Post Game: Dolphins

[LUKE23]

So let me get this straight....when you FINALLY get off the field, how about this....perhaps your defense can force a 3 and out once in awhile, thats is an interesting concept, instead of FINALLY getting off the field....if the opponents can force a 3 and out, why can't you do it on a consistent basis?

Because the D is missing Harris, Bigby, Burnett, Barnett, Chillar, Matthews, Neal, Harrell, Poppinga and Pickett? Oh yeah, forgot about that.....

How many injuries do REASONABLE fans expect the Packers D to still play dominant D with? 15? 17?

[humanrefutation]

So let me get this straight....when you FINALLY get off the field, how about this....perhaps your defense can force a 3 and out once in awhile, thats is an interesting concept, instead of FINALLY getting off the field....if the opponents can force a 3 and out, why can't you do it on a consistent basis?

Because the D is missing Harris, Bigby, Burnett, Barnett, Chillar, Matthews, Neal, Harrell, Poppinga and Pickett? Oh yeah, forgot about that.....

How many injuries do REASONABLE fans expect the Packers D to still play dominant D with? 15? 17?

Sure, the defense is hurting. No one expects them to be dominant, and everyone understands that without the guys you mentioned, they're not going to be as effective. But that doesn't mean that we have to ignore when the defense isn't playing well. If the defense isn't getting off the field, they're accountable for that, even if they're without the players you mentioned.

[LUKE23]

Sure, the defense is hurting. No one expects them to be dominant, and everyone understands that without the guys you mentioned, they're not going to be as effective. But that doesn't mean that we have to ignore when the defense isn't playing well. If the defense isn't getting off the field, they're accountable for that, even if they're without the players you mentioned.

If the defense is that decimated and STILL holding teams to a reasonable amount of points AND keeping the offense in games, I don't think they should be held accountable for anything. I see them as doing their job to the absolute best of their ability given the circumstances.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

I think it is more important to the succes of the d then the offense to get breathers because of the way it affects the game. If the defense doesn't get breathers, they get tired and camt perform well. It is a physical thing not a mental thing. Especially with everyone out, we need the breathers. For offense. It is a timing thing. It is a lot easoer to over rhythm issues compared to being tired. Yeah it would help to get a few series close together to get going but the offense should be able to get going themselves to get a few first downs. That's why people are blaming the offense more.

[humanrefutation]

I see them as doing their job to the absolute best of their ability given the circumstances.

That certainly may be the case, but that doesn't mean they're playing well. You can blame their play on injuries, but that still means they're not playing well.

And the offense is missing a lot of pieces too...Grant, Finley, Tauscher, a banged up Rodgers, Drivers, and Lee. But that doesn't mean they aren't blameless, either.

[El Duderino]

I think it is more important to the succes of the d then the offense to get breathers because of the way it affects the game. If the defense doesn't get breathers, they get tired and camt perform well. It is a physical thing not a mental thing. Especially with everyone out, we need the breathers. For offense. It is a timing thing. It is a lot easoer to over rhythm issues compared to being tired. Yeah it would help to get a few series close together to get going but the offense should be able to get going themselves to get a few first downs. That's why people are blaming the offense more.

Sometimes though a defense simply has to get itself off the field to get a breather. Take the game Sunday. The only time our defense really was on the field a ton was the 3rd quarter.

Well, the Dolphins got the ball to start the 3rd quarter. They proceeded to go on a 12 play drive that ate up over 7 minutes for a FG. The Packer offense then got one first down and on the 5th play Rodgers threw a pick. On Miami's next drive, it went 8 plays and chewed up pretty much the rest of the third quarter. Yea it would have been nice for the Packers offense to be more productive in that 3rd quarter, but they did only have one possession to do anything unless you count getting the ball back with 1 minute left in the quarter and that drive went 12 plays.

In the Detroit game which was the other one where we badly lost the time of possession battle, the Lions were 10-17 on third downs, our defense had tons of chances to get off the field but just couldn't do it. Against Chicago, we had a 10 minute advantage in time of possession, the offense just kept gagging in Chicago territory or you could say the Bears defense played through being tired. Depends how you want to view it i guess.

No question the offense has been so very erratic and has underachieved, the one thing i don't buy though is that the offense overall is making the defense struggle to get off the field by them getting tired.

[Bucksfans1and2]

The defense is not the problem.

This falls on the offense, and it starts, like most things, with the offensive line.

Rodgers is reacting psychologically to consistently getting hit on every play, by getting happy feet in the pocket and not looking down field, which is a little bit of why Jennings isn't getting the ball as much. Rogers got hit so much last year that the internal timer in his head that tells him he needs to stop looking down field has gone from 6 seconds (too long) to 2 seconds (not long enough). The protection has been bad this year but not nearly as bad as last year where we had Barbre at Tackle. Also Bulaga is better than Tausher. I know the Dolphins got at him, but Tausher would have gotten killed.

Part of this falls on McCarthy who used the short passing game exceptionally well last year, and this year we've only see it against the Bears and they were begging us to throw the short pass. There are a few ways to slow down a pass rush, mainly, screen passes, hard counts, and cut blocking. Rogers uses the hard count very well, but our screen game has been terrible, and I've never seen the Packers cut block ever. The other problem we have is the formations. I'm not sure if it's Rogers fault for consistently audibiling our formations or if it's McCarthy's fault for deciding we will only pass out of spread formations and only run out of a stacked backfield.

Combine that with our receivers who have had the droppsies, our passing game has been terrible.

The running game has also been bad, Sitton at this point is our only above average lineman. Bulaga can hopefully develop and I've seen stuff to make me think he can be, but he just isn't ready now. Our running backs are similarly bad. Jackson is a decent screen game and receiving back, but he isn't a guy you can rely on consistently. Kuhn is exactly the opposite. He can run decently between the tackles as long as we don't announce to the world we're running, but he's never going to break a long run, and he's terrible in the passing game. On the Plus side, they're both excellent blocking backs.