LeRoy Butler-5 questions

[Randall]

LeRoy Butler analyzes the Bengals-Packers game

"If this keeps happening, Aaron’s going to get hurt."

Posted: Sept. 21, 2009

 

After each game, former Packers all-pro safety LeRoy Butler teams up with Journal Sentinel beat writer Tom Silverstein in our "5 Questions with LeRoy Butler" feature. Butler appears on behalf of his charity, "The LeRoy Butler Foundation" (leroybutlerfoundation.org).

 

The following is the Q&A after Sunday's 31-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeau Field:

 

Q. What effect is the lack of pass protection having on the offense as a whole right now and what can the Packers do about it?

A. It’s a problem. I’d like to think the coaches are going to have to go back to what they’ve been doing, which is shuffle guys around until they find the best combination to be in there. Now, you’re going to have to keep your backs and your tight ends in with max protection. Now you’ve only got a two-man route and you can’t score points like that. You have to have a minimum of three eligible guys down the field to score the points you need to win games. Otherwise, you’re going to become a very predictable offense. You can’t go five ways that way with an empty backfield. You have to keep two guys back there and that kind of limits you and makes you predictable to some of the defenses.

 

Q. As McCarthy said Monday, on some of the occasions there was extra help and someone got through anyway, usually by exploiting one of the one-on-on match-ups? Does that make it almost impossible to throw medium to deep passes?

 

A. When that happens, they have to determine who they think is coming and that’s up to the center or the quarterback to relay that message. Once the quarterback gives the center or tells everyone who is coming, he calls his number out. The rest of that is you have to create a pocket so that he can have time to make his second read. Now all of the sacks aren’t necessarily on the offensive line. Aaron Rodgers held the ball a couple times and sometimes there’s going to be coverage sacks. It’s not entirely on the offensive line. It’s just the quick ones where one guy just overpowers a guy, like the guy who got five sacks (Antwan Odom). He just went back there in less than a second. You have to at least slow the guy down. I wasn’t surprised that was happening because that was one of the issues coming in this season. That’s why they drafted T.J. Lang and (Jamon) Meredith. They drafted two linemen for the future. Maybe they need to go back and do what we did and bring in a veteran like Bruce Wilkerson to come in and play a position with more experience. Let the young guy learn. This is a pass first team, so I’m not overly concerned about the running game. They use the pass to set up the run, it’s not the other way around. This offense wants to score by throwing the football. It’s OK to get 50 yards rushing if you’re going to get 300 yards passing. But if you’re not getting 300 yards passing then it’s a problem.

 

Q. What did you think of the offensive game plan, especially once left tackle Chad Clifton went out with an ankle sprain and Daryn Colledge had to move over from his left guard spot?

A. I think the game plan was a little conservative. I think early on it was geared toward getting the ball to Jermichael Finley, which was a good idea. But he didn’t really get established until the fourth quarter. I think they got away from what they really wanted to do, which was put pressure on the defense. They had way too many dropped passes. Everything was way out of sync. It’s surprising they can be out of sync at this point in the season. You’ve had all of training camp and four pre-season games and in Week 2 you’re out of sync for a second week. I thought they didn’t attack enough to where it became an issue for the Bengals. Of course, Aaron Rodgers overthrew some wide-open guys, and guys who were wide open dropped passes. When he did have time, he still got sacked. They can’t run the screen. They should be able to run three to five a game. They can’t do that because Ryan Grant dropped one and fumbled one, so you don’t want to call that anymore. If you can’t do that it’s almost like getting in a fist fight with one arm tied behind your back. You can’t do it. You have to be able to use the screen to slow down the rush. If you don’t, the guy just tees off on your quarterback. If this keeps happening, Aaron’s going to get hurt.

 

Q. Turning to the defensive side, what effect did you think it had on the 3-4 defense when Cincinnati came out with an unbalanced line, using a sixth offensive linemen as one of their tight ends and then running Cedric Benson behind him? Do you see more teams doing that against them?

A. A lot of teams would, instead of using a tight end, who maybe can’t block as well, they’ll bring in a bigger guy and run in that area. Now you have six guys to block seven people and the running back picks the hole. They’ll tell the running back that one guy is going to be free, make him miss. One guy is going to be free and they’ll make it the cornerback. They’ll block the safety and all the linebackers and the guy they want to make the play they don’t think he can stop him. That’s what they did. Cedric Benson bounced it to the outside, bounced it to the outside. And then when they went up the middle, the linebackers were catching instead of attacking. They got into this formation with just one wide receiver, Laveranues Coles, he comes down and cracks the block on the middle linebacker and they’ll make the corner make the tackle. They have six guys to block seven and the seventh guy we’ll make it a corner or a safety and tell our running back to beat the guy. And Cedric Benson was a step quicker than the entire defense. I was also surprised that they lost contain so many times. If you’re the outside linebacker, you can’t let the running back get outside of you. A couple of times Brady Poppinga and Aaron Kampman lost contain and once that happens, it’s pretty difficult to stop any running back if you’re going to give him the perimeter all day long. And that’s what the Packers were doing.

 

Q. Losing to an AFC team isn’t the end of the world because it doesn’t hurt the Packers in a tiebreaker situation, but the fact they lost at home again has to have major implications for the season. Once again, they have not established Lambeau Field as a place where opponents don’t want to play. Can they ever regain that?

 

A. Homefield advantage is crucial. You’ve got a guy (Chad Ochocinco) who said he was going to do the Lambeau Leap and actually went out and did it. People are going to think when they come to Lambeau Field they can do whatever they want. If you can go 7-0 the rest of the way at home, you can split on the road and have a good record. If you win all your home games, you really only have to win two or three games on the road to make the playoffs. Now they have to make it up by winning on the road. They have to steal a game on the road this year. They have to steal that game from somebody. The good thing is they’re capable of doing it. But it just looked like all three areas were bad on Sunday, special teams, offense and defense were bad. You’re going to have bad games. But usually one area picks you up. The defense tried to do it, but the offense couldn’t get going. Turning the ball over is something you can’t do. And missing the field goal at the end of the half hurt, too. The penalties hurt, too. Some penalties you can put on the refs, but the rest of them just can’t happen.

 

 

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