GREEN BAY, Wis. — Packers rookie running back MarShawn Lloyd is ready to turn the page and begin preparing for his second year in the NFL after dealing with injuries and setbacks throughout the 2024 season.
“Been a very, very rough year,” said Lloyd at his locker the day after Green Bay’s loss to Philadelphia.
Lloyd’s start to training camp was delayed due to a hip injury. A hamstring in the Packers preseason opener would keep him sidelined until Week 2 of the regular season, at which point he suffered a foot injury against Indianapolis.
That would land him on injured reserve. Then, as Lloyd was working his way back, he was hit by appendicitis. In his recovery from that, Lloyd would tweak his hamstring, which ended his season. He finished his rookie season appearing in one game and playing 10 snaps.
“Everything happens for a reason,” said Lloyd about the injuries. “So that’s the thing that went through my head. I’ve always tried to, okay, ‘why this happen, why this happen,’ but at the end of the day you just gotta go with it. Go with it, trust your guy, believe everything happens for a reason. Believe, have faith, and just hope for the best.”
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Helping Lloyd along as he navigated these injuries was Josh Jacobs. The two would drive over from Lambeau Field to the Don Hutson Center each day for practice, with Jacobs making sure that Lloyd “stayed in it,” as he put it, by providing pointers along the way and taking the rookie under his wing.
While rehabbing from the various injuries, Lloyd did everything he could off the field to stay engaged and familiarizing himself with the playbook, the weekly game-plans, and after a play was made, putting himself in each experience, thinking through what he might have done differently.
“Honestly just not being on the field I got better mentally, emotionally, being able to be there with the teammates,” Lloyd said. “Every practice, every meeting, I’m in every meeting. My coaches still give me the game test as if I’m playing. So I know the plays.
“Everything mentally is pretty good, so that’s the way I got better. Even though I wasn’t able to go out there and play, I still made sure like I was, when people made plays, I thought what I could have done different or just try to put myself in each experience.”
Just as Christian Watson and Eric Stokes did last offseason, Lloyd recently spent time at UW-Madison to get to the root cause of the soft tissue injuries. It was a full five hours doing a variety of exercises to find “deficiencies,” or areas that need to be strengthened.
Lloyd has already began the program prescribed to him after his visit to Madison.
“You’re just doing multiple different things to figure out how your body works,” Lloyd said. “Deficiencies in your body, seeing what’s stronger, what’s—really focusing on everything. Running on different treadmills to see how you run, to see if you’re running correctly, if there’s a problem with certain things. The science around it is crazy.”
The Packers selected Lloyd in the third round of this past April’s draft and he brings something “different,” as GM Brian Gutekunst put it, than the other running backs on the roster. Lloyd measures in at 5-9 – 220 pounds and has terrific burst–running in the 4.4s–and change of direction ability that is easily spotted on the practice field when the ball is in his hands.
Matt LaFleur views Lloyd as a back who can bring a change of pace to the running back position with his speed and also be someone who can impact the passing game as well, giving the Packers a “matchup nightmare,” as LaFleur called him during the offseason, out of the backfield.
Priority No. 1 for Lloyd this offseason is to get his body healthy so he’s physically able to do everything he needs to in order to prepare for the upcoming season. Although Year 1 in the NFL didn’t go as planned, Lloyd now knows what’s required on a daily basis from a preparation standpoint and he’s ready to put his foot on the gas to make sure that he can help the 2025 Packers as much as possible–something he’s very much ready to do.
“Josh had a really good year,” added Lloyd, “and I do think and I do know that I can help him a lot. He had a lot of hits on his body, I’m there to help and he knows that. It’s going to be fun when I get out there on the field to play with him.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — After being named a two-time All-Pro as a kick returner during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Keisean Nixon is ready to focus solely on being a boundary cornerback.
“I don’t know,” said Nixon when asked his thoughts on the new kickoff rule. “I’m kind of over it. I don’t really want to do it no more. There’s going to be talks with the coaching staff and stuff like that, but I think it’s over with for me.”
In 2022, Nixon eclipsed 1,000 kick return yards on the season, averaging 28.8 yards per return with a touchdown. In 2023, Nixon produced similar numbers, totaling 879 kick return yards on three fewer attempts while averaging 27.5 yards per attempt. In both seasons, no returner had more total yards than Nixon did.
However, this year, the dynamic kickoff wasn’t so dynamic for Nixon. After totaling 35 return attempts in 2022 and 32 in 2023, he had just 22 this season. Overall, he was still effective, averaging 28.3 yards per attempt.
“Naw. I’m kind of through with that,” Nixon reiterated when asked about returning kicks.
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This decision by Nixon also comes on the heels of him fumbling the opening kickoff in the Packers’ eventual playoff loss to the Eagles. Nixon was squared up on the return by Eagles’ linebacker Oren Burks, which jarred the ball free, and although it looked like Nixon did initially recover it, that wasn’t what the booth review saw.
The short field off the fumble then set up a quick three-play touchdown drive for Philadelphia, allowing them jump out to a 7-0 lead almost instantly and it again, put Green Bay in an early deficit.
“Hell, yeah, I had the ball. I got the ball back,” Nixon said. “When I was under the pile, they just started pulling my arms a part and then the ball popped back out.”
Defensively, Nixon transitioned from being the Packers’ nickel cornerback in 2023 to playing on the boundary for the majority of this season when Green Bay was healthy in the secondary.
On the year, Nixon allowed a completion rate of 66% on 86 targets and held opponents to just 9.3 yards per catch with six pass breakups and an interception. Among cornerbacks who played at least 375 coverage snaps, only seven had a lower yards per catch allowed than Nixon.
Although, prior to Week 4 of this season, Nixon was known as a nickel cornerback with the Packers, the boundary is where most of his NFL experience came from before arriving in Green Bay. Nixon is comfortable out there and ready to showcase what he can do when he has a full offseason to focus solely on that position, rather than adjust mid-year like he did in 2024.
“I’m just happy that I found an organization that really loves me and cares for me,” Nixon said. “I’m excited just to play outside corner for a whole year and know I’m going to play outside corner. That’s just really what it is. Focus on playing corner and locking up every team’s No. 1 next year.”
The Packers signed Nixon to a three-year deal last offseason, but in general at this position, there are some major unknowns for Green Bay as they enter the offseason. Currently Eric Stokes is set to be a free agent and we don’t know what the future holds for Jaire Alexander.
“I want to be CB1,” Nixon said. “CB1 is not doing kick returns. That’s just what it is.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Following a one-and-done showing in the playoffs that included ending the 2024 season on a three-game losing streak, the Packers will enter the offseason in search of answers.
