After the first seven weeks of the 2015 NFL season the Green Bay Packers looked unstoppable. After nine weeks, the team looks to be standing on shaky ground.
The team has faced undefeated sides in the past two weeks and had the cleaners put through them on both occasions. Last week the previously dormant Denver Broncos offence came to life as Peyton Manning threw for 340 yards while the Broncos picked up 160 yards on the ground. This week the mediocre Carolina Panthers offence picked up 427 total yards.
Additionally, in the team’s week six victory over San Diego, Phillip Rivers threw for a whopping 503 yards. It took a final minute goal-line stand for the Packers to escape with the win. Defensively, this is the worst three-game stretch in Green Bay Packers history.
One of the most concerning trends for the Packers has been the space across the middle of the field. Both Manning and Cam Newton picked apart the Packers defence by hitting open receivers running crossing or slant routes. It hasn’t mattered if they were short crosses or deep crosses, the receivers have been open.
Part of the reason for this was the fact that the Packers defence has not been able to pressure the quarterback. Newton was able to stand in the pocket and wait for receivers to get open.
He was not sacked once and was hit just twice.
The frustrations are clearly getting the better of the defence. Haha Clinton-Dix, BJ Raji and Julius Peppers were involved in a sideline kerfuffle. This is not a major story just yet but the coaching staff must ensure it doesn’t develop into something far more serious, like a major locker-room rift.
The Packers problems haven’t been confined to the defence. Coming up against the two best defences in the competition in successive weeks is no easy task. However it is a major test for a team with Super Bowl aspirations and the Packers clearly struggled.
The issues for the Cheese-heads start with the offensive line. Aaron Rodgers has been swamped by opposition blitzes repeatedly over the past three matches. He has only been sacked 11 times in that stretch. Rodgers was hit 14 times in this week’s game alone.
His performance last weekend against Denver was particularly impressive. Rodgers was standing in the pocket as it crumbled around him. He moved around, continually evading Broncos defenders, waiting, hoping, for a teammate to get open. Most of the time it did not happen and he was forced to either scramble or throw the ball away. It was a miracle that he was only sacked three times.
This weekend against Carolina it was more of the same. He faced constant pressure. The dropped interception that came with four minutes to go in the third quarter was a direct result of the pressure that the defensive line and linebackers were putting on Rodgers.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Packers. The team’s second half rally showed us what Aaron Rodgers can do. He is an absolute wizard, if a receiver is able to get open, he will hit him. Against Carolina the receivers finally started to find themselves in a bit of space, partly because the Panthers switched off, but nevertheless Rodgers managed to hit his targets.
The Packers have a few easier games coming up over the next month. Rodgers will have a bit more time and will face less pressure. The team should still be penciled in for the NFC North division title and a home playoff match-up. This loss may have cost them the number one seed, especially when you factor in tiebreakers.
On Monday the St Louis Rams faced the Packers’ biggest challenger for the NFC North, the Minnesota Vikings. The Rams are an intriguing team to watch each week.
Despite a number of promising early season predictions, the St Louis Rams have spent the past decade mired in mediocrity. They have had numerous poor draft selections and questionable free agency signings but their primary problems have stemmed from the quarterback position.
When the team drafted Sam Bradford with the first overall pick in the 2010 draft they hoped that it was the start of a new chapter. There was hope that Bradford would lead them to the promised land that is the NFL playoffs.
However Bradford turned out to be a nightmare for St Louis. He showed adequate development in his first few seasons but spent most of the 2013 and 2014 seasons on the sideline with consecutive left ACL tears.
Entering the 2015 season the Rams were unsure where they stood with Bradford. His development had been hampered by two years of injuries, he was still unable to throw a deep ball and nobody quite knew what to expect from him this season. That is why it was not surprising that the team agreed to trade Bradford to the Eagles when Chip Kelly came calling in the offseason.
For both the Rams and Bradford it was time for change. The team feared another serious injury and another season spent waiting for a healthy quarterback. With Nick Foles as the starter the Rams were able to protect the football, rely on Todd Gurley to run the ball and the defence to control field position.
So far Foles has done a good job protecting the football, other than that ugly four intercept performance against Green Bay. However he hasn’t done much else. He’s topped 200 yards just once, in week one. His completion percentage for the season sits below 60per cent and he has thrown just seven touchdowns.
His performance against the Jarryd Hayne-less 49ers last weekend was ugly at best. He was lucky not to throw any intercepts despite facing very little pressure in the pocket. The Foles-led offence is ranked 28th in DVOA. This week Foles struggled again, throwing for just 168 yards. Yes he was able to control the football but he didn’t drive his team into the end zone when it mattered most, late in the game.
The poor recent play of Foles has been overshadowed by the emergence of a genuine superstar in Todd Gurley, another player with recent knee issues. After the Rams drafted Gurley with their first round pick there were no question marks surrounding the running back’s ability. He showed us at Georgia how great he is.
There were question marks surrounding his health. Would he ever return to his college form. Would he suffer another knee injury? Or would he end up like Marcus Lattimore and never even make the game day roster?
Well through six games we have the answer to a few of those questions. He has well and truly rediscovered his college form and while an injury can occur at any time it appears as though his knee has well and truly recovered from last year’s gruesome ACL tear.
Gurley has completely dominated opposing defences in recent weeks. He has been physical, running over defenders. He has been quick, bursting through holes and burning chasing defenders. And he has been smart, recognising when he needs to stay in bounds to keep the clock running and when he should be fighting for more yardage. Through six games he has run for 664 yards and four touchdowns, including 100-yard running games in his first four starts.
The tenth overall draft pick is a massive price to pay for a running back but Gurley is one of the best to emerge out of the draft in years. If he is able to single-handedly win his team matches, it’s worth the cost.
The other piece in the Rams puzzle is their defence. The fifth-ranked defence in the league is terrorising opposing quarterbacks. The team has recorded 27 sacks, tied for second in the league. Last week they constantly pressured Colin Kaepernick, sacking him three times and recording nine quarterback hits.
Kaepernick never looked comfortable in or out of the pocket, although he hasn’t looked comfortable all season and was benched after the match.
This week the Rams delivered an uncharacteristic performance in terms of pressuring the quarterback. They recorded just one sack and five quarterback hits, although they did manage to illegally knock Teddy Bridgewater out of the game.
However, when the game was in the balance they definitely stood up. The Rams defence restricted the Vikings offence to just 39 yards in the fourth quarter and it was the defence who kept the team in the match.
This week’s match against the Minnesota Vikings served as a major indictor of where the Rams are right now. It garnered mixed results. On the positive side, the team at worst matched the Vikings and even outplayed them for portions of the match. It was a game the team would have won if it weren’t for multiple missed field goals.
The fact remains that the Rams lost. In a tight wildcard race such losses often prove very costly when it comes to playoff qualification. This will be a match that the Rams look back on and rue.
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