Relive the Packer Defense Against the 49ers Playoff Edition

[pbmax]

Same bad read on the handoff when he went around Matthew for a big gain. They should be able to simulate the option handoff with Cobb and a couple of other guys. Rodgers uses it even though he is running a read option pass. Matthews at least had the excuse that they were running a scrape (OLB and ILB swap containment gaps) and he was supposed to cover the handoff.

The problem, again, is discipline. You don't want the D falling for the ol' hidden ball trick. So you, Mr. Jones have or the first ball carrier through the hole. Not until you see he doesn't have the ball affirmatively, do you peel away.

Walden falls for this completely and you can watch his head turn. He has to keep an eye on CK and not until he doesn't have the ball do you leave that gap unmanned.

[smuggler]

You can see from the side view that Walden still believes Gore has taken the handoff. Even if Walden were miraculously faster on this play, CK will still gain a huge chunk or the TD, because Walden would not have been in pursuit soon enough to make an impact on the play. If we'd been playing Collins or Burnett in Wood's spot, there's a chance of a TD saving tackle. If Shields weren't held, he would have easily run CK down.

[pbmax]

You can see from the side view that Walden still believes Gore has taken the handoff. Even if Walden were miraculously faster on this play, CK will still gain a huge chunk or the TD, because Walden would not have been in pursuit soon enough to make an impact on the play. If we'd been playing Collins or Burnett in Wood's spot, there's a chance of a TD saving tackle. If Shields weren't held, he would have easily run CK down.

And that raises a good scheme question. Walden has to stay wide enough to keep CK inside or at least hesitate to allow pursuit. One thing college's do for this play to to send a safety or other DB up the field immediately as an alley defender. He supports the B-C gap by allowing the ILB to keep inside leverage and allow no cutback and the OLB to keep outside leverage and contain CK.

Woodson could do this but he was deep. Of the other safeties, only McMillan seems like a guy who would thrive in such a role. Burnett is probably OK for this.

And this all comes back to counting defenders and having the qb be a threat to run. Sam Shields is negated on this play. Normal defenses scheme against 10 players for a run. San Fran on a read option is forcing you to account for 11. The motion to the backfield leaves Shields with nothing to do on this play. So its 11 on 10, in favor of the O. He must stay on the right in case someone leaks out but the H back blocks as does Davis on Matthews.

And that probably means there might be a reverse direction off this play the 49ers run if you retreat Shields to play safety and allow the other two safeties to come up fast.

[smuggler]

That's a good point, but was Shields on the payside or the backside? From my memory, he was on the playside but was held by Crabtree, but that could have been another play. The refs don't call holding much at all in the playoffs, so it wasn't surprising they let 4 or 5 good ones go. They eventually had to call the one against Matthews because it was too blatant to ignore.

[Bossman641]

You can see from the side view that Walden still believes Gore has taken the handoff. Even if Walden were miraculously faster on this play, CK will still gain a huge chunk or the TD, because Walden would not have been in pursuit soon enough to make an impact on the play. If we'd been playing Collins or Burnett in Wood's spot, there's a chance of a TD saving tackle. If Shields weren't held, he would have easily run CK down.

Shields is on the other side of the field. I think you are seeing Tramon getting held, although he didnt make much effort to get off the block in the first place.

[mraynrand]

Shields is on the other side of the field. I think you are seeing Tramon getting held, although he didnt make much effort to get off the block in the first place.

That's the thing - sometimes you just have to fight enough to make the holding obvious, so they have to call it. If you just do the dancing bear routine, they won't call it. Fight hard and move to the ball, and maybe they see that uniform getting stretched and pulled. That's a physical fail on T. Will's part.

[gbgary]

"They weren't who we thought they were." - MM

[Carolina_Packer]

Thanks Bossman, that's great. For some reason, Raji just lets himself get turned in and then gets hit, almost unexpectedly, by a double team. He seems to either not know the call or not care. Hawk looks to penetrate the LOS and just runs right into a Guard for no reason.

That leaves a lot of room for Jones who clearly has the A-B gaps and Gore. And this confirms Walden ignores his C-gap/QB responsibility to watch/help with Gore, all the while ignoring CK.

They need to bring Barry up to yell at them about the option and responsibility for an entire week before next year's game. Barry's defenses had trouble with speed, but they played the option very well.

Who is Barry?

[Joemailman]

It's just shocking to me how long it took Walden to figure out Kaepernick had the ball.

[Freak Out]

Everyone gets fooled once in awhile, but man....that is some ugly shit.

[KYPack]

Who is Barry?

Alvarez. He admired WI's discipline in their run fits vs option plays. I guess.

[mraynrand]

I thought it was Barry Switzer, because of the amount of option he's seen in his life. Of course, with an IQ that matches the temperature of a cool spring day, Barry Switzer is the last guy you want to consult with to teach anyone anything.

[pbmax]

Who is Barry?

Alvarez. There were many occasions when the Badgers defense caused a lot of consternation with their performance, but one thing it usually did very well was stick to their responsibilities against the option. They were always prepared and rarely fooled.

They did have trouble with spread to run offenses with mobile QBs, but that wasn't assignment issues, it was a speed issue.

This is not an entirely serious suggestion, but meant to illuminate that the usual Packer attack of go forward with all speed, gets torched by mobile players or options. Atlanta played the 49er read to seal CK in by just sitting outside.

They then had to defend Gore's inside handoff with one fewer player, but they were consistent and disciplined and stopped CK from killing them. Gore got two scores, but both came on big drives one of which was helped by an Packer-like defensive penalty on 3rd down. You have to give the offense a chance to make a mistake if you can't match CK's speed.