The story that we saw unfold in Philadelphia on Sunday even was all-too-familiar to one that we had seen throughout the season. And not just one or two other occasions, but now six times in 2024.
Against the NFC’s best–Philadelphia, Detroit, and Minnesota–the Packers finished the season 0-6 with the game unfolding in each of those contests somewhat similarly: the offense would get off to a slow start, Green Bay would fall behind by multiple scores, and oftentimes at the center of those issues were self-inflicted mistakes, whether that be due to penalties or a lack of execution.
“I think that’s really the thing that hurt us in a lot of games,” said Jordan Love. “We talk about it, I feel like, a lot of the times this season and just feel like we’re not getting beat by the other team; we’re kind of beating ourselves.
“Whether it’s penalties, turnovers, stalled drives, things like that, I think it all comes back down to the details and execution – a lack of execution in some of those areas. So, something you’ve got to be focused on when you go out there and try and limit that stuff.”
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This season when facing playoff teams, the Packers had a record of just 2-6 and were minus-six in the turnover battle with a minus-3.4 points differential. However, if you watched those games, that score differential doesn’t accurately portray how the game unfolded.
In five of those six games against the Eagles, Lions, and Vikings, the Packers would trail at one point in those contests by at least two scores, forced to play catchup for the remainder of the game.
“I’m not sure,” said Love of the slow starts. “It’s something that we’ll look at and figure out in the offseason to clean up, but I mean, it’s pretty much comes down to executing and making plays out there and just wasn’t good enough.”
The slow starts on offense created a viscous cycle that was difficult to break from. The short possessions by Green Bay often put their defense in a bind, whether that be having to defend short fields or simply having to play a high number of snaps because the Packers’ offense couldn’t sustain drives.
Naturally, when facing high-powered offenses, the defense can only do so much and odds are, you’re going to fall behind. This then limited the Packers ability to really get into their gameplan as they played catch up early and negated their ability to lean on the run game and set up play-action opportunities to help the struggling passing game out.
This cycle and bizzaro complementary football would repeat itself over and over, making things more and more difficult.
“We gotta learn from it,” said Xavier McKinney. “There’s things we gotta do better with, things we gotta do a better job with and I think that we will.”
With a talented team that we’ve seen both this season and last get hot for stretches and be as difficult as anyone to defeat, the thought would be that a switch would get flipped at some point and we’d see this team take off. However, particularly over these last three games, it became more clear that this wasn’t going to be the case because there just weren’t any answers to what ailed this team.
“I think that’s going to be a great reflection point this offseason,” said Matt LaFleur of the slow starts, “because obviously, if we had the answers, it wouldn’t have been a problem, and for it to come up multiple times is disappointing.”
Despite the outcome, there is, of course, certainly still reasons for optimism moving forward. For the second season in a row, the Packers, as the youngest team in football, made the playoffs. They also had two more wins than they did in 2023, hit home runs in free agency with Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs, had key contributions from several rookies, the defense took a big step forward in Year 1 under Jeff Hafley, and they have talent throughout the roster.
However, for a team that came into 2024 with Super Bowl aspirations, while the arrow is still pointing up and there is absolutely reason for hope heading into 2025 and beyond, as we saw six times this season, the 2024 Packers’ weren’t yet ready to beat the best teams.
“We lost to some really good teams,” Love said. “We’ll look at those games but we’ve got to find ways to execute and win those big-time games like that. Obviously, this year we weren’t able to do that.
“There’ll be a lot of stuff we’ll look at, try and figure out what exactly the root of our problem is and areas we can get better. But, yeah, just wasn’t good enough against the really good teams in this league. It’ll be something we’ll focus on this offseason.”
The message in the locker room after the game was to not forget this feeling. The feeling of defeat, the feeling of playing a mistake-riddled game when it mattered most, and letting that fuel the offseason ahead, as the Packers enter the coming months looking for answers to the same questions that plagued them throughout the season.
“Main thing on my mind is figure out how do we take that step, how do I help the guys take that step,” said Josh Jacobs. “But also, we got some guys – our locker room is gonna be different. We got some guys due for a contract this year. We don’t know what that’s gonna look like, how that’s gonna shake up. But I know I’m gonna try to get some guys here.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Miscues, mistakes, blunders–all the above or pick your favorite verbiage, either way it sums up the Packers’ performance against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Slow starts have doomed the Packers repeatedly this season against the NFC’s best and that theme continued in the NFC Wildcard round of the playoffs.
“I think that’s going to be a great reflection point this offseason,” said Matt LaFleur post-game of the slow starts, “because obviously, if we had the answers, it wouldn’t have been a problem, and for it to come up multiple times is disappointing. And I mean, this is one of the best defenses in the league, so give them some credit as well, and they played better than us. Bottom line.”
Things couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start for the Packers with Keisean Nixon fumbling away the opening kickoff. On a short field, the Eagles’ offense scored on three plays, giving them the early 7-0 lead.
“When you come into somebody else’s house against a really good football team, you can’t start the way we did, and to fumble the opening kick and then, then turn it into a touchdown and be down 7-0 from the jump, it was obviously too much to overcome,” LaFleur said.
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The offense, which came into the postseason sputtering, continued to do so for much of the game. Through the first three possessions of the game for Jordan Love and Co., he was just 2-for-5 passing for 16 yards with an interception and another near interception on the first possession. The run game averaged just 2.8 yards per carry, the offense as a whole averaged a measly 1.5 yards per play, and the Packers converted only one first down.
“I think it’s collectively,” said LaFleur of the offense’s struggles. “I think we all share our part of blame in that, and it was tough tonight ‘cause they were playing soft zone, and really the entire game got basically a 6-1 front, played quarters, and we didn’t have a whole lot of luck running the ball like consistently, getting them out of that.”
Moving the ball through the air was always going to be a difficult task in this game. For one, the Packers’ passing game had been disjointed and out of synch for several weeks leading up to this game, but in addition to that, as we highlighted leading up to the game, Philadelphia boasts one of the more stingy pass defenses in football.
The Eagles entered the playoffs allowing a league-low 5.5 yards per pass attempt, illustrating their ability to limit big plays and the opposing quarterback’s efficiency. Philadelphia also ranked sixth in completion percentage and fourth in pass deflections.
As LaFleur said during the week, one of the challenges that comes with this Eagles’ secondary is how physical they play, forcing pass catchers to fight through contact, which can disrupt the timing and rhythm of the play. In this Vic Fangio-led defense, it forces opponents to string together long drives by limiting explosive pass plays.
Prime examples of this came on the drive that ended in a missed field goal and took 7-plus minutes off the clock. Then, on the drive where Brandon McManus made his attempt, which took 12 plays and nearly 6 minutes of game time. This style of defense requires the offense to be patient, efficient and play mistake-free, something the Packers have been unable to do.
