Green Bay Packers: 3 Things to do Differently Against the Bucs

Challenge Their Offense

There’s something very fundamentally wrong with the picture above, can you guess what it is? If you pointed out that Tom Brady is the only one in the picture and looking very comfortable, then congrats, you nailed it!

This Buccaneers offense is filled with weapons. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown, Cameron Brate, Leonard Fournette, Ronald Jones, Rob Gronkowski. If you give Tom Brady time in the pocket, he’ll find one of his guys.

The Green Bay Packers’ defense can challenge this Tampa offense in three fundamental ways, putting enough bulk in the box and at the line of scrimmage to stop the run, having their cornerbacks get up in the faces of their wide receivers, and blitzing Tom Brady.

We’ll start with putting bodies in the box. The first time around, Ronald Jones ran all over this defense to the tune of 113 yards for two touchdowns. Since then, they have tightened up on run defense, and the addition of Snacks Harrison has been helpful the last couple of games as well. Even so, the running game is all about numbers, and they need to have enough guys available to stop the run. This will mean bringing down a safety sometimes, which could give the Bucs better looks at deep passes, but that is what the Packers should be trying to force them to do.

Last week, Brady did not throw the ball down the field well. He completed just 4 of his 13 throws that were 12 or more yards downfield and was just 1 for 6 over 20 yards. It will be even tougher for him in the cold and snow of Lambeau, which leads right into our next point, getting up in their receivers’ faces.

There have simply been too many times this year when the Green Bay Packers have been far too conservative, especially on fourth down. They played soft zones, dropped eight guys into coverage, and let guys catch the ball right in front of them for the first down. They played more man coverage last week, and that should continue against Tampa Bay. Again, this gives the Buccaneers more over the top chances, but the Packers have the players to run this kind of defense, and they need to be the ones forcing the issue this week, not the other way around.

Finally, speaking of forcing the issue, they need to blitz. Tom Brady was never a mobile quarterback, and now he’s 43 years old and is an absolute statue in the pocket. If they force him off his spot and make him move, he will get sacked and make mistakes. Don’t drop Dean Lowry into coverage, don’t drop Kenny Clark into coverage, don’t drop Tyler Lancaster into coverage. Enough is enough. It’s time to lay it on the line and go get Tom Brady.

This pass rush unit on third down of the Smiths, Gary, and Clark was great last week and should be again, but it needs to be even more than that. Send one more guy and get them all a one-on-one. If they can get Brady on his heels often, they should have him running for his life all game.

The game plan on defense should be fairly straightforward. Play up on early downs to negate easy gains and then send the dogs at Brady on third down and let them finish drives off. That’s how you beat this team. We saw Brady make plenty of mistakes last week against the Saints but do enough to win with Brees making even more. Challenge the old man and this offense, and the Green Bay Packers punch their ticket to the Super Bowl.