I'm going to nitpick this article, since I think it is fallacious or otherwise unnecessarily biased against Rodgers and the Packers.
Through two weeks of the 2009 season, savvy evaluators remain very skeptical, pointing out his tendency to squeeze, squeeze and squeeze the ball before he unloads it, taking too much time to get it out of his hands and pull the trigger. His offensive line did not give him much help in the 31-24 loss to the Bengals, especially after OLT Chad Clifton was knocked out of the game early in the second half, and the pocket began to fold very fast.
"TheEngineer" wrote:
I've never heard anything about this squeeze, squeeeze squeeze thing. No citation.
The pocket was folding well before Clifton left.
ORT Allen Barbre is still very much a project, not strong enough or physical enough to handle the right side, and OLG Daryn Colledge, a college left tackle, proved why he needed to move inside as a pro when he kicked out to replace the injured Clifton. Colledge's short arms and soft demeanor allowed the Bengals to terrorize the corner. The Packers' edges looked like a swinging gate for most of the second half, as Antwan Odom notched a career-high five sacks, and pressure on Rodgers was very consistent.
Coaches disagree and think Barbre's problem is that he wasn't focussed on fundamentals. Same problem with Colledge, fundamentals. Physically they are capable of playing to a higher level than they did. No mention of the almost complete lack of practice for Colledge.
Nonetheless, no quarterback can expect the pocket to remain clean, and Rodgers, who lacks escapability, was just as much to blame for not getting rid of the ball more quickly. He too easily is tracked down like he is moving in mud anytime a defender comes close to him, and his eyes too quickly began to drop when he was pressured.
Rodgers ran into a sack on one play that I remember. A lot of the sacks was a stunt to move inside by Odom, whilst Rodgers did his 5 or 7 step drop back. Once Rodgers completed his drop back they were already in his face.
Whenever he did get outside you can see he's looking downfield to try and throw. EVEN THEN, Rodgers must have thought nobody was open. So he'd have to scramble.
"Everyone wants to anoint him before he passed the test," an NFL evaluator said following the game. "He was 6-10 in his first year as a starter, and people want to say he is better than (Brett) Favre. If I were Brett, it would probably hit my button, too. What has (Rodgers) done?
Favre, in this offense, would have taken more than 5 sacks. Favre is slow. In the Vikings game a lot of times Favre looked like he got caught in the middle of the pocket with nowhere to run and took a sack. I don't recall Favre scrambling outside of the pocket and making throws on the run which Aaron did, (I'd love to see highlights if he did though). Even if he didn't take sacks, he would have thrown more than zero interceptions. Yes, Mr. article writer, Rodgers IS better than Favre,
in this offense at this stage.
Some evaluators are even convinced backup Matt Flynn has a brighter future than Rodgers, having shown great ball placement in the preseason and much better escapability, which is more valued behind a line playing as poorly as the Packers'. If Rodgers should go down, as he has had a tendency to do early in his career, it could be a blessing in disguise.
Already discussed in previous post.
The jury remains out not only on Rodgers but on a Packers team that many predicted could contend for the NFC championship. The running game is struggling to establish itself, and the Packers barely escaped the first week, in which the Bears were badly stricken by injury and Jay Cutler tossed a career-high four interceptions in a loud, hostile environment. Now, the Packers could be seriously tested next week by a St. Louis defense that has been much improved under Steve Spagnuolo's leadership.
Cutler threw a career high 4 interceptions precisely because he played the Packers defense. The loud, hostile environment is OUR stadium. They are not outside variables that the Packers fortuitously were given but part of the identity of this Packers team.