For all storylines coming into Sunday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys, the outcome of a tie was disappointing. The Packers came into the game looking to make a statement in front of a national audience, and other than a rough defensive performance, the real letdown came from the special teams unit.
Placekicker Brandon McManus hit a 34-yard field goal in the final second of overtime to finish the game deadlocked in a 40-40 draw, but while that kick went through the uprights, it’s the one that didn’t that should have Green Bay buzzing. A blocked extra point in the second quarter changed the complexion of the game, and it may be enough to convince the Packers to finally fire special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia during the upcoming bye week.
Another Packers Special Teams Meltdown Makes Rich Bisaccia’s Seat Even Hotter
Teams use their bye weeks to make on-field adjustments, which is exactly what the Packers need after another Bisaccia letdown.
The 65-year-old coach has been the Packers’ special teams coordinator since 2022 and has a prominent role on Matt LaFleur’s staff, earning the assistant head coach title the following year. While Bisaccia is respected across the league, that hasn’t translated into success for Green Bay’s special teams unit.
The group hasn’t finished above 26th in Pro Football Focus’ special teams grades since Bisaccia arrived, and this year hasn’t been much better with Green Bay sitting 25th after Sunday’s draw. That 60.4 grade doesn’t tell the entire story, as the Packers’ special teams have cost them in each of the past two weeks.
Bisaccia’s group let the Packers down in Cleveland, where McManus’s potential go-ahead field goal with 27 seconds left was blocked by Browns defensive tackle Shelby Harris. After recovering the kick, Andre Szmyt banged through a 55-yard game-winning field goal as time expired to hand Green Bay a shocking 13-10 loss.
This week, it was a blocked extra point that came back to haunt the Packers. Green Bay had a stranglehold on the game with a pair of quarterback Jordan Love touchdown passes to wideout Romeo Doubs, and was about to go ahead 14-0 when they lined up for the extra point. Instead, the kick was blocked and returned by Markquese Bell for a safety, breathing life into the Cowboys.
The 13-2 score felt inconsequential at the moment, but it allowed Dallas to remain at an arm’s length the rest of the night. The Cowboys seized momentum to score a pair of touchdowns in the final 41 seconds of the first half to take a 16-13 lead into halftime, and the two teams alternated scores to close out regulation.
The fourth quarter is the biggest example. QB Dak Prescott found WR George Pickens for a 28-yard touchdown pass that gave the Cowboys a 37-34 lead with 43 seconds left in regulation. But had the Packers made the aforementioned kick, it would have tied the game at 35-35. McManus eventually hit a 53-yard field goal to send the game to overtime; however, it could have been a game-winner had Bisaccia’s special teams unit done its job earlier in the game.
Although the Packers didn’t lose the game, they also didn’t win it, causing LaFleur to make the walk of shame to the postgame presser to address his special teams.
“You’ve got to go back and you’ve got to practice and you’ve got to do a better job,” LaFleur said via Wendell Ferreira of A to Z Sports. “We’ve got to do a better job in practice. That’s disappointing, obviously, two weeks in a row where you have a kick blocked. So, I thought we did a lot of good things throughout the course of the week to correct the problem. Obviously, it wasn’t enough.”
Making tweaks in practice is one way to solve the issue, but many sleep-deprived Packers fans would say that getting rid of the person in charge is another. It gives the Packers an obvious move to make and could leave a new face taking over the special teams unit before hosting the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6.