DEFENSIVE LINE (1½)
Sam Bradford attempted to pass 48 times. The five defensive linemen didn't register a single pressure. That's hard to do. It should be impossible, especially against a shaky offensive line that was part of the NFL's poorest pass-blocking unit entering Sunday. B.J. Raji, the top threat, was shut down by LG Jacob Bell, C Jason Brown and RG Harvey Dahl. Of course, Raji must fight two blockers on most passes. Last year, he occasionally was splitting the double teams or collapsing the pocket. This year, he hasn't been. Raji played the first 39 snaps; in all, he played 64 of the 75. Through six games his play time is 87.5%. Maybe the Packers need to use Howard Green more than his average of 6.5 snaps, get Raji off the field some and hope it benefits the pass rush. Ryan Pickett (33) played better than Raji at the point of attack, too. He didn't have anything close to the two or three bad running plays in which Raji was shoved or washed. For several weeks the coaches have started giving C.J. Wilson more of Jarius Wynn's snaps. On Sunday, the count was Wynn 34, Wilson 28. As the game wore on, the attempt was made to play Wilson on base downs and Wynn on pass downs. Still, Wynn was stalemated all day long and was buckled twice on rushes. Wilson wasn't much better.
Raji obviously played a lot of snaps last year also, but week in week out he's been playing 85-90% of the snaps. That is an incredible number of snaps for a NT. Sure Raji is young, has amazing stamina for a man his size, and was able to thrive last year while also playing a lot of snaps, but i wonder if this is at least contributing to his lack of pressures? Wynn had some moments early in the year on the pass rush, but besides that, pressures among the defensive lineman have largely been non-existent.
Come later in the year and especially playoffs time when the Packers need to be playing well, having Raji be that really disruptive force he was last season could be huge and thus i wonder if the coaches would be smart to lessen some of the snaps for Raji now, at least somewhat?
