Green Bay Packers: It’s Time to Blitz More, Mike Pettine

After being one of the NFL’s best at pressuring the QB in 2019, the Green Bay Packers are one of the worst in 2020. It’s time for Mike Pettine to dial up more blitzes.

While I certainly wouldn’t call the Green Bay Packers’ 2019 defense elite, they were much improved from the year before. Although their mantra was “bend but don’t break,” by weighted DVOA, which considers the opponent and other factors, the Green Bay defense went from being ranked 29th in 2018 to 15th in 2019.

As is always the case in football, there is a myriad of reasons behind their improvement, but perhaps the biggest contributor was their ability to get after the quarterback with the additions of Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith.

In fact, Green Bay was one of the best team’s in the NFL at pressuring the quarterback in 2019, and they did so without having to blitz nearly as often. This was quite the opposite of their 2018 season.

That year, as a team, the Packers would generate just 273 quarterback pressures, which ranked as the 19th most in the NFL. And to Mike Pettine’s credit, many of those pressures were because of blitzes and stunts he schemed up rather than the players winning their one-on-one matchups. As a result, Green Bay’s blitz rate of 29.3 percent was the 10th most that season, according to Pro Football Reference.

However, as I’ve alluded to, 2019 was different. With The Smiths as well as Kenny Clark, the Green Bay Packers finished with the fourth-highest pressure rate in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus, and even better, they did it without having to rely on the blitz. Last season, the Packers would blitz on only 22.7 percent of their snaps and ranked 28th in the NFL.

With the defensive front able to get after the quarterback on their own accord, Pettine just didn’t have to rely on blitzing nearly as much as he did the year before. And now, in 2020, with the same personnel along with a more robust Rashan Gary, Pettine has used a similar philosophy. The only problem is, the Packers aren’t generating any consistent pressure.

After The Smiths combined for 25.5 sacks and 167 total pressures in 2019, through five games this season, they have just 20 pressures and 5.5 sacks, with Za’Darius contributing five of them. Not to mention that not having Kenny Clark in the mix for most of the year hasn’t helped things either.

Green Bay’s pressure rate of 14.9 percent is the third-lowest mark in the NFL, and believe it or not, despite their struggles in getting after the quarterback, Pettine is blitzing even less than what he did a season ago. To be exact, the Green Bay Packers are blitzing on just 16 percent of their defensive snaps this season, ranking 28th in that category.

Without consistent pressure, there is, of course, a negative trickle-down effect on the rest of the defense, with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers being a prime example of how things can go south. In Pettine’s soft zone coverage scheme, Brady was able to find the soft parts of the coverages and pick this defense apart with time in the pocket. Basically, death by a thousand paper cuts.

It’s also not a coincidence that in two other key parts of the game, takeaways and red zone defense, the Packers have regressed significantly. In 2019, Green Bay had the seventh most turnovers with 25, while this year, they are tied for last with three. And in the red zone, their defense has gone from being ranked 11th to now 29th.

After how last season went, it’s easy to see why Pettine made the decision to blitz less often. To put it simply, he just didn’t have to. However, as we’ve seen, that certainly isn’t the case this season. As the old saying goes, “coach the team you have,” and right now, Pettine has a team that is truly struggling to pressure the quarterback. So, Mike Pettine, I ask you, start blitzing more often.