good as Ben is, our defense has a whole gauntlet of great QB's they'll have to face if they want to win it.

Forgive me if I have little to no confidence that we can get it done, not after seeing what the Steelers did.

[bobblehead]

Well, I took Skin's advice and just wrote Silverstein an email expressing my dismay.

One of the points I made to him was that by his logic, teams should be drooling over the prospect of facing the Minnesota Vikings in the playoffs. Gosh, they only managed a measly seven points against a mediocre Carolina team, and their defense was ripped for almost 300 yards by a backup quarterback, and on top of that they gave up over a 100 yards rushing.

For that matter, what playoff offense wouldn't want to face the Saints? Look how many points they gave up this week!

I'll predict his response...Minnesota game "didn't count because xyz". GB on the other hand only counts when they play bad.

[rbaloha1]

Any criticism?

This has been a solid defense that has come together as the season has progressed. They played the run well yesterday but did not play the pass well - at all.

My gosh, early in the year people were moaning that MM couldn't get Greg Williams or Mike Nolan as DC. But that's stopped, finally. Now one bad game and any criticism is warranted?

You're chicken littling, I think.

Steelers did not really attempt to run the ball. Also they have become more of a passing team and are abandoning the run.

If Harris was still was playing and the defense performed at this level -- okay chicken little.

However as long as Bush and Ford are playing the pass defense is a big concern.

[bobblehead]

even though Bell looked like he was close on that play, he had no idea where his help was and he should have been playing outside leverage more than he was.

JH, that was a busted play that took what, like 5-6 seconds to develope. For all we know Bell played him perfectly the entire play other than the last 1 second we saw. A CB can not and will not cover someone for that long without a breakdown. Ben found the breakdown and threw a perfect pass to a guy that made a perfect catch.

All this reminds me of the NFCC game where Harris was all over Burress who made one fingertip catch after another and people declared that Harris can't handle guys like Burress (never mind that he handled them his entire career and every time since)

I agree we are thin at CB at this point, but we still handled baltimore and we weren't much thinner against the cowboys who we handled.

It all comes back to what I have said for years, a QB is never with his ass on the turf. We lost Kamp and only Mathews seems to consistently get pressure. Dom is going to have to work out ways to get his LB's in good matchups and get pressure.

[bobblehead]

IMO the Packer defense is overrated. Too much emphasis on stats. This so called great defense gave up 500 passing yards. Any criticism is justified at this juncture.

Your opinion is junk, nothing more. Our defense is rated exactly where it should be. Metrics don't lie. Now if you want to argue that the injuries to Harris and Kampman make us slightly overrated because they played most of the year it would be valid, but what you wrote is purley a waste of pixels.

[bobblehead]

And one other thing....what defense DOESN'T Brees, Manning et al light up? Its like we are the only good defense that is susceptible to the elite QB's of the game....DUH!!!

[mission]

Guy says "too much emphasis on stats" and then has a problem with us giving up 500 yards in the next sentence. Seems like a stat to me.

Bottom line is we had a chance to win the game at the end and we didn't

Rodgers had a very good yardage night as well. Who knows what dictated that but the 500 yards is obviously a statistical anomaly.

Any defense that can consistently shut down the run and FORCE teams to pass 45 times a game has a shot to win and is not the norm in the NFL. It comes down to execution in the backfield, and our young guys weren't prepared enough for it.

[denverYooper]

It was a crazy game, for sure.

One thing that popped out at me:
Pittsburgh had 10 penalties for 84 yards to our 7-53, but 5 of those 7 penalties resulted in first downs for them. 0 of their 10 penalties resulted in first downs for us.

Special teams was also in our favor:

                               GB  Pitt
No. and Yards Punt Returns    2-25 3-19
No. and Yards Kickoff Returns 5-91 6-90

Plus, we benefited from a special teams blunder by the other team!

Had someone told me we'd have less penalties, more sacks, and better special teams performance, I would have thought there was no way we'd lose.

[pbmax]

The things Jarrett Bush and Mike Bell were doing, I don't have a lot of confidence that they'll get it fixed. Bush looked lost and even though Bell looked like he was close on that play, he had no idea where his help was and he should have been playing outside leverage more than he was.

Well, a + 1 to you Justin, for a great call here. From a reliable internet source:

"That's a defense where we try to take outside leverage and we try to play underneath the receiver," Capers said.

Man. That is twice I have been flat wrong today. I have got to get this cleaned up!

Seriously, JH, good get by you. It why we all want to read this site.