For a few seasons now, the Green Bay Packers’ defence has received some high praise for its fast-pace, opportunistic style of play. Most recently, veteran Corner Back Charles Woodson has garnered acclaim for his league-dominating performances, assurances of victory and generally superlative outings. Young guns, Clay Matthews and AJ Hawk haven’t been in the league long, but they’ve become the core of this unit and play with maturity beyond their years. Up front the Pack play the enormous BJ Raji, whose surprise pick six against the Bears proved the difference-maker.
And its up-front the Packers cause the greatest stir. They have taken to the 3-4 defence like no other team in the league. Theirs is a perfect example of how to use this increasingly popular system to devastating effect. To exploit the main benefits of the 3-4, a team needs an abundance of athletic players, capable of quick-reads and fast footwork. To get the best out of the scheme, you really need to have at least two guys capable of playing Middle Linebacker in a Tampa 2 D. Hawk and Matthews can rush, drop and hit like the best. Can they stop the Steelers? Well, I don’t know about keeping them out of the endzone, but they can sure as hell slow them down. With such power in the middle, the Pack can jam the run and, by utilising Hawk and Matthew’s speed, limit the short yardage gained by tough-nosed receiver Hines Ward.
The Packer’s stinginess in the middle of the field, may force Big Ben to throw deep to Ward or Wallace more often than the Steelers would like. Tomlin can probably evade the eager hands of Tramon Williams and Charles Woodson if he has his wide men cut back into the deep middle on a post route, but he risks throwing into the territory of Nick Collins, who has been on fine form this year, being selected for the Pro Bowl and notching up 70 tackles and 4 INTs.
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