The Green Bay Packers got mauled for a quarter, but fortunately, there were three more to play.
14:50, 1st Quarter — It took a whole 10 seconds for the Packers to hand the Jets the ball in scoring territory.
The Jets won the toss, but that no longer fat bastard Rex Ryan deferred. The Packers decided the Jets should start BOTH halves with the ball and Aaron Rodgers fumbled the center exchange. Sheldon Richardson recovered it for the Jets at the Green Bay 16.
Its hard for an outsider to assess blame no matter how many times you watch the replay. One thing Rodgers NEVER does is fumble the snap, so the first thought was naturally that it was rookie center Corey Linsley’s fault. However, on replay, it appears that Linsley gave Rodgers a snap that he should have handled.
13:01, 1st Q — Two minutes later, it was 7-0 Jets.
The Packers started the game in the 4-3 with Clay Matthews essentially playing the weakside linebacker position and a defensive line of Julius Peppers, Letroy Guion, Mike Daniels and Mike Neal. On first down, Neal knocked the pulling tight end on the ground and tackled Chris Johnson for a 1-yard loss. On second down, Geno Smith had plenty of time, but curiously threw wide of his tight end Jeff Cumberland.
That set up 3rd and 11 with the Packers looking pretty good to hold the Jets to a field goal after the fumble. The Packers lined up in their dime with A.J. Hawk as the dime linebacker. The pass rush was good with Peppers quickly getting to Smith. However, the back seven simply drop back too far, too fast in their zone. The Jets have the perfect play called for the zone, with Cumberland clearing and Jeremy Kerley stopping right behind him. The Packers were too slow to react, and it was an easy first down at the 4.
Two plays later, Geno Smith gets stepped on while stepping away from center, but even stumbling back, he still managed to get around Clay Matthew’s end and ran it in for the score. Smith had a pass option on this play, and Jamari Lattimore and Morgan Burnett actually did well to cover both tight ends on the drag. Unfortunately, Matthews was too aggressive at the line, got tripped up and allowed an easy corner to Smith.
8:25, 1st Q — This will make it two drives and two touchdowns — 14-0 Jets, Jets, Jets.
The Packers managed to get three plays past their initial one this time, as they followed the fumble with a four and out.
After getting a first down on an easy hook to Jordy Nelson for 13 yards, Rodgers took a sack by Quinton Coples, who bulled through Derek Sherrod. Rodgers got out of the pocket and had the chance to throw it away, but he likely thought he could get away from Coples and failed. On 2nd and 14, Rodgers took a low percentage shot for Nelson on a corner route and it was knocked away. Inexplicably, the Jets forgot to cover Randall Cobb on the play. He ran a post from the slot and was completely uncovered. Somehow, Rodgers never saw him.
On third down, the Jets blitzed seven and linebacker Demario Davis got the unimpeded sack. I originally thought this was Rodgers’ fault, but as it turns out, it was only partially his fault. Since Richard Rodgers stayed in to block one of the blitzers, the Packers actually had seven guys to block the seven that blitzed. However, Corey Linsley ignored the blitz up the middle by Calvin Pryor, who showed pre-snap that he was likely blitzing, and helped T.J. Lang with a double team instead. Eddie Lacy had no choice but to take Pryor flying up the middle, which left Davis free from the edge.
Linsley, Rodgers and Lacy needed to communicate and get their protection sorted out pre-snap.
Even though a 56-yard Tim Masthay punt and a penalty set the Jets back to their 16, they still managed to go 84 yards in just six plays. Most of that was because of two third down plays that covered 66 yards.
The Packers would continue in the 4-3 with Matthews either lining up in the weakside linebacker position to the right of Hawk or on the line outside of Mike Neal. On 3rd and 1 from the Jets’ 25, Kerley motioned into the backfield from the slot. Amazingly, even though the Packers were burned four times last week on this same motion, no one reacted to it. NO ONE. Smith could have just handed it to Kerley from the pocket because no Packers defender was anywhere near a position to stop it.
