Pettine's Gone, but Outpost is Back

[HighCalebR]

1 minute ago, Outpost31 said:

Goff you blitz a lot.

Brees or Brady you do not.

We gotta put Preston and Gary on the EDGE if we play Brady and have Z rush from inside the whole game.

You don’t beat Brady with EDGE rushers and it’s time coaches realize that.

if we dont run blitz the **** out of this game..

[Gopackgonerd]

4 hours ago, MrBobGray said:

He had ratcheted up the blitzing in recent weeks, until the Bears game.  Individual game numbers are really difficult to find, but using the season numbers and the number of blitzes accredited to individual players you can at least get an impression of the season.  Since multiple players can blitz on the same play, it's not going to be exact, but unless someone has a PFF subscription and wants to share their numbers, this is the best I can find.

The Packers blitzed 150 times on the season, good for a blitz rate of 24.7%, 21st in the NFL.  If you go by the individual game numbers, PFR has individual players blitzing a total of 237 times.  If you discount pass rushers from that group, off-ball LBs and DBs blitzed a total of 112 times on the season.  Discrepancies between these numbers again are likely due to 6+ man blitzes, resulting in more than one player blitzing each play.

So did Pettine actually get more aggressive toward the end of the season? Sort of, but actually no.

If you break the season into quarters, here's what it looks like:

• Quarter 1 - 48 total blitzes, 23 non-edge blitzes
• Quarter 2 - 66 total blitzes, 31 non-edge blitzes
• Quarter 3 - 64 total blitzes, 25 non-edge blitzes
• Quarter 4 - 59 total blitzes, 33 non-edge blitzes

Two things to note here: #1, Quarter 4 does include the Bears game, which saw only 5 total blitzes (4 non-edge), the lowest number of total blitzes in a game this season.  #2, while the number of total blitzes was actually lower in Quarter 4 than both 2 and 3, it featured the highest number of non-edge rusher blitzes for a quarter.  It's the only Quarter this year that over half the total blitzes are by non-edge players.

So, I guess the takeaway is that Pettine has definitely started sending his DBs and off-ball LBs more, but it's important to understand how low those numbers are compared to the league leaders.  In the Dolphins-Rams game that the Dolphins won 28-17, they blitzed 78 TIMES.  Again, that's not 78 called blitzes, but 78 times an individual came on a blitz; regardless, that's still more individual players coming in a single game than the Packers had in any individual quarter of a season.  And Miami didn't even finish first in blitz percentage, coming in 4% behind Baltimore (44.1% vs 40.4%).

Pettine really doesn't like to blitz, and it doesn't seem to matter what his personnel is.  Personally I think approaching defense passively like Pettine does should be a non-starter, but it is what it is.  Hopefully he'll prove me wrong this post-season.

Great write up, I guess its easier to notice him sending more non-edge blitzes with DBs and ILBs lately which seemed like he was blitzing more. Hopefully he does become more aggressive in the playoffs. Especially if you're facing guys like Goff who you really don't need to worry about passing because he's Goff and has a broken thumb. Brees where he can't throw down the field much, and Brady where you just need to harass him in some way to throw him off his game.

[Gopackgonerd]

25 minutes ago, Outpost31 said:

Goff you blitz a lot.

Brees or Brady you do not.

We gotta put Preston and Gary on the EDGE if we play Brady and have Z rush from inside the whole game.

You don’t beat Brady with EDGE rushers and it’s time coaches realize that.

I think we can with Brees since he can't throw down field that well anymore. Brady probably more so not, gotta create pressure with stunts.

[Arthur Penske]

 

[Mazrimiv]

With the performance vs the Rams still drawing the ire of the anti-Pettine crowd, it seems clear that this isn't about how the defense is performing anymore.

In a world where GB wins the SB a few weeks from now, the usual suspects will simply shift the conversation to how the team was "lucky" to win in spite of Pettine, and there is no way GB will win a second SB with Pettine as DC.

[incognito_man]

1 hour ago, Mazrimiv said:

With the performance vs the Rams still drawing the ire of the anti-Pettine crowd, it seems clear that this isn't about how the defense is performing anymore.

In a world where GB wins the SB a few weeks from now, the usual suspects will simply shift the conversation to how the team was "lucky" to win in spite of Pettine, and there is no way GB will win a second SB with Pettine as DC.

I think his critics are very pleased with the finish to the season. Need two more from him though!

[Joe]

2 hours ago, incognito_man said:

I think his critics are very pleased with the finish to the season. Need two more from him though!

cosigned and we need to draft multiple IDL in April regardless of who the DC is...

[vegas492]

Pettine's defense sure looks a lot better when Kenny Clark plays like this!

Against the Rams, this isn't the defense that I wanted out there.  Scheme wise.  We did let Goff get many, many easy completions.

But, we also got home with 4 and made the plays necessary to win while not really allowing the big play.

I dig it.

What I didn't like is how we got called for holding twice, and I thought both were weak.

I saw them doing a lot more holding and it never got called.

