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How tough is Lambeau Field for the visiting team? . . .
Tight end Tyler Conklin, who spent the first four years of his career with the Minnesota Vikings, has a lot of experience playing at Lambeau field. The Vikings and Green Bay Packers are obviously in the same division – The NFC North.
“It’s a really cool place to play with all the history and tradition there,” Conklin said. “It’s a fun place to play, but a better place to go win.”
How challenging is Lambeau Field for opposing teams with the crowd noise?
“It’s loud, but I don’t think it’s the loudest place in the league,” Conklin said.
Conklin mentioned New Orleans, Seattle and Minnesota as perhaps the loudest stadiums.
But he might not have experienced Lambeau at its most challenging for a road team, because there are a lot of Vikings fans in Minnesota, and that part of the country in general, so when Vikings play at Lambeau, there are a lot Minnesota fans in the stands.
“It was pretty split when we played Green Bay home and away,” Conklin said.
So with a predominant Green Bay crowd (with a few Jets fans mixed it), the Jets offense will be challenged, especially on third down.
Not just due to the crowd noise, but Green Bay’s defense is very good on that down.
“They are one of the best defensives in the league on third down, so it will be a big challenge for us,” Conklin said.
It’s well-documented that Jets coach Robert Saleh and Packers coach Matt LaFleur are best friends, and Conklin does feel that adds a little juice for those two guys.
“You really want to beat them, when you playing against your friend or your brother, so it would make it that much better to come out of there with a ‘W,” Conklin said . . .
Aaron Rodgers loves throwing to guys in the slot.
Jets nickel cornerback Michael Carter says Packers are not only using wide receiver Randall Cobb in the slot, but wide receiver Allen Lazard, not the kind of guy you would expect in there, at 6-5, 224.
They do it to create “mismatches” according to Carter.
Carter knows when he lines up against the crafty veteran Cobb, he’s going to have quite a challenge.
“He knows how to manipulate leverage,” Carter said. “He has seen it all. He’s been around the game for a long time. It’s going to be a good challenge going after saavy veteran like that.” . . .
A big key for the Jets’ pass defense this week is to maintain eye discipline because Aaron Rodgers is one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks at manipulating defenders with his eyes – making it look like he’s going to throw in one direction, and then going somewhere else.
“[Eye-discipline] is super important – you know he’s going to look you off,” Carter said. “Not fall for those eye fakes and make sure we are in the right spot when he comes back to certain reads.”
This applies to the Jets linebackers in coverage, and Kwon Alexander, who has faced Rodgers before, isn’t too concerned.
“I don’t worry about that because I read keys,” Alexander said. “I don’t worry about eye manipulation because I read shoulders. As long as we read the keys, we are going to be straight.
The Jets will have Quincy Williams back this week, so Alexander will likely go back into his role as the team’s third linebacker, playing in certain situations.
And Williams needs to be very careful this week. One of the toughest linebackers around, and one of the hardest-hitting linebackers in the league, Williams is very aggressive, and he has to make sure he doesn’t fall for the “eye-candy,” hard play-fakes, that can take advantage of defenders being too aggressive, and forcing them out of position, leading to big plays.
October 14, 2022
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