Clay Matthews had that corner, lining up at the line outside of Neal. Hawk and Micah Hyde were also right there. All three of them seemed completely oblivious to Kerley crossing the field in their direction. After the snap, all three attacked the draw to Chris Ivory despite the fact that Ivory never had the ball. Smith sprinted out with it, with Kerley to his outside, and no defender was anywhere in the area. Smith wisely pitched to Kerley, who took off up the sideline.
To add to the comically bad play by the defense, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix seemed certain Kerley was headed out of bounds and slowed down. Kerley cut back right between Dix and a sad attempt to tackle by Burnett and headed up the sideline for a total of 37 yards.
The Jets scored three plays later on 3rd and 3. The Packers were in their dime again and blitzed six. Matthews came through clean and hit Smith just after he threw the ball. Eric Decker ran a stutter and go on Sam Shields. The pass hit Decker in stride for a 29-yard touchdown. That is a great offensive play there, nothing wrong with the defense. Sometimes the other guys just make a play.
4:05, 1st Q — The Packers get a drive that they need to have, but settle for a field goal to make it 14-3.
The Packers quickly faced 3rd and 4 from their 26. With everyone covered and the pocket collapsing, Rodgers threw it up for a well-covered Nelson, something Rodgers rarely does. Nelson rewarded him by leaping over the defender and pulling it in for 23 yards.
The Packers then picked up 10 yards on three straight plays with a dump to Lacy, a scramble by Rodgers and a pass to Cobb. They faced 3rd and 3 from the Jets’ 13. Rodgers had Nelson again on the post, but he threw too far behind for even Jordy Effin Nelson to catch it. The ball hit the ground and the Packers brought Mason Crosby in for the short field goal.
10:30, 2nd Q — This will be three drives and three touchdowns to make it 21-3 Jets, Jets, Jets!
This was an epic, 17-play drive for 80 yards, taking up nearly nine minutes of game time. The Jets essentially run for three or four yards at a time and dink and dunk their way down the field, converting third and fourth downs as they go.
On 3rd and six from just past midfield, the Packers had their nickel defense on the field with all pass rushers on the line. Hawk and Matthews moved inside to rush from near the center. The Jets had the perfect play called for the defense. The center and guard crisscrossed and kicked out Hawk and Matthews as they rushed, opening a huge hole right up the middle. Smith scrambled straight ahead for an easy 9 yards.
The Jets faced a 3rd and 13 from the Packers’ 30 after Daniels finally dropped Chris Johnson for a 6-yard loss on a read option play. The Packers were in their nickel again with all smalls on the field. The Jets ran Bilal Powell straight ahead for 11 yards. Hawk did well to get off the center’s block, but failed to significantly slow Powell down. Burnett run-filled admirably, but by diving at Powell’s legs instead of taking him on, he allowed Powell to dive past him for another 5 yards. The Jets went for it on 4th and 2 and surprisingly threw it, picking it up with an out to Decker against Shields.
Smith picked up 3rd and 3 from the Packers’ 16 by finding an uncovered Powell out of the backfield for 12 yards. The failure to account for Powell ruined what would have been a sack by Neal. Instead it was first down Jets at the Packers’ 4. Chris Ivory would bull into the end zone just two plays later. The Packers were in a rare base 3-4 with Guion, Daniels and Josh Boyd in the game at the same time. Guion got double teamed and pushed back, Boyd got held and buried and Daniels beat his man to the inside but let Ivory get by him.
5:45, 2nd Q — The Packers followed with another long drive for a field goal to make it 21-6.
After two Randall Cobb runs got the Packers past midfield, they faced 3rd and 4 from the Jets’ 45. Rodgers found Nelson on the back shoulder and Jordy broke the tackle of Antonio Allen and went up the sideline for 17 yards. Sheldon Richardson finishes Nelson off well out of bounds, but these are the referees, second week in a row, that don’t call ANYTHING. Well, that is except for an unsportsmanlike conduct on the Packers’ bench, who were letting Richardson and the refs hear about the non-call.
