Green Bay Packers: 5 Telling NFC Championship Stats from PFF
By Paul Bretl
Too much pressure from Tampa Bay
In the trenches on the other side of the ball, it was a different story. While it wasn’t nearly as bad as Week 6, the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line struggled once again with the Bucs’ pass-rush. Green Bay allowed 17 pressures and five sacks. Billy Turner and Rick Wagner particularly struggled out on the edge against Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett.
I’ll touch on this shortly, but in the fourth quarter especially, the Packers’ play-calling didn’t give their tackles much help. Green Bay got away from their offense and went more spread, similar to what we saw during the Mike McCarthy days, which put Turner and Wagner on an island. When under pressure, Rodgers completed five of 11 passes for a measly 3.6 yards per attempt.
King and Sullivan struggled
As has been the case all season, Jaire Alexander had his side of the field locked down, and for the most part, Brady didn’t challenge him. But unfortunately, Brady did find quite a bit of success against Kevin King and Chandon Sullivan.
King was targeted seven times, allowing five completions for 66 yards with two touchdowns given up. Of course, we all remember these touchdowns; one he mistimed the jump, which ended as an easy completion to Mike Evans. And the other was the deep ball to Scotty Miller right before half.
Sullivan had a bit of a better day than King, allowing just three receptions on seven targets. However, those three completions went for 57 yards, and all of them came on third downs, which extended Tampa’s drives. Neither cornerback had a pass breakup either.