Packers will Stack the Box Against Adrian Peterson
Austin Belisle
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For as long as Aaron Rodgers has been in Green Bay, he’s been an issue for the Minnesota Vikings. In 16 games, he’s thrown 34 touchdowns to five interceptions, winning 11 of the matchups while compiling a 113.2 passer rating. Calling Rodgers unstoppable, especially when facing the Vikings, wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Recent history, however, suggests the Vikings are learning how to slow Rodgers down. Most of that has to do with head coach Mike Zimmer, who is 3-3 against Rodgers in his coaching career, holding the Packers quarterback to comparably pedestrian numbers. In his last two meetings with the Vikings, Rodgers threw three touchdowns and one interception, completing 55.3 percent of his throws and finishing the stretch with a sub-84 quarterback rating. That, combined with the limitless talent up and down Zimmer’s defense, means Rodgers is in for a fight every time he straps up to play the Vikings.
Minnesota knows how to prepare for Rodgers, but he’s far from the only concern in Green Bay. Looming ahead of Sunday’s Week 2 clash is the Packers’ stout run defense, which held Jaguars running back T.J. Yeldon to 48 yards on 26 carries last week, good for 1.8 yards per carry. If the Vikings plan to beat Green Bay, they’ll need more than a solid effort from the defense; they’ll need Adrian Peterson to regain his 2015 form against an underrated defensive front.
“I thought our guys did a good job in terms of attacking the line of scrimmage,” defensive coordinator Dom Capers said on Monday, per Green Bay’s official website. “We had penetration and were able to make more minus plays,” he added, describing his team’s success against the run.
His defense, a hybrid unit that routinely adjusts according to its weekly opponent, is what Andy Benoit calls the “most diverse” in the league. Benoit notes that Capers employs “a ton of different personnel packages, presnap disguises, pressure concepts” on a regular basis, confusing offenses and keeping things unpredictable.
That same unpredictability, according to Benoit, also makes the defense difficult to master. It’s part of the reason, he says, Capers’ units “can look anywhere from ugly to gorgeous in any given week.” When the Packers come to U.S. Bank stadium on Sunday, they’ll likely have two goals — pressuring Sam Bradford and containing Adrian Peterson.
Stopping Peterson is the tougher task of the two, but one the Packers have achieved before. Last year, Peterson finished the season series with 112 yards on 32 carries, averaging a subpar 3.5 yards per carry. He did score two touchdowns, but only after clawing and scratching for every yard. And following his underwhelming performance last week, the Packers should be licking their chops in preparation for Peterson.
Still, Green Bay is expecting the best from Minnesota’s most potent offensive weapon. “A great running back like Adrian Peterson, it’s going to take 11 men getting to the football,” Packers safety Morgan Burnett said this week. “He’s one of the greatest to play the game.”
“Stacki” the Box
There’s no doubt Capers will have his defense as prepped as possible, and that starts by putting his most athletic players in the correct positions. When Green Bay shut down Jacksonville’s running game, they did so with gap discipline and by taking advantage of speed on the edge. Linebackers maintained cutback responsibilities, defensive ends impacted the structure of offensive concepts, and players up front held their ground in the face of one-on-one blocks.
Play No. 1
- 1st and 10 at GB 26
- (11:09 – 2nd) (No Huddle) T.Yeldon up the middle to GB 25 for 1 yard (J.Ryan; M.Burnett)
Football, at its core, is all about numbers. From down and distance to time left on the clock, numbers dictate the ebbs and flows of every game. On the field, numbers also dictate offensive and defensive success. If a defense “packs” the box — the area of the field closest to the line of scrimmage — and outnumbers available blockers, they’ve essentially won before the snap.
The Packers did just that against the Jaguars, bringing an extra defender into the box against Jacksonville’s 11-personnel formations. This put pressure on Jacksonville, asking six available blockers to identify and get a “hat” on seven threatening defenders. It was an impossible task, one that led to Jacksonville’s failures in the run game.
