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It was an ugly win. But a win is a win, and it feels pretty good to be 4-0. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was a little scared of this game. Yes, the 49ers’ mass exodus has left them reeling. But it was still Colin Kaepernick vs. a Dom Capers’ defense. And, while Russell Wilson didn’t shred the Packers on the ground a couple weeks ago, he still had a pretty good day (78 yards on 10 rushing attempts), and I got the feeling he could pick up yards on the read option whenever he wanted to. I had visions of Kaepernick rolling for another 181 yards on the ground while the camera kept showing Capers in the booth, head in his hands.
Fortunately, that did not happen. Outside of a couple plays, Kaepernick seems to be broken. He’s not making his reads. He’s not keeping his eyes downfield when he breaks the pocket. When he does throw, his left arm swings around wildly, affecting his accuracy. At times, his throws resembled late-career Donovan McNabb: either thrown 15 feet over a receiver’s head or 5 feet in front of them, neither option coming with any amount of touch. For someone who was once regarded as one of most exciting up-and-coming players in the game, it’s odd to watch him completely falling apart at the ripe old age of 27. When the announcers are saying things like, “You know, they may want to give Blaine Gabbert a look,” you know you have some serious room for improvement. It’s possible for him to get back to the player he was, but right now all I see is a broken player.
Because of all of that, the Packers weren’t overly concerned about Kaepernick beating them with his arm, so they were able to pull the safeties up to the line and focus on stopping the run. It worked beautifully, with the Packers defense completely shutting down the 49ers offense. Aaron Rodgers and company provided some memorable plays, but the offensive fireworks from last week didn’t show up. Still, even though it was only 17-3, the game never really seemed in doubt. It was an absolutely dominant game by the defense. We’re a quarter of the way into the season and the defense has been fantastic so far. It looks like they’re for real.
Let’s get to the film. As always, stats and ratings from Pro Football Focus.
THE BAD
Even after watching the 49ers do this to them time and time again, some players still bite hard on Colin Kaepernick’s [7] read option. Look at Mike Neal [96] coming off the right side. He crashes hard and totally exposes the edge, allowing Kaepernick a huge area to run to. To his credit, Micah Hyde [33] is coming over the top to help with contain on that side, but he is completely taken out of the play by Vance McDonald [89].
This is Quinton Patton’s [11] big run (technically a short reception, but whatever). He’s coming from the bottom of the screen and running towards Kaepernick before the snap. The pursuit on this isn’t bad, but the Packers defense was ultimately undone by Casey Hayward [29] getting too far inside, falling down, trying to recover, and taking Nate Palmer [51] out of the play. Patton is very fast, so it’s possible he would have picked up these yards even without Hayward’s gaffe. Palmer is coming from the inside and doesn’t have the best angle, but it’s possible he could have slowed Patton down as he turned the corner.
THE GOOD
We’re going to start The Good with a play that had a bad outcome, but could be a sign of good things in the future.
This is the first play of the game. 49ers are in Cover 1 Robber. Ty Montgomery [88] starts the play at the bottom of the screen. Just watch Montgomery run this route. It’s nothing amazing, but it’s a nice little stop-and-go that puts some space between him and his defender. It’s a nifty little move and it works perfectly. He’s not able to haul in a perfect pass from Rodgers, but it’s still a nice move by the rookie. In case you forgot, I love Ty Montgomery.
This is the Aaron Rodgers [12] to Richard Rodgers [82] touchdown pass. The thing that makes the Packers great is how well the receivers react to Aaron Rodgers buying time. Watch Richard Rodgers all the way through this play. He starts at the top of the screen. The initial call is for him to run a dig, which he does. When Aaron Rodgers breaks the pocket, Richard Rodgers drifts back into the end zone, hesitates in the back, then breaks outside around the same time Aaron Rodgers does. The defender loses Richard Rodgers, it’s a great pass and 6 points.
Something else to look at here. Watch Eddie Lacy [27]. He starts the play in the backfield. He runs a delayed out and eventually works his way back in. He finds himself wide open in the middle of the field. Rodgers even looks his way, but, as it looks like he’s going to throw, he gets flushed to his left.
