In a de facto playoff game for the Green Bay Packers, the defense, specifically against the pass, wilted when it mattered once again.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield completed 22 of 28 pass attempts for 381 yards, four touchdowns, and a perfect passer rating. Receiver Chris Godwin totaled 10 receptions for 155 yards, while Mike Evans, David Moore and running back Rachaad White all had at least 50 receiving yards each.
“They got a lot of explosion plays,” said Matt LaFleur post game, “and looking at the drive chart here, not a lot of stops. We had one three-and-out, they fumbled one time, and every other possession ended up in points, so it’s going to be tough to win a football game when that happens.”
Despite how well the Bucs moved the ball and the 34 points scored, the Packers did get after Mayfield, recording five sacks, along with an additional four quarterback hits. However, on the other 23 passing plays by Tampa Bay, they picked apart Green Bay’s secondary.
There were too many chunk plays given up by the Green Bay defense, with almost none of the passes thrown by Mayfield even being contested. It was pitch-and-catch out there for the Bucs’ offense—almost like they knew exactly what the Packers were going to do in each situation and therefore where to attack the weak parts of their zone coverage.
“Hindsight is 20-20, absolutely,” said LaFleur about Green Bay’s usage of zone coverage. “You know, we have to challenge much better on the back end in terms of, I get it, they have some good wideouts, but you have to be willing to challenge, especially if you are getting gashed, just changing it up, and I’ll go back and take a peek at it right after we’re done here.”
Not including the Bucs’ last possession of the game where they ran the clock out, they had eight possessions overall with six of them ending up in points, including three touchdown drives in the second half. The Packers forced a fumble on Tampa Bay’s second possession and a punt in the second quarter. Otherwise, the Bucs did whatever they wanted.
This performance from Green Bay comes on the heels of the Giants game, where they were unable to generate a sack against the most-sack prone offense in football, and allowed the Tommy DeVito-led New York offense to march down the field for a game-winning field goal with about a 1:30 left on the clock.
Whether or not Matt LaFleur chooses to move on from defensive coordinator Joe Barry remains to be seen, but these type of lack-luster performances in such important, playoff-like games – coupled with how the defense has performed the last two-plus seasons under Barry where little improvement or changes have been made – are the types of situations where these conversations, or thoughts, are at the very least had, to some degree.
However, at least following the game, that was not the time and place for LaFleur to discuss a change.
“Yeah, now is not the time for that, to be honest with you,” said LaFleur when asked about moving on from Barry.
“Because now is not the time,” said LaFleur when asked again. “I’m trying to find solutions, and I have to go back and take a look at the film.”
Perhaps LaFleur meant in that specific moment, at the podium, just minutes after the loss, he was not going to discuss moving on from Barry. Or perhaps LaFleur meant that with only three games left in the season, he isn’t looking to make a change in this final month. That sort of open-ended answer will only fuel speculation, but LaFleur didn’t dismiss the idea either. He just said, now is not the time.
One of the questions we always have to ask ourselves in these situations is, if a move is made, who is the in-season replacement? This is a defensive coaching staff where there is no obvious answer. I wouldn’t even know who to guess.
Green Bay also still finds themselves technically alive in the NFC playoff race. On one hand, maybe they want to avoid a major change. But on the other, the 10-3 Philadelphia Eagles just made a change at defensive coordinator following a two-game losing streak.
At the end of the day, LaFleur is the head coach and he is responsible for this entire Packers team. This style of defense is what he wanted in Green Bay. He signs off on gameplan going into each game—it’s not as if Barry is going rogue with what he’s putting together. But whether it’s a lack of situational awareness, adjustments that are either too little or too late, the execution, or players not knowing their responsibilities, which we saw twice in the secondary against Tampa Bay, there is a disconnect between what LaFleur wants this unit to be and where it actually is.
“It’s all concerning when it looks like there’s some confusion going on back there,” said LaFleur. “You’ve got to be so coordinated and so in tune on all three levels. Every guy plays off one another and when there’s any types of miscommunications, you can get gashed. That’s what happened. 22 completions for 381 yards, that’s not good enough.”
Whether LaFleur makes the change this week or in mid-January, I don’t think it makes much of a difference—unless the moral of the locker room were in jeopardy, but there isn’t any visible sign of that being the case. With that said, keeping the status-quo on the defensive side of the ball going into 2024 is not acceptable.
It’s been almost three full seasons now with Barry at the defensive helm. We know what this defense is at this point, and if schematic changes were going to made, they should have happened well before Week 15 of this season, regardless of how the last three games go. To put it simply, it just hasn’t been good enough.
“All I know is this,” added LaFleur, “we’ve got three weeks left. We’ve got three games and every game is a playoff mentality. Who knows what will happen. We can’t get it all back at once. You’ve got to earn it every day. We’ve got to get back to practice and give it our best shot from here on out.”
