Cheesehead TV Matchup: Week Six Offense
By PackerAaron
- Win The One-On-One Battles
Nothing more needs to said about what the offense needs to do heading into this game against the Lions that hasn't been beaten to death over the course of the last two weeks. We know the offensive line, whatever configuration happens to appear at the start of the game, needs to get its collective act together. We know Rodgers needs to get the ball out on time. We know the running backs, a group that sounds like it will consist of Ryan Grant, Brandon Jackson, John Kuhn and Quinn Johnson, need to be assignment sure in both their run-reads and pass protection. The receivers, from Greg Jennings to Brett Swain, need to run crisp routes, hang on to the ball, and finish off blocks in the run game.
But more than anything this weekend, the players on the offensive side of the ball need to concentrate on winning their one-one-one matchups.
Look, no one is under any illusions that the Lions are a good team. They aren't. But they are most decidedly not the pushovers they were last season. Jim Schwartz has them playing, if not well, at least respectably. However, the one phase of the game where the Lions are still as woeful as their record-setting 2008 squad is in the defensive secondary. The Lions did little to nothing to upgarde this area personnel-wise, outside of drafting safety Louis Delmas in the second round. (On a team with so many holes, you can understand how every area can't be attended to, but you would have thought the record setting futility of the Lions' pass defense in 2008 would have warranted more attention) Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers are no doubt salivating at the chance to ring-up some big plays against Will James and former Packer Marquad Manuel. The problem, of course, is that the Steelers had the same ideas coming into last weeks game and it was quite apparent that Steeler quarterback Ben Rothlisberger got a bit lazy early on and ended up paying for it with a pick-six that kept the game much closer than it should have been. This happens when teams and players start getting ahead of themselves - "oh, we'll drive down here for another touchdown, put this one away early." Unfortunately, this is the easiest way to invite an upset.
The Packers need to worry about the man in front of them, one play at a time. Win the individual battle, be it Greg Jennings against Phil Buchanon or Allen Barbre against (another ex-Packer) Jason Hunter, the offense needs to come out and take care of business one play at a time. If they do that, they should dominate no matter what kind of gameplan McCarthy has put together. The talent disparity is just too great. Only a slip of concentration and focus can stop the Packers offense this week.
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Comments (12)
October 16, 2009 at 10:40 am
Pressure on Packers
Reducing AR's pressure
Key to victory
http://PackerHaiku.com
October 16, 2009 at 10:55 am
According to the Lions Depth Chart Hunter will go up against Clifton or Colledge. Barbre should have White. Let's hope they don't have Clifton go down in this game (if he plays). They will need him in the future, the near future. If Hunter got 4 sacks in this game, can you imagine the reaction? Not Pretty!
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The summary you offer pretty much says it all. Play like this game is a playoff game. They need to come out of the bye with a whole lot of positives to carry forward into the Browns, then the Queenies and to a good record for the rest of the year.
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Go Pack
PackerAaron
October 16, 2009 at 11:56 am
Ron - they move Hunter around a lot. Against the Steelers, he was def at LE almost exclusively in base.
October 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Hunter = 2 1/2 sacks.
October 16, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Barbre and Sitton supposedly had this nasty streak they were going to bring to the O line, I haven't seen it. Colledge let Allen push him around and mock him on the field, and it took Lang to push back. I was so glad to see him swinging away at the mullet-headed meatball. He'll win his one-on-ones.
October 16, 2009 at 01:56 pm
Based on the talent disparity going into these next two games there really is no excuse for anything less than completely DOMINANT performances. Neither the lions (without johnson) or the browns should be able to put up double digit points or hold us to anything less than 30. I've been one of the more ''patient'' fans IMO regarding the team but anything less than that and I'll have to start considering the fact that I was totally wrong. These two games should be very similar to the preseason where we score almost at will and get turnovers by the bucket full. I really don't think that I'm overstating things when I say these next two weeks can be a turning point for not only the season but the franchise as a whole. Dominate these two games like we absolutely should and we could very reasonably be going into the vikings game with first place on the line (minn has baltimore and pittsburgh these next two games while chicago faces atlanta so all three of us could have 2 loses going into that week). Add a well played victory over the vikings to that and the momentum and emotion could springboard us towards very good if not great things but continue to play poorly or heaven forbid lose one of these next two games and things could go downhill quickly. Seems like there's already been more discontent this last week (between woodson's and jenning's statements and to a lesser extent Rodgers') than I can remember in the last few seasons combined. They have really been the first signs that maybe not everyone on the team is buying into everything. I know that not all of the fans have but I've always been under the impression that the leaders and a large majority if not all of the TEAM truly did believe in the direction we were heading. If things don't get turned around quickly I can seriously see McCarthy losing this team. They can only sit around so long and see the talent surrounding them and continue to underperform while hearing about how he is ''gonna clean things up'' before they start to think that maybe he isn't the guy to do it.
October 16, 2009 at 02:56 pm
Clifton and Bigby Probable
Spitz and Wells Questionable -- Next 48 hours will tell. If they both can't go the starter will be Detrich-Smith. Oh my!
PackerAaron
October 16, 2009 at 03:19 pm
lebowski - couldn't agree more on Lang. It's a rather stinging indictment of McCarthy, Philbin and Campen that they didn't have him over there in camp. They never gave Lang a serious look ANYWHERE and he's clearly got the talent to crack this very disappointing line.
October 16, 2009 at 04:01 pm
Aaron, I keep going back to their ridiculous decision to give Tony Moll ALL the reps at left tackle when it was obvious to everyone he wasn't going to cut it. The snowball effect of all these curious personnel moves is souring me very quickly on our management team. They are very 'reactionary'.
October 16, 2009 at 04:04 pm
Yeah, that thing with Moll was just bizarre. There was no way he was even making the team.
Maybe TT was trying to make him look better than he was, so he could be traded.
October 16, 2009 at 07:06 pm
That's the only explanation, I guess. Not a good enough reason to leave the backup situation at one of the most important positions on any football team that tenuous, though. Not good.
October 17, 2009 at 02:12 pm
Hunter Doubtful and White Questionable for Sunday. If the O line doesn't use this as a scrimage this week, there will never be a better chance. Work on pass protection and drive blocking. Abandon the ZBS entirely.