Paul Bretl | 12/13/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Over the last two games, the Packers middle of the field pass defense has been picked on by Miami and Detroit, a trend that could potentially continue against Seattle without proper adjustments made.
In Week 13, Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa finished the game against Green Bay completing 37-of-46 passes for 365 yards with two touchdowns. Over the middle specifically, Tagovailoa attacked that part of the field, with 28 of his completions coming between the numbers, along with 300 of his passing yards.
This past week against the Lions, Jared Goff completed 32-of-41 passes overall for 283 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Between the numbers, he completed 23 passes for 214 of his yards with all three touchdowns coming in that part of the field, according to PFF.
“Just getting your depth,” said Isaiah McDuffie on defending the middle of the field. “Getting a good run-pass read and if you’re a hook player, be in the window for if there’s digs or anything coming that way. Just being there and doing your job. That’s the key to this thing.”
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Now, as always, there is context to this, with Tagovailoa putting up a lot of his numbers in the second half against Green Bay, who, at that point, was playing with a multi-score lead and trying not to give up a quick score.
However, Miami, as well as Detroit, both found success utilizing screens against the Packers’ defense. And when it came to the Lions’ game, a key part in the screen game’s success was when offensive coordinator Ben Johnson dialed several of them up, in situations where the Packers were sending pressure in an effort to get after Goff, leaving them out of position and at a numbers disadvantage.
If you look around the NFL, it’s not only the Packers who are struggling to defend screens. As Jeff Hafley described on Thursday, some of the most explosive plays on a weekly basis throughout the league are coming from screen plays, which means other offenses will likely look to incorporate them into their gameplans moving forward.
“They’re around the league a lot right now,” said Hafley of screens. “So we tried to get better at them going from Miami to Detroit. Was it good enough? No, so I’ll tell you it wasn’t good enough but I thought it was better than it was against Miami because some of those were worse, right?
“So then we looked at them again in the time that we had, and we tweaked some calls, and there’s some new things we’re going to try to do to continue to improve on them. When you get good players in space, you get those linemen out there so quickly, and it’s tough. To be honest with you, in that last game, there was a couple where Kenny was retracing, and he was right there, except he’s chasing a guy and all of a sudden Gibbs puts his foot in the ground, and we need more guys there. So t hat’s what we’re going to have to try to do. That’s definitely not easy, but we need to coach it better, and I think we have a better plan this week, and we need to execute it better.”
There is also the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds over the course of a football game, where the offense is trying to identify where the zones, or holes in a defense are going to be on a given play, and the defense is trying to disguise what they are doing from a coverage standpoint and where those zones might show up. More often than not, Goff and the Lions were able to find those soft spots in the Green Bay defense.
“It depends what zones we’re in,” Hafley said. “Are we in Cover-3 zone or are we in Cover-2 zone or are we in quarter-quarter-half or are we in quarters? I mean each zone we play there’s going to be certain voids. So if you are in three deep usually teams are going to try to get behind your hook players or they’re going to try to throw the ball in front of your corners or find the zone between your flat defender and your curl defender. If you’re in a Tampa 2 zone the void is usually that 5-yard are in front of the Mike where the Mike’s running the middle of the field.
“So when you mix up zones, you’re forcing them to try to find that area and usually when you do play zone defense, if you watch around the league or anywhere else, that 5 yards, usually there’s no one standing under there unless you drop eight. I think you’re seeing a lot of that and then a lot of balls thrown behind the line of scrimmage.”
Stressing the Packers’ middle of the field coverage defense is not having Edgerrin Cooper at linebacker, with him being sidelined the last three games with a hamstring injury. Although still navigating the ups and downs that come with making the jump from college to the NFL, Cooper had seen his playing time steadily increase each week prior to the injury.
With 4.51-second speed, he brings added coverage ability to the linebacker position with all of the ground he can cover. With that speed comes versatility and that provides Hafley quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to the game-plan he puts together and what he asks of Cooper, whether that be sending him as a blitzer or how he’s utilized in coverage.
With that skill set, there is also a positive trickle-down effect that it creates within the defense, with Cooper’s speed and ability to operate in space then impacting what is asked of other position groups, specifically the defensive backs, as Xavier McKinney highlighted after the Jacksonville game, because he can cover a lot of ground.
Cooper has returned to practice this week in a limited capacity the first two days, and is hopeful that he can be back on the field against Seattle.
“It means a lot,” said Cooper about being back at practice. “It’s been a long, long three weeks. I’m just ready to go out there and just play as hard as I can and make plays.”
Without Cooper, the Packers have leaned much more heavily on Isaiah McDuffie, who is more of a run defender at the linebacker position than a coverage defender. That role more so suits Eric Wilson, yet it’s been McDuffie who has seen the majority of the playing time next to Quay Walker and Tagovailoa and Goff have honed in on him.
In the last two games alone, McDuffie has been targeted 23 times, surrendering 20 receptions for 209 yards with one pass breakup. While also shorthanded at cornerback, the Packers want to make sure that they aren’t giving up big plays over the top, having McKinney, or the safety position in general, provide additional help over the middle on those short to intermediate passing routes is something Hafley may have to explore. But with anything, there can be a downside to that, which in this instance is leaving Green Bay exposed on the back end against DK Metcalf, who has the most downfield targets in football this season.
“That’s something that we’ve looked at and I’ve talked to Haf about and we’ve had conversations about,” said McKinney about playing closer to the line of scrimmage. “I’m going to get more involved just trying to, obviously I know kinda what the deal is now, just got to find ways to put myself in these situations so I can get involved in these games or have effects in the games because I know that if I’m deep, there’s probably not much going to happen too much. So just getting more involved with the game, being in the low zones and just doing things to get going early.”
Awaiting the Packers’ defense this week is a Seattle offense that features a potent passing game, led by Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the aforementioned Metcalf at receiver. Quarterback Geno Smith is also one to attack the middle of the field, with 207 of his 466 pass attempts coming between the numbers, including 155 of those 27 attempts being within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
From the slot, Smith-Njigba is heavily targeted over the middle of the field and Seattle also gets both of their running backs involved often in the passing game. Kenneth Walker–whose status for Sunday’s game is up in the air due to an injury–and Zach Charbonnet rank fourth and fifth on the team in targets with 83 between the two of them.
“They do a great job,” said Matt LaFleur of the Seattle running backs in the passing game. “They use ’em a lot in the screen game and I think both those backs are elite-level backs. They’re both starters in this league, no doubt about it, so we’re gonna have to do a great job in regards to not only the run game obviously but also the pass game.”
As we often hear, the NFL is a copycat league–if your opponent sees a weakness on film, they are going to put together a gameplan to continue attacking it. And right now, the Packers’ defense has to show that they can combat the screen game and defend the middle of the field. Otherwise offenses, particularly this Seattle one, are going to continue to hone in on those elements until Green Bay proves they can stop it.