October
Packers Video: Ryan Pickett Best Packers Nose Tackle Hands down
Packers’ Best Nose Tackle: Ryan Pickett
Ryan Pickett had a whale of a game against the Houston Texans. Their Pro Bowler center, the 6’4″ 290lb Chris Meyers, was no match for Pickett. Double teams were no match for Pickett, except when he got chop blocked (more on that later).
The best the Texans were able to do against Pickett was keep him on the line of scrimmage. There was no knocking him back off the line. There was no getting bounced back and forth between two blockers. These are things I’ve witnessed too much from BJ Raji.
Nothing against Raji, but he is not your prototypical nose tackle that is content with eating blockers and stuffing inside running lanes. Perhaps it’s the Packers’ own fault for also playing him at DE and letting him get a taste of pass rushing glory. To my eyes Raji is a lot more interested in trying to get to the QB than doing what a nose tackle’s primary job is. I also think he doesn’t always bring that rabid dog intensity I like from my defensive linemen.
The Packers held Arian Foster (averaging 106 yards per game coming into the Packers contest) to 29 yards in 17 carries – 1.7 ypc average. If you don’t think a big reason for that was Ryan Pickett, you need to go watch the game again. There were no running lanes for Foster between the tackles. He scored two short yardage touchdowns, both by bouncing the play off tackle to avoid a hard charging Ryan Pickett.
