Packers' Defense Asking for Trouble

There were massive changes made on the Green Bay Packers coaching staff after 2008 -- a season in which the team went 6-10, seemingly bottomed out on defense with a generally putrid season, and somehow couldn't score enough points with a highly-rated quarterback and potent offense to make up for all of it.

New coordinator Dom Capers brought promises of change with him, as he installed the 3-4 defense. However, an alarming performance Sunday at home against Cincinnati showed that Capers and his new staff still have a lot of work, as they try to pull the players out of a funk that threatens to ruin yet another football season in Wisconsin.


While the Chicago Bears were weighed down by an inaccurate quarterback and non-existent running game in a Week 1 loss to the Packers, the Bengals had no such problems in Week 2. Their 31-24 win was centered on a couple major factors.

For starters, the Packers were simply unable to provide adequate protection for quarterback Aaron Rodgers, no matter who was working up front. Starting left tackle Chad Clifton was injured, and his replacement was left guard Daryn Colledge. While Colledge has the ready-made excuse that he has prepared to work at left guard -- and that's quite a change to make during a game -- head coach Mike McCarthy was extremely displeased with the overall play of the line.

"Our pass protection is a negative right now," McCarthy said Sunday. "First of all, running the football will help that. I understand that, but when you set a plan, you put things into your plan, they are done with good reason and with the focus of putting players in the position to be successful. And we're not protecting the quarterback very well right now."

Rodgers has been sacked 13 times over the season's first two games, the most sacks allowed by Green Bay to start a season since 1992, Mike Holmgren's first year at the helm.

As McCarthy mentioned, the Packers' struggle running the ball plays a role. McCarthy's playcalling also has to be held accountable. Under McCarthy, the Packers have become known for abandoning the run far too easily, and far too often. Teams are fully aware that there is a good chance the Packers will flat-out quit giving the ball to Ryan Grant if they can slow him down early in the game. Once this happens, they can pin their ears back and go after Rodgers. Antwan Odom did just that Sunday, sacking Rodgers five times in the Bengals' 31-24 win.

A frustrated head coach addressed the protection issues further on Monday.

"The reality of it is we have fundamental breakdowns," McCarthy said. "As we talked about as a staff today, we could have had nine-man protections on a couple of those where we flat-out just get beat, one individual gets beat fundamentally, and it causes a sack and a quarterback hit that we need to eliminate from our play."

The Packers' other major problem comes on defense, where players spent much of Sunday repeating the same kind of mistakes that ruined their 2008 season.

While Cedric Benson deserves plenty of credit for his big afternoon, there were errors made all over the field to help him out. The Packers were very poor in gap control, allowing Benson to hit a hole and get his legs moving. The tackling was less than stellar, as guys tried to take Benson down with arm tackles while failing to string plays out to limit his running room.

Until the Packers' defense proves they can defend run plays that don't go right up the middle, teams will continue to attack them on the perimeter. Having a solid nose tackle and decent players at middle linebacker won't help this team if they can't be better at stringing the play out to the sideline.

The Bengals hit on nine of 14 third downs in the game, much of that being a product of a poor pass rush and even worse downfield coverage. While Al Harris and Charles Woodson both seemed to play as well as usual, the Bengals picked on nickel cornerback Tramon Williams, along with safeties Aaron Rouse and Nick Collins. Once Collins went down (McCarthy said Monday his injury doesn't appear to be serious), Jarrett Bush filled in, unable to make things much better.

While the coverage struggled, the front seven made it too easy for Carson Palmer. The only way they could generate pressure was to bring extra people, and all that did was give Palmer gaping holes in the secondary to attack.

Other problems have plagued Green Bay, including drops by normally-reliable receivers like Greg Jennings and Donald Driver. Special teams coverage was a near-disaster on Sunday, but was generally decent against the Bears. However, the play by the offensive line and the defense are primary areas of concern for McCarthy and his staff. The team has to respond quickly, as they head to St. Louis Sunday for their first road test of the season.

Simply put, Green Bay must clean these areas up soon, or it's going to be a long season.