The Los Angeles Chargers’ passing game — led by quarterback Justin Herbert — is going to stress the Green Bay Packers’ secondary, perhaps like no other team has up to this point in the season.
Herbert will enter Sunday’s contest ranked eighth in passing yards among quarterbacks and fifth in touchdown passes. This is a Chargers offense that wants to throw the ball, ranking eighth in pass attempts per game, and they are more than willing to push the ball downfield, with Herbert ranking fifth in total pass attempts of 20-plus yards.
Herbert’s go-to target has been Keenan Allen, who has 93 targets on the season and has been one of the most efficient and effective receivers in the NFL, ranking 10th in yards per route run. After Allen, the next highest targeted pass-catcher in the offense is Joshua Palmer with just 38 passes thrown his way, but Herbert does a good job of spreading the ball around as well, with six pass-catchers having between 23 and 38 targets, including running back Austin Ekeler.
“He’s the real deal,” said Matt LaFleur on Wednesday about Herbert. “There’s not a throw he can’t make. Does a great job protecting the football. Makes great decisions. Very decisive with throwing to tight windows. Keenan Allen is a monster. He leads them.
”Obviously, Ekeler is back there. They’ve had some unfortunate injuries but I think they’ve got a lot of playmakers that are capable of making explosion plays, but he’s the guy that drives the whole thing, obviously.”
Although Allen is by far targeted the most often, and attempting to limit his production will be priority No. 1 for Green Bay, with Herbert’s ability to get others involved along with his willingness to utilize all parts of the field, all 11 Packers defenders must be on the same page and prepared for the ball to come their way on any given play. If not, Herbert will exploit that breakdown.
Of Green Bay’s opponents through 10 games, only Detroit is in the Chargers’ stratosphere in terms of points per game scored with both ranking in the top-seven. However, while Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown are a tough one-two punch to contend with, the Lions want to run the ball, ranking fifth in rush attempts per game. As already laid out, Los Angeles wants to throw.
There have been other difficult wide receiver and quarterback matchups that the Packers have had to deal with this season, but all have a caveat as well. Davante Adams had Jimmy Garoppolo throwing him the ball and that was not an offense wanted to stretch the field. Kirk Cousins was unable to finish the game due to injury and was without Justin Jefferson, while Russell Wilson and Courtland Sutton hadn’t hit their current stride.
The combination of Herbert, Allen, and the Los Angeles passing game as a whole is going to present a new challenge for this Green Bay defense.
The M.O. of the Joe Barry defense is to prevent the explosive passing play, and for the most part, the Packers haven’t been beat vertically very often this season. With that said, where they do get picked apart is in the ground game and on short to intermediate routes where pass-catchers get the ball in space and pick up yards after the catch (YAC), either due to poor tackling, soft coverages, or a combination of the two.
Allen is targeted at all levels of the field but he leads the NFL in targets under nine yards and ranks ninth in YAC among receivers. In total, despite the ultimate goal of the Barry system, between the rushing and passing games, the Packers have still allowed the eighth-most explosive plays this season.
“That’s the challenge,” said LaFleur about striking a balance between slowing the run and the downfield passing game. “I think any time somebody is as explosive as they are, especially in the pass game, you’re going to have to play some split-safety and you’re going to have to do a great job. That is a challenge.”
With the Chargers’ ability to put up points, that can put an added stressor on the Green Bay offense. Despite a number of slow starts to games this season, the Packers have remained competitive in many of them because they weren’t going against high-powered offenses that buried Green Bay early. However, there is the potential in this one, much like the Detroit game, that things could get out of hand quickly if the defense struggles and the offense can’t keep up.
“Absolutely,” said LaFleur when asked about if the opponent’s offensive firepower affects how he approaches the game as a play caller. “That’s one of the focus that we do as a coaching staff every week, is how do we win this game as a team? That is a conversation every week before every game.”
A few weeks ago, Barry said that the Packers had a “champagne problem” at cornerback when asked how he was going to find playing time for Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas, Eric Stokes, and Keisean Nixon. Now, all of a sudden, this is a short-handed position group. Alexander missed the last game and did not practice on Wednesday. Douglas has since been traded to Buffalo and Stokes is on IR. Even at safety since that statement was made by Barry, Darnell Savage has been placed on IR and Rudy Ford missed a game and was absent from Wednesday’s practice as well.
The Green Bay front-seven will have to play a key role in helping their secondary out, by trying to limit the Chargers run game and putting them in predictable passing situations, along with pressuring Herbert when he does dropback—an area that the Packers have been very inconsistent in this season, sitting in the bottom-third of teams in total pressures generated. However, pressure against a quarterback of Herbert’s caliber doesn’t mean success either as he has been one of the most efficient passers this season when under duress.
The Packers’ defense has been gashed for 200-plus rushing yards on three occasions this season, but the 6.1 yards per pass attempt they’re allowing is the eighth-fewest, although the Chargers offense is a different beast that Green Bay hasn’t had to contend with yet.
“How do you prepare for any really good quarterback,” added LaFleur. “You do the best you can. You put the best plan in place. Obviously you’ve got to study and have an idea of what plays and concepts may be coming your way in order to be able to react the right way.
“Certainly, challenge in certain areas, but you better pick your spots, like I said he’s capable of making you pay if you get overly aggressive or if you’re leaving Keenan Allen one-on-one too much, he’s going to make you pay eventually.”