Two plays later, Nelson drew an obvious pass interference call against Allen on a go route, placing the ball at the Jets’ 16. A Rodgers’ scramble moved the ball to the Jets’ 5 three plays later. On 1st and goal, Rodgers tried to force it in to Jarrett Boykin at the back of the end zone and was lucky Allen only got one hand on it. On second down, Nelson and Cobb were running a combo route from the left side, and either Cobb was supposed to stop with Nelson clearing out or Nelson was supposed to look for the ball on the quick slant. Neither happened and the ball fell harmlessly to the ground behind everyone.
On 3rd and goal, the Packers tried Lacy on the draw. The Packers actually had the numbers, and this would have been a successful play if three different Packers didn’t blow their assignment. Linsley was supposed to pull and kick out. He got crossed up with Sherrod and allowed Calvin Pace to run right by him. Josh Sitton had no one in front of him, probably prompting Rodgers to call the run in the first place, and he was supposed to lead Lacy by taking out the crashing safety. He whiffed on the cut block and Dawan Landry stayed on his feet to help with the tackle. T.J. Lang was supposed to hold Richardson off long enough for Lacy to get by, but he failed at that as well. Those three Jets combined for the tackle.
Personally, with the ball at the 3, I probably would have gone for it, but Mike McCarthy played it safe and took the points.
1:52, 2nd Q — Mike Daniels and Tramon Williams combine to save the day and help turn the game around.
The Jets’ fourth drive of the game was a three and out. On 3rd and 2 from the Jets’ 28, Neal and Peppers do well to meet at Smith. Smith unloaded right before the sack, looking for Kerley out of the bunch, but for once, the Packers played the bunch perfectly and Morgan Burnett knocks the ball away to force the punt.
The Packers followed by mimicking their second drive of the game. After picking up 13 yards on a pass to Nelson, they can’t pick up another first down and Crosby trotted out, much to my surprise, to hit the longest kick by a Packer at Lambeau Field. Crosby made it easily and it was 21-9.
McCarthy rolled the dice by calling for an onside kick. Any time an onside kick fails, there are around 10 reasons why it was a bad idea in the first place, which is why it’s a ballsy call. Regardless, it was a bad kick by Crosby, carrying about 10 yards further than he wanted it to. The Jets got to start at their own 48. They moved to the Green Bay 27 in three plays, with a dump to an uncovered Tommy Bohanon doing most the work.
On the very next play, however, Daniels shrugged off the block of left guard Brian Winters, something that would happen quite often in this game, and hit Smith as he was trying to step into the throw. The fluttering pass was picked off by Tramon Williams at the 3-yard line.
The Packers followed with their most impressive drive of the season so far. With just 1:52 left in the half, the Packers went 97 yards to make it a ball game at 21-16.
Quite often, the most important play in a two minute drive is the first one. Throwing from his end zone, Rodgers found Davante Adams for 8 yards to give the Packers some room. After finding Andrew Quarless for 8 more, Rodgers scrambled for 11 to move the ball out to the 30-yard line. Still, with just 39 seconds left and the ball at the Green Bay 44, it was looking like a field goal would be all the Packers would have time for. That was until a dump to DuJuan Harris got 11 yards and a late hit on Rodgers by Jason Babin added on 15 more. That moved the ball all the way to the Jets’ 30 with 32 seconds left.
The Packers would stay there until it was 3rd and 10 with 24 seconds left. Fortunately, Rodgers would pick a good time to have his best play of the game. The Jets blitzed and got pressure through on the left side. Rodgers stepped to his right and then fired a strike to Adams in stride on the post. Adams took it down to the Jets’ 6. A simple look in to Cobb from the slot would score the touchdown two plays later.
5:45, 3rd Q — The Packers offense is rolling and another touchdown drive makes it 24-21 Packers.
The Jets started the second half with the ball, but didn’t have it long. They ran the same play to start the second half as they did to start the first — a draw to Chris Johnson going left. It was met with similar results. The Packers were still in their 4-3 with Peppers playing with a hand down on the right side of the offense, Matthews off his shoulder, and Mike Neal standing up as the defensive end on the other side. Neal pushed D’Brickashaw Ferguson into the backfield and caused Johnson to hesitate. That was enough for Daniels to discard Winters and tackle Johnson for a short gain.
