Packers Report Card: Joe Barry’s Defense Fails Test Against Panthers

A week after Joe Barry’s defense was shredded by the Buccaneers, that unit was perhaps even worse in the Packers’ victory over the Panthers. Here are this week’s grades.

The Green Bay Packers faced another test on Sunday in Carolina.

The test, in theory, was pretty simple.

Beat the team with the worst record in football and keep hopes for a postseason berth alive.

The offense did its part. Jordan Love scored three touchdowns. Aaron Jones piled up more than 100 rushing yards.

The defense? That's another story.

Here is our report card from the Packers' 33-30 win in Carolina.

Pass Offense

Jordan Love's stat line at the end of the day was not gaudy. He finished 17-of-28 passing for 219 yards and accounted for three touchdowns.

When you account for who Love was playing with, those numbers get more impressive.

Three of the team’s four leaders in receptions, Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks and Christian Watson, combined for two catches.

Wicks caught his second pass and scored a touchdown in the final moments of the first half before exiting with a chest injury. Watson and Reed were inactive.

That meant that for most of the game, Love was playing with Romeo Doubs, Malik Heath, Bo Melton and Tucker Kraft as his primary pass catchers.

Doubs has started all but one game this season. The rest of those guys were undrafted free agents, practice squad players or backups.

Packers WR Romeo Doubs celebrates a touchdown at Carolina :: Photo by Bob Donnan/USA Today Sports Images

With the game tied at 30 apiece, Love, Doubs and Kraft made enough big plays to get them in position to win the game. 

It wasn't an A, performance, but it was enough. 

Grade: B 

Rush Offense

Aaron Jones returned last week and was clearly on a pitch count in his first game back from a knee injury that he thought was going to end his season.

Jones looked spry in his return to the lineup but was limited by snap counts and a game script that forced the Packers to pass.

This week, Jones was not limited.

With 21 carries for 127 yards, he averaged 6 yards per carry and became Green Bay's first individual 100-yard rusher this season.

AJ Dillon returned to the lineup after missing last week with a broken thumb, but Sunday belonged to Jones.

Overall, Green Bay piled up 162 rushing yards, its most since it rumbled for 184 yards in a 20-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in early November.

With Green Bay's defense reeling, the Packers need as much help as they can get from their offense.

With their receiver room in shambles, they'll need more from their run game.

It will help to have their best player ready for a full workload.

Grade: A 

Defense

Typically, the defensive report card is broken into separate parts, like how we graded the offense.

This week, they're being lumped together.

Carolina has been solid with its run game this year, but its offense as a whole is among the worst in the NFL.

They had not topped 30 points in 2023. They scored a combined 15 points with zero touchdowns the previous two games.

Bryce Young had not thrown a touchdown pass since Nov. 19.

For the Packers’ defense, this represented a bounce-back opportunity after it was shredded a week ago against Tampa Bay.

If the Bucs offense was considered pre-calculus, Carolina's offense was elementary division.

Panthers Latest Team to Unwrap Barry’s Defense

Either way, the Packers' defense failed the test, and failed miserably.

The Panthers finished just under 400 yards. Bryce threw two touchdown passes to DJ Chark.

They ran for just under 100 yards.

Perhaps the most damning portion of the day came when the Packers kicked a field goal to go up 33-30 with 19 seconds left.

The Panthers found their way into field goal range in just two plays.

The only reason they were unable to kick a game-tying field goal is because the Packers' offense forced the Panthers to use all of their timeouts on the previous possession.

Had the Panthers made a field goal as time expired, there should not have been much confidence that they'd be able to stop Carolina's offense in overtime.

The last three weeks, New York's Tommy DeVito, Tampa Bay's Baker Mayfield and Bryce Young combined for:

62-of 84 passing (73 percent) for 851 yards, with seven touchdowns and only one turnover.

In three weeks of embarrassing defensive performances, Sunday's might have been the worst.

Grade: F 

Special Teams

Lukas Van Ness and Devonte Wyatt were charged with special-teams blunders.

Van Ness roughed Carolina's punter after the defense forced a three-and-out on the opening series, giving the Panthers a fresh set of downs.

Wyatt lined up offsides on a field goal, a penalty that was ultimately declined.

Anders Carlson missed another extra point but earns positive points for kicking the game-winning field goal.

With this group, penalties and miscues are the norm.

Carolina's special teams might have been worse. Eddy Pineiro missed two extra points.

Ultimately, the battle between these two units ended up even, which gives the Packers an even grade.

Grade: C

Coaching

Coach Matt LaFleur is hooked at the hip with his defensive coordinator, Joe Barry.

Asked after last week's game if he was going to keep Barry for the remainder of the season, LaFleur said yes, in so many words. Sunday’s mess is just as much on LaFleur as it is Barry.

Bisaccia's special teams were penalized two more times, including a personal foul that gave Carolina a first down. They lead the league in that category.

LaFleur does earn high marks, however, for being able to cobble together enough on offense when they were missing what are arguably their top four receiving targets by the end of the game.

They'll need more magic from LaFleur these last two weeks because it's clear this team will need to put up points in bunches to win.

Grade: C

Love Tops Packers’ ‘Nice’ List in Victory Over Panthers