Green Bay starts in what looks like an ‘Over’ front, with the nose tackle in a 1-technique opposite the tight end. In most 3-4 defenses, the nose is responsible for both A-gaps, but here, each defender appears responsible for a single gap. One-gap principles are often associated with 4-3 defenses, further adding to the Packers’ multiplicity of schemes and alignments.
At the snap, the Jaguars set up a run to the left. The offensive line handles the front four of Green Bay’s defense, but leaves three defenders untouched at the second level. Morgan Burnett, the safety on the right side of the screen, becomes the force defender, responsible for squeezing the alley and keeping T.J. Yeldon inside on any cutback runs.
Yeldon does cut back, seeing the giant hole created by the initial flow of Jacksonville’s blocking. The expanse of green grass shrinks in an instant, as Nick Perry crosses the face of the right tackle and alters Yeldon’s path. The right tackle didn’t drive his feet on contact with Perry, allowing the outside linebacker to slip through the gap and get in the backfield.
Because Perry penetrated the offensive line, Yeldon altered his cutback path from the backside of his right tackle to the inside shoulder of Burnett. Had the right tackle sustained his block, Yeldon would’ve had an opportunity at a huge gain; Burnett had actually taken a poor angle on the edge, creating the original running lane to the right.
When Yeldon does plant and drive upfield, he’s met by Jake Ryan, who flowed freely from linebacker depth to the backside C-gap. The Jaguars failed to block Ryan, allowing him to locate the ballcarrier and maintain sound gap responsibilities. He and Burnett combine to stop Yeldon for a one-yard gain.
Yeldon showed little explosion cutting from right-to-left. His offensive line, which held up initially, did not work to the second level of the defense. Those two factors, combined with the athleticism of Burnett and discipline of Ryan, ruined Yeldon’s shot at a 10-plus yard gain. Peterson, who missed similar holes against the Titans, still has the ability to overcome poor blocking and turn negative plays into positive outcomes.
Play No. 2
- 1st and 10 at GB 14
- (9:24 – 2nd) (No Huddle) T.Yeldon up the middle to GB 15 for -1 yards (C.Ringo)
Again, the Packers outnumber the Jaguars in the box, seven to six. At the snap, Jacksonville puts itself in an even more disadvantageous position, running a power concept to the right of the formation. The right guard pulls as the lead blocker, with Datone Jones (No. 95) as his intended target. He’s responsible for the first threat outside of the tight end, which happens to be Jones.
Unfortunately, it’s a near impossible block, as Julius Thomas fails to chip or engage Jones. Instead, he works straight to the second level to block the linebacker on his inside shade. Jones beats the guard to the edge, nearly tackling Yeldon in the backfield. Jacksonville’s problems are compounded by the fact that Clay Matthews is screaming — unblocked — from the backside of the formation.
The initial flow of the play gets the linebackers moving to their left, which creates the opportunity for another cutback run. As the edge defender on the backside, Matthews is responsible for any such runs, much like Burnett in the previous example. He’s taught to trail the running back at equal depth, but in this situation is overaggressive in his pursuit and misses the tackle for loss. Luckily for Matthews, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is waiting patiently in the gap. He easily stops Yeldon for a short gain.
None of this would’ve been possible without Christian Ringo disrupting the initial timing of the play. He blows up the pulling guard in the backfield, allowing Jones to come unblocked on the edge and turn Yeldon around.
The Packers, for all of their personnel groupings, shifts, and alignments, are a seemingly disciplined, gap-responsible football team. When Capers gets too aggressive, he puts his unit in difficult situations that lead to chunk plays or large gains for opposing offenses.
When the Packers contain Peterson, they do so by overloading the box and beating one-on-one blocks up front. To combat this, offensive coordinator Norv Turner needs to find ways to spread out the defense, run out of the shotgun, and keep Green Bay guessing in obvious passing or running situations.
Last week, the Titans clearly prepared to stop Peterson, and Turner’s play calls put his running back in near-impossible scenarios out of the backfield. Hopefully, Turner learned from his Week 1 mistakes and give Peterson some running room against an athletic group of Packers defenders.
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