Love would finish the game with another out-of-sync performance, completing 20-of-32 passes for 212 yards and a very modest 6.6 yards per attempt with no touchdowns and three interceptions.
“You’ve got to earn the right to get them out of that soft shell,” LaFleur said. “And we never did. You’d like to be able to lean on some of the things in the run game and it was just a little bit of a struggle. But, you know, we’ll take a look at it and we’ve got to come up with better answers and I think it all starts with staying ahead of the sticks, though, and being efficient on offense.”
Adding to the passing game’s burden was the inability to lean on the run game, which has often been the catalyst for the offense this season.
Against a stout Philadelphia front, it was tough sledding between the tackles for the Packers’ defense. Josh Jacobs would finish with 81 rushing yards on 18 carries, good for an average of 4.5 yards per attempt. However, and not to discount it but to paint a more accurate picture of how the game went, 31 of Jacobs’ 81 yards came on one run. Otherwise, he averaged under 3.0 yards per attempt.
The trickle-down effect of not moving the ball steadily on the ground is that it puts the offense behind the sticks and in obvious passing situations. It also doesn’t force the Eagles’ out of their Cover-2 shell so downfield opportunities for the passing game aren’t presented.
“We’ve just got to be more efficient is what I’d tell you,” LaFleur added. “If teams are going to play that soft coverage like that, you’ve got to be able to convert the third-and-shorts, and there were a couple times obviously at the end of the game, we got an out cut where we’re open and we ended up out of bounds. It’s all the little details that really make a difference in terms of just being able to convert in a lot of those critical situations.”
Contributing to those described woes was losing left guard Elgton Jenkins early due to injury. With him sidelined, it exposed the lack of depth that the Packers have on the offensive line as the Packers had to rely on rookie Travis Glover initially, before switching to Kadeem Telfort after Glover was penalized three times in the first half.
Along with the run game struggles, Love was pressured on just shy of 39% of his dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus’ initial metrics. For some context, over the course of the season, that would rank as the fourth-highest rate among quarterbacks.
“Just felt like we didn’t have any rhythm, felt like we were just shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Josh Myers. “We were getting penalties, we were turning the ball over. All the stuff you can’t do against a team like that, you can’t do.”
Losing the turnover battle 4-0 and having the described issues persist throughout the course of the game is already enough to leave in defeat, particularly against an opponent of the Eagles’ caliber. But you add in that the Packers tied a season-high with eight penalties for 85 yards and oftentimes, any sort of good that might have been manufactured was wiped away.
This also included two of those penalties coming in the form of unnecessary roughness penalties on the defense in the fourth quarter of the game, giving the Eagles’ offense an additional 15 yards in both instances on two drives that ended in points.
“You got to be disciplined at all times,” LaFleur said of the penalties. “And I get it, football is an emotional game … but bottom line is, you got to keep your emotions in check, and you can’t do anything to put yourself in the cross hairs of the officials, and you never know how they’re gonna officiate that. So we just got to be better. Bottom line.”
What kept the Packers in reach for much of the game was the play of the defense. As he does, Saquon Barkley was productive with 117 rushing yards on 25 carries, but to a degree, that’s going to happen. What the Packers defense didn’t let the Eagles do was control the game on the ground.
Even with a lack-luster pass rush, the Packers’ secondary held it’s own against the Eagles’ dynamic pass catchers. Jalen Hurts would throw for just 131 yards and had a stretch where he went from the 1:20 mark in the first quarter to the 4:33 mark in the third quarter without a completion.
Overall, the Eagles’ offense averaged just 5.3 yards per play and had a six possession stretch after their opening touchdown that the Packers gifted them where they punted five times.
“I thought defensively, I thought we played winning football,” said LaFleur. “It’s just offensively and on special teams we had too many mistakes, and we can’t overcome those against a really good football team.”
The Packers’ 2024 season concluded with them going 0-6 against the NFC’s top three teams and the story that we saw unfold in Philadelphia on Sunday evening was all too familiar to the one we had seen numerous times this season and particularly as of late.
Inconsistencies, undisciplined play, an out-of-whack passing game, a lack of execution, and a slow start once again did this Packers team in. But unlike those previous occasions, there won’t be an opportunity to bounce back or right the ship. The season is over.
“I think that’s really the thing that hurt us in a lot of games,” said Jordan Love. “We talk about it, I feel like, a lot of the times this season and just feel like we’re not getting beat by the other team; we’re kind of beating ourselves.
“Whether it’s penalties, turnovers, stalled drives, things like that, I think it all comes back down to the details and execution – a lack of execution in some of those areas. So, something you’ve got to be focused on when you go out there and try and limit that stuff.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — September 6th was just over four months ago. In the grand scheme, that’s not a lot of time. However, in the NFL, that period of time is an entire season. 18 weeks worth of ups and 18 weeks worth of downs. There’s disappointment–that just comes with the territory–but hopefully overall there has been growth.
For the Packers’ defense, September 6th was Green Bay’s first game of the 2024 NFL season, which took place in Brazil and against the Philadelphia Eagles. That was also the first time that this unit was in a live game that had meaning while under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
Personnel-wise since then, there have been changes, as is the case with most teams. Evan Williams didn’t play a snap that week. Javon Bullard was still at safety and not at the nickel. The defense hadn’t yet had to overcome playing without Jaire Alexander and Edgerrin Cooper played just 11 snaps that week. And oh yeah, Brenton Cox, a now key member of the defensive end rotation, was a healthy scratch.
However, going beyond who was on the field in that Week 1 matchup compared to now with the NFL playoffs just about here, perhaps and even bigger change for this Packers’ defense has been their growth within Hafley’s scheme, allowing them to not only operate at a higher level, but to do a lot more as well.
“A lot of growth,” said Xavier McKinney when asked about the defense then vs. now. “We’ve learned the scheme a lot more. We play calls a lot better. The details of where we’re at Week 1 a lot different than what they are now. I think we’ve gone a long way from where we were Week 1 and it’s pretty cool to see like if you watch Week 1’s game, even the calls that we were calling, it wasn’t as much as we do now because we’ve grown in the system.
“Haf has done a great job of making sure that we know what’s going on through each and every call and it’s given us the ability to call more stuff and go out there and just play.”
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For whatever reason, Hafley’s defense was dubbed a simple system. But that’s not the case at all. Perhaps there is less on the plates of the defenders compared to other schemes, but there is incredible nuance and detail to what they are being asked to do, and like with anything, mastering it takes time.
