3 big things from Green Bay Packers overtime win over New England

The Green Bay Packers’ run defense has no answers for the Patriots’ offense

There isn’t much you can bank on when going up against a Bill Belichick-coached team, but everyone in the stadium and watching at home knew that New England was going to lean heavily on the run game, and that became even more true once Brian Hoyer left the game and rookie Bailey Zappe took over.

Yet, with the use of a sixth offensive lineman on a number of plays, the New England Patriots ran all over this Packers’ defense. As a team, the Patriots ran the ball 33 times compared to passing it just 21 times. They also totaled 167 yards on 5.1 yards per carry.

Even against a third-string quarterback, and with everyone knowing the run game was coming, we didn’t see this Packers defense do a whole lot of dictating. They continued to line up in their lighter nickel package on over half of their snaps, which made stopping the run more challenging, and there were again several instances where the secondary was providing a lot of cushion. We also saw the linebackers and edge rushers undisciplined with setting the edge.

Against Minnesota in Week 1 and then against New England, it was very evident that Joe Barry has his system, and he is going to stick to it. There is also a frustrating component that comes with watching this defense and how passive they are, especially given the talent that they have front to back.

With that said, much like the offense, the box score at the end of the game didn’t look terrible–outside of the rushing numbers. New England averaged just 4.2 yards per pass, they were 3-11 on third downs and had only 271 total yards. Overall, it wasn’t a great performance by any means, but it wasn’t terrible either. In key situations, the defense came up with stops when needed.