Pretty much everyone knows that every team has weaknesses and occasionally those weaknesses will be exploited. In some cases it's not even a weakness, it is a great performance by a pretty damned good QB who maybe caught us with our guard down a little bit. The Chargers are a professional football team too and they get played to perform just like we do. Just because Rivers threw for half a century doesn't mean everyone, or anyone, else will. Even if we change nothing.
Of the 5 QBs the packers faced prior to Rivers none threw for over 300 yards. Smith came closest at 290. Two were held under 200 (Foles and Kaepernick) Cutler held the 2nd highest total at just 225 and Wilson barely managed to break 200 with 206. If the Packers truly had such a horrid defense that Rivers could torch them for 500 yards then surely one of the other 5 QBs they faced should have been able to do a little better. I get it that they may not be as good as Rivers but hey, the Packers pass defense is so bad it just gave up 500 yards.
I get the feeling that for some the pass defense against San Diego is the weakness DeJour. If we hold Manning to under 200 no TDs and 2 interceptions but we give up 225 rushing to Anderson or Hillman some of these same people will be saying "Oh sure we get the pass defense fixed but now our run defense sucks" then the next week when Carolina only manages 225 total yards on offense but breaks two kicks for TDs and Crosby misses two FGs and Masthey has a punt blocked our defense will be saved but our special teams will be out downfall.
I don't like the fact that we gave up 500 yards to Rivers but the fact that they only managed 20 points and we won the game has a pretty big mitigating effect. If Manning manages to do the same and we lose then maybe something is wrong. When looking at the season up until now however I would ask you this. Given the 6 pass defense performances thus far which one do you think is the outlier and which ones do you think are more indicative of the way this team can really play? Some will bring up the QBs we played against in those games and yes that is a factor but if you ask me I'd say the first 5 are probably a lot closer to what this team is capable of than the last one.
We are all Packers fans here but we all react to situations differently. Maybe the trend is a little closer to concern than panic for most but I do think there is way too much over reaction over the pass defense performance against San Diego. Captain got a lot of agreement for his post as well he should. He brings up a lot of valid points. . I agree that the coaches and players are working hard to find out just what mistakes were made against the Chargers but I won't go so far as to say they are working hard to fix a weakness because I'm not convinced a weakness exists. I also find it a little funny that for some people all they talk about is winning is all that matters but all of a sudden if there is something they feel is a bigger issue winning almost seems to take a back seat. What is most important to me right now as far as the Packers are concerned is that they are 6-0. I'm convinced the players and coaches will figure out what happened against the Chargers and whatever mistakes were made they won't happen again or at least not at that level.
I can't believe I just spent so much time on this but even more surprising is that so many of you spent so much time reading it.
Go Packers.
