"Whatever the reason, Capers needs to take a long, hard look at his use of not only Kampman, but his linebackers in general. For all the positive press they received in training camp and the preseason, they are most definitely underachieving up to this point in the 2009 season."

You are awesome.

Aaron,

Wonderful assessment. I was about to write the same thing about Kampman, so you saved me the time. Kampman needs that initial burst and he needs momentum behind him. He is a different type of pass rusher than Jared Allen, who can stop on a dime and change direction with the same speed level. When Kampman is stood up, he takes longer to get going again, thus he is much easier to handle if you can stop his momentum. Kampman has always been a guy that got a lot of "perseverance" sacks, where his work ethic would eventually pay off with a sack. As opposed to flat-out beating guys one-on-one.

And I also was hoping we would see some 4 man fronts with Kampman's hand on the ground.

And since I don't know their history, how reliable would you consider Packerupdate and the rumors being reported?

Yep. Kampy is undersized and that's why he needs to get low with his hand on the ground for leverage. This was one of my many rants last week that actually made sense (at least it does after you validate :)

Using your best rush man in pass protection, is down right stupid. I really have a hard time thinking that Cpaers would do that. He is just too good for that.
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So, maybe it is someone else. Interesting comments from MM yesterday about his goals for the FOUR DAYS (The Bears will have practiced 7 days in the same time period)) he actually practiced the team. "My goals are to stop the sacks, dropped passes, and use Kampman to go after the QB more". You think?

On a completely unrelated note, I'm going to predict that Ryan Grant has a big game this week. Why, you ask? Well, lost in the hubbub over Sutton's excellent preseason was the fact that there was a guy in front of him blowing guys up. His name? Quinn Johnson. Honestly, I still don't understand why the kid hasn't played, but he's going to be a MAJOR upgrade for the running game. Quinn Johnson will create holes, rather than getting pushed into them like our other 2 FBs.

In hindsight, I guess I should have posted the Quinn Johnson rant one blog post down....

Um...Yeah, Kampman should rush the QB and stuff!

I haven't seen a 4 down linemen formation yet. All the nickel has been in the elephant position. But not only in that Capers has failed. His blitzes haven't been creative AT ALL, except for the bears game.
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Of course, it could be so that the team could grow accustomed to playing in space faster, since they pretty much know how to play with their hands on the ground.
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It should be over now, and the nickel and dime formations should bring more of the 4 down front, with Matthews, Jenkins, Jolly (Raji) and Kampman, but it's just my two cents...

My severe disappointment comes from the fact that in pre-season we saw an attacking scheme that worked to perfection. But now, when it counts, we see a rigid, vanilla scheme that does not utilize the talents of our players. This is not just my opinion but the opinion of Charles Woodson, whom we ALL respect. It's as if Capers and MM cannot see what we see, that they see success where we see failure. Mind-boggling.

The defense is fine. The struggles they have had was due to the backup safeties. The defense hasn't lost a game yet, unlike last year. They're fine.
Yeah, I'd trade Kampman, for an LT. Or for Stephen Jackson. But that's just because we need a LT.

Agree with nerdman. It's clear Capers had to adjust the scheme to fit the backups-to-the-backups at safety. It's not a coincidence that the only time we brought creative blitzes was in the first game when they were all healthy. I said this before; if your biggest playmaker and most skilled player on the entire team is a corner you simply cannot lose him in coverage by blitzing when you have (excuse my french) shitty backups playing safety. You need SOMEBODY back there who can cover. Combine that with the fact that as Aaron mentioned the DLine and OLBs have been unable to get consistent pressure and you have a recipe for disaster. Considering the situation Id say Capers has done well. Once Atari is back I'm sure you'll see some more interesting schemes.
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But with all this talk about #74, don't forget about that OLB on the other side who has been making huge strides each game. Looks like Thompson made a good move there; if he continues to improve I can see the pass rush get better due to him moreso than any improvements Kampman makes.
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In response to your blog post, I can't see McCarthy telling Capers how to install his defense. That would be a monumental blunder. Although I'm not the most knowledgeable football schemist, I thought I did see some 3-4 looks that resembled a 4-3 under (especially against the run last game), although I can't remember if the 4th man was in a 3 point stance. It's an interesting question, but McCarthy seems to defer to Capers when it comes to defense, with good reason. He mentioned something to that effect when he was asked about "scouting" Brent due to their history together for Capers last week. He said that he gave him some input but let Capers formulate the plan. I'd imagine it's no differen the rest of the week
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Although, during the DC hunt there was the reported emphasis that McCarthy was specifically looking for a strictly 3-4 scheme, so perhaps that was part of the "job description" when he took the job. I can't imagine he'd be that stubborn on the issue...but then again he is pretty stubborn......

What do you think of Branden Underwood? They're playing him at CB, but I was wondering what kind of safety he'd make. Guess we could also use a young corner.

Kampman will improve
So will the 3-4 defense
Hope we re-sign him
http://PackerHaiku.com

Your second to the last paragraph I think speaks to a central leadership problem on the team. Part of being a head coach is imposing order, but part of it is artfully creating a cohesive strategy that employs the particular talents of your men. It's this latter ability that McCarthy lacks.
He will persevere in failing strategies far too long because he believes that he can pound men into whatever scheme he wants with a sledge hammer. Don't get me wrong--sometimes a sledge hammer is needed. I like a coach to be tough. But men are not interchangeable, throw-away parts in an engine. He needs to think more organically about how to get these particular guys to cohere as a unit and I doubt he's capable of this.

I'll say I feel a bit shortchanged by Capers so far this year. There is no creativity in this defense. What happened to the fitting the scheme to the player and not the other Sanders-ian approach. Kampman is better in the 3-point stance, Harris is better playing bump-and-run, Chillar is better than Hawk and Poppinga is better on the bench. Yet we see the same shortcomings this season: old loyalties, stubborn coaching, and a mediocre team.

I really like this suggestion...some of the time. With Kampmann putting his hand down, he's basically has a neon sign saying "Hey guys I am rushing and not someone else". The Beauty of the 3-4 is that it allows for masking the fourth blitz. This is something the defense as a whole hasn't done very well-- not just kampmann.

You've been rather vocal about Kampmann's play thus far, but on the whole he's been solid, not great. But the same or worse could be said about the play of our entire LB core-- Chillar asdie.