Paul Bretl | 11/29/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Less than two weeks ago, the Packers defense had a performance against the Chicago Bears that was “not to our standard,” as defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley put it. However, the unit has responded since then and appears to be hitting its stride as another matchup with Detroit awaits them.
It’s no secret that San Francisco was without quarterback Brock Purdy in that game. But that was still an offense that featured Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, and Kyle Shanahan as the play designer and play caller. Against an albeit shorthanded unit, the Packers defense did what any good defense would do in that situation–they controlled the game. San Francisco scored just 10 points and totaled just 241 yards of offense.
“I don’t care who was playing,” said Hafley on Tuesday. “And I get it. I know who wasn’t playing. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you that, ‘Oh, we’re (awesome).’ I’m not. They’re good players. But at the same time, that scheme, the players they still had and that coach, are very hard to defend. So I give credit to the guys on the team.”
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Just a few days later on a short week, the Packers defense had a much more difficult test against a Miami offense that has a lot of speed and was averaging 29.0 points per contest over their last five games with Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback. But again, the Packers defense kept points off the board and while the Dolphins’ offensive stat sheet looks nice, the game was never in their control.
Tagovailoa finished the game completing 37-of-46 passes for 365 yards, averaging 7.9 yards per attempt with two touchdowns. However, where it matters most, the Miami offense would muster only 17 points.
A lot of those yards that were produced through the air were empty calories, meaning they didn’t lead to points, and came in the second half when Green Bay held a 27-3 lead, which isn’t to say that’s acceptable. There are things that certainly have to be cleaned up.
“We just got leaky,” said Xavier McKinney about the second half performance. “We could have been better on our details. That’s kind of what it was. I think just kind of small, little details that they hit us with and we just gotta do a better job.”
With that said, a defense often takes a different approach when leading by 24 points in the second half compared to when it’s the first half and the game is far from decided. And when a big play–or plays–were needed, with Miami at the one-yard line in a 2nd-and-goal situation, the defense came away with a massive stop.
“I think our guys were playing physical and made a couple plays there,” said Matt LaFleur of the stop. “They tried to run a keeper out of the gun, and Keisean was kind of all over it. We got good penetration on that fourth-down play and got the sack. So I think our guys, they did their job.”
However, when it comes to determining what to make of Green Bay’s defensive performance in Week 13, I would turn my attention to the first half, where we saw this Packers’ defense really flexing its muscles.
As he was the entire game, Tagovailoa was efficient, completing 14-of-19 first-half targets. He would total, however, a modest 118 passing yards, averaging 6.2 yards per attempt. For some context, that 6.2 figure on the season would rank 29th out of 32 eligible quarterbacks. And most importantly from Green Bay’s perspective, the Dolphins had just three points at halftime.
The Packers were willing to give up that kind of efficiency if it meant limiting the number of explosive pass plays. But in order for that approach to be effective, swarming to the ball and sound tackling was a must in order to prevent this speedy and dynamic offense that does well at getting its playmakers the ball in space from picking the Green Bay defense apart with yards after the catch.
“For sure,” said McKinney about the emphasis on tackling. “When you play guys like that that’s all speed they going to get the ball on the perimeter and everybody gotta be running to the ball because sometimes, that first person might not get him down, not due to a missed tackle but they might out run your angle.
“So that’s the type of speed that they got. But I think we did a great job today of just all running to the ball and really a great job of getting them down.”
The Packers’ offense jumping out to a quick multi-score lead helped limit Miami’s ability to lean on their run game. The Dolphins entered this contest ranked eighth in rush attempts per game, but De’Von Achane and Raheem Moster ran the ball just 12 times combined. And even when they did get the ball on the ground, they totaled just 33 yards.
“It’s just complementary football from all three levels,” said JJ Enagbare of the run defense. “The D-tackles, D-line, linebackers able to flow to over top and then the DBs able to make the open-field tackles when it comes to them, so it was pretty much just all 11 playing together and playing with each other.”
The trickle-down effect of playing with a lead, along with containing the run, is that it puts the opposing offense in obvious passing situations where the defensive front can pin its ears back. That, however, against Miami anyways, isn’t always enough to get after Tagovailoa.
This is a rhythmic Dolphins’ offense that leverages Tagovailoa’s ability to anticipate throws to get the ball his out of his hands at the quickest rate in football. To counter this, the Packers’ did a very good job of disguising their coverage looks, along with playing a physical brand of football, helping to takeaway Tagovailoa’s initial reads.
The end result for the Green Bay defense was a pressure rate of 31 percent, according to PFF, which was up 10 percent from Tagovailoa’s average pressure rate this season, and five sacks.
“That was pretty much our game plan for starting today,” added Enagbare. “We pretty much knew they’re a rhythm offense. He pretty much like to do everything in synch and a timing type of scheme, so pretty much I guess the DBs was able to re-route them and get them off the spot and just mess up the timing and that helped the rush and vice versa. The rush helped the coverage, so I feel like it was just complementary football on the defensive end.”
Now awaiting the Packers next Thursday is a rematch with the 11-1 Detroit Lions. When it comes to the NFC North race, this game is a must-win for Green Bay.
Although that first game at Lambeau Field between the two, which was won by the Lions fairly convincingly, was only a month ago, this Packers team is in a different position and playing better, more complementary football than what they were at that time.
The offense has leaned on the running game, while the passing game has found more consistency, and the defensive unit is finding its groove. When paired together, you get a difficult team to beat.
“The way we’re preparing,” said McKinney of the improved play on defense. “Like I said, every time I talk to ya’ll, I tell ya’ll like, hey we going to get back into the lab and we’re going to figure out what we need to do better and then we’re going to do that. And we’re doing that. And you can tell, you can see it when we go out there and play.
“So like I said, that’s really the biggest reason. We’re really locking into the small things and the little details that make us that much better. So we’re going to keep doing that. Obviously we’re not comfortable with where we’re at as a defense right now, there’s still some things that we gotta work on, but we’re going to do that.”