So Close, and Yet So Far

  A lot is been made about the fact that Phillip Rivers was able to generate so many passing yards against the Packers in week six. While it’s alarming that the defense gave up that many yards in the passing game, there are several reasons why I’m not too concerned about it going forward.

For starters, The defense was consistently collapsing the pocket on Rivers. It wasn’t as if Philip had all day to throw the ball. His secret was simply to releasable extremely quick.

There were many situations where a packer defender was coming almost untouched on a beeline to the quarterback, only to come up short before the ball with released.

And, even when the Packer defenders were blocked, we collapse the pocket evenly. He was frequently throwing with a face full of his offense of line.

I haven’t seen any data on how fast Rivers was releasing the ball in that game, but it was fast.
So that brings up the question of what other quarterbacks will we meet that have the same type a fast release.

The second half of the season the Packers will meet several good quarterbacks. Stafford can be quite good. Teddy Bridgewater is showing a good deal of improvement.

But, the real threats that I see are Peyton Manning, when the Packers meet the Broncos coming out of the bye week, and Carson Palmer near the end of the season.

I’m not really as concerned about Peyton Manning as I would have been in previous years. He really seems to be on a steep decline. While he still has his veteran knowledgebase, his release time has probably diminished considerably.

That really leaves the matchup between the Packers and the Cardinals as my only real concern. The Packers will meet the Cardinals in week 16, which could be a critical game as far as home-field advantage for the playoffs.

Finally, let me just say that despite the fact that Rivers was able to release the ball too quickly for our defense to get home on him, they still didn’t outstanding job of tightening up when the chips were down. That’s encouraging as we face other quarterbacks who will try to use the same quick release tactics in an effort to beat the Packers.