TIME TO BE CONCERNED ?

[RashanGary]

the 2 inside lb'ers and safteys are terrible. When you are soft up the middle your def. is going to suck. Mathews blows up a running play, but where is the pusuit? Hawk is so slow he has already changed his angle to try and stop the rb 10 yards deep.....fucker is terrible....

If a person can sum up the defenses shortcomings in 75 words or less, I think this about takes the cake.

Smith had some thump to him though. We'll see if he can clean up his assignments a little.

[pbmax]

Well, I was constructing a huge argument about what might be causing the safeties trouble but JSO has done more work than me so: http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/169126126.html



If their breakdown is to be believed (and I believe most of it except that I am sure Hawk's primary responsibility was the back out of the backfield as soon as Walker went in motion to the other side) then MD Jennings was the safety that did not get the coverage adjustment that Burnett called. Or he just got blinded by fear of Davis.

[Packers4Glory]

Last yr and the start of this yr 2 things are painfully obvious.

1. It's hard to replace an interior rusher like Jenkins.

2. It's even harder to replace Collins at safety. Good safeties are tough to find, much less all-pro types.


those are the 2 big changes from a defense that was one of the better units in football the Super Bowl season to where we stand today. The issues in the secondary are very troubling in that they can't seem to communicate and get on the same page in coverage. I expect to see our receivers running free, but not as free as the 49ers seemed to be for much of the game.


overall the game was a pretty big shit sandwich.

[sheepshead]

Dude -- Chiefs and Giants as well.

So you were expecting 19-0 last year?

[Bossman641]

If the Packers lose Thursday I will be concerned. If they take care of business the loss to SF is no big deal. Just sucks to have "almost" a must win-game in week 2.

There are certainly things to build on.
- Newhouse was very solid.
- CM3 clearly won't have issues rushing from ROLB
- Perry seems to be able to get a pretty good push
- Cobb in the backfield should give opposing defenses fits

Things I'm wondering / concerned about
- Where was Green? Do they not trust him to pass block
- Was sort of expecting this against SF but why can't we run? I feel as though Sitton/Bulaga should be able to get a good push but it doesn't happen. Figure we will get a much clearer picture on Thursday.
- Will the secondary ever figure out how to play a zone

[Bossman641]

A couple other things. I'm not sure who was at fault, but the 49er's had way too much success running to the edges.

And my #1 gripe, the tackle attempt (if you can even call it that) by Burnett on Gore's TD run was dog shit. For all the talk about wrapping up and not going for kill shots Burnett came in out of control and wildly threw 1 shoulder at Gore.

[Smidgeon]

I'm still not too concerned... but I'm not surprised we lost - not happy about it, but not surprised.

As I said in the game day thread - this team is built soft. My hope is that getting beat up like this; and after getting beat up by New York in the playoffs last year, and also getting smacked around pretty good by the Chiefs, that MM and Capers will get their heads out of their asses and start doing some game planning and coaching.

If there is such a thing as a good loss, this might be it.

Getting pretty tired of this myself. What does it take to turn this around? Coaching? Players with that mindset?

[Smidgeon]

Last yr and the start of this yr 2 things are painfully obvious.

1. It's hard to replace an interior rusher like Jenkins.

2. It's even harder to replace Collins at safety. Good safeties are tough to find, much less all-pro types.


those are the 2 big changes from a defense that was one of the better units in football the Super Bowl season to where we stand today. The issues in the secondary are very troubling in that they can't seem to communicate and get on the same page in coverage. I expect to see our receivers running free, but not as free as the 49ers seemed to be for much of the game.


overall the game was a pretty big shit sandwich.

How many sacks did the Pack have yesterday? 4? 2.5 by Matthews and 1.5 by Woodson? Did I miss any?

[RashanGary]

A couple positives from the game IMO:


1. The 49ers came a little faster at the Packers than they expected. With AR dicking around so much at the line, the defense is probably used to a little more time to get their shit together. Smith did very little changing at the line, and the defense looked rushed to get their assignments down.

