Sunday, January 23, 2011

Green Bay Packers have 20-14 Lead vs. Chicago Bears, NFC Championship 2011

With 8:29 to go in the 2011 NFC Championship Game, the Green Bay Packers are clinging to a 14-7 lead. (No more, they just scored to make it 20-7 The Packers are ahead because of an offensive coaching move the Bears should have prepared for, but did not. And Jay Cutler's out of the game after hurting his knee.

The Packers Take A Pats Page

The Packers gained over 100 yards passing in the first half alone mostly on a play design popularized by the New England Patriots. It features an off-tackle run action with both the fullback and the halfback. The quarterback, in this case Aaron Rogers, moves over to the run action and fakes the handoff. But rather than drop back, he pulls up and throws to the split end running the deep drive (some call it deep slant) pattern. Because the linebackers are up biting on the run fake, and there's no safety in the way, the window to throw to the split end is open.

The way to stop that play is for the defense to use "bump-and-run" coverage and throw off the timing of the pass by jamming the receiver. The problem is the Bears use cover two zone or play single-high safety with eight-in-the-box and no bump-and-run. That leaves open the window the Packers Aaron Rogers exploited for big gains in the first half.

UPDATE. While the Bears got the ball back, they just coughed it up on an interception returned for a touchdown. It's now 20-7.

Can The Bears Come Back?

Now the question is can the Chicago Bears come back to even make a game of it? I'm really disappointed in Mike Martz' offensive game plan. It seems to forget the short pass, and has largely failed to pick up the Packers safety blitz packages. Part of the bad play is also due to Quarterback Jay Cutler, who missed Devon Hester for big gains three times in the first half.

Now, hold on, as this blog is written, the game changes fast. The Bears went on a fast drive to score, it's 20 to 14 and we've got a game again.

Wowsers!!

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