I have personally touted how well the Green Bay Packers’ secondary held up in week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks. After putting some more thought into it and devouring quite a bit of information, I believe the secondary still remains a concern.
Against Seattle, there were a couple things to be impressed about. First, they held Russell Wilson to 158 yards passing. That’s great. Second, the cornerbacks weren’t afraid to be physical. That’s something they were the opposite of, last year.
That said, their success was predicated almost entirely on the pass rush.
It’s hard to complete passes — especially downfield passes — when you have no time to throw. The Seahawks were readily trying to get the ball downfield. The Packers didn’t have good coverage on a lot of those plays. Wilson just had someone constantly in his face.
Had he had time to survey the field, it may have been a different story.
That brings me to Atlanta. If the Packers’ pass rush can’t get off like it did against Seattle — and I wouldn’t expect it to, since the Falcons have a far superior offensive line — we’re going to see just how good this secondary really is.
My prediction is we’ll come out of this game thinking they’re not much better than last year.
Quinten Rollins is my biggest concern, although Damarious Randall and Davon House aren’t far behind. Consider these guys graded out at 50.4, 45.6 and 51.2, respectively, last week. That is well below average.
In fact, House was only the 51st ranked cornerback in the league after week 1, according to PFF.
It galls me even more than it initially did, the more I think about it. That is, the Packers releasing LaDarius Gunter. No, he isn’t a No. 1 cornerback, but he can be a solid No. 2.
Why not release Lenzy Pipkins, a guy who wasn’t even active in week 1? The Packers would have had no problem getting him back on the practice squad.
We know House is going to get Julio Jones. If Rollins struggles, I’d expect to see Randall moved to the slot and rookie Kevin King to get a shot on the outside. It seems logical, now that Gunter is gone, that Josh Hawkins would be active in week 2, as well.
Everyone has put the Packers on a pedestal this week. Don’t be surprised if they’re knocked right off on Sunday. If that happens, I’ll bet the culprit is the secondary.