Green Bay Packers vs. Atlanta Falcons

[Jollay]

Jollay: Please refer to the Jets who signed Faneca, Woody, FB Richardson, and went high on draft picks of Ferguson and Mangold and have allowed 10 sacks and are 27th in the league with 86.5 rushing yards/game.

Maybe we can get Ferguson for Moll straight up then?

Please.

Maybe give them more than four games with a QB they didn't have until halfway through preseason?

Much as would abstain from pointing out anything after five games--maybe I can find somewhere in the NFL where signing a vet lineman helped? You think?

And this is, again, the same Packers line as last year. While the Jets are integrating 2 new major pieces and a QB.

[El Duderino]

Both of us have said that the o-line has been less than stellar this year.

Factor in that Grant has been hurt and now you're saying that both halves are playing mediocre to bad and you've got a mediocre to less than mediocre rushing attack.

Glad you & DB admit Oline is mediocre this year. I agree. However you & DB said it was great last year. I disagree.

It was You who said if grant was really good he'd be racking up big yards this year. I have no judgement on Grant this year - yet.

Anyway - we'll see.

What would you call a line that was opening holes for the best rushing game in the NFC and one that kept its QB upright for the last three-fourths of the season? Smoke and mirrors? Really?

You gotta put the Favre factor in there. Put Rodgers in last year instead of Brett and there would have been a sizable increase in the sack total of last season. Brett has kept the sack totals of his lines lower than the talent over the years via his great pocket presence, ability to throw while backing up, and by almost never holding the ball to long. Brett, for all the toughest QB ever label he had put on him, he really started to absolutely hate getting hit later in his career. Mix in 15 plus years of reading defenses pre-snap, he really knew where pressure was coming from and got the ball out quick before subjecting himself to getting hit or sacked.

Rodgers has done a great job so far, but 5 games simply can't match 15 plus years of experience. As he matures, Aaron will learn to sense pressure sooner and get the ball out before he's in trouble. That's the only real weakness i've seen from him that needs seasoning and only snaps can provide that.

[Kerb Hohl]

Jollay: Please refer to the Jets who signed Faneca, Woody, FB Richardson, and went high on draft picks of Ferguson and Mangold and have allowed 10 sacks and are 27th in the league with 86.5 rushing yards/game.

Maybe we can get Ferguson for Moll straight up then?

Please.

Maybe give them more than four games with a QB they didn't have until halfway through preseason?

Much as would abstain from pointing out anything after five games--maybe I can find somewhere in the NFL where signing a vet lineman helped? You think?

And this is, again, the same Packers line as last year. While the Jets are integrating 2 new major pieces and a QB.

I'm going to echo DB here a bit. Your tackles are your A-1, must have guys. You can fault TT for not preparing for their steep decline or not seeing it coming before this season, but we had our tackles set and ready to go. Very few teams have a legitimate tackle waiting in the wings.

Your G-C-G setup are like your slot receivers in 4 and 5 wide. They don't need to be 6-5 230 and run 4.4 40s, they just need to run crisp routes and have good hands. Guards and centers are tough to judge and many of them are good because they are smart or have good instincts and may not have the quick feet for pass blocking and pulling but they get by on brute strength and vise versa.

So when you know you have Clifton and Tauscher playing well, you can hide some young guys in the middle and normally as they get experience if you've picked the right few guys out of the lot then you are going to have a very solid line. Thompson has hit doubles, triples, and home runs with his recent WR draft picks and signings but has whiffed a bit on his interior guys. You have to take the good with the bad. With the exception of guys like Hutchinson, there are very very few guards worth picking up at a high price tag. Most of the ones that are worthwhile get locked up. Guards don't even go high in the draft.

[xTitan]

Jollay: Please refer to the Jets who signed Faneca, Woody, FB Richardson, and went high on draft picks of Ferguson and Mangold and have allowed 10 sacks and are 27th in the league with 86.5 rushing yards/game.

