What position are you worried about?

[Shawnsta3]

The entire defense. This defense is not tough enough. They are soft. The 3rd and longs will continue to be an issue. I have said it before and will continue to do so. Capers has to go and should've been gone years ago.

1. It's preseason

2. It's pre-season

3. If the defense is indeed too "soft" or lacking in "toughness" because of a preseason game against a team we destroyed last year; why is it that two of the more physical and tough players last year were the source of most of the issues in the first tonight in Barrington and Hyde?

Both guys really struggled with the speed and pace of Philadelphia's passing offense. A guy like Brandon Chillar will never be known as a physical or tough runstuffer but we could sure as Hell of used a guy of his skill-set covering backs and tight ends tonight IMO.

 

[azrsx05]

The defense has been terrible for the past few years. They will have a good game here and there. But overall this defense has not intimidated anyone and no one is afraid of them on 3rd and long. It's like trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Mathews to ILB worked because it was different. They need to change up capers if they want different results

 

[Mondio]

Well last night wasn't a good showing for our defense. Normally I wouldn't put too much stock in it, it's preseason, but things look a little too familiar for it not to be disappointing. I certainly don't think we're as bad as we looked to start last night, but it's apparent we have a major, major weakness at ILB that will have to be accounted for in the way we call a defense. I was hoping to see more out of someone at ILB this preseason than we have. To me, nobody has shown anything other than they aren't it. I still think we'll be good enough on D once the regular season comes, it would have been nice to see someone at that position show something, flash, make me take notice, but so far, nothing. and if they did make one, they promptly made 3 more that quickly made me forget the good play.

Our young WR's got good work last night. I'm still torn. White had a lot of opportunity last night, and just when I was thinking, "this is exactly what he needed", he goes and drops another easy 2-pt play. and yes, I know, everyone drops the ball sometimes. Yes I know Jordy dropped a big one against the Bills last year, I get it. The difference is the Jordy Nelson's drop a few of those per year and regularly have 5-10 catch games whereas White seems to have a drop like that every game. It was a decent performance by White, had one great catch, the rest were just catches and about what I'd expect from him. Make some catches, but doesn't really make anything happen.

I'm happy for him yesterday, but still at this point, I think #5 has more potential than he does from just a short showing where not much even happened. Plus I think it would be awesome to have a #5 running around Lambeau and turn into a super star again.

Janis didn't have has many opportunities, but he made the most of what he had and made what I thought were several really good catches. Would have have dropped 1 out of 10 passes? I'm still not sold he wouldn't, but I did like what I saw last night.

Backmen? I liked him. Granted he role was limited, and he didn't have a ton of opportunities, but man he made a great catch, let me see more After that, I watched him a little closer and he seemed to be ok blocking. Young guy, i want to see him get more opportunity.

I thought the back up Oline guys did a mostly decent job. Hundley had to move a bit at times, but some of those were where he didn't trust his first read and held it a tad longer than he need to I think. But seeing our back ups perform this year is so nice compared to the Brohm, Harrell, Young days. He looks good, and not that I want back up qb to ever be something we need, I liked what I saw from him as a rookie.

 

[OldSchool101]

I'm gonna stand by my offseason pre-draft comments about the importance of strengthening the O line depth through the Draft. It's a known fact that the Line is the nucleus of the Offensive production.. Ask Matt Ryan if u don't agree

 

[ivo610]

The defense has been terrible for the past few years. They will have a good game here and there. But overall this defense has not intimidated anyone and no one is afraid of them on 3rd and long. It's like trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Mathews to ILB worked because it was different. They need to change up capers if they want different results

Terrible? That's a complete over exaggeration

 

[HardRightEdge]

Terrible? That's a complete over exaggeration

A bit of an exaggeration, but not a "complete" one.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Both guys really struggled with the speed and pace of Philadelphia's passing offense.

With respect to Barrington and Hyde, speed afoot is an issue. Hyde does well with TEs and RBs; the quicker/faster slot receivers give him trouble. It's an occupational hazard and a trade off at the position; guys with good speed and coverage skills migrate to the perimeter; guys who are a bit slower and more physical migrate to the nickel corner/ SS positions. One would expect him need some help against the quicker/faster slot guys.

It's fairly clear that Kelly, et. al. came out with the intent of exploiting speed/quickness match ups. Where the collective/scheme failures were more evident were in Philly's screen game.

You often hear it said that the Packer defense emphasizes speed/finesse/smarts in a compromise over smash-mouth football. Finesse and smarts...presumably "yes". Speed? I don't see it. Other than Shields and perhaps Matthews, I have not seen any exceptional speed in this defense over the past several years, nor do I now.

