DEFENSE RISES UP

Packers Commitment to Youth and Development Bears Fruit on Improved Defense

 

 

What in the world is going on in Green Bay? Ordinarily after a game of substandard proportions along the lines Aaron Rodgers played last week (19/ 30/ 2TD’s/ 2 INT’s/ 1 fumble) the world would be justified in asking such a question.

But not today. The bigger question that is rapidly becoming a statement is the overall improved play of the defense. The Packers? Yeah, all offense and a Swiss cheese defense that can’t stop the run and gives up a ton of points. Rodgers just outscores the other team.

Not this year.

The defense has risen to become a ferocious, devastating group and it is a collaborative group effort

that has gotten them there. It begins with the coaching. Two years ago Mike McCarthy pronounced his defense would get better. It did. In the magical post Super Bowl undefeated run of 2011 the Packers were a prolific, record setting offensive juggernaut that scarcely needed a defense. So good was Aaron Rodgers aerial attack the Pack could simply count on outscoring teams and making a key turnover when needed.

It was a recipe for disaster.

As everyone knows the New York Giants exposed the Packers Achilles heel in the lack of a strong run game and turned the tables on Green bay forcing the defense to have to hold up their wend of the bargain. In the end it was one lone loss in the regular season and the start of one lone loss in the playoffs. That fact was not lost on McCarthy. The first step was to draft RB Eddie Lacy who has opened up the airwaves for Rodgers as defenses could no longer dare Rodgers to beat them and abandon any semblance of a run defense as the Giants did.

The next step was to invest heavily into a youth movement on defense. Clay Matthews and B.J. Raji

were already entrenched so there were few, if any, rookies on defense that stepped in and stepped up right away. But little by little over time the patience of McCarthy, Ted Thompson and Dom Capers has begun to pay off. Mike Neal was a sort of surprise 2^nd round pick who took almost 3 years to get healthy and develop. He also had to adjust to playing the OLB position as opposed to the defensive end he was at Purdue.

There were some busts along the way… former 1^st rounder Justin Harrell could never get healthy7 and was a wash. Jerel Worthy was the same as was Khiry Thornton. At first it was thought Nick Perry would join that group as well. But while there were some misses there were several others that were hits. Mike Daniels came in the 4^th round from Iowa and became a very vocal and very nasty leader of the group very quickly. UDFA Mike Pennel has been a pleasant surprise with his mobility and strength and has added to the line. FA Letroy Guion washed out in Minnesota but has found new life in Green Bay. Datone Jones raw talent was obvious and he too is beginning to become the disruptive force at the pro level he was in college.

Morgan Burnett stepped into fill a void at safety and Ha Ha Clinton- Dix did the same after a spotty

beginning. The back end of the D finally started to round into shape. There was a point in the not too distant past that the cornerback slot was a considerable area of weakness on the Pack’s defenses. Then Tramon Williams stepped up and Sam Shields began to gel. Add Micah Hyde, the unexpected ball hawking Casey Hayward and Davon House and the Pack’s corners were suddenly legit. When Williams and House departed in free agency in came rookies Damarious Randall and Quentin Rollins with the first 2 picks in the draft. Out of necessity and attrition both have stepped in and stepped up.

If there was one unaddressed area it was at the inside linebacker position, a position that was exposed in the epic collapse against Seattle in last year’s NFC Championship game. Much has been written and said but the inescapable conclusion was self-evident. Former first rounder and #5 overall pick A.J. Hawk was becoming more of a liability than an asset particularly in the passing game. Hawk was never fleet of foot and his biggest crime was although he was taken at the right spot at #5 he never really become a #5 overall type of high impact game changer as Clay Matthews had become. Hawk and fellow ILB Brad Jones were both largely responsible for the fake field goal TD scored by Seattle that ignited the furious last minute comeback. On a routine, chip shot field goal Jones tried for a high risk/ low reward attempt to block the kick. In the process he lost G Garry Gilliam who outran Hawk for the 19 yard fake FG TD that was the beginning of the end.

Give McCarthy credit for having the cajones to clean house as he did. Jones had been resigned to a multi-year multi-million dollar deal as did Hawk and McCarthy pulled the trigger and released both.

The outside linebackers were a considered strength of the Packers and it wasn’t until Capers

decided to move Matthews inside that the defense as a whole began to take off. Last year Matthews was the reluctant company man and agreed to go along with the plan. Sort of. His heart and talent was in the outside rushing the passer form the blind side and piling up the hits and sacks. Inside was more laborious and more taking on the running backs and big uglies in the trenches. Matthews began somewhat tentatively in the new position. Gradually he began to get a feel for it. As loathe as Thompson is to import free agents the addition of Julius Peppers was the move that made Matthews going inside possible. Matthews replaced the slower Hawk and Sam Barrington began to come on.

Now in year 2 of the grand plan switch Matthews is not only more comfortable he is in the mix for the  Defensive Player of the Year Award, and trophy he’ll likely not see as long as a certain J.J. Watt toils in the Texas heat and out of contention. But it has been Matthews' move inside and his obvious comfort in the new role that has helped spark and reinvigorate the defense. While the defense is still susceptible to giving up big yardage on the ground occasionally it is now a Top 10 defense in sacks, points allowed, pass defense, turnovers and overall defense.

McCarthy and Capers most simple explanation of why they moved Matthews, their unquestioned

best player and passer rusher inside was they wanted to get their best players on the field, not just the best player in the singular form. Matthews move opened up opportunities for Perry, Neal Andy Mulamba and now newcomer Jayrone Elliot to also join the pack of wild dogs chasing down QB’s. Elliott is making it impossible for the coaches to keep him and his ‘hair-on-fire’ style of play off the field.

Just as Aaron Rodgers is the catalyst to the offense Matthews has the same impact on the defense. Offenses no longer have the luxury of knowing not only where but when Matthews will be coming. Matthews has wrought havoc in opposing backfields by exploding in with his cat like quickness. Last week Nick Foles dropped back 33 times and was hit or sacked 12 of those times and picked off 4 other times. Those hits begin to take a toll and it becomes a process that energizes and inspires the defense to be even more tenacious.

Since the latter half of last year when Matthews first made the switch the Packers stock has risen. This year the defense is now capable of winning a game when Rodgers is not Rodgers and is playing at a more human level. As opposing teams now face the Packers it is a team with few visible weaknesses and strengths that run wide, deep, and across both sides of the ball. This year’s Packers team has every element in place to be poised for another long, deep run. The scars of last year have healed but they still burn. As McCarthy has driven his team to “Start fast/ finish faster” the Packers have responded in kind.

Philip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers, the perennial bridesmaids of the NFL now take a swing at the Pack. Fresh off a game winning drive engineered by Rovers in the last minutes of their Monday night matchup against Pittsburgh the ‘Bolts were stunned when the Steelers, led by the legs and arm of Michael Vick and LeVeon Bell countered with the very last second of the game walk off TD to steal the game right out f Rivers’ grasp.

As a reward the reeling Chargers now get to face the Packers, a team unlike Pittsburgh that is hitting on all cylinders.

Rivers and co. may be looking for the busses out of town by halftime.

 

 

 

 GREEN BAY 37  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   San Diego  17