Although we all want results in whatever it is that we do as quickly as possible, switching over to a new defensive scheme takes time–far more time than just OTAs and training camp. While, yes, all of the installs are made during that time of the year, as we’ve heard Matt LaFleur reference in the past, it’s one thing to know the playbook, it’s another thing to be able to go out and execute your responsibility on the field when everything is moving at lightning speed.
And even when a player may be comfortable with what they’re being asked to do, each offense every week is going to attack the defense differently, giving the defenders new looks that they have to react to in real-time within the scope of what is being asked of them. It’s also not as if the playbook implemented in August is the same playbook now either. As Hafley has said, it’s constantly evolving and changing as the season progresses, adapting to the challenges that the upcoming opponent presents and so the Green Bay defense doesn’t become predictable.
Think about it this way–you start a new job, and while what’s being asked of you on a weekly basis is within the scope of what the job description entailed, there are constant moving parts that can put new responsibilities on your plate depending on what the week looks like. Some of these changes may be dictated by your department, or perhaps, it’s another part of the organization that you have to adjust to. For most, there is going to be a learning curve that comes with all of this.
“You watch these guys,” said defensive backs coach Ryan Downard, “first year in a system, regardless of what system you’re running, obviously the common thought is it’s a simpler system so they should play faster. And once they learn the details and the rules, then they can play fast, but there’s a process to that, and it still is very detailed. So while we might not be doing quite as many techniques, the techniques that we are using are very detailed. That’s the best way to put it, I guess from being in a couple different systems and this one most recently.”
It’s also not as if the players are the only ones doing the learning. The coaching staff has been doing the same from the perspective of learning each player’s skill set, specifically, what they do best and how to leverage those abilities within Hafley’s scheme and weekly gameplan.
Then for Hafley himself, in his first season as a defensive coordinator, there’s a learning curve for him as well as he adapts and adjusts on the fly to what opposing offenses are throwing at him and how to make sure that he his maximizing his player’s abilities and putting them in consistent positions to be successful.
“We were talking about watching that first game and we were just joking,” said Hafley. “We got here almost a year ago, and we kind of just all moved in here together, got to learn each other, figured it out what we wanted to do, who we wanted to be, learn our players, so there’s a lot of, I have a lot of appreciation for all the hard work that defensive staff has done from the quality control guys to the assistant position coaches.
“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into that, so I give those guys a lot of credit, and then I give the players a lot of credit. Kind of going into OTAs, we started out doing some stuff and we’ve had to evolve and grow and the way they’ve gotten better and bought in and jelled together, it’s been a lot of fun to be around.”
All offseason, we frequently heard the terms “fast and physical,” which is the play-style and mentality that Hafley wants his defense to exude. In part, that’s a mentality, but achieving that type of play also stems from confidence and the preparation that goes into each week.
Overthinking can be debilitating not only in football but also in sports in general. As running backs coach Ben Sirmans says, if you think, you stink. When overthinking, oftentimes, a player will slow down rather than reading and simply reacting to what’s unfolding. That overthinking can occur when something is new and trying to process what is happening in real time while still playing within the scope of what your role calls for.
But, on the flip side, when there is confidence and a truly deep understanding of what you’re being asked to do, there is less thinking and just more reacting to what the offense is doing. This ultimately unlocks that fast and physical play-style.
As one would hope, as the season has progressed, so has the Packers’ defense. The comfort and confidence in the system as more reps, both on the practice field and in-games, takes place is leading to that aforementioned fast and physical play-style.
“I think there’s a lot of guys starting to hit that stride,” said Jeff Hafley in Week 15. “I think guys are gaining confidence in themselves, they’re gaining confidence in the scheme because they know what they’re doing and they’re getting more confidence in what they’re doing and when you have more reps over time that usually happens.”
The end result of that steady growth and progression is a defensive unit under Hafley that ranked among the best in several key statistical categories. The Green Bay defense will head into the postseason ranked sixth in scoring, third in yards per rush, 11th in yards per pass attempt given up, and fourth in takeaways.
All of that isn’t to say that this group has reached its ceiling–there are certainly still areas for improvement. It would also be naïve to think that the Eagles’ offense has experienced growth of their own since Week 1 and that high-powered and well-round unit will provide a big challenge on Sunday.
But having said that, while yes, it is a rematch between the Packers and Eagles, and many of the players who starred in the season opener will again take the field this week, from a confidence, comfort, play-call, and execution standpoint, this version of the Green Bay defense doesn’t look like the one we saw four months ago.
“The coolest thing for me is I do think we’ve gotten better,” said Hafley. “I really think we’ve improved, and I think it’s a really good foundation and a good starting point. And I believe we can be even so much better. And I know our players believe it and we believe it and that’s really the cool part. So I think there’s a strong foundation, but it’s about winning and getting our players better. And I do believe we’ve done that.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — How will the Packers’ pass rush handle Eagles’ quarterback Jalen Hurts and his mobility? Will they take a similar approach to what they did in Week 1, or choose to be more aggressive?
Rewinding back to the Packers’ season opener in Brazil against Philadelphia, Jeff Hafley wanted his pass rush to take a more controlled approach, where the emphasis was on keeping Hurts in the pocket.
In that regard, it worked. While Hurts would finish the 2024 regular season leading all quarterbacks in rush attempts, along with totaling 630 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, in that Week 1 matchup with Green Bay, the Packers held him to only 33 yards on the ground on 13 attempts.
“I thought Week 1 our D line did a really good job of keeping him in the pocket,” said Jeff Hafley. “He didn’t rush from many yards. He didn’t escape.”
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But for every pro, there is a con. Although the Packers were able to keep Hurts in the pocket, their pass rush was unable to generate steady pressure with a more conservative–for lack of a better term–approach. As a unit, the Eagles offensive line was credited with surrendering only nine pressures the entire game, per PFF. That’s a pressure rate on Hurts of just over 23 percent–which for an offensive line, anything under 30 percent is a good day.
Even when the Packers sent some blitzes in that first matchup, which they did from both the linebacker and nickel positions, those pressures didn’t get home quick enough, and as Matt LaFleur mentioned after the game, coverages were blown on the back end in several of those instances.
The Packers wanted to make Hurts stay in the pocket and if he was going to beat them, do so with his arm–which is often what happened. Hurts was 20-of-34 passing in that game for 278 at an efficient 8.2 yards per attempt with two touchdowns to two interceptions.
So will Hafley flip the script in this rematch and try to pressure Hurts early on?
“Well, it depends how they’re going to try to attack us,” said Hafley. “Are they going to run it more, or are they going to let him start to throw it early in the game? We’ve gotta do some things differently. I think each week we’ve tried to throw some different stuff at people, and I think we need to do some of that early in the game, make him see a couple different things and throw him off a little bit.”
