Packers 42 Saints 34
FOOOOOOOOOOTBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!
The 2011 NFL season is here and started as many would have hoped, with a planet-eviscerating bang. The Packers offense looked sharp and the defense looked, well, like most defenses that have to try to stop Drew Brees.
Bob McGinn noted some important stats from the game that I thought I'd relay. The wide-receiver snaps-played breakdown was...
Jennings - 52
Finley - 51 (29 isolated or lined up wide, 13 in-line, 9 in backfield/wing)
Driver - 44
Nelson -27
Jones - 19
Cobb - 7
Obviously one game is a very small sample size, but it gives you an idea as to the initial depth chart ranks for each as these are snaps played, not targets.
Rodgers was blitzed about 60% of the time and ran from the shotgun 61% of the time, not coming even close to throwing an interception. Bulaga and Sitton didn't allow a QB pressure, much less a sack all night despite the heavy blitz percentages. It seems like the right side of the offensive line is going to be unbelievably solid for years to come.
Starks played 43 snaps to Grant's 16. I wonder who's going to be the starting running back the rest of the season?
The defense was a mess, but Raji played 92% of the snaps (70 of 76) all but four defensive snaps were played in the two defensive lineman "nickel" formation. They played 1 down of 3-4 and 3 downs of the "hippo" 4-4 with Howie Greene.
Jarius Wynn clearly saw more time (32 plays) than CJ Wilson (6). Wynn played well and we'll probably continue to see more of him if Mike Neal keeps up his Justin Harrell impersonation. Wynn, Walden, and Hawk/Bush combined for the 3 sacks.
Matthews was assigned one blocker 23 times, double-teamed 13 times, dropped into coverage 9 times and ran stunts 6 times in all 51 of Brees' dropbacks. Again, Mike Neal needs to get healthy or Matthews will continue to create sacks for other players by drawing the opposing offense's left tackle or regular double teams. Matthews was a fucking terror against Mike Vick twice last year, so I think he'll thrive in next week's matchup against the poor man's Eagles in Carolina.
Beyond that, Morgan Burnett lead the team with 14 tackles, Bishop wasn't far behind with 12.
Injury reports aren't due until tomorrow so we'll hear then as to the extent of Williams' shoulder injury, but initial reports were that it was nothing terribly serious.
Labels: Death Star, Levee, Packers
posted by bubsbrother @ 2:33 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Did you doctor that photo?
Glad to see a review up. Really good stats. It will be interesting to see how they approach Cam Newton. I would think they will run the same kind of sets, getting as much swarming on the field as possible and being able to bring unexpected pressure. The potential for Capers' Rapers to confuse Newton with different looks is giving me a Sunday morning boner already. I expect Newton to be very uncomfortable in the pocket and to get blindsided rather often. Of course, he's going to break out for some running yardage, but that's to be expected.
The Panthers are not as bad as a lot of people think (they aren't the worst team in football), but they are a well below average team. They have a bad defense. It's hard to imagine Carolina scoring enough points to keep up. This is one of those games that, at least for now, you look at and are happy to get a road game out of the way against such a bad team. Carolina will undoubtedly get pumped to be playing the Super Bowl Champs, but you have to imagine the players excitement will quickly turn to terror when they see the size of Jermichael Finley's hands and penis(es).
I guess there is the potential for a let-down from the Packers. First, if Tramon Williams doesn't play, I could see Bush getting burned on deep balls constantly. Second, this is first bad team the Packers have played in, what, their last 9 games? The Packers lost 3 games to bad teams last year - though they were without either Rodgers or CM3 in all those games. But in the end, even if Newton has a game as good as he did last weekend, I still can't see this being much of a contest.
Neal really is doing a great Justin Herrell impression. I doubt the Packers will do anything externally to replace Neal unless another Howard Green becomes available.
Carolina is every bit as bad as they were last year. It's tough to watch them play an NFC West team well and still say they're good. It helps that they have some healthy players and Newton, but they're as porous as teams get in the NFL.
Yeah, this was definitely the game last year that they pissed away, but by pissed away, I mean they still only lost by one score...just like every other loss last year. Don't forgot that unique NFL record they set last year wherein they went the whole season never trailing by more than 7 points in a game. Even 16-0 New England didn't do that.
Carolina's defense is miserable (especially their d-line) and just lost their best linebacker for the year. The offense is going to be unstoppable on Sunday, Charlotte may as well be Alderan.
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