You mentioned Philly's "pace"...that strikes me as a key issue on display in this game. Capers ability to apply disguises and personnel rotations were compromised in the hurry up.

That was the first team defense out there for the bulk of first half. Opponents will be viewing this tape with some interest.

 

[Vrill]

Eagles are the only team in the league who runs that type of HUNH offense though. We wont exactly be running into that this season.

Eagles offense is about finding the mismatches out in space and exploiting it. No LB in the NFL can make a living by being 1 on 1 out in space with Darren Sproles.

Also, the Eagles have been putting up ungodly numbers all preseason long. Its really hard to prepare for that type of offense this early in a year (preseason) when your defense doesn't have its sea legs yet, not to mention, its preseason and teams aren't exactly scheming yet or doing any real hardcore game planning - So i'm not worried nor will I overreact over what I seen in the game.

You see the HUNH offense put up ungodly amounts of points in College early on and then the offense tends to tail off as the season goes along. I fully expect my TCU Frogs to hang 70 points on Minnesota next Thursday Night. They run this offense, but I don't expect them to keep that pace up all year as defenses adjust and get their legs under them.

I'm confident that our D will be middle of the pack again and that is usually good enough these days if your offense is elite (ours is)

 

[ivo610]

A bit of an exaggeration, but not a "complete" one.

2 out of the past 3 years they have been in the top half of the league on defense if memory serves correct. Calling them terrible is a complete over exaggeration. Unless someone redefined the word terrible

 

[Vrill]

Call me bias because im a Frogs fan, but Paul Dawson has looked dang good for the Bengals. Hes the same heat seeking missile he was in College for them. He put an absolute shot on Jimmy Clausen yesterday.

I wish we had drafted him......dude is a football player!@

 

[Ogsponge]

2 out of the past 3 years they have been in the top half of the league on defense if memory serves correct. Calling them terrible is a complete over exaggeration. Unless someone redefined the word terrible

He said the team would have good games here and there, but the defense is often quite terrible and always when it really matters the most, anyone sticking up for this defense right now simply is blinded by some weird faith. The defense is terrible, has been for a long time. And by the way, when the defense is not terrible and does more than enough to win? The offense is terrible, sure as the sun rises. Case in point, NFCCG, and even then the defense had a complete and utter meltdown, not that it should have even been an issues as the offense should have scored more points.

In closing, is the overall body of work of the defense terrible? No, are they quite often as terrible as a defense could be at the absolute worst time. Without a doubt. As he said, this defense, no this entire team is soft, can't get done in crunch time. I hope I am wrong and have to eat my words come the Super Bowl this year, but I won't, it will just be the same crap all over again, we will be the best team in the world against mediocrity and probably will even have a great game against a top tier team in the regular season but we will end up being a Pop Warner teams in the playoffs.

An one final thing, I am being a super negative Nancy today in two posts already so I will not post a single negative thing for the rest of the season.

 

[PackerDNA]

ILB, the dline, the youth in the secondary, WR depth, depth pretty much everywhere. Lack of depth is a curse of the free agency/salary cap era. The Packers philosophy of draft and develop is the best way you can deal with it.

 

[Sunshinepacker]

Yes, here we go again. It's Capers fault that Raji is the largest invisible man in the history of the NFL, that the team has exactly one good dlineman, that the team has two good linebackers and also the team is trying to figure out the secondary.

But I'm sure that simply changing the DC will allow Thompson to draft better dlinemen and linebackers.

 

[Ogsponge]

Yes, here we go again. It's Capers fault that Raji is the largest invisible man in the history of the NFL, that the team has exactly one good dlineman, that the team has two good linebackers and also the team is trying to figure out the secondary.

But I'm sure that simply changing the DC will allow Thompson to draft better dlinemen and linebackers.

Here we go again, the Capers apologists are somehow believing that a coach than never tries anything new when someone or something is not working is never at fault. It is always someone else. It is never Dom's fault that he can't see someone is completely incapable of pass coverage and making a change. That is entirely the player's fault or TT's fault as they are the ones that are supposed to make in game adjustments and personnel changes....

TT should be texting the sidelines telling them to take Barrington out. Barrington should be going to the coaches and saying put some one else in. Right?

 

[yooperpackfan]

Here we go again, the Capers apologists are somehow believing that a coach than never tries anything new when someone or something is not working is never at fault. It is always someone else. It is never Dom's fault that he can't see someone is completely incapable of pass coverage and making a change. That is entirely the player's fault or TT's fault as they are the ones that are supposed to make in game adjustments and personnel changes....

TT should be texting the sidelines telling them to take Barrington out. Barrington should be going to the coaches and saying put some one else in. Right?

TT should be drafting better players on the defensive side of the ball but he's always looking for that "diamond in the rough" that won't cost him much.

