I heard a lot of talk about "burning the tape" after this loss, and I can totally see that. Sometimes you get just get the pants beat off of you. It happens from time to time. It's never fun, but I don't think this loss exposed any fatal flaws. The run defense is suspect, but we already knew that. The defense has a tendency to give up big plays and lock it down in the red zone, but we already knew that. The Chargers pass rush wreaked havoc on the Packers tackles, but not every team has Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this loss is overly concerning. To paraphrase a quote often attributed to Sigmund Freud, sometimes a loss is just a loss.

Today was a tough day to look through for me, more because of the lack interesting concepts. As we've seen over the course of this season - and last week in particular - the Packers have been very good at setting up tendencies and running counter to them, as well as attacking favorable match-ups within each game. Due in large part to their inability to get "ahead of the sticks," they weren't able to do nearly as much as they wanted to. So I wanted to take today to show how the Chargers were able to pressure and disrupt a lot of what the Packers were trying to do in the passing game.

The theme of the day is Disruption and Pressure (which is both the theme of this week's article as well as the name of a terrible metal band. Probably.).

As you're looking at these, pay attention to the down and distance for each play and see how the situation informs the play call and the defense. When we talk about playing "ahead of the sticks" or "staying on schedule," we're talking about keeping the down and distance managable. We're looking for something like 2nd & 4 or 3rd & 3. When you get into those situations, a lot more of the offense opens up. The defense may not be as aggressive, since a checkdown could pick up the yardage needed. If you find yourself in a lot of 2nd & 10 and 3rd & 8 situations, it takes away a lot of options for the offense and allows the defense to narrow down what they're looking for.

Play 1: 3rd & 8, 5:09 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers trailing 0-3 [Disruption and Pressure]

There's a nice little post/dig combo off the left side of the line, with a follow dig route. I really like that look. The post attacks the safety, while the dig works underneath. If both of those are covered, the shorter dig from the outside has a lot of room to work with, assuming the receiver can beat his mean to the inside.

I also really like the slant from the right. With two deep in-cutting routes off the left side, there's a chance for the slant to emerge from the other side of that coverage. Get the safeties shading to the post and dig, then sneak right underneath them. It's a really cool look.

Unfortunately, a few things happen that blow it up. Keep in mind that the Packers are facing 3rd & 8. Aaron Rodgers' [12] first read is on the slant, but the safety stays home. Rodgers could have gotten the pass off, but it had no chance to pick up the 1st down, so he moves on.

Jimmy Graham [80] gets manhandled in the middle of the field and can't disengage to run the post. Marquez Valdes-Scantling [83] runs the dig, but finds Graham in his way. If Graham is able to get off the contact, there's a chance to hit Valdes-Scantling [83] on the dig, but even then the timing is tight.

The timing is tight because human wrecking ball Joey Bosa [97] rips through David Bakhtiari [69] and picks up the sack. 

Play 2: 2nd & 10, 13:33 remaining in the 2nd quarter, Packers trailing 0-6 [Disruption]

Chris Brown - the tremendous football writer, not the domestic abuser - talks about watching football by "finding the grass." Essentially, find the empty spots on the field before the snap and see how the offense tries to attack those areas and how the defense looks to cover them up. It's an interesting and fun way to watch the game, and I've learned a ton by doing it.

So let's take that principle and apply it here. Matt LaFleur likes a lot of tight formations, which means the open grass is on the edges. Pack the defense in tight and attack the outside. You can see how he's trying to do that here by looking at the left side. The receiver runs a go route to remove the boundary corner and there are no other defenders over there. Rodgers has Aaron Jones [33] running into the flat on his left. Provided the boundary corner doesn't drop down on the flat, Jones should be open. The corner steps back with the go route, so Rodgers looks to Jones.

The problem is that Isaac Rochell [98] drops wide from the pass-rushing spot to deck Jones. He stays on Jones, but Thomas Davis [58] is able to get around the go route and rally to Jones. Rodgers comes back to Davante Adams [17] on the dig route, but it's too late.