I love watching this play and following each receiver. They’re all scrambling to get open. With a quarterback like Rodgers and a line like the Packers currently have, that is so valuable.
In this play, we’ll be looking at Richard Rodgers [82]. He’s in the backfield, offset to the right. I mentioned this a few posts ago, but I find it curious that the Packers have two fullbacks on the roster, yet Richard Rodgers has spent so much time in the backfield this season. Watch as he acts as a fullback in this play. He hits the hole and turns out Michael Wilhoite [57] to give Eddie Lacy [27] a huge hole to run through.
I’m not saying Richard Rodgers is suddenly a great run blocker, but he is certainly better than he was last season, so they can use him in roles like this.
In the third quarter, the Packers had a series where they trotted out a full house backfield consisting of Richard Rodgers, Eddie Lacy and John Kuhn. They moved guys around a lot pre-snap, but they are able to do a lot from that formation, especially if Richard Rodgers can do things like this. Defenses have to respect the run game, but they also have to assume they can pass out of that formation at any time. It opens up a ton of opportunities for them in their offense.
Since we’re looking at the run game, let’s take a look at one of the 4th down conversions to close out the second half.
Not only is Richard Rodgers in the backfield, but Ty Montgomery [88] is back there as well. You can see what this does to the defense. With two pass catchers on the right side of the line, the defense has no choice but to stack a couple guys on that side. Richard Rodgers has a nice little cut-block, while Montgomery runs a route to the ride, taking a defender with him. Lacy runs left, finds a hole behind Josh Sitton [71] and Corey Linsley [63] and easily converts the 4th and 1.
It’s a great look to give a defense on 4th and 1 (by not telegraphing the run, they have to respect the pass), and great execution. I love this play.
Let’s close out the offense by looking at one of the more memorable plays of the day: Aaron Rodgers firing a dart off his back foot and hitting a perfect throw to James Jones [89] on the sideline. Jones starts at the top of the screen. Just watch his route. He actually has a step on his man as he veers towards the sideline, but Rodgers is flushed from the pocket and can’t deliver the ball on time. Instead, he takes a step back and unleashes this little beauty, and Jones gets to pay homage to Jordy Nelson with some nifty footwork.
Let’s turn to the defense.
This play pretty much sums up what the Packers were able to do against the 49ers run game all day long. Clay Matthews [52] gets the tackle, but look at how the defense plays this. Everyone is pulled up to the line and all gaps are filled. At one point, Carlos Hyde [28] looks to cut back, but the back side of the offensive line has been collapsed and the cutback lane has been filled. A perfectly executed run stop.
We looked at a bad read option play above, so let’s look at a good one. Clay Matthews [52] scrapes over the top, taking away the outside. Colin Kaepernick [7] still has a pretty big hole to run through on the left, so he takes off. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21] is there, and Kaepernick goes to the ground. The result of this play is not what I’m concerned with (although the result is pretty great). I’ve mentioned many times how Clinton-Dix has a tendency to drop his head as he’s going for a tackle. This is especially notable in the hole, where a number of running backs have slipped by him. Watch him here. He has his head up, keeps the runner in front of him and completes the tackle. Even if Kaepernick had stayed up here, Clinton-Dix was in a great position to make this tackle. This is an encouraging sign.
While we’re on the topic of Clinton-Dix and Kaepernick, let’s look at this play. Clinton-Dix starts as the safety on the bottom side of the field. He creeps up to the line pre-snap, then bails towards the middle post-snap. He has coverage on the receiver in the middle. Once Kaepernick breaks the pocket, Clinton-Dix tracks him down and makes a great tackle. That’s a lot of ground to cover, but Clinton-Dix plays this perfectly. He has tremendous range and vision.
I want to look at Casey Hayward [29] on this play. He follows Anquan Boldin [81] across the field. At the snap, Boldin steps back and a tight end comes out to set up a wide receiver screen. Hayward recognizes the block coming from the inside and attacks Boldin. He doesn’t make the tackle, but it shows good instincts by Hayward to sniff this play out as it was developing.