Not only against the Eagles in Week 1, but all season, the Packers’ pass rush has been inconsistent. By ESPN’s pass-rush win rate metric, the Packers will finish the regular season ranked 26th. In terms of pure pressure rate, they rank 16th, which in part, is a product of the manufactured pressures that Hafley has created through blitzes or simulated pressures.
Not to discount the schemed-up component behind those pressures, but that’s almost certainly going to have to be a part of the equation this week, to some degree, given the Packers’ struggles to get home with only four. And when those blitzes are dialed up, the defense is then down a defender in coverage.
Adding to the difficulty of this matchup is that awaiting the Packers’ defensive front is one of the best offensive lines in football, with the Eagles entering the postseason ranked sixth in pass-block win rate.
“They’re huge,” said Hafley of the offensive line. “They’re really well coached. They know what they’re doing. They’ve got great length, they’ve got size. They stay on their double teams. They’re good at their gap scheme runs, I think it’s a really good combination of their scheme and their players.”
To find out what can happen when a pass rush fails to drum up pressure against a high-powered offense, we only have to look back two weeks ago to when the Packers faced Minnesota. In that contest, Sam Darnold was under pressure on only 31% of his dropbacks and from a clean pocket, he completed 26-of-30 passes for 315 yards with three touchdowns. And when the Packers did attempt to blitz, they too often didn’t get home, leaving their secondary short-handed against a very good group of pass catchers.
Again rewinding back to Week 1, we saw a similar outcome for the Packers’ secondary. In that game, the dynamic duo of AJ Brown and Devonta Smith combined for 12 receptions for 203 yards and a touchdown–and that was with the Packers having Jaire Alexander at cornerback.
So this is the conundrum that the Packers’ defense will face on Sunday–try to keep Hurts in the pocket and hope that your four-man rush can get home and that you can hold up on the back end or send pressure and let the front pin its ears back, knowing that opportunities for Hurts to extend plays and go off script will exist?
To state the obvious, neither alternative will guarantee success. The first option puts the burden on what has been an inconsistent pass rush and a short-handed secondary to potentially have to hold up in coverage longer. While, on the flip side, telling the front to let it rip doesn’t mean they will get home against a stout offensive line, and it’s not as if blitzing has slowed Hurts all that much this season. According to PFF, when blitzed, Hurts is completing 64% of his throws at 7.2 yards per attempt with seven touchdowns to just one interception.
“He (Hurts) had the one scramble at the end of the game that was costly when he did get out, when we pressured, we had an open B gap to the right side,” Hafley said of Week 1. “I think I’ve watched it 100 times now. There’s got to be a little bit of both, and I think I’ve learned from that, just like I’ve learned a lot over the year.
“I think our whole staff’s learned a lot. We learned who the players are. We learned what we can do. We’ve had to evolve away from some of the things maybe that we’ve come into thinking we were going to do. And, you know, ultimately, we want to win games and keep the score down.”
There is good and bad with each approach and by no means does Hafley have to only choose one or the other–the situation can dictate what he dials up. But in order to have those opportunities where those types of decisions can be made, the Packers have to earn the right to rush the passer by containing Saquon Barkley and the running game on early downs, which is obviously a challenge of its own.
The first game of the season was now roughly four-plus months ago, which in the NFL can be a lifetime. In that timeframe teams can change and evolve drastically, and that goes not only for the Packers defense but the Eagles’ offense. So how the Packers go about defending the Eagles in the NFC Wildcard round will likely be different because of that time element, but the question in regards to how to rush Hurts is still there–Green Bay’s approach just might differ.
“It feels like so long ago,” said Hafley of Week 1, “but we did some really good things that we like, but then there’s some things where we have to do different, and there’s going to be a time and a place for when we want to go hard at ‘em and when we’ve got to keep him in the pocket. But we certainly need to play better and coach better than we did at that game, because we need to win this game.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The possible return this week of safety Evan Williams would give the Packers’ secondary some welcomed continuity as they go up against the high-powered Philadelphia wide receivers.
Williams suffered a quad injury during the Packers’ final practice before their Week 16 matchup against New Orleans. He has been sidelined since, and at that time, Matt LaFleur mentioned that the team would “hopefully” get him back for the playoffs.
Williams has been back at practice the first two days this week, practicing in a limited fashion, which still leaves his status for Sunday’s game a bit up in the air. However, there does seem to be some optimism that Williams can be available against Philadelphia.
“It’s good to have him back,” said Xavier McKinney about having Williams back at practice. “I think we’re getting the majority of our guys back, too, especially on the defensive side, so it’s good to be back out there with everybody and have everybody get back healthy, so yeah, it’s always good when we get our guys back.”
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Staying engaged while sidelined and working through an injury not only includes operating in the meeting rooms as if he was going to start that week, but on the practice field, while the starting defense is on the field, as Williams described, you could find him on the other side of the field, aligned as if he were in on that play–seeing the offensive personnel, making the calls to himself, and going through the progressions as if he were in the game.
“It’s really all about being a part of something so much bigger than yourself,” said Williams, “and understanding that you’ve got guys that depend on you, you’ve got guys that would, in the same situation, do everything to get back on that field. It’s the mutual trust and mutual love for each other and just understanding that even when you’re out, you have a role on this team.
“You have a role to pick everybody up if you’re not playing, if you’re not suited up. You have a role to do your utmost to come back. Yeah, that’s how I’ve taken it these past three weeks. Even though I haven’t been on the field, you try your utmost when you’re on the sideline to pick guys up in situations and give them clues on possibilities they can make plays and stuff. It’s just the love for each other.”
Not only with Williams being out, but due to other injuries over the last month, the Packers have seen quite a bit of movement on the back-end. Javon Bullard has missed time, which has then required Keisean Nixon to move back into the nickel position, and after initially asking Zayne Anderson to fill Williams’ role at safety, he suffered a concussion against Minnesota in Week 17.
In that game, the injury then led to Bullard having to make the in-game switch from nickel to safety–a tall task for any rookie–and then against Chicago, the Packers chose to keep Bullard at the nickel and gave rookie Kitan Oladapo his first NFL start next to McKinney.
Throughout the year, the Packers cross-train their defenders so that if injuries do arise, any needed position changes aren’t foreign to those players. There are also steps taken off the field in meeting rooms to help facilitate any potential position changes by keeping players familiar with different roles. But with that said, at a position group–the defensive backfield–where communication is always at a premium, there is something to be said for maintaining as much continuity as possible.
“If guys get a chance to work together over the long-haul they start to understand what the other one’s going to do in the moment without even really looking at him, it’s more of a feel,” said defensive backs coach Ryan Downard. “So the more that you have groupings together, I think that they’re going to be better off or at least smoother off the get-go.
