Game 15: Titans @ Packers - Sunday, December 27th , 7:20PM CT

[GAME05]

With his balance and his tree-trunk legs it was taking two DBs and a LB to tackle him.

[CheezWizHed]

Yeah, I thought about that when they were giving it to Jones and 3rd and 1. Jones is a good short-yardage back for his size, but that isn't his forte. If Williams was healthy you know he would've been getting those rushes. Dillon looked really good in those situations. He took a shot at one point (the kind you cringe and "ooo" at) and then pushed the LB for another yard or two.

[homer]

Dillion was getting some nice holes to plow through. I'll be interested to see how he does when he doesn't have as much room to get a full head of steam.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

76 of Dillon's 124 came after contact.

[PeaveyFury]

Game thoughts:

1)The Saints win will matter far more in the end, but this is probably as important a win as they have thus far beyond that one simply because it was basically a complete team performance in a win over a quality opponent. That's a game that many (most?) people expected them to lose or at least significantly struggle in, and they won it by four scores. Outstanding effort. You want to be playing your best ball going into the playoffs (ala 2010, not ala 2011), and they certainly seem to be. Hopefully the fan base and talking heads can actually enjoy this one rather than finding stuff to nitpick and/or moving the needle in evaluating the season/win.

2)This defense isn't the defense of the first half of the year, so maybe it IS time to adjust expectations a bit. This wasn't dominating a crappy Lions offense or whatever, that was a really good performance vs. a really good offense. Some of this DOES have to get credited to coaching- the initial scheme of 'rush three and cover' has gone away for a much more aggressive plan, and it's paying dividends with both sacks and turnovers. Add in immense developmental leaps from young guys like Gary, Keke, Barnes, Savage, and Martin, coupled with a couple of key vets returning to their very good norms in Amos, Clark, and Preston Smith, and they're a pretty decent unit right now.

3)The defense certainly wasn't hurt by how the game flow unfolded, and wasn't hurt by the (for the second week in a row) somewhat odd offensive game plan of their opponent. King finishes the half getting torched down the field, giving huge cushions and missing tackles. The Titans exploit that in the second half by.... repeatedly throwing at Alexander instead? Odd. I understand that their offense is similar to Wisconsin's, in that the 'ground and pound' strategy makes it hard to come back, and gets upset by getting down big. Kudos to the Packers for getting them down big, and to the defense for holding the Titans/Henry in check until it was so late when he finally got rolling that their offense was actually hurting themselves by running it repeatedly.

4)Huge kudos to Dillon. Obviously, that's a glimpse into what the Packers saw in him and how they envisioned using him. There will be much debate about the position considering impending free agency for Williams/Jones, but that was an indication of a bright future there for Dillon, IMO.

5)Obligatory bullet point about Adams' performance and the crazy season he's having. Has anyone done any sort of projection to speculate on what his stats might have been if he had played in all 15 games thus far? Insanity.

6)Obligatory bullet point about how unreal Rodgers has been this year. MVP all the way.

7)Circling back a bit to point #1, I hope this helps dissipate two of the bigger narratives we keep hearing about the team- that A)they can't win in bad weather, and B)that they only beat bad teams.

[homer]

76 of Dillon's 124 came after contact.

 

I would say most of that contact was on the 2nd level (and 30 came on the long TD run.)

 

Point being, I want to see how quick his feet are. Jones is very adept at making a hole where there wasn't one initially.

[brewcrewdue80]

76 of Dillon's 124 came after contact.

 

I assume 30yards of that total is counted on that TD run when a db dove and slapped his legs as Dillon broke the line of scrimmage. He did have a 2nd defender misjudge his speed and do the same 10yards later.

I agree with Homer's sentiment some very good holes to run thrpugh initial contact on his way by.

 

 

Clearly the field went the way of Packers favor. Guess I didnt portend that the other team would struggle offensively when they're a running team. I also didn't know that Henry pretty much doesn't play 3rd down it seemed all game. 3rd and 3 or 4 he was immediately running to sideline. What a threat to be removed on a down and distance he likely exceeds on a per carry average, and removes play action from defensive mind-set[the Tannehill 45yd YD)

 

Most shocking thing to me was after Tonyan's pro-bowl Sub, he didn't have any TD target throws from Rodgers. I can only think of 1 reception by Tonyan.

