Green Bay's Passing Defense Statistics: Fool's Gold?

[redskinsfan]

How good is Green Bay's pass defense? If you look at the raw statistics, you might think it's pretty good. The Pack's defense ranks sixth overall in terms of yards allowed and seventh in sacks (with 43). While that looks pretty impressive, you get a different picture when you look at the passing offenses they faced.

Overall, the passing offenses they went up against ranked 20.25 in passing yards, which is close to the bottom third of the league. In fact, the Pack played six games against bottom-feeding pass offenses: Dallas (27th), San Francisco (29th), Kansas City (30th), Minnesota (31st) (twice), and St. Louis (dead last). Add in Chicago (23rd) (twice) and Carolina (24th), they played more than half their games against passing offenses in the bottom third in the NFL.

On the flip side, they did play four games against Arizona (2nd), San Diego (4th), and Detroit (9th) (twice). In those games, those teams combined for the following stats: 107 /165 (64.84 %), 1231 yards, 8 TDs, 2 INTs, which averages out to 26.75 / 41.25 (64.84%), 307.25 yards, 2 TDs, 0.5 INTs. This translates to a passer rating of 98.32. Keep in mind that Cam Newton's passer rating is 99.4.

What does this show? First, Green Bay's passing defense numbers are skewed because they ended playing some awful passing offenses. Second, when they faced top passing offenses, they couldn't hold up. Third, they only registered eight sacks in those games, which averages out to one sack for every 20.65 pass attempts. This is important in showing that, if you've got a good passing attack (like I believe we do), you can take advantage of the Pack's pass defense. They do have Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews, but I think our o-line can handle them like they have with others throughout this year. If the o-line can give Kirk time to throw, like they have all season, the Pack's defense can be exploited by Kirk and company.

 

[LambeauLegs]

Is it possible that the Redskins pass offense it fools gold because of the pass defenses that have played?

Just asking the question.

I guess we will find out Sunday. My guess is that the Packers will run the ball and use up clock keeping the ball out of the Redskins offense as much as possible since the Redskins run D seems to be the weakest aspect of the team. The Packers run game is top 3rd in the league. They seem to start out running but do not seem to stick to it in most games. Maybe this game they will.

 

[GNG]

Is it possible that the Redskins pass offense it fools gold because of the pass defenses that have played?

Just asking the question.

I guess we will find out Sunday. My guess is that the Packers will run the ball and use up clock keeping the ball out of the Redskins offense as much as possible since the Redskins run D seems to be the weakest aspect of the team. The Packers run game is top 3rd in the league. They seem to start out running but do not seem to stick to it in most games. Maybe this game they will.

I expect the Packers to try and control the clock too. This makes sense.

 

[redskinsfan]

In order to judge the Redskins passing game, you need to look at the past four or five games they've played because that's what's representative of their passing game right now. In that time, the passing defenses they've faced have varied. But the key here is that the Redskins have basically dominated early, ran up some huge leads, and then took their foot off the gas. I don't want to sound like a homer, but, at times, I've never seen a passing offense that looked more deadly efficient than they had. Is this sustainable? Probably not. But if the o-line provides Kirk time to throw, good luck trying to cover D-Jax, Pierre Garcon, Jordan Reed, and Jamison Crowder.

The Redskins defense has been a bit spotty. Keep in mind, however, that a lot of the numbers that have been posted against their defense in the past five games have been a lot of garbage time yards. For instance, last week, they rolled out to a 24-0 lead in the early second quarter and then sat most of their starters. It was from that time that Kellen Moore piled up a bunch of empty calorie stats against the Redskins defense. Same thing with the game against Buffalo, where they jumped out to a 28-3 lead.

For these reasons, it's difficult to tell how well their run (or pass) defense will respond now. They're better at stopping runs in between the tackles but have had problems with backs that have attacked the edge. They also had major problems with missed tackles. But that problem seems have to been gone away by the installation of two news ILBs in Will Compton and Mason Foster.

 

[redskinsfan]

I expect the Packers to try and control the clock too. This makes sense.

If they try and run Eddie Lacy up the middle, they might have problems with that. But if they use Starks on the edge, that might pose some problems for the Redskins. We shall see.

 

[skinsdad62]

ok fellas enough of this . i think its common knowledge that i your humble moderator has been using the phrase "fools gold " for a substantial period of time and therefore has sportshoopla licensing rights to said phrase and should correspondingly get some kind of kick back in order to prevent its over use

 

[LambeauLegs]

Is it possible that the Redskins pass offense it fools gold because of the pass defenses that have played?

Just asking the question.

