Green Bay Packers Thread

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Nah, can’t get rid of Pettine ,Campen, just because Winston sounded off.

He may be dead right, but that stuff should be sorted in house.

That said the locker room seems toxic, needs to be purged and soon.

At least GB can be trusted to do that.

No way Pettine can go, the defense has made a marked improvement this year - 3rd for sacks despite almost nothing at OLB, top 10 for yards per play and per pass play, top 10 for passing yards per attempt, and for... 3 and outs!!! We're also middling in points conceded per drive, time of possession per drive and average plays allowed per drive - still room for improvement but compared to recent years it's a big jump up.

Run defense definitely needs to improve but with proper OLB upgrades could be done so - it might just be me but it seems to be the edge spot, right off the two tackles, where we really get shredded (Jake Ryan back at ILB will be a big help on run plays alongside Martinez too). We also need to generate a lot more turnovers, which has been a killer this season.

But what has hurt the defense most (outside of having nothing at safety since trading Haha) is actually the offense - so many short drives, even full halves of just not getting anything going, or allowing for rest, or putting up points to help the defense out. In numerous games we have forced 3-and-out and 3-and-out after 3-and-out to keep the game tight in the first half, but have fallen off nearer the end as so much time on the field leads to a gassed defense.

One other thing is to erase some of the big plays or the occasional (as opposed to expected) clueless drive, though a lot of that can go down to a new defensive coordinator and a lot of rookies, at DB especially. But this talk of 'I thought Capers was supposed to be the problem?' is just odd - Capers wasn't an offensive coordinator, he cannot take credit and Pettine cannot take blame for Mike McCarthy having imploded as a playcaller, for Rodgers looking out of sync and sometimes disinterested, and for Aaron Jones being so good that McCarthy decides to just not use him at all in the second half (apart from the first drive, he averages 2.75 carries per second half... think about that).

A big part is Pettine getting the best out of players and fitting the system around their strengths rather than vice-versa. Because of this, despite Matthews and Perry having a laughable 4 sacks between them going into week 14, the former laughing stock of the entire roster is on 8 in limited snaps - Kyler Fackrell. He's also awful against the run, only so-so in coverage, and cannot force his way past a blocker once they have their hands on him... but he's quick, agile and has incredible closing speed, and he's very cheap while still on his rookie deal. Now there's zero hope I want him starting next year, but having him able to plug in on obvious passing downs should be pretty great. Especially since Pettine prefers OLBs who can 'do some of everything' rather than just pass rush specialists, due to his way of confusing QBs with fake looks etc, and instead creating pressure all over (something I thought was maybe a B/S line made up after we didn't draft an OLB... but yet here we are, 3rd in sacks in the entire league with only four of them from our starting OLBs which might well be the lowest in the entire league). So having a speed rush specialist who's turned out to be pretty decent at it when we need to do call upon one is one less thing to worry about, and for only 925k against the cap.

Ironically, while our defense has been good (or at least much improved) it is where we need beefing - particularly at OLB and S (and probably DL if Wilkerson isn't back next year), but depth in just about every position would help. On offense WR is a curious one (St. Brown is coming on well as the season progresses and MVS has been a revelation - and both have insane athletic ability, but the sample size is still small so let's hope to see LOTS of them for the next few weeks), but otherwise the only starter we need is a RG if McCray isn't going to come back and take that. A 3rd RB, some line depth, a TE with big potential (who can learn to block from Lewis and run routes from Graham... golden opportunity) would all be nice but we really are OK there personnel wise imo, for the most part.