 

Stay Healthy. Linsley returned with an excellent game aside from the bad snap exchange. We are a very healthy team right now and that has to leave this team as your #NFC team. Clinch next week and a bye week will be such a huge advantage moving forward.

[GAME05]

Wait, so DON'T fire Pettine?

[CheezWizHed]

76 of Dillon's 124 came after contact.

 

I would say most of that contact was on the 2nd level (and 30 came on the long TD run.)

 

Point being, I want to see how quick his feet are. Jones is very adept at making a hole where there wasn't one initially.

 

I went back to review his night and this is what I found:

 

1st touch: All Dillon - hit in backfield - gains positive yardage

2nd: Big hole - breaks DB tackle at end

3rd: Big hole - drives LB for 6 more yards

4th: Good hole - gets 3-4 yds after DL/LB converge

5th: Small hole - drives pile forward.

6th: Small hole - drives pile forward 5 yards

7th: Play action fake, Dillon catches ball for 6 yards

8th: Good hole - breaks a tackle, drives another for 2 yards after contact

9th: Good seal on edge, - sandwiched by two DBs drives them forward for 4 yards AC

10th: (30yd TD run) Good seal on edge, broke leg tackle by CB and another by the safety

11th: Stretch play to left, decent blocking, no gain after contact but drove tackler sideways (i.e. didn't go down right away)

12th: Big Hole - taken down by an arm tackle

13th: Good Hole - two very nice cuts to setup the hole though (1:53)

14th: (6yd TD run) - All Dillon - squeeze through a small hole and bowled his way in.

 

If you are curious about his feet, take a look at #9 and #10 where he bounces the run outside and #13 (my favorite). #13 he makes one big cut back to the hole, but then makes a very subtle second cut to make the LB whiff and gain another 5 yds or so.

 

His first run was impressive because someone hit him behind the LOS and he still drove back to positive yardage. #5 & 6 were also good shots of what he did with limited blocking.

 

Now certainly, the Titan's defense is not good and this is one game. But the point is that he made good decisions on every play - love his instincts. He showed quick feet to make big and small cuts. He showed power - very Henry-like. At least for this one game (yes, small sample size alert), he showed himself every bit as good as Jones running the ball with much more power.

 

Note: since Dillon had 21 carries, the 13 listed above don't represent everything obviously.

[homer]

Bob McGinn stated it much more succinctly than me:

 

" In all, he broke seven tackles, and 90 of his yards came after contact. Three of four times, however, he ran into his blockers. He was running in a straight line into traffic. At this point, it’s unclear if he has the ability to cut and make people miss. If Dillon doesn’t have that, he’s going to absorb an excessive amount of punishment and the length of his career could be short-lived. "

[CheezWizHed]

Three of four times... four what? He had 21 rushes, broke 7 tackles. It isn't clear what the four times refers to.

 

I'm sure the highlight reel excluded his worst runs, but there were plenty of opportunities to see him be elusive. Number 13 is an excellent example of it. His running style looked far more like Jones than Williams (who often runs into his blockers).

 

Certainly need to see more chances, but I think his future is bright. It wouldn't shock me to bring back Williams as a complementary RB and have Dillon start next year.

[homer]

might have meant to write " 3 or 4"

[RobDeer 45]

I definitely did see two times where he ran over his blocker. The one he may not have had a choice. The other was on the end of the line and I feel he could have side stepped. Both times I remember thinking, man I bet that O Linemen was like "what the heck man."

[nodakfan17]

The length of Dillon’s Packers career is inconsequential to me so long as he lasts another 3 years and nets the Packers a comp pick when he departs. If he can’t make people miss, then let him pound away.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Honest question - how many 250-pound running backs rely on quick feet and the ability to make defenders whiff in a hole as the main reason to their success? I'd much rather have Dillon err on the side of pressing a hole that isn't quite there instead of dancing around in the backfield waiting for something to open up. We need to see more out of Dillon on the field, but his running style isn't as road grading as Lacy's was - he has more athleticism to him...that being said he shouldn't try to be a scatback either. He's got the athleticism to make defenders not get clean shots at him to blow him up, which means alot of glancing tackles that result in 6-8 yard runs instead of running into a wall after gaining 2-3.

 

On some of those runs where it looked like Dillon ran into blockers, he had no room to operate at the point of attack anyway because defenders were splitting blockers or he was only a few yards behind the line of scrimmage when getting the ball.

