5 Big Things from the Green Bay Packers road win in Tampa Bay
By Paul Bretl
It certainly wasn’t pretty, but the Green Bay Packers came away with a road win against a very good Tampa Bay Buccaneers team to improve to 2-1 on the season.
Now that I’ve had the opportunity to take a second look at the game and digest what took place, here are my five big things from the Packers’ performance.
The punt coverage unit plays a key role in Green Bay Packers’ win
With the Packers’ offense hitting a wall following the fumble by Aaron Jones, we saw a lot of punter Pat O’Donnell and the punt coverage unit, with at one point Green Bay recording seven straight three-and-outs.
However, despite their heavy usage and, at times, being put in some tough situations, the punt coverage unit played a key role in helping the Packers secure the win.
O’Donnell had seven punt attempts and put five of them inside the 20-yard line, which tied a single-game record for the Packers and included a long of 63-yards. Gunners Rudy Ford and Keisean Nixon had excellent games as well, oftentimes beating their man down the field, which resulted in a fair catch, and included Nixon downing the ball at the 2-yard line.
Out of the seven punts, the Bucs’ punt returner Jaelon Darden had just three return attempts totaling 26 yards.
In a close game such as this one, it only takes one miscue by the punt coverage team for the field position to flip and Tampa Bay in a position to score. However, the Packers never let that happen.
If last year’s special teams unit is in a game like this, do the Packers win? I’m not so sure they do.