Some commenters and more than three emailers have taken me to task for my overly harsh assessment of Bob Sanders and his prowess as defensive coordinator. In the words of Sammy J. - Allow me to retort!
When I call for ‘more blitzing’, I am not issuing a “damn the torpedoes!” fatwa, calling for all eleven men on the defensive side of the ball to come flying after the quarterback with blood in their eyes. This isn’t Madden.
I do, however, still think the defensive gameplan the Packers used last night was idiotic. Why it takes a three score deficit to start dialing up blitzes and dogs from your safeties and linebackers is beyond me. Why it takes three quarters of watching your defensive line get manhandled before you start sending the likes of Hawk and Rouse is mystifying.
And I’m not just talking about blitzing on passing downs. Run-blitzing was conspicuous by its absence last night as well. Play after play, we saw linebackers aligned 5 yards off the line of scrimmage, waiting and reacting at the snap of the ball, rather than attacking the line of scrimmage. Against the Dallas front, ‘reacting’ is an exercise in futility. Remember last years game against the Chargers and how Poppinga and Barnett were sent flying into the line on run blitz after run blitz? It was pretty effective in shutting down what was at the time the best running back in the league. Last night? Nothing. Thus, we were treated to Marion Barber running through great wide open holes.
Overall, Sanders, (and McCarthy as well) game-planned and called the game like he was scared. I understand the need to mask deficiencies in the defensive backfield due to injury, but the big play by Felix Jones was against one of the most vanilla looks a defense could possibly give - it certainly didn’t help Charlie Peprah one bit in his hilarious attempt to do anything that resembled playing football in the NFL.
I’ve said it over and over, and I’ll keep writing it until I’m blue in the face: The Packers need to develop some nastiness and overall toughness, because right now they are a finesse team. And they have the likes of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans still to come on the schedule, not to mention next weeks date with the Buccaneers. All these teams will hit the Packers in the mouth worse than they were last night. McCarthy and Sanders have got to stop playing scared and attack.