“I will say, what I try to do at practice is, of course, in a gameplan and in a game week, I try to keep guys working together that we might project as being the guys that are going to work together in a game, but also try to mix guys in so that they work with one another. So that if we get into a game and guy gets a chinstrap, then the next guy is ready to go in and he can function and they’re compatible with each other.”
If Williams can go this Sunday, that continuity component will return to the Packers’ secondary. He will return back to his starting spot next to McKinney, while it will allow Bullard to continue focusing on one position–the nickel–and at boundary cornerback, the Packers can continue to rely on Nixon and Carrington Valentine, with Eric Stokes providing depth off the bench.
Williams has appeared in 12 games this season and did not play in the Packers’ season opener against Philadelphia in Week 1. He’s been a sound tackler and stout in coverage, allowing a completion rate of 56% at just 10.2 yards per catch with two pass breakups and an interception. Opposing quarterbacks have a passer rating of just 69.7 when targeting him.
However, Williams’ impact on a play starts pre-snap with the aforementioned communication component and making sure everyone is aligned correctly and knows the call if adjustments have to be made. Having Williams on the field also frees up the Packers to have McKinney take on different roles because of the trust in Williams to patrol the back end.
“Evan is such a smart football player,” said Jeff Hafley, “and it comes so easy to him, and the communication back there it’s just like nice calming factor when he’s back there. I think for X too, it allows X to kind of not have to do it all, where it allows X to say all right, I’m going to play ball now. But I’m grateful for those guys who stepped in, they did a nice job.”
Naturally, Saquon Barkley and the Eagles’ running game will garner a lot of attention, but this offense also has arguably the best wide receiver duo in football in AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. Combined this season, the two have totaled 155 receptions, for just shy of 2,000 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.
In addition to Brown and Smith, tight end Dallas Goedert was an extremely efficient target this season, while Barkley saw his share of opportunities in the passing game as well. As a collective unit led by quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Eagles finished the regular season ranking fourth in yards per pass attempt–showcasing the offense’s efficiency and ability to create big plays through the air.
“I think it starts with probably getting your hands on them pretty early,” said Williams about defending Brown and Smith. “Don’t wanna give them too much space off the line. When they get free releases and get to the second level, they can be dangerous and i mean, you’ve seen it this whole year, so yeah, I think getting hands on ’em early and just being detailed in all our approaches, getting to the right alignment, having the right keys pre-snap, I think all those things will allow us to be pretty successful.”
Williams and McKinney will have to be instrumental in helping the Packers’ cornerbacks against this group of pass catchers, but the defensive front can lend a big hand as well. Pressuring Hurts so that the defensive backs aren’t in coverage for extended periods of time will be crucial as will finding a way to contain Barkley, which can then put the offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, where the defense often has the upper hand.
The obvious challenge with this Eagles’ offense is that they can win in a variety of ways. As a defense, if you’re successful at limiting one element, there are still multiple ways that Philadelphia can still attack you. However, any potential success for Green Bay is going to have to include being buttoned up on the back end, and having Williams back in the mix not only provides that aspect because of his own play, but his presence provides more versatility in the secondary and continuity.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Back on the practice field for the first time in several weeks on Wednesday for the Packers was linebacker Quay Walker, who had been sidelined since exiting the Seattle game in Week 15 with an ankle injury.
Walker was a limited participant, however, on Monday, Matt LaFleur did say that he was “optimistic” that Walker could potentially return for Sunday’s playoff game, although he did add the caveat that they’ll have to see how he looks throughout the week at practice.
“They’re really good football players, so if they’re able to go, we’ll certainly have a plan for them,” said LaFleur about reacclimating Walker and Evan Williams if they can play. “And they’ve been working all along in terms of just staying sharp mentally. They always do a great job of standing back behind the play and, you know, doing what they can.”
Prior to suffering that ankle injury, Walker was playing his best football of the season, sparked by the growing comfort he was gaining operating as the Mike linebacker in Jeff Hafley’s system, and with that came an avalanche of confidence.
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From Weeks 12-14, in addition to calling the plays, making pre-snap adjustments and making sure that every one is set properly, once the ball was snapped, he did a little bit of everything for this Green Bay defense. During that span of three games, Walker generated the second most quarterback pressures of any linebacker in the NFL.
In addition to that, his 20 tackles were tied for the fifth-most, and while tackles can sometimes be a misleading stat, the 11 stops that he generated on those tackles–the seventh-most among linebackers during those three games–shows the quality of those plays.
“I think he was progressing at that point also and playing some good football, right about the time he got hurt,” said linebackers coach Anthony Campanile. “I thought it was a steady progression for him, he made a jump I would say at that point in the year. I think he was just starting to see it really well. In the room, I think he’s done everything he can do. He’s all over it. Answering questions, totally immersed and locked into the game plan.
“That’s something that kind of speaks to the character of the guy, too. Even the games he hasn’t played in, he’s in the room, answering questions, calling it out, playing the plays through on the screen just like he’s out there as he normally would be.”
Having Walker back in the mix with that level of play on Sunday in Philadelphia would be an obvious big boost for the Packers’ defense in a few different ways.
One would be in the run game with the Packers facing the difficult task of having to slow Saquon Barkley. This season, Barkley eclipsed the 2,000-yard rushing mark in only 16 games, he averaged nearly 6.0 yards per rush, and as I’m sure you can guess from the numbers, was the best at generating explosive runs.
Perhaps the biggest improvement that the Packers’ defense has seen in Hafley’s first year s defensive coordinator is their run defense, which finished the regular season ranked third in yards per carry surrendered. And while any success in that regard begins in the trenches with the interior defensive line, defending the run at a high level takes all 11 players, and the linebackers play a very important role in that.
Again, during that stretch of high-level play from Walker, we saw him filling gaps at the line of scrimmage, shedding blocks, and getting horizontal to cut-off those outside runs before the ball carrier could turn upfield.
“I think these guys are totally bought into what we’re teaching,” said Campanile about the run defense. “I firmly believe that there’s a progression each play. Your eyes, your feet, your hands, and then there’s got to be a violent finish. That’s how every football play should start and end. If your eyes are right and you’ll feet will be right, you’ll get there, and your hands will buy you time.
“That’s some of the fundamental things about defending the run, those are essential. Your body position, where your feet are, not compromising your base, playing with great hands and technique, pad level. Some people talk about those things, but you’ve got to drill those things every day, almost like to the point where it’s a martial art.”
Walker’s possible return could also provide an impact in the passing game, specifically over the middle of the field where the Packers’ defense has been picked apart at times this season. Most recently that occurred against Minnesota, where quarterback Sam Darnold completed 85% of this passes for 289 yards with two touchdowns.