On 2nd and 10, Smith moved away from pressure by Neal and gets wrapped up by Peppers. Smith threw the ball into the ground. The refs initially let the play go and Datone Jones picked up the loose ball for the Packers. However, the replay review showed that Smith’s arm was going forward and the refs ruled it an incomplete pass. Apparently, it doesn’t matter that Smith appeared to throw a backwards pass, thus making it a fumble anyway.
On 3rd and 10, the next play, Smith had Decker on a deep post, but overthrew him. Clinton Dix was too aggressive on the corner route and got beat by the double move. Fortunately, Datone Jones got pressure on Smith, forcing him to move to his right and throw the ball at the same time, and he missed. Punt.
The Packers followed with a three and out and their only punt in the second or third quarter. On 3rd and 2, the Packers ran Lacy toward the right side. Lacy had an easy edge if he took it. Instead, he tried to cut off Lang’s block and was stopped by Muhammad Wilkerson, who David Bakhtiari failed to cut block. Punt.
The Jets went three and out themselves. After two runs by Ivory only got 3 yards, the Jets faced 3rd and 7. The Packers blitzed six and once again got home quickly. Smith tried Decker on the square in, but House was there and knocked it down.
This time the Packers struck rather quickly to take the lead. After a quick pass to Nelson and two hard runs by Lacy moved the ball past midfield, Rodgers found Nelson up the sideline against the two deep for a 33-yard gain. On second down from the 10, Rodgers rolled to his left and fired a strike to Adams, who made a nice contested catch near the goal line. The refs spotted it at about the half-yard line.
The Packers moved quickly to catch the Jets with their base defense on the field. When the Packers lined up with three wide receivers at the goal line, the Jets put Landry on Cobb in the slot. Rodgers immediately called for a quick out to Cobb and he scored easily. The Packers then converted their first two-point conversion of the season with Rodgers finding Cobb on the quick look in, again. Landry was slow to get off of Cobb and the Packers’ bigs moved in to push Landry off. The Jets’ bigs then moved in to take them on. A shoving and facemask grabbing match broke out.
Josh Sitton, of course, and Muhammad Wilkerson were at the heart of it, with Quarless and Sheldon Richardson also somehow getting tangled up. Wilkerson was tossed in response to a series of swats he took at both Sitton and Bakhtiari. The Jets were penalized, but were not hurt by it as it turned out. Losing Wilkerson was certainly the biggest consequence of the scuffle.
2:20, 3rd Q — The Jets quickly tie the game.
The Jets following drive to tie the game was mostly two plays. On the first play of the drive, Cumberland got lost between A.J. Hawk and Burnett and caught a pass from Smith for 14 yards. On 3rd and 6, three plays later, Datone Jones split a double team and could have made the best play of his career so far. However, Smith slipped out of his grasp and when Hawk let Powell go to add pressure, Smith threw it over him to a wide open Powell. Powell took it straight up field for 20 yards.
On 3rd and 6 from the Packers’ 34, the Packers blitzed six and got home quickly once again. Smith tried Kerley on the drag route, but it was knocked down by House. Nick Folk entered the game and nailed a 52-yard field goal to tie the game.
2:10, 3rd Q — This makes six scores in seven possessions for the Packers.
The Jets euphoria over tying the game didn’t last long. Sometimes a fight can pump up a defense. Not in this case. On the Packers’ first play of the next drive, they lined up in the big formation, inverted wishbone, with only Nelson split out wide. Rodgers went play fake to Lacy, which bought enough time for Nelson to run a deep out and up. Rodgers fired a strike to Nelson between Dee Milliner and the deep safety, Calvin Pryor. I don’t know if Pryor can “knock someone’s face off,” as Rex Ryan put it, but I do know that he can slide into second base very well. He did so here as Nelson cut back and took the play to the house, completing an 80-yard touchdown reception.
That would actually end up completing the scoring for the game at 31-24.
Two plays into the next drive, Daniels would toss Winters aside but again and sack Smith for a 7-yard loss. The Jets would not recover and end up punting it back to the Packers.
