Daily Madden: Defense Is Key In 49ers-Packers Game
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - The 49ers face the Green Bay Packers at Candlestick Park Sunday in a key NFC match-up to open the season. "It's going to be a good one," John Madden told the KCBS morning crew, noting each defense is tasked with stopping two of the NFL's best quarterbacks.
"(Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers) is capable of throwing six or seven touchdown passes," said Madden. "Anytime you have that kind of quarterback and that kind of guy that can make a lot of big plays on you, they're dangerous."
Can Green Bay stop 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the read-option plays? "That's the thing that every defensive coordinator in the off-season worked on is how to defend that play," Madden said. "Every team is going to assign a guy to the quarterback. And when he runs that read-option, someone is going to be assigned to him. They're not going to read him, they're going to go after him. They're going to go after him and hit him. Whether that's going to work or not, I don't know. But I know there are 32 teams in the league, and that for all of them that's the answer."
Terrelle Pryor iss expected to start for the Oakland Raiders at quarterback as they open their season against the Indianapolis Colts Sunday. "He's the only one that got any offense at all going for them," Madden said.
"They need something to give them some juice. They can't get a system quarterback in there because they don't have enough pieces for other guys to win the game," said Madden. "I mean they can't say, 'okay, just manage the game, run the ball, strong defense.' They don't have a good enough offensive line, a good enough running game, a good enough defense to be able to do those things.
"So they need a quarterback that maybe won't really light it up, but there is a chance that he could. And I think that's what Pryor gives them."
Daily Madden
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM. And catch John's extra report at 9:15 am Mondays and Fridays on KCBS during the NFL season.
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