Paul Bretl | 12/15/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — With the Packers’ offense sputtering for much of the second half, the pass rush, along with the return of Edgerrin Cooper at linebacker, helped keep the Seattle offense at bay, allowing Green Bay to eventually put this game away.
“Obviously we’re always trying to get pressure on the quarterback, that’s the No. 1 way to disrupt anything on offense,” said Matt LaFleur after the game. “But our D-line came to play and they did a hell of a job and just got constant pressure.”
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It was a red-hot start for the Packers’ offense, who led by Josh Jacobs and the run game, scored a touchdown on their first two possessions of the game and did so with relative ease. In fact, they would end up scoring on all four of their first-half possessions and on five of their first six possessions of the game–three of which were field goals.
However, while early on the Packers’ offense was very much in control and the game maintained that feeling for much of the contest, the Packers struggles in the red zone, where they converted just 2-of-4 visits into touchdowns, and a largely quiet third and fourth quarter, kept the game within reach for Seattle.
While the running lanes for Jacobs were massive in the first half, they were non-existent in quarters three and four. This then put the Packers in more frequent long down-and-distance situations against what has been an aggressive, press-man-heavy secondary that has been one of the more stingy pass defenses this season.
“I don’t think they did anything crazy or anything that we might have not been expecting,” said Jordan Love of the Seattle defense. “I think we came out and just weren’t making the same plays that we were making in the first half. That was probably the most disappointing part of the game for us, is just the second half. We didn’t feel like we got back in that rhythm and that groove and were able to continue to just move the ball. I think more than anything we were just hurting ourselves in some of those situations.”
But the Green Bay defense didn’t allow Seattle to cut the lead to fewer than 10 points with the pass rush and Cooper being the catalyst behind that performance.
The Packers’ four-man front has struggled to get home consistently this season. They entered Week 15 ranked 26th in ESPN’s pass-rush win rate metric and were 21st in pressure rate. Oftentimes, the pressure that the Packers did create were drummed up by Jeff Hafley.
That wasn’t the case against Seattle, however, where Green Bay did take advantage of a below-average offensive line unit. According to Pro Football Focus, Geno Smith was under pressure on 39.1% of his dropbacks in this game. Sam Howell, once he took over, was under duress on 53.3% of his dropbacks as well. Combined, the two quarterbacks were pressured on 17 of their 38 total dropbacks. For some context, that total pressure rate of 44.7% would be the second-highest mark for any one quarterback over the course of the 2024 NFL season.
Those pressures turned into seven sacks by six different Packers’ defenders, along with 12 quarterback hits by nine different defenders.
“Just winning our one-on-ones, got them in passing situations,” Kenny Clark said. “Stopped the run for the most part. They had probably one big run. We get them in drop back situations, we’re able to pin our ears back and rush.”
The trickle-down effect of that pressure, particularly when it’s frequently coming from the four-man rush, is it takes some of the burden off of the secondary–something that was very much needed for Green Bay, who was without Jaire Alexander and Javon Bullard and having to match up with Jaxon Smith-Njigba and DK Metcalf.
While Smith-Njigba and Metcalf were efficient, catching 13 of their 15 total targets, they averaged under 8.5 yards per catch. The ability to generate pressure limits an offense’s ability to run longer developing routes, and it disrupts the timing and rhythm of the play, forcing the quarterback to get rid of the ball more quickly. All of which means less time in coverage for the defensive backs.
“I was telling them, he ain’t getting rid of the ball because they already getting back there so quick,” said Xavier McKinney of the defensive front. “It’s always good to see them collect those sacks and create that pressure on the quarterback.”
Helping the Packers’ pass rush out was the offense, giving the defense a quick multi-score lead to play with. This then limited Seattle’s ability to lean on the run game, with their backs carrying the ball a combined 14 times, thus putting the offense in more predictable and obvious passing situations, where the front could pin its ears back.
“We was just able to pretty much pin our ears back all day and offense pretty much did a good job putting them boys behind,” added Enagbare. “We got a couple three and outs early, so the offense was pretty much able to score early a lot, too, so kinda put em in a pass-first situation. So we just knew pretty much stop the run on first and second down, we already know what time it is third down.”
On those plays where the pass rush didn’t get home, Cooper–who did contribute to some of the pressures–was patrolling the middle of the field and was seemingly everywhere, providing the Packers with an added dynamic presence over the middle of the field, an area they’ve struggled to defend in recent games while Cooper was sidelined.
Cooper finished the game with two pressures as a blitzer, including a sack. He was credited with three stops, making plays in the run game near the line of scrimmage, and he surrendered only one catch on five targets in the passing game, along with an interception.
“He’s special, man,” said JJ Enagbare. “Definitely I feel like he’s a future Hall of Famer. From the stat line, you can see he can do everything, make tackles, make interceptions, get the sacks. There’s literally nothing he’s physically not able to do. The sky’s the limit for him. He’s gonna be a hell of a player one day — or continue to be a hell of a player.”
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.
“It meant a lot to have him back,” said McKinney of Cooper. “It adds to a lot to our team, it adds a lot to our defense and it adds a lot to the linebackers room in general. I think the linebackers room, we got a pretty good room and guys who can do a lot of things in coverage and the rush game. It helps us be able to open our playbook up a little bit and do some things schematically that can frustrate the offense.”
On Sunday night in Seattle, it was the defense who took control of the game, specifically the pass rush, which at times has underwhelmed this season, and a rookie linebacker in his first game back from injury. This ability to win games in different ways, which we’ve seen often from the Packers this season, could prove quite valuable come the playoffs–when one phase or unit is limited, another area of this team is there to do the heavy lifting.
But before we get to that point, with three games left in the regular season, the Packers will continue to chase consistency–an element that has eluded them this season–so the performances that we saw from Cooper and the pass rush become closer to the norm for the defense and those lulls on offense don’t last quite as long.
“We’ll see,” said LaFleur when asked how close this team was to reaching its potential. “We’re going to take it one game at a time. That’s just the mindset that we’ve always had here. I still think there’s a lot to improve upon – myself included.”