Looking back through the PFF grades from the Raiders and Bucs games (yes I know, grrrrr PFF bad) it is pretty clear to see how much we rely on the play of our slot defenders. In the first game CGJ and MJ both lit it up and played extremely well. Both graded well. CGJ a 70 and MJ a 77. That's above average and it showed with their ability to take away a lot of the underneath passing and outside running that the Bucs wanted to do.
In the Raiders game, the story was totally different. They were both awful and the grades reflected it. 40 for MJ and a 34 for CGJ. They were particularly awful against the run, which means they were not able to set the edge at all. This was because they were swallowed up by big blockers all night as apposed to WRs and TEs against the Bucs. The passing grades weren't better either because rather than playing zone and roving all game, they ended up having to play man coverage on a prime time TE - which is not either of their skillsets.
Simply put - we tried to play Nickle against a power run team and got run over. The problem is that we don't have the personnel to play anything else. We have two capable LBs right now in Demario and Thor and we rely on MJ/CGJ to be the the defacto 3rd LB. That works in today's NFL because no one plays the old school power offense anymore and athleticism is king. Except Jon Gruden.
Looking to this week, GB also has the ability to play power run. They have big talented mauler run blockers up front and a really powerful running back who is knocking on the door of Elite. Gruden's biggest advantage over SP was his patience. Matt LaFleur is the exact same way. He has taken the ball out of a very petty Aaron Rodgers's hands for several weeks at a time because running the football was the better path to victory. I expect a lot of the same this week and MJ/CGJ and especially Dennis Allen need to be up to the challenge.
In the Raiders game, the story was totally different. They were both awful and the grades reflected it. 40 for MJ and a 34 for CGJ. They were particularly awful against the run, which means they were not able to set the edge at all. This was because they were swallowed up by big blockers all night as apposed to WRs and TEs against the Bucs. The passing grades weren't better either because rather than playing zone and roving all game, they ended up having to play man coverage on a prime time TE - which is not either of their skillsets.
Simply put - we tried to play Nickle against a power run team and got run over. The problem is that we don't have the personnel to play anything else. We have two capable LBs right now in Demario and Thor and we rely on MJ/CGJ to be the the defacto 3rd LB. That works in today's NFL because no one plays the old school power offense anymore and athleticism is king. Except Jon Gruden.
Looking to this week, GB also has the ability to play power run. They have big talented mauler run blockers up front and a really powerful running back who is knocking on the door of Elite. Gruden's biggest advantage over SP was his patience. Matt LaFleur is the exact same way. He has taken the ball out of a very petty Aaron Rodgers's hands for several weeks at a time because running the football was the better path to victory. I expect a lot of the same this week and MJ/CGJ and especially Dennis Allen need to be up to the challenge.