Green Bay Packers: 3 Matchups to watch in Week Four

Matt Ryan vs. Packers Secondary

In my awards article for the Saints game last weekend, I crowned Drew Brees the new Captain Checkdown, due to how often he threw the ball short, especially to running back Alvin Kamara. That title was well deserved as Brees is dead last in intended air yards through three weeks at 4.8 yards per attempt, over a full yard under the next lowest quarterback, Jared Goff.

This week, the Packers are taking on a whole different animal. Matt Ryan isn’t afraid to sling it down the field, especially if Ridley, Julio, or both are playing on Monday night. He’s sixth in the league this season in intended air yards at exactly 10 yards per attempt. For reference, Aaron Rodgers is right behind him at 9.6 air yards per attempt.

Ryan is completing those deep passes too. The Atlanta Falcons are ninth in the league in explosive pass play percentage at 10 percent, just a few spots behind the Green Bay Packers. Also, the Packers have been about the same level of bad at defending against these plays as the Falcons defense has, ranking 25th in explosive pass play percentage.

A big reason for these defensive struggles is the safety tandem of Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage taking a big step back so far this season. With both of them being fairly young and Savage in his second year after a solid rookie campaign, there was great reason for hope, but they just haven’t been on their games through three weeks. Neither one of them has a pass break up this season and they are both graded in the fifties by Pro Football Focus on their 0-100 scale. Ratings in the fifties mean they are replaceable and not even solid starters. They’ll have to improve quickly and step up this week because Matt Ryan and this Falcons offense are going to come out firing and they need to be ready.