B.J. Raji [90] has been having a dynamite year. Let’s look at a couple plays where he just wrecks stuff.
When Raji was struggling a couple years ago, the scheme was for him to just absorb blockers at the line. This year he’s back to his attacking ways. He starts on the left side of the line. He doesn’t make the tackle here, but look at him shoot the gap and force Carlos Hyde back to the other side of the line. Like some other plays I’ve talked about, the result isn’t great, but Raji plays this exactly how he should.
Raji is in the middle here. I showed this angle (as opposed to the one behind the line) because this view better illustrates just how much the Packers pushed the 49ers offensive line back. Raji collapsed the middle and took away the cutback, but the entire defensive line made a wall that made it impossible for Hyde to go anywhere.
We’re going to finish this off with three sacks:
Here’s Nick Perry [53] on the right, using his hands to knock down Joe Staley’s [74] arms to create just enough space to use his speed to get around for the sack. This is the Nick Perry I’ve been waiting for.
Here’s Jayrone Elliott [91] coming off the left side, getting off a chip block, reading the line and looping back to the hole to get a sack.
Lastly, here’s Mike Neal [96] coming free off the right side and swinging Kaepernick around.
It was another tremendous performance by the defense. Pass rush. Run stopping. Coverage. They did it all. It’s hard to watch this game and not get excited with how well the defense has been playing. It’s a long season, but these games have been encouraging. And Dom Capers – long a punching bag of Packers fans – has been terrific this year. He’s trying out new things. He’s moving guys around. He’s giving the offense a ton of looks every game. It’s nice to finally see a well-designed defense with players who know their roles and fly to the ball.
Random Thoughts:
– The Packers ran 24 more offensive plays than the 49ers (75 to 51).
– Outside of the big play we looked at above, Damarious Randall turned in another solid game. I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating: traditionally, cornerback is the hardest position for a rookie to step in and play at a high level, but that is exactly what he has done through these first four games. I was very excited about him in the draft, but I didn’t think he’d be this good this fast.
– When throwing at Sam Shields, Kaepernick was 1/4 for 7 yards and an interception, for a QB rating of 0.0.
– During a first quarter drive, Randall Cobb and Ty Montgomery both spent time in the backfield. It’s a look I’ve been waiting for ever since they drafted Montgomery. Even though the drive stalled, I loved the idea behind it. I really hope to see more of this in the future. They should be able to get some really good match-ups.
– By my count, Clay Matthews lined up at inside linebacker on 47.1% of snaps. This is the first game I’ve charted him, but I believe that number has been higher in other games this season. He looks really good in the middle. Still not great in coverage, but he is all over the middle of the field. He’s great in run support and it gives him yet another angle to rush the passer when they decide to bring him. Time permitting, I’m going to be keeping an eye on where he lines up throughout the season.
– The Packers gave the 49ers the Cover 0 look (no deep safeties) on 19.6% of their snaps. I don’t know what the league average is, but I know the use of Cover 0 is extremely rare. I’d be shocked if the Packers got that look more than 5 times this entire season, and they likely won’t see it at all. The Packers just weren’t concerned about Kaepernick beating them deep, and they were right not to fear that. By doing this, the Packers were able to stack the line and plug the gaps, taking away the 49ers rushing attack.
– The much heralded move of signing Jared Abbrederis to the active roster produced no excitement on Sunday. He never left the sideline. Here’s hoping he gets into a game soon. I know a lot of us are very excited to see what he can add to the offense.
– Don Barclay was, once again, beaten like a drum. Rushers opposite him accounted for 3 sacks, 1 QB hit and 3 QB hurries. Let’s hope Rodgers is able to walk off the field against the Rams this weekend.
– When John Kuhn found the end zone from 1 yard out, someone in the bar we were in shouted “JOHN KUHN VAN DAMME!” (I can neither confirm nor deny this someone was my youngest brother.)