That little drop by Rochell to knock Jones around completely disrupted the play. 

Play 3: 3rd & 10, 13:28 remaining in the 2nd quarter, Packers trailing 0-6 [Pressure]

Another unfavorable down and distance. The reason this failed is easy: when Rodgers gets to the top of his drop, not only is no one open, but Melvin Ingram [54] is in his face.

Billy Turner [77] appears to be looking for a counter move to the inside. Ingram sees the way Turner is set up and simply dips his shoulder and sprints to the quarterback. Rodgers never had a chance.

Play 4: 2nd & 10, 8:12 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers trailing 0-12 [Pressure]

This is the same thing as the previous play. This takes place on 2nd down instead of 3rd down, but that's kind of irrelevant. Rodgers gets to the top of his drop and barely has time to set up before two Chargers come crashing down at him. It looks like he has Geronimo Allison [81] on the drag route from the right, but Denzel Perryman [52] is crashing that route as Rodgers looks to throw. 

He pulls it down and is enveloped by Bosa and Ingram. Really, it was nice of them to both hit Rodgers on this play instead of spreading it out to 2 different plays. Just a couple of gentlemen, those guys.

What's that? They still spread out pressure on other plays? I retract my comment. Scoundrels, the lot of them.

Play 5: 3rd & 13, 0:56 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers trailing 0-19 [Disruption]

For our last play in this little section, we'll look how a bunch formation can get wrecked. Again, please note the unfavorable down and distance.

From the bunch formation on the right, we've got a dig under a deep crosser, with an out route off of that. The releases are tight, and that's generally good in these situations. The Packers are looking to introduce a little chaos into the world. Release tightly from a bunch formation, then scatter like cockroaches. It makes it tough for the defense to track and react to.

Desmond King [20] has a nice take on this: blow it all up. He chucks his receiver at the line, which throws everything off. When Rodgers gets to the top of his drop, that grouping is all basically in the same place. Marcedes Lewis [89] has a clear path on the deep crosser, but Kumerow can't release on his out route because he's actively trying not to trip over his own teammate.

On 3rd & 13, the margins are pretty thing anyway. Add in a couple guys tripping over each other and those margins become even more thin. 

This pass ultimately fell incomplete, but even if Kumerow had caught it it wouldn't have made a difference: he would have been well short of the 1st down.

Before we go, let's take a quick look at 3 plays that showed a little of the quick passing game the Packers likely would have featured a bit more had they been in more favorable situations.

Play 6: 2nd & 5, 3:27 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers trailing 0-19

The Packers are running mirrored curl/out combos on either side. The Chargers defenders are aligned with with feet facing the receiver in front of them, indicating man coverage. This comes down to a pre-snap read for Rodgers. He wants to get the ball out of his hands quickly, so who does he trust to win their match-up. Why, the newly-returned Davante Adams, of course!

Rodgers hits the top of his drop, sees the boundary corner bailing and the slot corner not rotating over and throws to the outside. They pick up 9 yards and the 1st down.

Play 7: 2nd & 7, 8:36 remaining in the 4th quarter, Packers trailing 3-26

Let's run it back. Adams on the outside, looking like man-to-man. Rodgers hits the top of his drop, sees the boundary corner bailing and fires it to Adams. Packers pick up 7 yards and a 1st down

Play 8: 2nd & 6, 10:11 remaining in the 4th quarter, Packers trailing 3-26

Geronimo Allison is attacking the middle with a curl from off the right side. At the snap, the middle defenders spread out, leaving a nice, open space between the hashes. Rodgers hits the top of his drop, Allison curls and the Packers pick up 8 yards on the 1st down.

Finding mismatches and getting the ball out quickly is a lot easier when you're looking at 2nd & 6 instead of 2nd & 10. Had the Packers been able to stay on schedule, we likely would have seen more of this quick-passing game.

Albums listened to: Eliza Hardy Jones - Because Become; Earl Sweatshirt - Feet of Clay; Apollo Brown - Sincerely, Detroit; Why? - AOKOHIO; Leif Vollbekk - New Ways; Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA