More Banjo: Week 9 vs. Detroit

[Pugger]

I just don't think we had reasonable expectations for this team after Rodgers went down. We ended last year in the NFC championship game with a defense that had Gunter as our top CB, an aging Peppers as our 2nd leading pass rusher, and one of the most atrocious pass defenses I've ever seen. We couldn't cover ANY receiver with our collection of street CBs and beat-up draft pick CBs.

Drafting at the end of the first round, we made a decision to add speed to our DBs with King and Jones. We took Biegel as a pass rusher and Adams as a DL. We signed House, didn't sign Peppers, and let D. Jones go. I can't remember anybody on this board saying that we needed to keep Peppers and D. Jones. Better to let them leave one year early than one year late. Unfortunately, Biegel and Adams got hurt either before or during training camp.

When it was obvious in training camp that Fackrell and Elliott couldn't replace Peppers, we signed Brooks who was not normally injury prone. Two games into the season, he got injured.

Our CBs have actually covered much better than they did last year, even with the sometimes bone-headed play of King and Randall. King looks like he might turn out to be a player and Randall has definitely improved the past 4 games. House has been steady most of the year. J. Jones has been hot and cold but has shown flashes. Our DBs, with the exception of Dix, looks much improved over last year.

Martinez has taken the jump at ILB and may be the best we've had at that position since Barnett. DL has been steady against the run. Clark looks like a keeper, Lowry has been better than most thought, and Daniels has been great in run D.

We all knew we had a weakness in our pass rush. Maybe we should have taken Watt, but as bad as our secondary was, I don't fault us for taking King. We had two glaring holes to address and our pass rush was much better than our CB play in 2016. I certainly didn't think the loss of Peppers and D. Jones would affect us like it has. Our pass rush makes us a below average to poor defense even with the overall improvement in our DB play.

With this defense and a 5th round QB with little to no experience, how could we reasonably expect to win more than half of our remaining games and stay in the playoff race. I think it would be reasonable for us to play competitively against teams in the same shape we're in...teams that have young, inexperienced QBs and teams that were not built around their defense.

With Rodgers, in a weak NFC, we may have gone to a Super Bowl. This year, without Rodgers, we may have a top 10 draft pick. I think it's unreasonable to think otherwise.

Another great post!

I agree, having a poor pass rush is what is killing this defense. You can't expect to win many games when you can't force your opposition to punt. Let's hope this lost season isn't all for naught and we can get a real difference maker on the EDGE this spring. Fix that and a lot of our defensive issues disappear. I hope Capers disappears too.

[esoxx]

If only we had realized going in to the season the pass rush needed to be improved. And improved by a lot.

Not exactly groundbreaking stuff here.

[mraynrand]

If only we had realized going in to the season the pass rush needed to be improved. And improved by a lot.

Not exactly groundbreaking stuff here.

OK let's look back. What should have been done differently?

[esoxx]

OK let's look back. What should have been done differently?

The problem is systemic and goes back some time now. The larger point is for any one now just coming to the conclusion our pass rush is anemic and we really need to address that this offseason....well no shit.

[pbmax]

Homegrown pass rush has been very hard to come by. Even Clark and Lowry, who broke the poor big man draft streak, aren't QB hunters.

So you have to find them elsewhere. Fackrell hasn't stepped up and Brooks has been hurt and pedestrian.

I think drafting freaks like Fackrell is the future, Ted went all in on tall, athletic traits on defense this year and KF fits that bill. You keep digging that mine or you tank and get one in the top 8 of the draft.