5 Big Questions Green Bay Packers Face against New England

How will the Green Bay Packers special teams unit hold up against New England?

With Rich Bisaccia at the helm, along with a greater emphasis on special teams from the Green Bay Packers organization, we’ve seen a much-improved unit early on this season.

Overall, the Packers’ special teams ranks 14th by DVOA, which is up from their 32nd place finish a season ago. We also saw the punt coverage unit play a massive role in last week’s win over Tampa Bay, with the Bucs being pinned inside their own 15-yard line on five of the Packers’ seven punt attempts.

This week, however, Green Bay will be up against a Belichick-coached special teams unit that is often among the best in football. As Bisaccia told reporters, they are fast, physical, well-coached, and difficult to prepare for.

With that said, this year’s Patriots special teams unit hasn’t been as successful in the early going, struggling on the punt coverage and punt return units, in particular. However, they still have Nick Folk at kicker and Pro Bowler Matthew Slater leading the way. By PFF’s metrics, the Patriots rank sixth in special teams play, while DVOA has them ranked 26th–quite the range, isn’t it?

Regardless of the rankings, without question, given the unknowns — along with everything Bisaccia mentioned — that come with going up against Belichick, this will be Green Bay’s greatest test on special teams up to this point in the season.