The Green Bay Packers’ defense was among the NFL’s worst at g

enerating turnovers in 2018.Only one team had fewer interceptions than the Packers’ seven https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Reggie-White-Jersey , a number that represents a huge dropoff from the 17 they had just two years earlier. Under new coordinator Mike Pettine, the Packers used primarily press-man coverage schemes, largely allowing quarterbacks to predict before the ball was snapped what they would see from the defense after.Defensive coordinators largely try to generate confusion in the offensive players, but often — especially with Pettine — the attempts are focused around disguising pass rush pressure. The defense would try to sow doubt in the heads of offensive linemen as well as the quarterback, but seemingly only in terms of where the pressure would come from.This week, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky broke down some film from the Indianapolis Colts, whose defense has been a revelation with new personnel and a new coordinator in Matt Eberflus. The Colts, Orlovsky argues, aim to confuse the quarterback by disguising their coverages.One of the advantages of pre-snap motion, something that is all the rage in modern NFL offenses Aaron Rodgers Jersey , is that it helps define whether the defense is in man or zone coverage. That in turn helps the quarterback determine which receivers should be open, or at least how to move through his progressions. The alignment of certain players, such as splitting a running back out wide, can also help force the defense to show its hand early.The Colts, however, are gaming the traditional system. They will show signs that they are sitting in man coverage — lining up a linebacker out wide and sending a cornerback across the formation to follow a receiver in motion — but drop back into zone coverage instead. That runs counter to what quarterbacks are taught since youth football, and it had some great results in the Wild Card round against the Houston Texans. Take a look at Orlovsky’s analysis:After watching that piece, it’s clear that one of the factors that Orlovsky mentioned is something that any defense should be able to execute: have a defensive back follow a receiver across the formation, then drop the whole unit back into zone. There may be a bit of a gap in the zone, but spacing the defenders appropriately and having enough awareness in the back seven to not leave portions of the field uncovered is something that most teams should be able to pull off.However Randall Cobb Color Rush Jersey , it’s the Darius Leonard piece who truly holds the key to this concept. Splitting a linebacker on a running back out wide then trusting that player to hold up in zone coverage is something that you can’t do with just any linebacker. Leonard is a first-team All-Pro this season precisely because he’s not your ordinary linebacker. His 40-yard dash at the 2018 Scouting Combine was a 4.70 — right at the midpoint for off-ball linebackers — but that’s deceiving because he pulled a hamstring on his only attempt and did not run at his Pro Day. He’s an excellent athlete with very good movement skills, essential qualities to playing coverage on the boundary.The Packers have two players who can play inside linebacker and who have the athleticism necessary to hold up in a similar role: Josh Jones and Oren Burks. While Burks’ snaps on defense dropped off to almost zero after week 9 against the Patriots this season, he absolutely has the physical ability to stay with running backs and receivers. His athletic testing puts him in the 82nd percentile or above in every movement drill, showing echoes of his past as a safety.Likewise, Jones finished out 2018 as a de facto linebacker, playing next to Blake Martinez with regularity while still being listed officially as a safety. His speed makes him a candidate here as well. The fact that he is classified as a defensive back may make this a bit less deceptive, but when combined with following a motion man on the other side of a formation, it still makes for a pair of signals to the offense that the defense is matched up in man.The cliche goes that the NFL is a copycat league. Since Mike Pettine has the personnel to do so, he should absolutely borrow this idea from his counterpart in Indy to help sow some seeds of doubt in opposing quarterbacks. While the Green Bay Packers’ offense surely will have a real test this week against a dangerous Chicago defense, they couldn’t have asked for a better start to the Joe Philbin experiment.Giving Atlanta’s defense numerous looks early in the game https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Corey-Linsley-Jersey , Aaron Rodgers and company were able to dink-and-dunk early while opening up the playbook as the game wore on. And with Green Bay’s franchise quarterback looking as close to his old self as he has since the first half of week two against Minnesota, the Packers were able to build a near-insurmountable lead by the end of the third quarter and cruise to a victory. But will they be able to begin a winning streak?Here are some Friday observations and items to ponder.Packers will try once again to pick up back-to-back winsIf Green Bay can defeat Chicago this week, a team that it was 19-7 against during Mike McCarthy’s tenure, the Packers will achieve their first stretch of back-to-back wins in the 2018 season. A second-consecutive victory has evaded the Packers thus far, with Green Bay coming up especially just short in week two against Minnesota and week eight at Los Angeles. The Packers have tallied back-to-back wins at least once in each of the past 12 years, last failing to do so during their 4-12 season in 2005 that saw Mike Sherman get the boot. Aaron Rodgers physically looked healthier than he has all seasonTo me, there was a noticeable pep in Rodgers’ step against Atlanta - one that we haven’t seen in quite some time.Going back to the tape, I counted 10 times during the game in which Rodgers either was forced to elude the pass rush or side-step defenders in the pocket. That doesn’t even account for designed roll-outs. Some of those instances included long rushes after being flushed out of the pocket and even a third quarter underhand heave while being taken down to avoid a sack. Rodgers’ knee sure looked back to normal as he was able to tear away from defenders and quickly get into his old gear as a runner as seen in the video below.Even on sacks, outside of the first one of the game in which Atlanta brought an untouched blitzer from the corner position, Rodgers put up an admirable fight in trying to escape. His mobility appears to be back.Tempo led to offensive successIn Philbin’s first game calling the shots Jaire Alexander Jersey , there seemed to be an emphasis placed on quicker tempo and getting the offense into a rhythm early in the game.After issues have been raised all season long with the Packers burning timeouts because of a dwindling play clock and looking unorganized at the line before the snap, Green Bay looked much more polished and aware of the game plan. Before purposely working the play clock around the midpoint of the fourth quarter, I counted just 11 plays in which the Packers snapped the ball with five seconds or less remaining. There were no delay of game penalties. There were no wasted timeouts. The Packers even almost got a “free play” after Rodgers made a defensive lineman jump on the hard count but made contact to attract a whistle. Those opportunities have been much fewer this season as the Packers have struggled with tempo, but they made a return Sunday.As far as rhythm goes, Green Bay’s first drive established just that. A nine-play, 75-yard drive resulted in a touchdown as the Packers took advantage of quick plays and never took the play clock lower than seven seconds. Green Bay opened with two quick passes to the outside with Equanimeous St. Brown before opening up the middle on a quick throw to Randall Cobb. They then tried to stretch the field with a playaction call and an isolated downfield pass to Davante Adams. The Packers then went with the running game on two of the next three plays with another quick screen to Marquez Valdes-Scantling in between. A quick slant to MVS drew a penalty before Rodgers completed a quick-hitter to Adams on the outside for a score.The Packers’ quick-strike passing game, mixed in with deeper shots and running plays, kept Atlanta very off guard on an up-tempo opening drive. Perhaps most importantly, the Packers got Rodgers and his top four wide receivers involved early and often.