Albums listened to: Lord Huron – Strange Trails; Common – Like Water For Chocolate; Metric – Pagans in Vegas; Pearl Jam – Ten; Gin Wigmore – Blood to Bone; Soundtrack – Pan’s Labyrinth
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Fortunately, that did not happen. Outside of a couple plays, Kaepernick seems to be broken. He’s not making his reads. He’s not keeping his eyes downfield when he breaks the pocket. When he does throw, his left arm swings around wildly, affecting his accuracy. At times, his throws resembled late-career Donovan McNabb: either thrown 15 feet over a receiver’s head or 5 feet in front of them, neither option coming with any amount of touch. For someone who was once regarded as one of most exciting up-and-coming players in the game, it’s odd to watch him completely falling apart at the ripe old age of 27. When the announcers are saying things like, “You know, they may want to give Blaine Gabbert a look,” you know you have some serious room for improvement. It’s possible for him to get back to the player he was, but right now all I see is a broken player.
Because of all of that, the Packers weren’t overly concerned about Kaepernick beating them with his arm, so they were able to pull the safeties up to the line and focus on stopping the run. It worked beautifully, with the Packers defense completely shutting down the 49ers offense. Aaron Rodgers and company provided some memorable plays, but the offensive fireworks from last week didn’t show up. Still, even though it was only 17-3, the game never really seemed in doubt. It was an absolutely dominant game by the defense. We’re a quarter of the way into the season and the defense has been fantastic so far. It looks like they’re for real.
Let’s get to the film. As always, stats and ratings from Pro Football Focus.
THE BAD
Even after watching the 49ers do this to them time and time again, some players still bite hard on Colin Kaepernick’s [7] read option. Look at Mike Neal [96] coming off the right side. He crashes hard and totally exposes the edge, allowing Kaepernick a huge area to run to. To his credit, Micah Hyde [33] is coming over the top to help with contain on that side, but he is completely taken out of the play by Vance McDonald [89].
This is Quinton Patton’s [11] big run (technically a short reception, but whatever). He’s coming from the bottom of the screen and running towards Kaepernick before the snap. The pursuit on this isn’t bad, but the Packers defense was ultimately undone by Casey Hayward [29] getting too far inside, falling down, trying to recover, and taking Nate Palmer [51] out of the play. Patton is very fast, so it’s possible he would have picked up these yards even without Hayward’s gaffe. Palmer is coming from the inside and doesn’t have the best angle, but it’s possible he could have slowed Patton down as he turned the corner.
THE GOOD
We’re going to start The Good with a play that had a bad outcome, but could be a sign of good things in the future.
This is the first play of the game. 49ers are in Cover 1 Robber. Ty Montgomery [88] starts the play at the bottom of the screen. Just watch Montgomery run this route. It’s nothing amazing, but it’s a nice little stop-and-go that puts some space between him and his defender. It’s a nifty little move and it works perfectly. He’s not able to haul in a perfect pass from Rodgers, but it’s still a nice move by the rookie. In case you forgot, I love Ty Montgomery.
This is the Aaron Rodgers [12] to Richard Rodgers [82] touchdown pass. The thing that makes the Packers great is how well the receivers react to Aaron Rodgers buying time. Watch Richard Rodgers all the way through this play. He starts at the top of the screen. The initial call is for him to run a dig, which he does. When Aaron Rodgers breaks the pocket, Richard Rodgers drifts back into the end zone, hesitates in the back, then breaks outside around the same time Aaron Rodgers does. The defender loses Richard Rodgers, it’s a great pass and 6 points.
Something else to look at here. Watch Eddie Lacy [27]. He starts the play in the backfield. He runs a delayed out and eventually works his way back in. He finds himself wide open in the middle of the field. Rodgers even looks his way, but, as it looks like he’s going to throw, he gets flushed to his left.
I love watching this play and following each receiver. They’re all scrambling to get open. With a quarterback like Rodgers and a line like the Packers currently have, that is so valuable.
