Good article

Packers Xs and Os Film Session: Burned by the Zone Read (Again)

Photo credit: Joe Nicholson/USA Today
After finishing the preseason with high expectations, the Green Bay Packers were soundly beaten by the Seattle Seahawks. Some things went right, but so many things went wrong. The following play I’ll break down shows one such scenario where things went terribly wrong.
In the GIF below, the Seahawks scored a 33-yard touchdown that seemed to be uncontested. The receiver was uncovered and essentially walked into the end zone.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Credit: NFL Rewind
So, what went wrong? What did the Packers do that allowed such a major breakdown?
First, let’s rewind a little bit. Let’s go back to the 2012 season and the divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. That game, the Packers defense gave up a whopping 579 yards, including 323 on the ground, to the 49ers’ offense, much of it as a result of Colin Kaepernick and the zone read play.
In the following off season, the Packers’ defensive coaching staff visited the college ranks, where the zone read originated, to learn how to better defend it.
The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is a slightly complex play, but it can be summarized as a quarterback option running play. At the snap of the ball, the quarterback reads the play side defensive end or outside linebacker (who is ever on the line of scrimmage and responsible for containment). If that defender stays home and seals the edge, the quarterback will hand the ball off to the running back on a dive play. If that defender crashes down the line of scrimmage, then the quarterback keeps the ball on an outside run.
There are a lot of moving pieces on this play, so teaching the defenders where to go while matching up against it is a challenging thing. Since the offense reads the play side containment defender, the defense must have other defenders rotate over to secure the outside edge and middle linebackers plugging middle run gaps. The GIF below describes the defensive alignment and play responsibilities against the zone read.
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Credit: NFL Rewind
In the play against the Seahawks, the Packers’ defense was ready for the zone read. They had the defenders in the right position and should have stuffed it cold. They had done their homework and were ready for it. See the GIF below.
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Credit: NFL Rewind
However, the Seahawks weren’t running the traditional zone read that only had two ground options. They were running a triple option, where the third option was a pass. This play was a new wrinkle this year for the Seahawks, and it caught the Packers totally off guard. They were totally out of position for the pass option because the boundary cornerback left his receiver to provide run support. While TV commentators want to blame Shields for having his eyes in the backfield, I believe he was coached to defend the zone read in this manner. It’s very common for defenses to put their best cornerback in the boundary and expect them to perform in run support without strong (or field) safety help.
We’ll just try to ignore the ¡olé! tackle attempt by Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. He got caught with his feet stuck, causing him to lunge at the receiver. He should have driven through the receiver.
This wasn’t as much of a disaster as many may like to think. The silver lining is they had this zone read run option defended very well (if it was a only a run), which wasn’t always the case in the past. Also, later in the game, they had the third pass option covered as well. However, by then, the game was no longer in doubt.

yeah my cats been watching the packers for the last 4 years and sees the same thing,shitty defense,shitty players,shitty scheme,lost coaching staff.

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