Week One ZEROS and Heros----Time to let it loose

[bobblehead]

Rodgers sucked. Whoever didn't get the ball in Jones and Dillons hands more often sucked. Both Hansen and Newman sucked. Bith safeties sucked.

Jones and Dillon were good. Doubs was solid. Nijman was good. Not many players actually impressed me.

[texaspackerbacker]

By far, the biggest ZERO in that game was JOE BARRY.

We have the best cover Corners in the NFL, and what does he do? He goes to the latest "in style" thing and plays a lot of zone D - zone D that he and his staff apparently were sadly deficient at coaching up his talented players to play.

We were supposed to have much improved run D, primarily because Kenny Clark finally had some help in the middle, but instead of mostly Devante Wyatt, we got an overdose of that worthless old plug, Dean Lowery. And T.J. Slaton is supposed to be "much improved"? He looked like he was doing a B.J. Raji impression out there - pushed around like a 340 pound rag doll. Scrapp the damn rotation thing, Joe, and play Clark and Wyatt most of the time with Reed as a fill in if/when they need a break. And leave damned Lowery on the bench.

And Barry's supposed area of expertize is ILBs? You don't have them trying to cover WRs in short zones while your star Corners get run off the line. And the price of that was not only shoddy pass coverage; It also was having the ILBs AWOL in the run game a large part of the time.

The Offense wasn't very good, but it wasn't the reason we lost the game. Coaching there too didn't do much on the good side. Clinging to the old WRs most of the game and telegraphing a lot of plays when both Dillon and Jones were in the game didn't help. I'm not sure how much of the problem was on coaches and how much was on Rodgers for that, though.

Was anybody a "hero"? I'm sure not gonna say special teams just because they rose to a level of mediocrity, not having any major fuck ups. The gunners, though, seemed to at least do their job getting down field.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Good plan. Poor execution. It was pretty obvious watching the game.

They doubled Jefferson most plays.

Sam Holman
@Sam_DHolman

Rewatching the game, I actually thought Barry’s plan for 18 was quite sound. GB doubled him on the majority of passing plays (70%+). Did it a bunch of different ways too - lots of Fangio’s Zeus call, some Saban Cone stuff, etc. Execution was what really hurt GB, not the gameplan.

[RashanGary]

This whole overreaction to the scheme is ridiculous. Most teams in the NFL mostly play zone now—except maybe the Rams with Ramsey and he got torched by Diggs. The players played the scheme poorly—especially the safeties. That will change.

I agree completely. Jaire is a decent man corner, but probably the best off corner in the league. And just about every team in the league can completely chew up man coverage if that’s what you play. That’s why no one but Jacksonville does it. It’s just not effective.

And then there is the matter of Dalvin Cook. The only thing worse than getting torched by Jefferson for 180 is getting the ball run down your throat for 4 quarters and getting physically beat up. That’s the worst feeling in football.

So we put a lot of resources into stopping Cook. And then tried to weather the Jefferson storm with the defenses our guys do best. Jefferson is a rare player and he was schemed to be open the same way we did with Davante last year. We went up against a team with an elite back and a rare true number one receiver. Mark my words, a whole lot of teams are gonna get beat by the Vikings offense. They’re that good. Especially at home.

The defense isn’t my primary concern. It’s that the offense doesn’t have any cohesion in the passing game. The rookies are our talented players and Rodgers makes it hard on them. Let’s hope we win a couple close ones early and the offense puts it together late. That’s our path to a possible title.

Special teams was solid too, but am Rodgers will muff a punt soon. He’s baffled by the ball flight. He’s not it.

[texaspackerbacker]

Just because most everybody else runs zone doesn't mean we have to. Other teams don't have Alexander, Stokes, and Douglas. And if we must run zone sometimes, for crying out loud, coach up your players to do it right.

[RashanGary]

Just because most everybody else runs zone doesn't mean we have to. Other teams don't have Alexander, Stokes, and Douglas. And if we must run zone sometimes, for crying out loud, coach up your players to do it right.

Great players make plays. And they have Cook and Jefferson. The Vikings, if they’re healthy, are going to have an all world offense this year, even with a decent QB, not a great one.

[Upnorth]

Our rb duo were the hero's. Our oline sucked and rodgers got happy feet missing wide open wr. Love played better

[run pMc]

I actually think Jaire is a top cover corner who can also play zone well - the opposite of what RG said above.
As for zone, GB has played mostly zone for years now. The Brandon Staley defense Barry was an assistant on for the Rams plays a lot of zone. It's just what they do, and is representative of many defenses these days. The league rules favor the passing game, all many defenses can do is hope the offense screws up, otherwise it's keep plays in front of you and rally to the ball.

Offenses throw a lot of wrinkles and complexity and sometimes a zone is the best way to prevent a big play in theory. Giving up big plays gets you fired and these guys want to keep working.
That's not to say they don't or can't play man coverage or some hybrid. I sometimes miss the days of Al Harris jamming guys at the line and all the press-man they used to play. It's hard for players to do that well even harder to do it well against pro WRs with all the illegal contact/DPI rules for 4 quarters.