As described here, there were numerous factors at play that contributed to those numbers for the Vikings’ offense. However, part of that equation on the Packers’ end were some coverage miscues from the linebackers. As LaFleur put it, there was a lack of depth from the second-level defenders. Not to mention that simply having Walker’s speed and athleticism on the field can help potentially close some of those throwing lanes or limit YAC opportunities for the offense.
As of now, we will see how the remainder of the week unfolds for Walker, but against a high-powered Eagles’ offense, having his presence in the middle of the field could be an important element for this Packers defense, especially when paired with Edgerrin Cooper. The version of Walker described above and the current version that we’ve seen from Cooper in recent weeks, haven’t yet been on the field together this season.
“Feels good,” said fellow linebacker Edgerrin Cooper about having Walker back at practice. “Hoping that he’s feeling good to be out there and we trying to go from there.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers “stagnant” passing game must find a way to get back on track this week and that phase of the game will have to do so against a very stingy Eagles’ secondary.
Philadelphia will enter the postseason allowing just 5.5 yards per pass attempt–the fewest in football. As that figure illustrates, this unit has also surrendered the fewest explosive plays through the air this season as well.
Individually, this group is made up of rookie Quinyon Mitchell and Darius Slay on the boundary and rookie Cooper DeJean at the nickel. Deep at safety are CJ Gardner-Johnson and Reed Blankenship. The collective completion percentage allowed by these players of 62% is the sixth-lowest in football while they’ve generated the fourth-most pass deflections.
“They’re very good,” said Matt LaFleur on Wednesday. “They do a great job of eliminating explosives. They do a great job of keeping a lid and then when they challenge, you gotta be physical because these guys are going to grab you and you gotta fight through contact. That’s what they do. They got a veteran corner in (Darius) Slay and they got a rookie in (Quinyon) Mitchell that’s playing really, really well. You got the two safeties, I just think collectively they’ve all done a great job.”
Even if the Packers’ passing game were rolling coming into the postseason, this would be a difficult matchup. Unfortunately, however, that isn’t the case for Green Bay. One of the bigger issues that they’ve run into in recent weeks is their inconsistency through the air. The trickle-down effect of that has been slow starts, struggling to move the ball consistently, and of course, all that makes putting up points extremely difficult.
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From Week 11 through Week 15, both Jordan Love and the offense appeared to be heating up just as they did a season ago, which included four straight games of scoring at least 30 points. However, since that New Orleans game, where the offense still managed to score 34 points, the passing attack has felt disjointed.
Over that three game stretch against New Orleans, Minnesota, and Chicago, Love is completing just 60% of his throws, which ranks 28th out of 36 eligible quarterbacks. His 6.2 yards per attempt during that span also ranks 28th and Love is 22nd in passer rating.
“It’s definitely been a little stagnant,” Love said of the passing game after the Chicago game. “It just feels like we’re just missing right now. Missing on some of these opps that obviously before we were hitting on. Like I’ve said before, it’s not like we’re far off. It’s not like everything we’re running is just not working. Stuffs there. We’ve just got to go out there and make plays. We’ve got to be great, like I said, with accuracy, ball placement, everything, so I think it’s a lot of stuff well clean up.”
As always, and as Matt LaFleur will be quick to point out, there are numerous factors in play when it comes to the inconsistency of the passing game. It doesn’t all fall on Jordan Love’s shoulders.
Most notably has been the play of the receiver position. Against Minnesota, for example, LaFleur noted how the Vikings’ usage of heavy man coverage looks was not something that the Green Bay offense was expecting. When that happens, it can throw off the timing of the route and the need for the receivers to win those one-on-one matchups becomes heightened and if that doesn’t happen, then Love has nowhere to go with the football.
In addition to needing the receivers to win their matchups on time and more often, when the ball does get to them, plays haven’t been made. During that same three game stretch, Love ranks 10th our of 41 quarterbacks in drop rate.
“I would just say like for me personnally I gotta be better overall,” said Jayden Reed at his locker on Sunday. “I haven’t been playing good ball lately. If we want progress in the playoffs that not how we gotta play. We gotta play better than we did today. Just pounding in on the details, protecting the ball that’s protecting the team, first and foremost, that’s on me. I gotta be better. If I want to be a leader and good player in this league, I gotta be able to do that.”
LaFleur would also mention the play of the offensive line after Sunday’s loss to the Bears. While overall, Love’s pressure numbers rank around the middle of the pack in recent weeks, LaFleur noted that there were opportunities in the passing game but Love didn’t have time to get through his progressions.
It really is no one player or any one thing causing these issues, but when there is an off-target throw here and there, a pressure on Love here and there, a drop or failure to win consistently enough here and there, when put together, you get a disjointed passing game that is out of sync.
“It’s everything,” said Love about getting the passing game back on track. “It’s everything you do while you’re in this facility, when you go home. The way we talk about concepts and how we install it, how we go run it in the walkthroughs, and make sure everybody’s on the same page with the timing — just exactly how you’re running routes, things like that, and then it takes over on the practice field when we’re getting those full-speed live reps at it. That comes down to just being at our best, being on the same page and that’s everything we do while we’re here in the building.”
Adding to the challenge that the Packers will face on Sunday in Philadelphia is that they will be without Christian Watson, who is out for the season. That not only takes away the important downfield element from this Packers’ offense, but with Watson’s combination of size and speed, his mere presence on the field helps cerate opportunities for others in the passing game to exploit.
“That’s a huge loss,” said Love about Watson. “One of those ones that it sucks. You hurt for Christian, especially at this time of the year, but like you said, definitely other guys are gonna have to step up. We’ve got a deep receiver room, guys have kind of done that all year.
“We’ve battled through different injuries, guys missing games, things like that. Just another situation that guys will step up and make plays, and we’re confident in that group.”
Success for the passing game, as has been the case for much of the season, will begin with the Packers’ ability to move the ball on the ground with Josh Jacobs. Staying ahead of the sticks opens up the entire playbook for an offense, which can keep a defense off-balanced, and set up play-action opportunities.
On the flip side, struggling in the run game will put the offense behind the sticks and in those dreaded long down-and-distance situations, where both from a pass rush perspective, with the defensive front able to pin its ears back, and coverage-wise, the defense has the advantage, and now much more of the workload falls on what has been an inconsistent Packers’ passing game.
“They’re humming right now,” said LaFleur of the Eagles’ defense. “It’s a very talented defense. You can tell that they’ve got everybody on the same page. It’s much more difficult to get some of those explosive gains, so I would tell ya that it’s gonna be very important for us, for our offense, to be efficient, stay ahead of the sticks. They got superstars on every level of the defense, so we’re gonna have to make sure we’re doing a good job of taking what’s there and churning out and fighting for every inch on the field on Sunday.”