[skibrett15]

Brady has been bad vs the blitz this year actually.  Very different than most of his career.  I think it may be the comfort with the O-line and protection checks which aren't running perfectly for him.

[Packerraymond]

The mediocre defense was the fans fault. They printed big defense signs, wasn't until the 3rd Q we realized how loud it was if we wacked the hell out of them on the aluminum bleachers. After that, Rams didn't score.

We've got it figured out, we'll shut down Brady now. Right @incognito_man?

[skibrett15]

4 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

wasn't until the 3rd Q we realized how loud it was if we wacked the hell out of them on the aluminum bleachers.

it did sound a lot louder in the 2nd half

[MrBobGray]

On 1/17/2021 at 8:43 AM, Mazrimiv said:

With the performance vs the Rams still drawing the ire of the anti-Pettine crowd, it seems clear that this isn't about how the defense is performing anymore.

In a world where GB wins the SB a few weeks from now, the usual suspects will simply shift the conversation to how the team was "lucky" to win in spite of Pettine, and there is no way GB will win a second SB with Pettine as DC.

I get this point of view, but I think it's a bit dismissive of legitimate criticism.  The Rams offense was pretty crippled coming into the game, with Goff being all of ten days out from surgery on his throwing hand and missing their best receiver.  No, this wasn't a bad defensive performance by any means, but letting bad offenses stay around deep into the fourth quarter when you have the #1 offense by points is also not the hallmark of a strong defense.  And yes, the Rams count as a bad offense; McVay or not they were 22nd in points scored this season and they'd averaged 20.2 points a game their last five games before the Divisional round.  In the Packers last six games they've had four of them be one score games deep into the fourth, against the 26th, 24th, 20th, and 22nd offenses by points.  They've closed it out every time and deserve kudos for that, but if the plan is to just try to stay close and trust Aaron and the offense to be able to save the day you're rolling dangerous dice in the playoffs.  This defense has struggled in three of four chances against legitimate offenses this year (they allowed an average of 34 points/game to the three non-Titans top ten offenses they played this season); I think the consternation is still pretty understandable.  

 

[incognito_man]

5 minutes ago, MrBobGray said:

I get this point of view, but I think it's a bit dismissive of legitimate criticism.  The Rams offense was pretty crippled coming into the game, with Goff being all of ten days out from surgery on his throwing hand and missing their best receiver.  No, this wasn't a bad defensive performance by any means, but letting bad offenses stay around deep into the fourth quarter when you have the #1 offense by points is also not the hallmark of a strong defense.  And yes, the Rams count as a bad offense; McVay or not they were 22nd in points scored this season and they'd averaged 20.2 points a game their last five games before the Divisional round.  In the Packers last six games they've had four of them be one score games deep into the fourth, against the 26th, 24th, 20th, and 22nd offenses by points.  They've closed it out every time and deserve kudos for that, but if the plan is to just try to stay close and trust Aaron and the offense to be able to save the day you're rolling dangerous dice in the playoffs.  This defense has struggled in three of four chances against legitimate offenses this year (they allowed an average of 34 points/game to the three non-Titans top ten offenses they played this season); I think the consternation is still pretty understandable.  

 

Rams were a top 10 offense (DVOA) for the season but struggled badly down the stretch, especially in the passing game. But they got some key players back as well in the running game vs us (Akers, Whitworth). I would classify that team as about average on offense all things considered. TB is definitely better.

[MrBobGray]

Just now, incognito_man said:

Rams were a top 10 offense (DVOA) for the season but struggled badly down the stretch, especially in the passing game. But they got some key players back as well in the running game vs us (Akers, Whitworth). I would classify that team as about average on offense all things considered. TB is definitely better.

Fair, but that's still a team that scored < 20 more often than they scored 30+ and with a underwhelming QB coming off throwing hand surgery.  They have a good scheme and an effective running attack, but this is the 2020 NFL and you have to be able to pass the ball.  Goff had 3 games with a passer rating > 100 since week 5; Chicago week 7, Arizona week 13, and Green Bay in the divisional round.  

I'm not saying this was a terrible defensive performance, but I can't get behind the idea that a pretty pedestrian game against a beat up offense is proof that people's ire isn't based on Pettine's actual defense.

[incognito_man]

3 minutes ago, MrBobGray said:

Fair, but that's still a team that scored < 20 more often than they scored 30+ and with a underwhelming QB coming off throwing hand surgery.  They have a good scheme and an effective running attack, but this is the 2020 NFL and you have to be able to pass the ball.  Goff had 3 games with a passer rating > 100 since week 5; Chicago week 7, Arizona week 13, and Green Bay in the divisional round.  

I'm not saying this was a terrible defensive performance, but I can't get behind the idea that a pretty pedestrian game against a beat up offense is proof that people's ire isn't based on Pettine's actual defense.

eh, the "100+" passer rating is kind of disingenuous (buoyed by the short completions). They averaged 4.8 yards per pass play and scored 1 TD through the air. That's a really good defensive performance.