A Rare Event You Might Have Missed on Thursday

With the first half disgrace and the Miracle in Motown to talk about, a lot of other things about the Packers’ win over the Lions are kind of being overlooked.

Yes, you might have read elsewhere, at least some bare mention, that the Packer defense did a great job of containing Calvin Johnson once again. Megatron finished the game with a mere 3 catches for 44 yards. One of those catches was a ridiculous grab for a touchdown, but all things considered, the Packers will take that kind of production from Johnson all day.

The Packers and Sam Shields have had some success against Johnson before, so I am not suggesting that is the rare thing that you missed. No, the rare event that occurred on Thursday was Shields following Johnson around, regardless of where he lined up. Shields normally stays on the defensive right side of the field and does not move around based on match ups.

Despite Richard Sherman receiving some flack for only playing the defensive left side of the field, the fact of the matter is that most corners typically stay on one side of the field. Other top corners like Darrell Revis, Patrick Peterson and Josh Norman all play the left side of the defense and typically stay there unless the offense has a player like Julio Jones, Dez Bryant or Calvin Johnson that they want to match up against. Then, they MIGHT follow that guy around, depending on their defensive coordinator.

For the most part, Sam Shields has been a stay on the right side guy, though Capers has had him follow Johnson and AJ Green around before. This, of course, raises the possibility that Shields might follow Dez Bryant around this Sunday. If so, it would be the first time in my memory that Shields matched up with receivers in consecutive weeks. Of course, in prior years, there was a reasonable debate on whether Shields was even the #1 corner on the team. That, obviously, is no longer a question.