[HiAndTight]

Bob McGinn stated it much more succinctly than me:

 

" In all, he broke seven tackles, and 90 of his yards came after contact. Three of four times, however, he ran into his blockers. He was running in a straight line into traffic. At this point, it’s unclear if he has the ability to cut and make people miss. If Dillon doesn’t have that, he’s going to absorb an excessive amount of punishment and the length of his career could be short-lived. "

 

 

McGinn does a good job of getting actual experts talking, but he has the worst takes I've seen from a GB beat reporter...probably ever(I realize that's not what he is any longer with his own site, but he's still bad).

 

The guy was getting the first significant action of his NFL career. He exceeded all expectations.

 

He's shown plenty of ability to "cut and make people miss," both in College and last night, but the larger point, I'd expect him to get better with more carries. There were a couple of times he missed the whole. Where he wasn't patient enough. The time he absolutely lit up St. Brown on the edge.

 

But again... the first real action of his NFL career and he was awesome. It usually takes backs a little bit to get a good feel for the game and you started to see a little more patience as the game went on along with the power running.

 

By the way, anyone see what he did to the Titans Dickerson on that last carry? I've literally never seen a DL rocked as hard as that when he's in there expecting the run.

 

There are really no negatives to take from Dillon last night.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Honest question - how many 250-pound running backs rely on quick feet and the ability to make defenders whiff in a hole as the main reason to their success? I'd much rather have Dillon err on the side of pressing a hole that isn't quite there instead of dancing around in the backfield waiting for something to open up. We need to see more out of Dillon on the field, but his running style isn't as road grading as Lacy's was - he has more athleticism to him...that being said he shouldn't try to be a scatback either. He's got the athleticism to make defenders not get clean shots at him to blow him up, which means alot of glancing tackles that result in 6-8 yard runs instead of running into a wall after gaining 2-3.

 

On some of those runs where it looked like Dillon ran into blockers, he had no room to operate at the point of attack anyway because defenders were splitting blockers or he was only a few yards behind the line of scrimmage when getting the ball.

 

 

Beat me to it. Nobody would be dissecting the holes he ran through if he were 5'9 and 205. He looks like a more athletic Eddie Lacy. What matters to me is that he was productive on 21 carries. There was no way to evaluate him on the 0-5 he had been getting.

[homer]

You guys are making too much of this. All I said was that I'm interested to see how he does when its a little tougher sledding.

[HiAndTight]

Wait, so DON'T fire Pettine?

 

 

This is actually a good question. I loved the game plan last night...but he's been generally pretty bad. We have a lot of talent on defense and we haven't played well. But I think it's been 3 weeks now and you can notice a significant difference in two areas, the tackling. The secondary especially has been VERY good coming up and tackling. So much better than earlier in the year(the game Kamara made a fool of us, in particular, was bad).

 

The other area has been the DL. They've done so much better at staying in their lanes, occupying the blockers, and giving the backers and safeties free shots.

 

The way the defense has turned it around has me actually has this team looking like a legit SB team. That and the running game.

[HiAndTight]

You guys are making too much of this. All I said was that I'm interested to see how he does when its a little tougher sledding.

 

 

I get ya, you want to see if he can keep it up. But that 30 yard TD run, the way he made that little jump cut...that was impressive. He made that look easy and I don't think that's a run many big backs make. He made that look clean.

 

But who are we comparing him to? If he has quick feet just like Eddie Lacy, he's going to have a very successful career with the Packers so long as he doesn't let the Chinese food get out of control.

 

The Bears game will be another opportunity to see where he is. I'm looking at how he runs...his patience more than his feet because I thought he answered some of those questions, but Akeem Hicks back(out when we played the Bears last time) arguably their 2nd best defender, Mack, Jackson, and then the great speed at the MLB'er position.

 

We'll see with both Jones and Williams being a little banged up if Dillon gets 10-15 carriers again. I know it's a very different scenario, but it'd be nice if he could give us a James Starks like boost at the end of the season. Obviously, the running game has been productive this year, but Dillon gives you someone who can close out games and who can get 2-3 yards when Jones may be stopped for a loss.

[brewcrewdue80]

 

Stay Healthy. Linsley returned with an excellent game aside from the bad snap exchange. We are a very healthy team right now and that has to leave this team as your #NFC team. Clinch next week and a bye week will be such a huge advantage moving forward.

 

I'm a Black Sheep in life. What did it take 1? Day after my post for Bahktiari to ruin an ACL?. I just can't have nice things.