That was a stressful game. The defense was on a pretty impressive run since the Bears game, but they turned in a rough game this week. The rush defense was pretty solid, giving up only 60 yards on 21 carries, but the pass defense was atrocious. Philip Rivers’ final line is almost comical: 43/65 for 503 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Rivers is the second fastest quarterback at getting the ball out of his hand this season (2.24 seconds from snap to throw), and he burned the Packers with that this week. The vaunted pass rush didn’t get many chances to hit Rivers, as the ball was out of his hand almost as soon as he got it.
That being said, let’s ask Philip Rivers a very important question: did you beat the Packers?
Let’s get to the film. As always, stats and ratings from
Pro Football Focus.
THE BAD
Since I started out talking about how Rivers strafed the pass defense, let’s start with that. This play took place in the third quarter, on 3rd and 17. The pass will be thrown to Malcolm Floyd [80], who is at the bottom of the screen. Sam Shields [37] is playing across from him. The Packers appear to be in Cover 1 Robber, with man outside and zone inside.
Shields starts the route pretty well. He has outside technique but playing inside the receiver, and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21] is over the top and playing inside the receiver. As Floyd cuts inside, Shields peels off, leaving Clinton-Dix playing alone over the top. Rivers makes an easy toss for the first down.
It’s hard to know who to put this on. At first blush, I put it on Shields. By peeling off, he wouldn’t have been covering on a deep route down the sideline, anyway. But, judging by the coverage on the opposite side of the field, I’m thinking Clinton-Dix had responsibility underneath the receiver. At the very least, I feel comfortable saying that they are both at least partially responsible.
I had a few more plays I was going to look at from the defensive side, but, upon further inspection, they weren’t terrible plays by the defense so much as they were really good plays by the offense. A tip of the cap to Philip Rivers.
I kind of ran into some of the same problems on offense. Plays that looked bad weren’t really that bad. Even this one isn’t as bad as I thought it was when I watched it live.
This play is on 3rd and 1 with about 8:30 left in the third quarter. The Chargers had just scored a touchdown to tie up the game. When I watched this play live, all I saw was Richard Rodgers [82] creating space and cutting into a short slant for an easy first down.
When I pulled it up with the film, I got a better picture of what was happening. Both Richard Rodgers (bottom slot) and Randall Cobb [18] (top slot) are running short in-slants. Aaron Rodgers looks left to Richard Rodgers for his first read. As you can see, the linebacker in the middle of the field jumps that route, forcing Aaron Rodgers to go to his next read. By the time he looks to Cobb, he and Rodgers are colliding in the middle of the field (I have to believe one of them was supposed to be running a slightly shallower slant), and there are no receivers open. With the line collapsing around him, Aaron Rodgers keeps his eyes downfield and throws a long pass to Richard Rodgers, who comes down with the ball out of bounds.
What appeared to be Aaron Rodgers passing up a short completion for a chance at a big gain wasn’t quite so simple.
The interesting thing to me is what would have happened if Cobb was the first read. The linebacker on that side of the field hesitates a beat, but he appears to be matched up on James Starks [44] out of the backfield. With that linebacker drawn closer to the line, Cobb was open for an easy catch and a first down. If only Aaron Rodgers looked right before he looked left.
THE GOOD
I don’t think I’ve really talked about the offensive line this year. Well, I have, but it was in a, “Look how overmatched Don Barclay is,” or something like that. So let’s look at a couple plays that show some good offensive line play.
This was the Packers first play from scrimmage. Let’s start on the left side of the screen.
Corey Linsley [63] completely turns out Kendall Reyes [91]. By doing that, it allows T.J. Lang [70] to get to the second level and take out Donald Butler [56]. Bryan Bulaga [75] fires off the line and takes Jerry Attaochu [97] out of the play immediately.
Now let’s turn our attention to the right side of the screen.
Josh Sitton [71] side-steps the oncoming Corey Liuget [94] and easily turns him into the backfield. David Bakhtiari [69] doesn’t have to do much: he simply puts out a hand to occupy his man.
And then, of course, there’s Richard Rodgers [82]. He’s lined up in the backfield, acting as the fullback. He hits the hole ahead of James Starks [44] and takes out Denzel Perryman [52].
All this amounts to a massive hole in the middle of the line and a 25 yard gain for Starks.
This is the shovel pass to Starks for a touchdown. (It’s worth noting that I – like the rest of the country – did not see this play live, as the Broncos/Browns game had the gall to go deep into overtime.) It’s a great effort by Starks to find the end zone, but look at the blocking up front. Like the last play we looked at, it was executed to perfection.
On the left side, Lang and Bulaga are able to easily push their men to the outside.
On the right side, Linsley and Sitton double-team Liuget and push him backwards while Bakhtiari easily handles the spin move from Melvin Ingram [54].
Starks finds the hole and hits it well, but is still forced to break a couple tackles (which he does).
I’d also like to look at Richard Rodgers. He is on the left side of the screen. He fires straight down the field and is able to hold his block just long enough for Starks to be able to cut inside of it and get the touchdown. I’ve mentioned before that Rodgers can be an inconsistent blocker. These last two plays show what he can do when he’s at his best.
I’ve talked about these plays before, but not lately. The Packers run these plays quite often. They’re called Packaged Plays, and they’re basically a run/throw option for Rodgers.