However, as we’ve seen in recent weeks, the run game can’t be the Packers’ only method for moving the ball. The margin for error in those instances is way too small over the course of four quarters. If the defense gives up early points, the ability to lean into the run game is negated, and any sort of first down failure on the ground all of a sudden shifts the burden of moving the ball to the passing game in those aforementioned disadvantageous situations.
If the Packers are going to get back on track offensively the run game will have to play an obvious and important role in accomplishing that, but to win against the Eagles, Green Bay will likely need a passing game to pair with it, and against this Philadelphia defense, that won’t come easy.
“They’ve got a lot of guys that bring energy,” said Reed of the secondary. “They find a way to find the ball and they always surround the ball. That’s a pretty competitive group down there in Philly.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — One of the crucial matchups in Sunday’s Wildcard matchup between the Packers and Eagles will be how well Green Bay’s much-improved run defense can contain Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley.
In his first season with the Eagles, Barkley put up monster numbers. Without playing in the team’s season finale a week ago, Barkley still eclipsed the 2,000-yard rushing mark, averaging a hefty 5.8 yards per rush over the course of the season with 13 touchdowns.
Compared to the rest of the NFL, Barkley would lead the league in rushing. His 5.8 yards per attempt were just behind Derrick Henry, and his 13 rushing touchdowns were the seventh-most. In terms of his big play ability, no back had more rushes of 10-plus yards in 2024, and contributing to that success was Barkley ranking as one of the best at forcing missed tackles.
“The season he has had, he’s dynamic and he hurt us when we played them the first game of the season in terms of not only running the ball but he caught a rail route out of the backfield,” said Matt LaFleur of Barkley. “So, he’s a guy that you absolutely have to have eyes on, have vision on, and making sure that you have a plan for him.”
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Adding to the difficulty that comes with containing Barkley in the ground game is that also a part of that equation is quarterback Jalen Hurts. No quarterback in football carried the ball more than Hurts, who rushed for 630 yards at 4.2 yards per attempt and had 14 rushing touchdowns of his own.
The one-two punch of Barkley and Hurts in the backfield together can be a real stressor on opposing defenses. The Eagles’ heavy usage of the RPO game can stretch a defense horizontally, creating more space for the Eagles’ offense to attack, not to mention that attempting to decipher who has the ball can cause a split second of hesitation, which is all it takes for a running lane to open up.
“They do such a great job because there’s other weapons out there, too, and you’ve got to contain the quarterback and they’ve got one of the top offensive lines in the National Football League,” LaFleur said.
Under first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, the Packers run defense has had a major turnaround. This unit finished the regular season, allowing just 4.0 yards per rush on the year–the third-lowest mark in football. Green Bay also surrendered fewer than 100 rushing yards per game, which ranked seventh this season, and this included doing so against some of the game’s most dynamic rushing attacks.
“(It’s) Allowing us not to play blocks and just to use our God-given athletic ability to get off of blocks and get separation to make those plays,” Karl Brooks said of the run defense. “I would just say it’s credit to the scheme and how we were taught.”
Success for any run defense starts with the interior defensive line and that unit’s ability to generate a steady push, take up space, and occupy blockers, which not only cuts off or closes up running lanes, but that frees up other defenders to make plays. The defensive ends also play a crucial role in setting the edge so ball carriers aren’t able to bounce outside.
“I would say our approach frontside of plays,” said defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich on one of the keys to the run defense’s success. “I think we’re getting some knockback at the point of attack, which is now making running backs have to bow out even further or closer to the surest tackler in the world, which we’ve said before is the sideline. Or if it cuts back, we’ve had pretty decent pursuit on the backside, whether it’s our backside ends, could be an interior player, backside three-technique, nose, whatever it is, or our linebackers behind. And they’ve done an outstanding job.”
However, while success may begin there in the trenches, for a defense to consistently operate at a high level against the run as the Packers have, it truly takes all 11 defenders.
Along with the interior defensive line, the defensive ends need to set strong edges to prevent ball carriers from getting outside. The linebackers need to fill gaps, shed blocks, and get sideline-to-sideline to prevent ball carriers from getting upfield. And for the defensive backs, it’s up to them to swarm to the running back to get as many defenders near the ball to help limit yards after contact or the damage from any missed tackles forced.
“Stopping the run is not just the D line,” added Rebrovich. “Our nickels have done an unbelievable job and those guys setting edges on the perimeter and bringing that thing back so it can’t gain a yard. The more and more we can push the ball lateral to where our guys are going to, the Calvary sets in, the less yards they’re going to get. Our corners have done a great job. It’s a team effort, as you guys know.
“Stopping the run is all 11. I can’t say enough. Our linebackers…when he (Edgerrin Cooper) gets a shot to go down there and pursue a play. So, it takes all 11 of us, but I would say the front side on knocking things back of these perimeter plays has probably been something we’ve gotten better at as the season’s going on.”
When the Packers faced the Eagles in Week 1 to open the 2024 regular season, Barkley rushed for 109 yards while averaging 4.5 yards per carry. However, 34 of those yards came on one rush in the second half. On Barkley’s other 23 carries, he did average just 3.2 yards per attempt.
Against Hurts, meanwhile, the Packers’ defensive front took a more controlled pass rush approach, where the focus was on keeping the quarterback in the pocket. There’s a give-and-take with that decision. On one hand, from the run game perspective, it did work, with Green Bay giving up only 33 rushing yards to Hurst on 13 carries. But on the flip side, the pass rush and the ability to generate pressure did suffer.
With this Eagles’ offense, it’s certainly not as if the run game is all that has to be worried about. This is a very potent passing game that features AJ Brown and Devonta Smith at wide receiver. Hurts’ average of 8.0 yards per pass attempt was the fourth-highest mark this season.
However, any sort of potential success in limiting this high-powered Eagles’ offense is going to have to start with Green Bay’s run defense and finding some way to contain Barkley and Hurts. If they can, there are times when it will put the Philadelphia offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, where defenses often have the upper hand–both in coverage and from a pass rush perspective.
Yet, on the flip side, if the Packers can’t slow that dynamic duo, the offense will routinely be in short down-and-distance situations, where the entire playbook is open to the Eagles. At that point, Philadelphia can either run the ball again or pass, which spreads the defense out and can keep them on their heels with some unpredictability from the offense at play. And when that element is coupled with all the playmakers on that side of the ball, well, good luck.
“We’ll definitely have our work cut out for us,” LaFleur added, “but I think our guys are eager for the opportunity to be into the dance. And that’s kind of what I told them: We’ve got to maximize the moment and we’ve got to make sure that our prep’s on point, that our process is on point, so we can go out there and give our best effort.”