Favre Dismantles Capers
By Aaron Nagler on Oct 06, 2009 with 15 Comments
As one of the first and loudest Dom Capers cheerleaders, it pains me to say it, but last night was embarrassing.
All through minicamps and OTAs, through training camp and preseason, we heard about this defense’s ability to bring anyone from anywhere to create pressure. Last night, Capers kept bringing the same guys from the same place. Where was Charles Woodson off the edge? I saw it once, in the 4th quarter. Where were the safety blitzes? Where was Tramon Williams off the edge? I could go on and on.
All offseason I trumpeted Capers’ versatility, how he would not be married to any one scheme or coverage. Last night I was proven dead wrong. When presented with the fact that his zone coverage was getting torn apart, Capers never tried to switch things up, never tried to call a Cover 1 with man coverage behind it, or any man coverage whatsoever. Why? With guys like Harris, Woodson and Williams, why not take a chance? Even a Cover Zero, with an all out blitz and man coverage across the board, would not have been out of place, even for one play. But I don’t think Capers ever even dialed up a 6 man pressure. (I’ll re-watch the game tonight to make sure) In fact – Capers seemed to bring FEWER people as the evening went on.
The night can be summed up by the play where Favre had over 7 seconds to throw. It is a damnation of every thing and everyone of the defensive side of the ball. Disgraceful.
Filed Under: Brett Favre • Dom Capers
Yes, they rushed fewer guys as the game went on, but for a reason. They weren’t getting to Favre at all, and he was picking the secondary apart, so they left more guys back in pass protection.
I want to know why 95% of the blitzes were from the inside? I expected the Packers to have some special surprises for Brett, such as unleashing Matthews as a blitzer from the edge. I thought this would be his coming out party (as a blitzer). Never happened.
How bad is this: Rookie Phil Loadholt shutting down Aaron Kampman and making him a non-factor when he pass-rushed. Which wasn’t often enough, BTW.,
I agree they weren’t getting to Favre – with three, four and five. But after it was apparent that going ‘coverage’ wasn’t going to work, I would have liked to at least seen a play or two where they threw the kitchen sink at him.
I’m sure you heard Woodson’s comments by now. He wasn’t happy wiith the Safety support he was getting in the zone. Wanted Smith to have been retained and made his desires clear. My guess is he was directing that comment at Capers for what ever reason.
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He also said he went twice off the corner last night but there was drop off coverage which left just 5 rushers.
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I, too, am deeply disappointed in Capers. I expected much more of him.
Watch that play where Favre had, like, 30 seconds to throw. The D line isn’t even rushing him. It looked like they were playing some sort of contain, as if they were facing Mike Vick and were afraid of him breaking out of the pocket. I understand the concept of containing ADP. I do not understand that concept when it comes to Favre at all.
Lost in this discussion is the fact that Derrick Martin (the replacement for Rouse and Smith, and the sub for the injured Bigby) was benched last night. Certainly, the touchdown to Berrian, where Al Harris started shouting at Martin afterwards, was the product of some miscommunication. There were other apparent breakdowns in the secondary as well. What I’m suggesting is that with Martin/Bush at SS, perhaps Capers felt exposed, and played conservatively to cover the weak link.
If that’s true, however, I don’t agree with it. Put the old man down hard, even if he burns you some more. He’s old. Shake him up. Rattle his cage.
Favre would have just punished you with the quick release.
He knew what your D was going to do before they did.
Lesson?
You don’t **** with the FAVRE, right Ted Thompson?
“Favre would have just punished you with the quick release.
He knew what your D was going to do before they did.”
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I don’t play or coach for the Packers, so I doubt it.
Mr. Man – that was exactly what I thought as well, that Capers was playing conservative because of the lack of experience at strong safety. And I completely agree – get after the guy. The Cover-3-zone-on-every-play was simply not working.
Capers was focused on containing Peterson.
He was successful.
THE DEFENSE DID NOT LOSE THIS GAME FOR US. Yeah, Derrick Martin sucked. Might as well have had Bush in there.
But it’s the offense and specifically the “SMALLER, QUICKER” OFFENSIVE LINE that cost us this game, the Beengirls game and almost every single game this season.
So you can talk all the smack you want about the defense, but that ain’t where it’s at.
Aaron, There were some 5 and six man rushes the first half. Each time, there was no pressure and we got burned by big plays (especially on 3rd and longs). Capers decided to back off because it just wasn’t working. McCarthy even said it in his press conference.
I’m not disagreeing we could have tried a bit more. However, let’s not forget one of Favre’s best attributes, throwing the ball to the area vacated by the blitzer. I think that’s why you didn’t see a lot of DB blitzes.
Capers was in a difficult spot. How can you take your best cover corner out of coverage for blitzes when you have safeties that aren’t doing their jobs? I saw one of the plays where he came off the edge and it was really effective…so it must’ve annoyed Woodson that he wasn’t getting more opportunities to try it. But if the safeties struggled as much as it sounds like they did, then how can you blame him?
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Also Bucky, based on how the DLine looked I was assuming they were looking for a screen.
Nick, I can see looking for a screen for a second or so. But after 4-5 seconds, I think the chance of screen has diminished about 99.9%.
[...] Aaron Nagler of Cheeshead TV thinks Dom Capers was exposed. [...]
Thanks, Aaron. Tom Silverstein said as much in a chat last night. I still don’t understand cutting Smith if you’re going to cut Rouse two weeks later. Plus, if you can get a guy for a marginal NFL player like Tony Moll, he’s likely not ready to be a starter, especially when he missed the entirety of training camp. I’d like to think that Bigby will be healthy by the end of the bye week, but given his slow recuperation from previous injuries, I doubt it.
To those saying the defense, in particular the pass defense, isn’t part of the problem– the Packers have 5 sacks in 4 games. That’s not good. Packer opponents have had more than that in single games.
Brett favre’s the man. You guys should make a green bay wide petition to try to beg him to come back. I mean the Vikings are unquestionably better than the packers so he would reject the offer. But it’s worth a try. Great idea to run a guy out of town after he takes you to the NFC championship the year before, by the way.