Your 2012 Packers Offense

[Upnorth]

IMO there are three issues on the passing game. (all of which have been said above, but I have not typed anything here in far to long and am going through withdrawls)

1) Rodgers is pressing, looking for the big play. After watching last years tape, the opposing d is pressing at the line and making the play take an extra half second or so to develop, which ties into my next point
2) Our Oline is not good enough to pass block the extra half second. Buluga has regressed a lot and I can't figure out why. Newhouse is not good enough to hold his blocks for the extra time, and seems to be thinking still instead of reacting. (His foot work does look better in general this year though) and Saturday has not filled Well's shoes very well. Even with Lang and Sitton controlling what is going around him he is not giving Rodgers a little extra space that Well was able to.
3) Designed roll outs are not working like last year, and the receivers are not adjusting to when ARod has to roll out.

On the defensive side of the ball I think we are playing good, but have a few problems
1) I miss having CWood back their, I don't know who is wearing his jersey, but man does he look different.
2) No pass rush equals big play for opposition. If we get almost any pressure on the qb, or even just challenge his space, our coverage seems to be good enough, but when we don't get any pressure we give up big time yards.


Also as this is Wednesday, Fire Slocum, your special teams are making the O and D look worse and lets face it, you made Crosby miss those 50 yarder kicks.

[Rutnstrut]

I think you are grossly mischaracterizing what was said. I don't recall anyone who wouldn't have liked to have Wells back. The problem was the cost of the contract he wanted and got. Even after losing Wells, they may not have enough room to retain Jennings. That's what happens with a salary cap.

Actually there were quite a few that said there would be no drop off at center and that Saturday was an upgrade over Wells. Even five years ago that may have been true, but Saturday is a barely serviceable center now.

[pbmax]

Actually there were quite a few that said there would be no drop off at center and that Saturday was an upgrade over Wells. Even five years ago that may have been true, but Saturday is a barely serviceable center now.

Upgrade? I don't remember that being the view of anyone, much less quite a few.

[Pugger]

Yes, I thought the consensus was Saturday would be a good stop gap after losing Wells to FA until we drafted a center in 2013?

[denverYooper]

As far as the line goes, PFF has these numbers on the Packers line through 5 games (from ChTV Packers Chat):

Last night I tweeted the Packers pressures allowed by linemen. Saturday has allowed 5, Sitton 6, Lang 7, Newhouse 8 and Bulaga 24. A lot of that was vs. the Seahawks, but we’re seeing Bulaga play a lot more like he did when he was a rookie compared to his second year.

Notice that Saturday has the lowest number of allowed pressures according to their system. Sort of interesting, though I will say that I usually take their ratings with a grain of salt. I don't know for sure, but I think they may have credited Lang and Sitton with at least 1 apiece that were really Saturday's fault. Still, it's interesting that the pressures outside of Bulaga are approximately even and Brian is responsible for roughly 3x as many. That squares with what I've seen and I don't know why he's struggling so badly.

[wist43]

Did any of you watch the Houston vs NYJ game??

Houston is supposedly a "zone blocking" team... did any of you notice how many times they pulled their guards and tackles?? How many times they "wammed" and crashed with their TE's?? They work at trying to create holes for Foster to get thru.

The Packers on the other hand rarely pull, trap, block down, or do anything to actually create a hole for the RB to run thru... their entire run game is predicated upon getting a hat on a hat, scrum every which way, and let the RB ferret out a running lane. If the cutback isn't there, it's a 1 yard gain and 3rd and 9.

It is up to McCarthy to incorporate more power blocking plays, i.e. plays that are actually designed to create a specific hole in a specific gap. It is also McCarthy's responsibility to shorten up the routes and use the short passing game as a substitute for the run game.

The offense is a mess - and it is all on McCarthy. He's not reading the writing on the wall. It's his responsibility to put players in positions to make plays; recognize a players strengths and weaknesses and play call and scheme around those issues. He's not doing any of that.

[Fritz]

I'd like to see Rodgers hit some of those checkdowns more often, especially on first and second down. They seem to be there for him, but as PB pointed out, he often passes on them in favor or riskier, longer throws.

