THE BOOK ON AARON LEAN ON MCADOO’S EXPERIENCE
Breaking down how Giant D is going to deal with The Other A-Rod
GREEN BAY, Wisc. – The Giants’ and Packers’ Sunday afternoon Wild Card showdown at Lambeau Field will be a matchup of Best-on-Best: The Giants’ defense, one of the league’s top shutdown units, against Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback playing at the highest level right now. Steve Spagnuolo, the architect of the 2007 Giants Super Bowl defense that toppled the mighty undefeated New England Patriots, is back in the playoffs on his second tour with Big Blue as defensive coordinator. Which immovable force will give? Who will win the mind games, X’s-and-O’s battles and the day? Here is how Spagnuolo and the Giants hope to slow down The Other A-Rod.
ABOVE ALL, PREVENT THE BIG PLAY
Spagnuolo delivered a veritable sermon late this week on Rodgers’ strengths and tendencies. His most unique observation was that, in his opinion, Rodgers “purposely extends downs” looking to take shots downfield. “I think it is because he likes making big plays,” Spagnuolo said with a twinkle in his eye. This is important because in Week 5, Spagnuolo’s observation was the key to the Giants holding Rodgers’ offense to nine points on three field goals and no touchdowns in the second half of a 23-16 loss. Rodgers threw two first-half TD passes to offset two Janoris Jenkins interceptions. In the second half, however, the Giants’ secondary was content to let Rodgers dance around the backfield as long as they didn’t bite on the quarterback and give up a deep pass. The Packers are a different team now due in part to Jared Cook’s skills at tight end, but in Week 5, Rodgers’ receivers barely ran any intermediate routes. Often they all went deep, and the Giants sat back and contained a potent offense. “The most important thing is you’ve got to have eye discipline,” said veteran corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who gutted through a groin injury in the Week 5 defeat. “You can’t be looking to see what Aaron
Rodgers will do, because like that (Rodgers Cromartie snaps his fingers), he can throw it off his back foot 60 yards downfield. It comes down to eye discipline and being focused on your man, and don’t try to do anything else.”
Rodgers, believe it or not, hit only one more pass of 40-plus yards this season (11) than Eli Manning. He struck on 57 passes of 20 or more yards, though, tied for sixth in the NFL, and has two frightening deep weapons in Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams. Spagnuolo said accuracy might be Rodgers’ scariest attribute.
“The most amazing thing to me about Aaron Rodgers is all the different places and positions that he can throw the football (from) and be accurate,” Spagnuolo said. “A lot of guys have to be perfect when the ball is accurate. Aaron can be anywhere. He can be running right, running left, being up inside, off his back foot, not have his feet set, and he can flick the ball anywhere and he is just accurate with every throw that he makes.”
Spagnuolo also said Rodgers is great because he “throws his receivers open,” anticipating where a covered receiver will be available later to receive a pinpoint throw. So, stopping Rodgers will require discipline from the NYPD (New York Pass Defense), but there also is only so much one can do to limit the quarterback.
“One of the things that we do talk about is that Aaron Rodgers is one of the elite and in some regard, you are not going to change that,” Spagnuolo said. “What you have to do is try to affect the other 10 (players on offense), and that is what we are going to try to do during the game.”
Ben McAdoo coached the Packers’ tight ends (2006-11), winning a Super Bowl, and then Rodgers and Green Bay’s quarterbacks (2012-13) before joining the Giants as offensive coordinator (2014-15) and now head coach. So Spagnuolo is doing the only logical thing while game-planning: Asking McAdoo lots of questions.
“I have talked with Ben a lot this week,” Spagnuolo said. “We did that last time (preparing for the game at Green Bay in Week 5). But I will see something on tape and go running down to his office and say, ‘Why is (Rodgers) doing that?’ Sometimes Ben has an answer, and sometimes he is like, ‘I don’t know. He is just a great athlete and figured it out.’”
Rodgers said “I love Ben,” but the confident Packers QB dismissed the notion McAdoo might have a blueprint.
“Ben has not been here in a few years,” Rodgers said. “Ben was a great coach here, and I got to work with him a couple years directly and had a lot of fun with him. We will definitely make sure our self-scout is in order.”
GET OFF THE FIELD ON THIRD DOWN
Rodgers considers third-down efficiency the key to the Packers having success moving the ball against the Giants’ defense.
"I think they were top three and so were we in third downs,” Rodgers said this week. “So that is going to be the key, staying in manageable third downs and then converting. They do a good job of being stout up front, giving you some tough situations yardage-wise, and they have a real nice pressure package. They have done a good job of that the last few weeks, especially, and obviously they cover really well.”
Rodgers’ scouting report is dead on. The Packers’ offense ranked second in the NFL in thirddown efficiency, converting first downs 46.7% of the time, while the Giants defense finished third in the NFL in holding opponents to just a 35.3% conversion rate.
TACKLE WAY BETTER THAN IN WEEK 5
Rodgers’ receivers dropped five passes in the Week 5 first half alone: three by Nelson, one by Randall Cobb and one by James Starks. Part of the reason was the Giants secondary’s closing speed and playmaking.
Eli Apple dislodged one Nelson bobble, Nelson short-armed a pass over the middle with Andrew Adams closing for Rodgers’ first interception, and Landon Collins blasted the ball out of Nelson’s arms later, though Nelson should have caught it and been tackled but he simply coughed it up.
That wasn’t enough to shut down Rodgers’ offense, though, because the Giants couldn’t tackle most of the day.
“The thing that I remember about that game was that we didn’t tackle very well,” Spagnuolo said of that defeat, which featured a 31-yard Eddie Lacy rip in the first-half and an embarrassing fourth-quarter Aaron Ripkowski 13-yard trample on which he carried four Giant tacklers up the field.
“We didn’t do a good job,” defensive tackle Damon “Snacks” Harrison said. “I think a lot of their yards came after contact. We just didn’t tackle well, and they were able to get out and make some plays.”
PRESSURE RODGERS WITHOUT LOSING HIM
Defensive end Olivier Vernon said Rodgers’ “awareness is through the roof” handling a pass rush and scrambling to elude and extend plays, so Vernon, Romeo Okwara and the Giants rushers must remain “aware” but still “make our presence felt out there.”
They didn’t sack Rodgers once in Week 5, and Jason Pierre-Paul played in that game.
Spagnuolo said the Giants drill that their pass rushers should be “keeping your feet on the ground.” This is where the defensive coordinator must dial up unique and unpredictable blitzes and pressures, though, to keep Rodgers on his toes.
Spagnuolo said Rodgers also is as difficult to defend between plays, because he “wants you out of sync” and “loves to think and manage games.”
“It begins with me, I have to make a call in there quickly,” Spagnuolo said.
All hands on deck.