 

[Ogsponge]

TT should be drafting better players on the defensive side of the ball but he's always looking for that "diamond in the rough" that won't cost him much.

I don't disagree with that at all, I merely disagree that people never blame Dom.

 

[HardRightEdge]

2 out of the past 3 years they have been in the top half of the league on defense if memory serves correct. Calling them terrible is a complete over exaggeration. Unless someone redefined the word terrible

Considering last season, going 7 consecutive quarters without forcing a punt early in the season, going several games where the tackling was lousy with McCarthy calling them out in the press, then collapsing against Seattle, I would say, to repeat, calling them "terrible" is a bit of an exaggeration, meaning "not quite terrible", but with enough regularity of bad stretches and bad moments of terrible play to at least bring the term into the discussion.

It's a new year, some fresh faces, some guys looking to take the second year jump. There are kinks to work out.

But there is no disputing yesterday's first team defense posted a "terrible" performance. We can hope Daniels is right...it's a wake up call. However, there is no guarantee the performance will be better than last season which, in a few words, was not good enough.

 

[HardRightEdge]

I don't disagree with that at all, I merely disagree that people never blame Dom.

I developed an irreversible disdain for Capers' defense at some point early last season. I think it was after the 7 straight quarters without forcing a punt. So, it's not "everybody". My hope now, as in the past, is that this team can make a run despite the defense, and not because of it.

 

[Ogsponge]

I developed an irreversible disdain for Capers' defense at some point early last season. I think it was after the 7 straight quarters without forcing a punt. So, it's not "everybody". My hope now, as in the past, is that this team can make a run despite the defense, and not because of it.

That is pretty much my hope every year, although you have to admit, the offense really blew it in the NFCCG last year, might have been different if Rodgers would have been more mobile, hard to say.

 

[HardRightEdge]

That is pretty much my hope every year, although you have to admit, the offense really blew it in the NFCCG last year, might have been different if Rodgers would have been more mobile, hard to say.

It was the defenses' game not to lose with a considerable amount of padding working in their favor. They blew it.

Running the ball, burning the clock, and going 3-and-out a couple of times is hardly a mortal sin in that situation. Giving up 200+ yards and all of those scores over about 5 minutes does qualify as such.

 

[Sunshinepacker]

Here we go again, the Capers apologists are somehow believing that a coach than never tries anything new when someone or something is not working is never at fault. It is always someone else. It is never Dom's fault that he can't see someone is completely incapable of pass coverage and making a change. That is entirely the player's fault or TT's fault as they are the ones that are supposed to make in game adjustments and personnel changes....

TT should be texting the sidelines telling them to take Barrington out. Barrington should be going to the coaches and saying put some one else in. Right?

So, which player on the roster is better than Barrington? You say Capers should take him out, well then, complete the thought, you can't simply take a guy out, you have to replace him with someone.

 

[Sunshinepacker]

It was the defenses' game not to lose with a considerable amount of padding working in their favor. They blew it.

Running the ball, burning the clock, and going 3-and-out a couple of times is hardly a mortal sin in that situation. Giving up 200+ yards and all of those scores over about 5 minutes does qualify as such.

Wow...talk about revisionist. The defense that "blew it" forced the opposing QB into FOUR freaking interceptions, of which the offense did very little. Are you honestly thinking that a "better" coordinator could have forced six picks on that game?

 

[HardRightEdge]

Wow...talk about revisionist. The defense that "blew it" forced the opposing QB into FOUR freaking interceptions, of which the offense did very little. Are you honestly thinking that a "better" coordinator could have forced six picks on that game?

To me, that's like the salesman who always has many qualified prospects on the line but can't seem to close. If you don't close, you don't get paid. The defense did not close the deal when it was put in their hands to do so, with substantial resources at their disposal in terms of the clock and the lead.

It's not revisionist history...it's my considered opinion.

 

[azrsx05]

A better defensive coordinator can make some of those players that are good play better. Capers constantly tries to get to damn fancy with his schemes and coverages, that's when you see players making mistakes. Yes, part of the blame is on the players. But what leader do we really have on defense? Last time the Packers defense was good, we had Charles Woodson and other great leaders on that side of the ball.

Sometimes keeping it simple and not trying to get all that fancy with these young guys on defense would work out better.

Expect the same this year. Right when Capers feels the pressure that his defense is looking awful, he will try something defense then get complacent all over again. They will continue to make mediocre QBs look like pro bowl players and show up maybe 2-3 times this season. Capers should've been gone at least 3 years ago.

 

[7thFloorRA]

The only thing I am concerned about is O-line depth as Barclay looks like crap and he is supposed to be the 6th man.