[Freak Out]

I sense Rodgers is starting to feel the dragon.

[Bossman641]

As far as the line goes, PFF has these numbers on the Packers line through 5 games (from ChTV Packers Chat):



Notice that Saturday has the lowest number of allowed pressures according to their system. Sort of interesting, though I will say that I usually take their ratings with a grain of salt. I don't know for sure, but I think they may have credited Lang and Sitton with at least 1 apiece that were really Saturday's fault. Still, it's interesting that the pressures outside of Bulaga are approximately even and Brian is responsible for roughly 3x as many. That squares with what I've seen and I don't know why he's struggling so badly.

24 pressures for Bulaga? OMG, you have to think he is injured quite a bit. Isn't he battling tendinitis in his knee?

[denverYooper]

24 pressures for Bulaga? OMG, you have to think he is injured quite a bit. Isn't he battling tendinitis in his knee?

My guess is that it'll be like Sitton's injury in that you don't hear about it from the team until after the season.

[PA Pack Fan]

I think 75% of our offensive woes can be put on Rodgers. He doesn't look good at all. You can't expect our offensive line to hold off the d for more than 3 bananas. Sure, they gave up a few sacks, so did Rodgers......and more. He always seems so hesitant to throw this year. There is no way Jordy has been shut down every play for 5 games. Throw the fucking ball. Honestly, at this point I'd rather see a pick than two sacks and an incomplete every series.

[denverYooper]

http://blogs.nfl.com/2012/10/10/recapping-this-trip-the-green-bayindianapolis-edition/

– The Packers offense disappeared in the second half against the Colts, scoring just six points and allowing Indy to fight back. QB Aaron Rodgers struggled even more than he did in the first half, showing indecision and inaccuracy. What the heck happened?

“Earlier in the game, Aaron was doing a great job of getting rid of the football, he didn’t have to hold it,” OLB Dwight Freeney explained. “Toward the end of the game, he had to try to make some plays for himself. Whatever had happened (in the first half) wasn’t working. When you have to hold the ball, we have to be there to tackle and make the sack. We had made some adjustments, took some things away they wanted to do, and that caused him to hold the ball.”

– OK, that’s one thing. The Colts forced Rodgers to hold it. But how? DB Cassius Vaughn said they became more intense, saying it was because they were fighting for Pagano. No doubt. In addition, though, there was a change in the method of attacking the Packers O. Safety Antoine Bethea said early on, the D-line was asking for “one more second.” In the second half, Bethea told me how they gave it to Freeney and the boys.

“With Green Bay, their stuff is based on rhythm,” Bethea said. “As DBs, you try to get your hands on the receivers, knock off their timing a little bit, take away his first read. Once that first read is gone, (Rodgers) tends to move around a little bit. That’s when Dwight and Rob could get him.

[denverYooper]

So the idea that DBs are disrupting receivers and throwing off the timing is not new. The expert panel of PackerRats posters has been commenting on it for quite some time now. What is new this year and not mentioned in the article is that Rodgers has regressed against the blitz. I'm pretty sure most of Indy's sacks came when they sent 5+, and Rodgers was eating blitzes for lunch last year.

[denverYooper]

I think 75% of our offensive woes can be put on Rodgers. He doesn't look good at all. You can't expect our offensive line to hold off the d for more than 3 bananas. Sure, they gave up a few sacks, so did Rodgers......and more. He always seems so hesitant to throw this year. There is no way Jordy has been shut down every play for 5 games. Throw the fucking ball. Honestly, at this point I'd rather see a pick than two sacks and an incomplete every series.

He has also missed quite a few deep throws to Jordy that he was routinely making last year. The first one up the sideline was an obvious one, and he said on his radio show yesterday that he misses maybe 5 of those out of 100 but there have been other deep throws that he has sailed as well.

[denverYooper]

One more tidbit from Rodgers show, about the last play before the FG. Apparently he went to make a check and wanted Saturday declared to the right but he looked up and Saturday was declared to the left. He peeked up at the clock and didn't have time to make the adjustment so he just called time out because he felt he'd have a guy in his face and didn't want to risk a negative play.