It is the giving season, but someone should have reminded the Green Bay Packers defense that the idea doesn’t apply during a must-win game.
With a 14-point lead entering the fourth quarter, the Packers defense did just about everything it could to give the Panthers this game. This included the Panthers scoring a touchdown on three of their final four possessions (excluding the end-of-game situation) and putting themselves in field goal range at the end despite not having any timeouts and only 19 seconds on the clock. Fortunately for Green Bay, the Panthers ran out of time, or this game could have gone into overtime.
Believe it or not, Carolina came into this game with statistically one of the worst offenses in football. Their 14.7 points per game ranked 29th, and where they really struggled was through the air, with rookie Bryce Young ranking last in yards per pass attempt at 5.5, along with posting only one game with a passer rating over 100.0 and just four games where he eclipsed the 200-yard passing mark.
But leave it to Joe Barry and the Packers’ defense to provide that get-right opportunity for an offense and what ended up being a career day for Young. He finished the day completing 23-of-35 passes for 312 yards and two touchdowns at 8.9 yards per attempt.
Young and the Panthers’ passing game thrived where the Packers’ pass defense has repeatedly struggled, which is over the middle on intermediate throws, where there is space between the linebackers and defensive backs, and where there are yards after the catch opportunities.
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, 46 percent – a season-high – of Young’s passes were in the 10-19-yard range and he was 10-for-16 for 178 yards with two touchdowns.
As disappointing as the previous two defensive performances were by the Packers coming into this game, this one against Carolina might take the cake. For one, as already mentioned, the Panthers have struggled mightily this season and don’t have a Mike Evans or Saquon Barkley caliber player like the Bucs and Giants do.
However, more importantly than that, in a must-win game and with Barry admitting this past week that his back was up against the wall, this was the performance we saw from the defense. Green Bay held an ‘open forum’ style meeting last Monday, as LaFleur put it, not to mention that he was going to take a larger role with the defense this past week.
Yet, even with all of that being true, what did this defense do well? I suppose they held Chuba Hubbard to under 3.0 yards per carry, but there were no turnovers, a modest two sacks, a blown fourth-quarter lead, and another career day in the passing game for the opposing quarterback.
Barry will take the brunt of the blame, and understandably so, but the players on the field, specifically the defensive backs, were getting beat and didn’t make plays even when they were in position to do so. It was a poor performance all around, but as Barry said this past week, as the coordinator, he has to make sure everything is coordinated well. If this overall performance on the field was a one-off that’s a different story, but this has become the norm.
“That was definitely frustrating,” said LaFleur of the defense’s second-half performance. “But it wasn’t just on the defense. But offensively, you’ve got to give them a breather, especially if we are breathing a little bit defensively.
“We’ve got to find a way to put together a scoring drive or find a way to get some first downs to allow those guys to recover, recoop. Momentum is a crazy phenomenon, and they got the momentum in the second half, and they were rolling in really every phase.”
While the Panthers did make their run in the midst of back-to-back three-and-outs by the Packers offense, the offense also put up 33 points and did so without Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, a fully healthy AJ Dillon and Dontayvion Wicks missing the entire second half. They did their part, but the defense did not.
LaFleur, of course, knows this, and in his response, I imagine he is trying not to heap any more heat on a unit that has already come under a lot of fire the last two weeks.
However, I’ll mention the same thing now as I did last week: the longer the relationship with Barry continues, the worse it reflects on LaFleur as the decision-maker and one in charge. If there wasn’t improvement this week, given all the factors already mentioned, then it probably isn’t going to happen.
According to the New York Times playoff predictor, if the Packers win their final two games, they have a 95 percent chance of making the playoffs. But with the current state of the defense, I’m not sure that anyone can be confident in that happening.
