Red Zone Blues

[mraynrand]

Good topic. Other teams design plays to take advantage of Packer weaknesses. Most teams can't survive losing several d-backs, and the Packers can't because they only had one decent safety last year. So teams exploited them. As far as Chillar goes, I knew that every time they brought him into the game - especially on Big Okie, the opposition was going to go directly at him. I can't recall how many times Chillar got burned by a TE (even the marginal TEs). Packers hav to be looking at that and sayin "We have to improve there." - either with better safety pickup or better LB coverage or both. As far as pass rush - that can cure a lot of ills in a secondary. Only internal improvement by Jones Matthews, Harrell, and Neal appears to be the answer. Plus some uninjured secondary guys might be nice.

[Lurker64]

Speaking of Red Zone Woes, it's not as though the offense was sterling last year. We scored 34 TDs out of 62 Red Zone possessions, which was good for like 10th in the league. Admittedly, not awful. But as good as the offense was between the 20s last year, we should probably look to be better inside of the 20 going forward.

[Guiness]

Good topic. Other teams design plays to take advantage of Packer weaknesses.

So true, that. Case in point would be the so-called 'phsyco' package. I thought it got trotted out too often, and obviously Pitt found a solution to it.

[Upnorth]

So does anyone think we picked up the right peices in the offseason to address this? Getting rid of Bush is a start, but who steps in? My biggest fear is the secondary and DL depth. Our starters are very good to great, but if we get hit by injuries I think we might see the exact same problems this year again.

[RashanGary]

Josh Bell has a chance. He's the type of player, maybe he's too light to be your starting CB, but he'd be a really nice fit as a nickle/dime type player. He's better at coverage than he is in the physical aspects of the game.

I'm going to assume Harris misses the first few games.

Woodson/Williams/Bell I think will be our top 3 corners. Hopefully Underwood turns into a player and Harris makes it back. We might be OK at DB, we might not. Hard to tell right now.

[Joemailman]

Justin, I don't think Harris will miss any games, although I wouldn't be surprised if initially he is the nickel instead of starting CB.

Anybody else surprised Bigby hasn't signed his tender, considering the Packers just drafted his potential replacement? His market value for 2011 FA goes way down if he loses his starting job to a rookie.

[Upnorth]

My big fear with Harris is that before the injury he had lost a step. Where is he going to be at now?
Joe I think you are bang on when you sau Harris will be nickel. I just don't like it.

[Joemailman]

Just wanted to revisit red zone defense again. In 2009, the Packers were 5th in the NFL in pass defense, but gave up 28 TD passes. Only 4 teams gave up more.

In 2010, the Packers are 17th in pass defense, but have only given up 8 TD passes in 8 games. That ranks 4th.

Now, I don't have red zone stats, but it sure seems that although the Packers are giving up more yards this year, they're a lot more effective this year at defending their end zone.

What's the difference? Is Peprah better in coverage than Bigby? Is the combo of Williams/Shields better than Harris/Williams? Were the Packers blitzing and gambling on INT's too much last year? Any thoughts?

[hoosier]

Just wanted to revisit red zone defense again. In 2009, the Packers were 5th in the NFL in pass defense, but gave up 28 TD passes. Only 4 teams gave up more.

In 2010, the Packers are 17th in pass defense, but have only given up 8 TD passes in 8 games. That ranks 4th.

Now, I don't have red zone stats, but it sure seems that although the Packers are giving up more yards this year, they're a lot more effective this year at defending their end zone.

What's the difference? Is Peprah better in coverage than Bigby? Is the combo of Williams/Shields better than Harris/Williams? Were the Packers blitzing and gambling on INT's too much last year? Any thoughts?

Part of it has to be who they have played and when. Favre has not come close to duplicating last year's performance. Cutler is and will always be Cutler. Neither Philly (with Vick), Washington, Detroit, Miami nor the Jets are likely to pile up lots of TDs through the air. As someone else noted in another thread, last year was the year of the QB and this year, not so much.

Let's see what they can do against Minnesota in the Humpty Dome and against Brady and Ryan on the road.

[steve823]

Just wanted to revisit red zone defense again. In 2009, the Packers were 5th in the NFL in pass defense, but gave up 28 TD passes. Only 4 teams gave up more.

In 2010, the Packers are 17th in pass defense, but have only given up 8 TD passes in 8 games. That ranks 4th.

Now, I don't have red zone stats, but it sure seems that although the Packers are giving up more yards this year, they're a lot more effective this year at defending their end zone.

What's the difference? Is Peprah better in coverage than Bigby? Is the combo of Williams/Shields better than Harris/Williams? Were the Packers blitzing and gambling on INT's too much last year? Any thoughts?

Our pass rush is a lot better this year, Rouse is gone, Bush is surprisingly not getting burned whenever he is out there, but I think it's that its year 2 in the defense and people are getting more comfortable with it.