I have heard that old QB they have holds on to the ball to long and only surveys half the field....explains all the sacks

[Jollay]

Jollay: Please refer to the Jets who signed Faneca, Woody, FB Richardson, and went high on draft picks of Ferguson and Mangold and have allowed 10 sacks and are 27th in the league with 86.5 rushing yards/game.

Maybe we can get Ferguson for Moll straight up then?

Please.

Maybe give them more than four games with a QB they didn't have until halfway through preseason?

Much as would abstain from pointing out anything after five games--maybe I can find somewhere in the NFL where signing a vet lineman helped? You think?

And this is, again, the same Packers line as last year. While the Jets are integrating 2 new major pieces and a QB.

I'm going to echo DB here a bit. Your tackles are your A-1, must have guys. You can fault TT for not preparing for their steep decline or not seeing it coming before this season, but we had our tackles set and ready to go. Very few teams have a legitimate tackle waiting in the wings.

Your G-C-G setup are like your slot receivers in 4 and 5 wide. They don't need to be 6-5 230 and run 4.4 40s, they just need to run crisp routes and have good hands. Guards and centers are tough to judge and many of them are good because they are smart or have good instincts and may not have the quick feet for pass blocking and pulling but they get by on brute strength and vise versa.

So when you know you have Clifton and Tauscher playing well, you can hide some young guys in the middle and normally as they get experience if you've picked the right few guys out of the lot then you are going to have a very solid line. Thompson has hit doubles, triples, and home runs with his recent WR draft picks and signings but has whiffed a bit on his interior guys. You have to take the good with the bad. With the exception of guys like Hutchinson, there are very very few guards worth picking up at a high price tag. Most of the ones that are worthwhile get locked up. Guards don't even go high in the draft.

That's fine. I agree. If you want to go the route the Packers have and avoid the free-agent route, thats fine.

But this has been going on since 2005 and we have drafted approximately seven candidates as starters--and we still have little to show for it.

Hey, still plenty of time. People have ample time this year to step up.

But if that doesn't happen, with some of these guys finishing their third year, I think its time to look at a FA.

[Jollay]

Jollay: Please refer to the Jets who signed Faneca, Woody, FB Richardson, and went high on draft picks of Ferguson and Mangold and have allowed 10 sacks and are 27th in the league with 86.5 rushing yards/game.

I have heard that old QB they have holds on to the ball to long and only surveys half the field....explains all the sacks

[ReasonablySober]

The good guards don't get let go and the ones that do break the bank. I wouldn't have wanted Faneca for what it cost to get him.

[El Duderino]

Jollay: Please refer to the Jets who signed Faneca, Woody, FB Richardson, and went high on draft picks of Ferguson and Mangold and have allowed 10 sacks and are 27th in the league with 86.5 rushing yards/game.

I have heard that old QB they have holds on to the ball to long and only surveys half the field....explains all the sacks

Completely different offense

The Jets don't run the same passing game with countless quick slants and all the same check downs the Packers had last season. Brett could run the Packers offense in his sleep. When he got pressured, he knew exactly where his quick check downs were. When he sensed blitz, he could just look at one of our receivers and both knew route adjustments. He knew all the line calls by heart. Quarterbacks usually have a second or less to decide what to do once the pocket is collapsing around them, just a split second of indecision is the difference between the ball getting out or getting hit/taking a sack. As Favre gets more comfortable in their offense, i'll bet anything that the sack numbers will decline.

No question that overall though, the pass blocking this year has been worse for Rodgers than it was for Brett last year, especially with the slippage of our tackles. That being said, Aaron simply isn't yet as adept as Brett was at getting the ball out quick to a check down when pressured or at stepping up in the pocket. That's not a knock on Aaron, he's only in his 5th game as a starting QB, Brett struggled with this also early on. Quarterbacks can only learn this by playing and given Rodgers smarts, i'm confident that it's only a matter of when, not if he'll better sense pressure and adjust accordingly. By listening to his interviews, Rodgers knows this is an aspect of his game that needs improvement, but time can't be sped up. Thankfully Aaron isn't dumb as a tree stump like the Badgers quarterback, who seems utterly clueless when pressured and i doubt that he's capable of learning from it.