I guess we will find out Sunday. My guess is that the Packers will run the ball and use up clock keeping the ball out of the Redskins offense as much as possible since the Redskins run D seems to be the weakest aspect of the team. The Packers run game is top 3rd in the league. They seem to start out running but do not seem to stick to it in most games. Maybe this game they will.

My thoughts back on Wednesday were that they would run the ball quite a bit more. Only 9 carries in the first half but now seem to have the run game going as expected.

 

[redskinsfan]

My thoughts back on Wednesday were that they would run the ball quite a bit more. Only 9 carries in the first half but now seem to have the run game going as expected.

That only occurred after our dope d-coor Joe Barry couldn't respond to the gimmick, dink-and-dunk offense run by Rodgers for large stretches of the game. McCarthy was smart enough to acknowledge he had protection issues, so he resorted to basically a horizontal passing game. It worked in the beginning and it continued to work because Barry couldn't respond by doing things like sitting on the short routes. Barry is so effing incompetent as he can't seem to make basic adjustments during the game. Because he couldn't, Rodgers was able to move the ball down the field a bit at a time, but move the ball nonetheless. This wore out the Redskins defense, which actually had shut down your rush offense for a little more than a half.

Essentially what happened was McCarthy adjusted by getting Rodgers to essentially look for check downs as his first read. It worked and Barry had no response to it. If he got defenders to sit on the routes, they'd be able to knock those short passes down or probably get a pick or two. But, if you know Joe Barry, he'll stick to his idiotic philosophies come hell or high water. One of them is to refrain from blitzing. He did that on countless occasions when opposing QBs had all day to throw. Why? Because then the opposing QB might lead their offense on a TD drive. Of course, the dope couldn't figure out if you don't blitz, that's going to happen anyways. If you blitz, you at least have a chance to make some type of defensive play on the QB.

 

[j_y19]

That only occurred after our dope d-coor Joe Barry couldn't respond to the gimmick, dink-and-dunk offense run by Rodgers for large stretches of the game. McCarthy was smart enough to acknowledge he had protection issues, so he resorted to basically a horizontal passing game. It worked in the beginning and it continued to work because Barry couldn't respond by doing things like sitting on the short routes. Barry is so effing incompetent as he can't seem to make basic adjustments during the game. Because he couldn't, Rodgers was able to move the ball down the field a bit at a time, but move the ball nonetheless. This wore out the Redskins defense, which actually had shut down your rush offense for a little more than a half.

Essentially what happened was McCarthy adjusted by getting Rodgers to essentially look for check downs as his first read. It worked and Barry had no response to it. If he got defenders to sit on the routes, they'd be able to knock those short passes down or probably get a pick or two. But, if you know Joe Barry, he'll stick to his idiotic philosophies come hell or high water. One of them is to refrain from blitzing. He did that on countless occasions when opposing QBs had all day to throw. Why? Because then the opposing QB might lead their offense on a TD drive. Of course, the dope couldn't figure out if you don't blitz, that's going to happen anyways. If you blitz, you at least have a chance to make some type of defensive play on the QB.

What would you have had Barry do to address the drink-dunk plays? Play press coverage on the line? What do you think Rodgers would do if he saw one CB that just started plying the position up at the line trying to press Randall Cobb? I can promise you, it wouldn't be a dink-dunk play call.

 

[redskinsfan]

What would you have had Barry do to address the drink-dunk plays? Play press coverage on the line? What do you think Rodgers would do if he saw one CB that just started plying the position up at the line trying to press Randall Cobb? I can promise you, it wouldn't be a dink-dunk play call.

Either sit on the routes or play press coverage. Cobb and the other GB receivers have been garbage this year. If it were someone like Dez Bryant or OBJ, I'd see your point. But none of their receivers was really a threat to go long. And, even if there was some risk in that, it was worth sitting on those routes because that would've allowed our d-lineman more time to exploit their battered o-line.

 

[gkekoa]

What would you have had Barry do to address the drink-dunk plays? Play press coverage on the line? What do you think Rodgers would do if he saw one CB that just started plying the position up at the line trying to press Randall Cobb? I can promise you, it wouldn't be a dink-dunk play call.

It doesn't matter. Coming into this game, every single football person in America was saying that GB could not beat press man coverage...every single one of them. So what do we run...soft man and zone. WTF. If we were a dominant defense and that is how we were dominant, fine. We were not good on defense this season though. So we should have ran what GB was weak at beating. This is on the coach...end of story.

 

[redskinsfan]

It doesn't matter. Coming into this game, every single football person in America was saying that GB could not beat press man coverage...every single one of them. So what do we run...soft man and zone. WTF. If we were a dominant defense and that is how we were dominant, fine. We were not good on defense this season though. So we should have ran what GB was weak at beating. This is on the coach...end of story.

Amen to that sir!