In this play, we’ll be looking at Richard Rodgers [82]. He’s in the backfield, offset to the right. I mentioned this a few posts ago, but I find it curious that the Packers have two fullbacks on the roster, yet Richard Rodgers has spent so much time in the backfield this season. Watch as he acts as a fullback in this play. He hits the hole and turns out Michael Wilhoite [57] to give Eddie Lacy [27] a huge hole to run through.
I’m not saying Richard Rodgers is suddenly a great run blocker, but he is certainly better than he was last season, so they can use him in roles like this.
In the third quarter, the Packers had a series where they trotted out a full house backfield consisting of Richard Rodgers, Eddie Lacy and John Kuhn. They moved guys around a lot pre-snap, but they are able to do a lot from that formation, especially if Richard Rodgers can do things like this. Defenses have to respect the run game, but they also have to assume they can pass out of that formation at any time. It opens up a ton of opportunities for them in their offense.
Since we’re looking at the run game, let’s take a look at one of the 4th down conversions to close out the second half.
Not only is Richard Rodgers in the backfield, but Ty Montgomery [88] is back there as well. You can see what this does to the defense. With two pass catchers on the right side of the line, the defense has no choice but to stack a couple guys on that side. Richard Rodgers has a nice little cut-block, while Montgomery runs a route to the ride, taking a defender with him. Lacy runs left, finds a hole behind Josh Sitton [71] and Corey Linsley [63] and easily converts the 4th and 1.
It’s a great look to give a defense on 4th and 1 (by not telegraphing the run, they have to respect the pass), and great execution. I love this play.
Let’s close out the offense by looking at one of the more memorable plays of the day: Aaron Rodgers firing a dart off his back foot and hitting a perfect throw to James Jones [89] on the sideline. Jones starts at the top of the screen. Just watch his route. He actually has a step on his man as he veers towards the sideline, but Rodgers is flushed from the pocket and can’t deliver the ball on time. Instead, he takes a step back and unleashes this little beauty, and Jones gets to pay homage to Jordy Nelson with some nifty footwork.
Let’s turn to the defense.
This play pretty much sums up what the Packers were able to do against the 49ers run game all day long. Clay Matthews [52] gets the tackle, but look at how the defense plays this. Everyone is pulled up to the line and all gaps are filled. At one point, Carlos Hyde [28] looks to cut back, but the back side of the offensive line has been collapsed and the cutback lane has been filled. A perfectly executed run stop.
We looked at a bad read option play above, so let’s look at a good one. Clay Matthews [52] scrapes over the top, taking away the outside. Colin Kaepernick [7] still has a pretty big hole to run through on the left, so he takes off. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix [21] is there, and Kaepernick goes to the ground. The result of this play is not what I’m concerned with (although the result is pretty great). I’ve mentioned many times how Clinton-Dix has a tendency to drop his head as he’s going for a tackle. This is especially notable in the hole, where a number of running backs have slipped by him. Watch him here. He has his head up, keeps the runner in front of him and completes the tackle. Even if Kaepernick had stayed up here, Clinton-Dix was in a great position to make this tackle. This is an encouraging sign.
While we’re on the topic of Clinton-Dix and Kaepernick, let’s look at this play. Clinton-Dix starts as the safety on the bottom side of the field. He creeps up to the line pre-snap, then bails towards the middle post-snap. He has coverage on the receiver in the middle. Once Kaepernick breaks the pocket, Clinton-Dix tracks him down and makes a great tackle. That’s a lot of ground to cover, but Clinton-Dix plays this perfectly. He has tremendous range and vision.
I want to look at Casey Hayward [29] on this play. He follows Anquan Boldin [81] across the field. At the snap, Boldin steps back and a tight end comes out to set up a wide receiver screen. Hayward recognizes the block coming from the inside and attacks Boldin. He doesn’t make the tackle, but it shows good instincts by Hayward to sniff this play out as it was developing.
B.J. Raji [90] has been having a dynamite year. Let’s look at a couple plays where he just wrecks stuff.
