Green Bay Packers: Dean Lowry Making Noise on Defensive Front
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers run defense hasn’t been dominant by any means, allowing 4.5 yards per rush this season, which ranks 24th in the NFL. But they’ve done a good job of not letting their opponents take the game over on the ground either.
Through six games, the Green Bay Packers are yet to have allowed a 100 yard rusher, and as Andy Herman of Packer Report noted, the longest rush given up this season was a 26-yard scamper by quarterback Jared Goff. In short, they’ve kept their opponents in check on the ground, which is not something that could be said in years past.
The catalyst behind this is, of course, Kenny Clark, who is playing at an extremely high-level to start the season. But Clark is also getting some additional help inside, most notably from Dean Lowry.
Since the San Francisco game in Week 3, we’ve really seen Lowry kick things up a few notches. While oftentimes he is not someone who is going to fill the stat sheet with eye-popping numbers, he’s been getting consistent push against both the run and pass by bullying his way into the backfield.
As Ben Fennell noted in a past article of his, Lowry loves doing the “dirty work” in the trenches.
"“But Lowry is the type of player where every snap needs to be watched to appreciate his strong play and how it affects the defense. Lowry loves to work in the trenches and does the dirty work. He doesn’t have much pass rush upside and only sees the field on early-down situations. He doesn’t get the highlight sacks or flash plays in the backfield but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a strong, productive player.”"
When Lowry is playing well, that helps Clark, the edge rushers, and the linebackers as well. Really, everyone on this Green Bay Packers defense can benefit to some degree.
However, while doing the dirty work is the name of the game for Lowry, against Cincinnati and Chicago, we’ve seen him show up on the stat sheet as well. His four pressures against the Bengals were the most on the team, and he tallied another four against the Bears, which was the third most on the Green Bay Packers that week. Lowry also recorded a sack each week as well.
Overall, Lowry ranks 27th in total pressures among interior defensive linemen, according to PFF ($$), 35th in solo tackles, and eighth in assisted tackles—not bad considering his role on this defensive front.
While Lowry has struggled at times in previous seasons, this new Joe Barry defense may be part of his resurgence. During training camp, Lowry mentioned how the new defensive system gives him and the other interior defenders the ability to move around more in search of a favorable matchup.
Although very rarely there is one thing in football that we can point to when searching for an answer, this defensive scheme is likely one big contributor to Lowry’s new found success.
Now, it’s fair to wonder if Lowry can continue this level of play throughout the season, and we will just have to wait and see what the answer to that question is. But over the last month or so, he has provided this defensive front with a boost.
Although the stats and numbers may not always show his contributions, when Lowry is playing well, his teammates can feel his presence.
"“Dean does so much of the dirty work at the position he’s at,” said DL coach Jerry Montgomery via Packers.com. “He takes on a lot of double-teams, he pushes the pocket on third downs when he gets those opportunities."