3 Big Things from Green Bay Packers Nail Biting Win Over Cleveland
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers defense has been trending downward
After their ugly Week 1 loss to New Orleans, the Green Bay Packers defense would slowly begin to find their groove in the coming months. Over the next nine games, the Packers would allow more than 22 points on just one occasion, and in six of those games, their opponent failed to score more than 17.
This culminated with a three-game stretch against Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes, and Russell Wilson, in which the Green Bay defense allowed a combined 601 passing yards, they forced four interceptions, logged a completion rate of just 56 percent, and held those three offenses to only 34 total points, which includes shutting out Seattle.
However, since then, this defense has been trending in the wrong direction over their last five games, Now, sure, Green Bay still ranks 10th in points per game overall and in total yards, but they certainly haven’t been passing the eye test–allowing 28.8 points per game in their last five contests along with opponents being able to move the ball with relative ease.
While Green Bay has ranked very well in several defensive categories this season, the advanced metrics were never too high on them–even at their best. By DVOA, the Packers pass defense ranks 19th, their rush defense 25th, and overall 22nd, which is in line with where they’ve been for much of the season.
With that said, this unit has still done a very good job of pressuring the quarterback — they’ve been one of the best in football all season long — as well as at generating turnovers, ranking fifth with 26 takeaways and first in differential–although banking heavily on turnovers week to week can be a bit risky given the unpredictability in which they’ll occur.
But the run defense is allowing 4.8 yards per carry, which ranks 31st, and they were just run all over by Nick Chubb and the Cleveland Browns. Meanwhile, we are starting to see more and more soft coverages from the secondary, leading to easy completions, and there have also been more miscommunications and poor tackling. Also, Joe Barry’s game plan as of late has been a bit head-scratching as well.
At the end of the day, the Green Bay Packers defense is still doing enough to win but with the playoffs near, this is the time of the year that you want your team to be building momentum. But instead, the defense is trending in the wrong direction.