When Raji was struggling a couple years ago, the scheme was for him to just absorb blockers at the line. This year he’s back to his attacking ways. He starts on the left side of the line. He doesn’t make the tackle here, but look at him shoot the gap and force Carlos Hyde back to the other side of the line. Like some other plays I’ve talked about, the result isn’t great, but Raji plays this exactly how he should.
Raji is in the middle here. I showed this angle (as opposed to the one behind the line) because this view better illustrates just how much the Packers pushed the 49ers offensive line back. Raji collapsed the middle and took away the cutback, but the entire defensive line made a wall that made it impossible for Hyde to go anywhere.
We’re going to finish this off with three sacks:
Here’s Nick Perry [53] on the right, using his hands to knock down Joe Staley’s [74] arms to create just enough space to use his speed to get around for the sack. This is the Nick Perry I’ve been waiting for.
Here’s Jayrone Elliott [91] coming off the left side, getting off a chip block, reading the line and looping back to the hole to get a sack.
Lastly, here’s Mike Neal [96] coming free off the right side and swinging Kaepernick around.
It was another tremendous performance by the defense. Pass rush. Run stopping. Coverage. They did it all. It’s hard to watch this game and not get excited with how well the defense has been playing. It’s a long season, but these games have been encouraging. And Dom Capers – long a punching bag of Packers fans – has been terrific this year. He’s trying out new things. He’s moving guys around. He’s giving the offense a ton of looks every game. It’s nice to finally see a well-designed defense with players who know their roles and fly to the ball.
Random Thoughts:
– The Packers ran 24 more offensive plays than the 49ers (75 to 51).
– Outside of the big play we looked at above, Damarious Randall turned in another solid game. I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating: traditionally, cornerback is the hardest position for a rookie to step in and play at a high level, but that is exactly what he has done through these first four games. I was very excited about him in the draft, but I didn’t think he’d be this good this fast.
– When throwing at Sam Shields, Kaepernick was 1/4 for 7 yards and an interception, for a QB rating of 0.0.
– During a first quarter drive, Randall Cobb and Ty Montgomery both spent time in the backfield. It’s a look I’ve been waiting for ever since they drafted Montgomery. Even though the drive stalled, I loved the idea behind it. I really hope to see more of this in the future. They should be able to get some really good match-ups.
– By my count, Clay Matthews lined up at inside linebacker on 47.1% of snaps. This is the first game I’ve charted him, but I believe that number has been higher in other games this season. He looks really good in the middle. Still not great in coverage, but he is all over the middle of the field. He’s great in run support and it gives him yet another angle to rush the passer when they decide to bring him. Time permitting, I’m going to be keeping an eye on where he lines up throughout the season.
– The Packers gave the 49ers the Cover 0 look (no deep safeties) on 19.6% of their snaps. I don’t know what the league average is, but I know the use of Cover 0 is extremely rare. I’d be shocked if the Packers got that look more than 5 times this entire season, and they likely won’t see it at all. The Packers just weren’t concerned about Kaepernick beating them deep, and they were right not to fear that. By doing this, the Packers were able to stack the line and plug the gaps, taking away the 49ers rushing attack.
– The much heralded move of signing Jared Abbrederis to the active roster produced no excitement on Sunday. He never left the sideline. Here’s hoping he gets into a game soon. I know a lot of us are very excited to see what he can add to the offense.
– Don Barclay was, once again, beaten like a drum. Rushers opposite him accounted for 3 sacks, 1 QB hit and 3 QB hurries. Let’s hope Rodgers is able to walk off the field against the Rams this weekend.
– When John Kuhn found the end zone from 1 yard out, someone in the bar we were in shouted “JOHN KUHN VAN DAMME!” (I can neither confirm nor deny this someone was my youngest brother.)
Albums listened to: Lord Huron – Strange Trails; Common – Like Water For Chocolate; Metric – Pagans in Vegas; Pearl Jam – Ten; Gin Wigmore – Blood to Bone; Soundtrack – Pan’s Labyrinth
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