Possible solutions - Less changing of plays presnap against up tempo offense or putting a lot of emphasis on getting the calls changed a lot quicker.


2. I think the Packers learned a valuable lesson about attacking man coverage. The Packers love to push the ball down field, but the 49ers were showing cover 2 but playing man.

Possible Solutions:

A. You can run, especially outside runs where the CB is leaving a void. A late shift of the TE into the backfield, then a quick snap gives the offense a chance to block the LB and the RB a chance to get the wide open edge. Well, we can't run, so throw that out of the book.

B. You can protect a little longer and get big plays (against a team like SF, that's not happening, but we sure tried.)

C. You can do what we did in the early 2nd half before the 49ers made it a desperation game on our part. You can attack the edge of the field with a guy like Randall Cobb (or Green if he has the kind of speed/open field vision he's shown in flashes.)



The bottom line. . . We're not a good running team, and teams like SF are beasts at stopping it. Throw that out the window. Not only do the 49ers stop the run, but they also get excellent pressure, making it really hard to wait for the big play. AR is so good down field, I understand it's hard to go away from that identity. But. . . . When you're facing the best, sometimes you have to set aside your ego, that you can force your strength down their throat, and realize they match up well against you. In that case, you take what's given to you, and force the team to abandon their game-plan.

We just didn't adjust, not until the 2nd half, and by then it was too late. I think MM may have learned something from this game, he may have learned a way to attack man defense with good pass rush by hitting the defenses soft spot, even if we can't do it in the traditional way, running the ball. If we're marching down the field on 12 play drives, the LBs are going to be forced to crash down to the flat, the same way the would against a good running team, and it will open up the inside passes, and maybe force them out of their gameplan.

It's all about breaking your ego and doing the simple things, even if they aren't as spectacular or fun.

[pbmax]

2. I think the Packers learned a valuable lesson about attacking man coverage. The Packers love to push the ball down field, but the 49ers were showing cover 2 but playing man.

That was Cover 2, there were often 2 deep safeties. And playing man underneath it (either just on the outside or all across the field) is common. That's not something that gets misread. The Packers talked all week (or at least reporters covered it as such) about getting off press or man to man coverage. Executing that might be another situation.

What I did not see was the extent that San Fran played bump and run or press. Did they play it across the field?

Most of Rodgers pressures, and I think 2 of the 3 sacks came from unblocked rushers, not waiting for deep routes. Outside of that last desperate heave to Nelson, Rodgers had time when throwing to Jones and Nelson (middle of field on 3 and 1).

Didn't get the sense they were using Cobb wide. Thought they were trying to get him on ILBs in the middle.

[pbmax]

NFL Gamebooks are supposed to provide snap counts for individual players and be available the day after a game. But the Packers GameBook isn't updated yet.

Curious how many snaps Driver saw versus Cobb.

http://www.nfl.com/liveupdate/gamecenter/55515/GB_Gamebook.pdf

[Bossman641]

NFL Gamebooks are supposed to provide snap counts for individual players and be available the day after a game. But the Packers GameBook isn't updated yet.

Curious how many snaps Driver saw versus Cobb.

http://www.nfl.com/liveupdate/gamece...B_Gamebook.pdf

Driver only got 3 snaps - the final 3 of the game

[denverYooper]

Didn't get the sense they were using Cobb wide. Thought they were trying to get him on ILBs in the middle.

Ya, so I wonder if that was in the original game plan or if it is just something that that they went to out of desperation. Of course, it helped that Cobb caught everything that came his way.

[mission]

Driver only got 3 snaps - the final 3 of the game

Because Jennings waved himself out of the game? Anyone heard that explained yet??

[mraynrand]

For all the talk about wrapping up and not going for kill shots Burnett came in out of control and wildly threw 1 shoulder at Gore.

I'm seeing that all over the NFL