The next Packers’ drive would be similarly thwarted when Rodgers would hold the ball for eight seconds only to end up taking a 12-yard sack. After a Lacy run on 2nd and 22 pathetically only got 4 yards, Rodgers would be sacked again when Calvin Pace flat beat T.J. Lang off a stunt. The Jets finished with four sacks with all of them coming on just two drives.
After punts by both teams, the Jets would embark on a six minute drive that would do most of the Packers’ work for them. The Jets only managed to move the ball from their 33 to the Packers’ 28 before turning it over on downs. The Packers were in their normal nickel for most the fourth quarter, with Matthews back to his regular spot, outside the left tackle. The Packers alternated freely on both ends with Neal, Peppers and Perry all getting time on the outside.
The Jets moved the ball mostly through a dink and dunk affair, with the biggest play being a dump to the fullback once again that got 16 yards. Frankly, it seemed like every time the Jets dropped a running back into the flat, the Packers’ defense was oblivious.
Having moved the ball to the Green Bay 37 and facing 4th and 4, the Jets concocted the most notorious play of the game when Smith found Kerley behind the defense for an apparent tying touchdown, only for it to be revealed that the Jets called timeout before the play.
The Jets have no one to blame but themselves. The replay shows Rex Ryan firmly stationed behind the side judge’s right shoulder. When Marty Mornhinweg moved up the sideline to call timeout, Ryan moved out from his position towards Mornhinweg. As he did that, Sheldon Richardson can be seen coming up behind the ref’s same right shoulder to request a timeout. It wouldn’t surprise me if Richardson even imitated Ryan’s voice to fool the ref. Oops.
Anyway, like Mike Pennel being activated, that play was mostly much ado about nothing. The whistle can clearly be heard blowing right in the middle of the play, and the Packers defensive backfield definitely appears to hesitate as the whistle is blown, allowing two Jets receivers to get behind them. As Kerley gets up to celebrate, Clinton Dix is already waving incomplete and Davon House looks unconcerned.
The Jets would fail on fourth down a little later when an oncoming Neal and Peppers forced Smith to throw it up for Kerley. Sam Shields was in perfect position, and only Kerley and a where-he-is-supposed-to-be Morgan Burnett stopped Shields from picking it off.
The Packers decided to end the game with their offense when Rodgers hit Nelson on 3rd and 4 for 15 more yards and a game-clinching first down. When Rodgers lined up in the shotgun and saw the defender lined up 7 yards off of Nelson, that was pretty much a no brainer.
That last pass would move Rodgers past Bart Starr on the yardage list and give Jordy Nelson over 2oo yards receiving.
First of all, if you haven’t heard it elsewhere already, let me be the first to announce that the Packers no longer play a 3-4 defense. They now play a 4-3. The only times they played a 3-4 was in some short yardage situations and near the goal line. Otherwise, they were in the 4-3 throughout the game, when they weren’t in their nickel or dime. However, the Packers do play a semblance of a 3-4 by having Peppers, Perry or Neal put a hand on the ground with Matthews lining up either behind them or to their outside.
It is now obvious why the Packers only kept five defensive linemen. It is obvious why they never thought about having Ryan Pickett or Johnny Jolly return and it is also obvious why Mike Pennel is having a hard time getting on the field.
I am not sure if the switch to the 4-3, which many Packers fans have hoped for, means that we should give Dom Capers and Mike McCarthy credit for realizing they had way more 4-3 ends on their team than 3-4 OLBs, or if we should blame Ted Thompson for drafting the wrong kind of ends in the first place. Either way, as we saw in the first half, this is very much a work in progress.
One obvious downside to the switch is that the Packers DID have one outstanding 3-4 OLB on their team — Clay Matthews. With the switch, it is like Matthews is learning a whole new position, and frankly, he has looked lost out there at times. Guys are thinking too much on the field and it shows. The fact that the ends are still learning their position undoubtably has a lot to do with how vulnerable the Packers have been at the edges and how many big plays they’ve given up in the first two weeks.