This is how they work: the running game portion has one job while the passing game another. Basically, the receivers run their routes like it’s going to be a pass while the offensive line blocks like it’s going to be a run. It’s at the discretion of Aaron Rodgers what to do with the play. He sees the corner playing pretty far off Cobb, so he fakes the hand-off and gets a quick throw off to Cobb, who picks up the first down.
In the passing game, the trick with these plays is to get the ball out quickly. With the offensive line run-blocking, the ball has to be out before they get too far downfield, or an ineligible receiver downfield penalty will be called. I love these plays, especially with a quarterback like Rodgers who makes the smart decision more often than not.
When people talk about the need for speed in the passing game, it’s easy to just think of a fast receiver running a fly route and taking a safety out of the picture, which would open up more room underneath. However, speed can also make a big impact closer to the line.
Let’s take a look at this play and how speed can make a difference in how the defense plays it. Jeff Janis [83] starts in the slot at the bottom, and he doesn’t do much. All he does is run a drag. Rodgers escapes the pocket, sees Janis in front of him and flips it. Janis catches it and races downfield for a 33 yard gain.
But that’s not what I want to talk about What I want to talk about is Darrell Stuckey [25], the safety at the bottom of the screen. He starts out playing shallow and bails to the middle of the field at the snap, looking to take away something deep down the middle.
I know Janis is fast. You know Janis is fast. The defense knows Janis is fast. The trouble is, Janis hasn’t done much in the NFL. He has speed, but so far has not given opposing defense any reason to respect that speed. If this was Jordy Nelson, maybe that safety doesn’t drop so far back. Maybe he plays a little more shallow, or maybe he is paying too much attention to Nelson running the drag that he loses track of Richard Rodgers running a post route.
My point is, defenses don’t respect the speed of Janis enough yet to change the way they play the Packers. If he can deliver more plays like this, they’ll be forced to take more notice of him, and that will open up more opportunities for the rest of the receivers.
In Janis we trust.
You know what I never get tired of? Watch Mike Daniels [76] mauling people. I don’t even have much to say here. Just watch Daniels absolutely abuse D.J. Fluker [76], first by driving him into the backfield, then by ripping through him and throwing him away.
Let’s finish up the film portion by watching three plays from the goal line stand that ended the game.
This play showcases Clay Matthews’ [52] intelligence and ferocity. At the snap, he heads inside to plug a gap. Danny Woodhead [39] cuts outside and Matthews immediately cuts back to meet him at the line. Matthews gives no quarter. He stones Woodhead and drives him back, throwing him backwards once the play has been blown dead. At the tail end of this, Woodhead can be seen complaining to the official. It’s impossible to read his lips, but I’m pretty sure he said, “He was really mean to me.”
Datone Jones [95] is lined up across from D.J. Fluker [76]. With one quick move, Jones is past Fluker and in the backfield. He takes down Woodhead soon after the handoff. Just a tremendous play by Jones.
And, of course, I have to show the play by Damarious Randall [23] that ended the game. Randall’s reaction time to this is terrific. He’s playing a little off of Woodhead (possibly to play an under-zone in case Antonio Gates [85] were to run a corner route). Rivers sees this and throws. Randall is able to make a great break on the pass and get just enough of it to knock it away. Ball game. The crowd goes crazy.
But, in the same way I wondered earlier what would have happened if Rodgers looked right, I say: what would have happened if Rivers looked left? Sam Shields [37] is man-to-man with Dontrelle Inman [15] and is playing outside technique. Inman runs a slant and is wide open.
But Rivers didn’t look left. The Packers get a victory and head into the bye week at 6-0.
Random Thoughts:
– For the second straight week, Aaron Rodgers struggled when throwing to Randall Cobb. This week, he was 2/5 for 38 yards with one pass defensed. When throwing to Jeff Janis, Rodgers was 2/2 for 79 yards. This proves what we already knew: Jeff Janis is better than Randall Cobb. (I’m joking, guys. Please put down the stones. I have a family.)
– One more thought on Janis. After seeing 0 snaps against St. Louis, he saw 41 snaps in this game. On top of the two big catches, he also had a nice downfield block on the 65 yard James Starks touchdown run. I’m hoping this is the start of him seeing more consistent playing time.
– James Starks played more snaps (30) than Eddie Lacy (21), and looked like the better running back. Lacy still appears to be nursing a bit of an injury. Let’s hope the bye week gives him a chance to get healthy. Nothing against Starks, but the offense is better when Lacy is healthy.
– The Chargers ran 94 plays on offense. The Packers ran 56.
– The Packers defense didn’t look great, but Philip Rivers made a lot of great throws into very good coverage. The Packers also had three different opportunities to snag an interception, and they didn’t hold onto any of them. It would have been a very different game if they had been able to grab one or two of those.
Albums listened to: Velour 100 –
Fall Sounds; Sufjan Stevens –
Carrie & Lowell; Elliott –
False Cathedrals; Harry Nilsson –
Nilsson Schmilsson; Joanna Newsom –
Divers; Allison Weiss –
New Love
Thank you for reading. Dusty Evely is a featured writer for Titletown Sound Off. You can follow him on Twitter @DustyEvely.
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Who knows the time off may help Manning. I guess I just don't want to assume and that he can no longer get things going. His coaches are probably working out some new schemes to help him if his abilities are truly diminished.