5 Big Things from the Green Bay Packers road win in Tampa Bay
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers defense is rounding into form
It wasn’t a great start to the season by any means, and there have been some ups and downs since, but the Green Bay Packers defense seems to be rounding into form with another impressive performance. After giving up 17 points in the first half to Minnesota, the Packers have allowed just 28 points over the last 10 quarters.
Slowing the Tampa Bay offense begins with winning the line of scrimmage, and the Packers did that against a banged-up Bucs offensive line. The Green Bay pass rush did a good job of pressuring Tom Brady, even with him getting the ball out quickly. We also saw Joe Barry send De’Vondre Campbell and Quay Walker on a few blitzes–something that didn’t happen in Weeks 1 or 2.
Leonard Fournette, who entered the game with the fifth most rushing yards, finished with only 35 yards, averaging fewer than 3.0 yards per rush. Tampa hasn’t been overly efficient running the ball this season, but they’ve been persistent. However, while Green Bay stuck with the run game, Brady threw the ball 42 times, despite being down his top-three receivers.
Campbell had an excellent game at linebacker, totaling 14 tackles while coming away with the deflection on the two-point conversion. Meanwhile, Keisean Nixon stepped in admirably in place of Jaire Alexander, taking over the slot duties and holding his own. The Packers’ tackling, which had been an issue, looked much more sound as well.
Overall, the Bucs were just 3-12 on third and fourth downs. They averaged only 4.8 yards per play, with Brady averaging just 5.6 yards per pass, and the defense came up with two big turnovers as well.
If there is anything to nit-pick, it would be how passive this defense played on the Bucs’ final drive, but that shouldn’t leave a sour taste in your mouth by any means–the defense won the Packers this game, even with the offensive side of the ball not always putting them in the best positions, but this unit responded each time.
Sure, you can point to the Bucs’ offense being without their top-three receivers, but the defense can only play who is on the field, and they did what they should do in these instances—which is control the game.