Wednesday, September 24, 2003

In hindsight I was too critical of the play of the Packers' secondary on Sunday vs. Arizona because I failed to critique the Packers weak pass rush. It wasn't great on Sunday, no sacks were recorded, and its inefficiency did not help the secondary. I still think the secondary was more at fault because they gave too much cushion, were not able to cover the crossing routes, and had trouble defending at the first down marker. Arizona has a big offensive line and seemed to me in maximum protection (running back and tight end pass blocking on the play) on passing downs, which is hard to pass rush against. The running backs and tight ends were not thrown at, except for the last touchdown drive when Arizona realized the Packers were not picking up Arizona's fullback James Hodgins and called two pass plays for him, because Arizona's wide receivers were getting open, which allowed Arizona to play a max protection. The moral of this story was that no one on the Packers defense had a great game, and it allowed Arizona's offense to succeed and to protect Jeff Blake.

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