For instance, the Packers never did seem to figure out who is supposed to cover a running back who releases from the backfield. They were wide open all game. On top of that, the secondary has a tendency to drop into prevent mode whenever they are in zone, giving up easy completions in front of them. The lack of aggressiveness on their part can also possibly be blamed on uncertainty.
All that being said, here are some immediate positives from the switch. The pass rush against the Jets was awesome. It shows that sacks don’t tell the whole story because the Packers only got two of them, but they were in Smith’s grill on probably around 70 percent of his dropbacks. Peppers and Neal especially got after the quarterback and both of them could have had multiple sacks if Smith would have just held the ball a little.
Peppers, out of all the ends, seems the most at ease within the scheme, which I suppose would make sense since he never played in the 3-4 before the switch. Mike Neal could be a Pro Bowl defensive end. He was impressive against the run and in getting after the quarterback. He looks great in this scheme.
Mike Daniels would probably be pretty good either way. Perhaps that says how good James Carpenter of the Seahawks is because Daniels completely dominated Brian Winters and spent nearly as much time in the Jets’ backfield as Geno Smith did.
Jamari Lattimore played a little above my expectations. He was quiet when the defense was struggling, but the film shows that he more aggressively fills against the run than either Hawk or Jones. He can be overwhelmed when blockers get on him, but he did a good job in this game of slithering through blocks to get in on tackles, which is why he assisted on five of them.
In the secondary, Tramon Williams and Davon House are balling. The rest of the secondary can play better. Right now, Morgan Burnett is clearly the best safety the Packers have. I like how Clinton-Dix attacks the line of scrimmage, but he has played it safe so far against the pass. And by the way, forget Davon House passing Casey Hayward on the depth chart, Hayward was flat out benched for the game against the Jets. Benched. When the Packers played their dime, which they did quite a bit, Jarrett Bush came in and played the slot. Hayward never saw the field.
Speaking of the offense, that game was very reminiscent of 2011. That season, the Packers had the tendency to start slow and fall into early deficits, only to go on scoring runs through the second and third quarter to give themselves a lead to sit on in the fourth. After a horrendous start, the offense scored on six of seven consecutive possessions against a pretty good defensive team.
For this offense to reach its potential, obviously they need to get the run game going. That is the biggest difference from the preseason to now. I would not be surprised if Seattle and the Jets both end up in the top five against the run this season. However, I don’t think the defense is totally to blame for the struggles. Eddie Lacy has gotten off to a slow start and one of the problems is that he keeps looking for contact instead of taking the open corner when it is there. A back like Lacy is not going to make a living getting around the edge, but you have to at least show the defense that you’ll take it if it’s there. That loosens up the middle of the field.
Neither DuJuan Harris nor James Starks got a single carry on Sunday and if you can figure that out, then you give me a call. Also, Brandon Bostick played a couple special teams snaps. Why wasn’t he out there on offense? Odd. There is no question the Packers could use someone like him in the middle of the field.
Aaron Rodgers struggled at times on Sunday and you could make the case the Jordy Effin Nelson helped make HIM look better. However, it’s tough to get too down about a guy that throws for 346 yards and three TDs with no running game to help. I have some hopefully passing concerns about his read progression and his accuracy, things that used to be strengths of his, but I still hold out hope that it is passing.
Derek Sherrod has to play better if Bulaga is going to remain out. I thought the tape last week showed a better game than most thought he had, but this week it is the opposite. He only gave up one sack, which was partially Rodgers’ fault, but he also gave up several pressures, getting beat in a variety of ways. I remember that I thought David Bakhtiari was struggling through the first three games last season, so hopefully Sherrod can have a similar improvement.
So next week the Packers play their first truly big game by heading to Detroit. I doubt the Packers’ uncertainty and inconsistency on defense will be figured out by then, which could lead to a high-scoring game if the Packers offense can keep up. However, if the Packers bring the same pass rush in Detroit as they did against the Jets? Then it could be fun to see how the sometimes erratic Matt Stafford deals with it.
Against the Detroit front seven isn’t the best of times to get a running game going, but it could make the difference if it happens.
Big game.