The REAL state of the Pack!

[Bretsky]

But it sure is awesome for stirring the pot!

Yup...that was my "Partial" coming out
I know we weren't the worst in 30 years

But I would say our defense kind of sucked

[MadtownPacker]

Do they think it was that terrible defense that lost the playoff game?

[Bretsky]

Do they think it was that terrible defense that lost the playoff game?

Well to be fair...........and I'd have to ask Patler about the stats cuz I'm too lazy to look it up........but it sure seemed like Eli Manning and the G's were successful about 90% of the time on 3rd down conversions.

[Joemailman]

Well to be fair...........and I'd have to ask Patler about the stats cuz I'm too lazy to look it up........but it sure seemed like Eli Manning and the G's were successful about 90% of the time on 3rd down conversions.

Nope. Just 8-16. That game swung on about 5 big plays. 2 long TD passes to Nicks. Arod missing wide open Jennings. Arod getting stripped when Jennings was wide open. Grant's fumble.

[mission]

Do something to fix the defense on third downs, and the rest will come.

[Build the] Pass rush and they will come.

3rd downs are all about pass rush and pass coverage. I don't think we're as bad as it seemed in the secondary. Pass rush will have no one talking about giving up miles of passing yards next year. Hopefully we can breakthrough ...

[Lurker64]

[Build the] Pass rush and they will come.

They also couldn't reliably win on third and short (which they could in 2010) so it's not just one thing.

[Pugger]

The defense was bad last year, but the statistics the NFL trotted out there are misleading for the reasons you post.

The real reason the defense was so terrible last year (and the real reason for a lot of the defensive statistics) is that the Packers played some of the worst third down defense in the entire NFL last year. Winning on defense is ultimately about winning on third down, and at least some of the blame falls on Capers' feet here. He called a great third down D in 2010 and on the super bowl run, but nothing we tried on third down worked.

Most of the time when the Packers stopped another team on a third down last year it was due to a turnover or the other team making an error (such as a QB throwing an inaccurate pass).

Do something to fix the defense on third downs, and the rest will come.

I don't know how much Capers could have done with only one guy who can rush the passer with any consistency last season. It was a big mistake to depend upon Neal to replace Jenkins and think that Jones/Walden/Zombo would be good enough opposite Clay.

[Lurker64]

I don't know how much Capers could have done with only one guy who can rush the passer with any consistency last season. It was a big mistake to depend upon Neal to replace Jenkins and think that Jones/Walden/Zombo would be good enough opposite Clay.

I can't blame Capers for the defense starting out poorly in the first few weeks. I can blame Capers because he was using the same stuff in December that didn't work in September either.

[Pugger]

Well to be fair...........and I'd have to ask Patler about the stats cuz I'm too lazy to look it up........but it sure seemed like Eli Manning and the G's were successful about 90% of the time on 3rd down conversions.

Nope. Just 8-16. That game swung on about 5 big plays. 2 long TD passes to Nicks. Arod missing wide open Jennings. Arod getting stripped when Jennings was wide open. Grant's fumble.

Man, it seemed to me Eli had all day back there on 3rd down time after time in that frustrating playoff game.

Our offense had a bad game twice last year and we lost both games. If you have even a slightly below average defense you can still win ball games when your offense isn't clicking on all cylinders. When our defense couldn't get turnovers they couldn't stop anybody.

[pbmax]

I don't blame Capers for the scheme. The Packers players on D finally stepped up in the Giants game. Raji finally had a monster game holding his ground. The letdown in players concerns me more than Capers.

The rest was injuries.

[Scott Campbell]

It'll be interesting to see what they do about the crappy tackling from the corners. McCarthy pretty well threw down the gauntlet on that issue.

[woodbuck27]

But in analyzing a team, they tend to do just what the video did, look at points scored on offense and yardage surrendered on defense.

Calling the Packers the worst defense in 30 years based on yardage alone is ridiculous. A flawed defense, for sure; but not the worst in 30 years.

Damn with the media.

Someone 'in the media' in an important position to influence others'. Says something 'wild and not true' and all the media goes with 'the wild' and it becomes universallly acepted in 'the media throughout' that... it's 'just' .... that way.

[woodbuck27]

Some metrics that would seem to make sense at first glance don't always work out that way. And there's the concept of the 'meta-game' that matters.

Years ago I saw it pointed out that teams had a better winning %age when they had a 100 yard rusher than when they had a 300 yard passer. The reason given for this was you ran when you were ahead and passed when you were behind. I suspect (but haven't seen any statistics to back it up) that has changed as the rules and success of the spread formations have changed the meta-game. Scoring often and quickly is the way to go now.

This has changed the way defense is played. The steel curtain, get the stop type of D is not necessarily what DCs are striving for. Bend don't break, prevent the big play and get the ball back in your offense's hands is.

Yards surrendered probably did make sense when you were striving to emulate Pitt's Iron Curtain D. Not so much when you're playing cover-2.

Yup.

[Smidgeon]

I don't know how much Capers could have done with only one guy who can rush the passer with any consistency last season. It was a big mistake to depend upon Neal to replace Jenkins and think that Jones/Walden/Zombo would be good enough opposite Clay.

Jones/Walden/Zombo did well the year before. Didn't they combine for 10-12 sacks or something?

[mmmdk]

Here's a stat: 0-1 in playoffs.