They’re fifth in adjusted sack rate https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Muhammad-Wilkerson-Jersey , the same place they were a month ago, and third in total sacks. But of course, sacks are an imperfect measure of blitz performance. If a team gets a lot of sacks but also gives up plays in the passing game when they don’t get home, that creates a high-variance defense that likely gives up big yardage and point totals. At one point in the season, Green Bay boasted the best blitz package in football by passer rating. Now, despite blitzing at a high rate (10th in the league) they’re 17th in the league defending quarterbacks when they actually have a chance to throw the ball according to ESPN’s NFL Matchup.This comes from two things: teams are recognizing blitz looks and deciding even if they can’t diagnose exactly where the free rushers are coming, they can beat the blitz with specific plays. Pettine’s scheme involves so much stemming and bluffing, defenders sometimes bluff themselves out of position in coverage. Take this play from Seattle on what turned out to be the decisive scoring play. The Packers show an overload pressure to Russell Wilson’s right side but with the back already to that side, the Seahawks should have enough guys to block it if everyone comes. Seattle thinks it has a man for every blitzing Packer. Pettine is bluffing. Josh Jackson comes off the slot and Blake Martinez drops, leaving Jackson unaccounted for off the edge. Wilson, knowing he’s going to have to get the ball out quickly, correctly realizes Ibraheim Campbell is playing outside leverage on tight end Ed Dickson, leaving the middle of the field open. He doesn’t have to know Jackson is coming to know that’s the side where he has the advantage.If Martinez isn’t stemming at the snap and trying to trick Wilson DeShone Kizer Jersey , he’s likely in the middle of the field where his coverage responsibility is, making the throw throw much more difficult. Instead, Wilson gets the ball out of his hands in an instant, keeping Jackson from using his lane to get home and just barely beating Martinez’s outstretched arm with the ball. In fact, Martinez overruns the throw trying to get back. If he’s just sitting and dropping from his usual middle of the field linebacker spot, there’s no window to make this throw. Martinez would read Wilson’s eyes, and even have a chance to pick that throw off. The more film teams have on the defense, the more efficient they’ll be designing plays to counter these blitz packages. Pettine’s task will be to counter the counters. Not every team will have the perfect call against the blitz like the Seahawks did on this play and luckily not every team the Packers face employs Wilson, who has played at an extremely high level even by his standards this season. But this coaching staff will have to find ways to not hurt their coverage in hopes of creating confusion for the quarterback. That dovetails with the second ailment of this blitz package: literal ailments. Injuries to Kevin King and Bashaud Breeland forced the Packers to start a trio of rookies the last three weeks and it shouldn’t be surprising that Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson were able to take advantage. Jaire Alexander’s star turns before our eyes, but Josh Jackson has struggled in man coverage this season and it’s not crazy to suggest undrafted free agent Tony Brown has been better as a pure man corner already this season. That’s not so much a compliment to Brown as it is an indictment of Jackson, who was always going to take some time adjusting to life in the NFL with such limited experience at Iowa. Trading Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, along with the resulting position change for Tramon Williams, forced the Packers to spread their cornerback group thinner than it would have been with Williams playing there. With Alexander Tramon Williams Color Rush Jersey , Jackson, King and Breeland, this defense would have more than enough bodies to provide ample resistance. That’s dare I say, a beastly cornerback room with the potential to be one of the best in the game.When the secondary has been something resembling healthy, the cornerback group has been stellar. They simply haven’t been healthy enough. If the coverage can’t help the pass rush on non-blitzing calls and can’t hold up consistently on blitzes, the defense softens considerably. Blitzing more often could lead to higher success rates in terms of taking down the quarterback, but would make them a higher variance defense, giving up bigger plays down the field. That could be one reason we’ve seen a little more vanilla coverage the last few weeks, with the blitz rate falling. Pettine simply can’t trust his secondary to hold up consistently in man coverage when they’re sending extra bodies. He’s had to use more four and five-man pressure with disguise to simply confuse offenses, rather than outflank them. That can and has worked for the Packers, but as we saw in the Seahawks game, that plan has its drawbacks as well. Like with most teams, Green Bay needs to be healthy to be operating at full steam. In the case of the secondary https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Marcedes-Lewis-Jersey , even more than a lack of elite individual pass rush, the Packers need that depth and talent on the field to make this defense work. Say this for Aaron Jones: he’s consistent.In 2017, Jones burst onto the scene as a rookie, establishing himself as an explosive runner in his first season. The fifth-round draft pick out of Texas-El Paso had a nice game in relief of Ty Montgomery and Jamaal Williams in week four against the Bears, running 13 times for 49 yards and a touchdown, but it was a three-game stretch from week 5 to week 7 that defined his rookie year, wherein he had two games of 125 rushing yards or more.Despite giving way to Williams with an injury over the second half of that season, Jones finished the year with 448 rushing yards on 81 carries, an average of 5.53 yards per carry.In 2018, Jones effectively matched that average, with 728 rushing yards on 133 carries. He did so in essentially 11 games, missing the first two contests due to suspension and sitting out most of week 15 in Chicago with a knee injury. Now that he has been placed on injured reserve, we know Jones’ final 2018 numbers https://www.thepackersfanshop.com , which have resulted in a 5.47 average, putting him at 5.50 for his career.A look through the Packers’ record books finds that this is the largest per-carry average by any qualifying player in the team’s history, setting the cutoff at a minimum of 100 rushing attempts. In fact, no Packer with a higher yards per carry than Jones even had 65 carries for the Packers — the next-highest carry count above Jones belongs to halfback Lew Carpenter, who averaged 5.6 when he went 64-359 from 1959 to 1963.Interestingly, the next four players down from Jones on this list are all quarterbacks, who rank as follows:Tobin Rote: 419-2205-5.3 (1950-1956)Bart Starr: 247-1308-5.3 (1956-1971)Aaron Rodgers: 563-2907-5.2 (2005-present)Don Majkowski: 199-1037-5.2 (1987-1992)One needs to drop all the way down to Najeh Davenport in sixth place to find another running back on this list; he averaged 4.9 yards per carry (217-1068) in his four years with the Packers, while Ty Montgomery is next at 4.8 (177-849). Running Back Gerry Ellis, who played in the 1980s, is next at 4.6 (836-3826) before we finally get to the legendary careers of Ahman Green (1851-8322) and Jim Taylor (1811-8207) at 4.5 yards per carry apiece.Packers fans should hope that Jones can maintain this blistering pace in his third season and stay atop this leaderboard. That would be especially helpful, considering his fellow running back and friend Jamaal Williams is also consistent but averages just 3.7 yards per carry for his career.
