Defense Not Earning Enormous Payday

After recording a rare top-10 finish in points allowed last season, Mike Pettine's defense is on pace for one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ defense is good at one thing, at least.

Burning money.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Packers are spending $116.6 million on their defense this season. That’s the fourth-most expensive defense in the NFL. They paid through the teeth to add Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith and Adrian Amos. They opened the vault to extend Kenny Clark. In the five drafts from 2015 through 2019, 13 of the 15 selections used in the first three rounds went to defensive players.

On Sunday, despite those enormous investments, the Minnesota Vikings torched that defense. Behind 226 total yards and four touchdowns by running back Dalvin Cook, the Vikings held off the Packers 28-22. Minnesota touched the ball four times in the first three quarters. Cook scored touchdowns on all of them.

The Packers’ defense stiffened in the fourth quarter, when it allowed only two first downs on the final three possessions. But the damage had been done.

The play of the defense has been the biggest negative surprise of the season. While Green Bay’s run defense wasn’t good enough last season, either, it was a mostly successful season for Mike Pettine’s crew overall. For the first time since winning the Super Bowl in 2010, the Packers finished in the top 10 in points. They also finished seventh in takeaways. Those were key factors in Green Bay finishing 13-3 and reaching the NFC Championship Game in spite of an offense that was no better than it was in 2018 under Mike McCarthy and Joe Philbin.

The start of this season looks nothing like last season, unless the comparison is based on the NFC Championship Game.

The Packers are on pace to allow 427 points this season. That would be the third-worst total in franchise history, trailing only the 439 points allowed in 1983 and the 428 in 2013. Of course, everyone is scoring this season in the most points-happy season in NFL history. Furthermore, the 26.7 points per game isn’t even close to the woeful 33.8 allowed by the woeful 1950 team fielded by Gene Ronzani.

Nonetheless, the defense has underperformed by just about every standard. The run defense remains soft. The pass rush has disappeared. The turnover spigot has been cranked off. In the 10 categories listed below, the Packers are worse – and often significantly worse – in nine of them. The exception is run defense, which is essentially unchanged compared to last year.

General manager Brian Gutekunst has assembled a pass defense built to contain the league’s modern, spread-the-field offenses. The Smith Bros. were paid and Rashan Gary was drafted to rush the passer. Jaire Alexander, Kevin King and Darnell Savage were drafted to play coverage.

That’s left the defense chronically soft in the middle aside from Clark. The defensive line, which wasn’t stout enough last year, came back intact. The only new face is Billy Winn, who sat out the entire 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons due to serious injuries and wasn’t active on Sunday. At linebacker, with tackling machine Blake Martinez allowed to leave in free agency, Gutekunst threw a Hail Mary on Christian Kirksey and fifth-round pick Kamal Martin. After spending most of the 2018 and 2019 seasons on injured reserve, Kirksey has missed the last four games due to injury and wasn’t impressive when he did play. Martin, who missed a big chunk of his final season at Minnesota due to injury, missed the first five games of this season due to injury.

Is the problem rooted in talent? Scheme? Toughness? Combination of those factors and more?

Whatever the reason or reasons, Amos had a simple solution.

“You start tackling the man with the ball,” Amos said. “We've got to look at film and see where we're out of gaps, but it comes down to tackling the man with the ball and getting off blocks.”

Whether the Packers have the talent, backbone or desire to get it done is a different question altogether. Who knows what LaFleur says behind closed doors but he seemed more perturbed than ever after the game about the state of a run defense that couldn’t stop Cook and put the ball in the hands of mistake-prone Kirk Cousins.

“We have what we have. It is what it is,” LaFleur said when asked if his team had the ingredients to play better run defense. “We’ve got to find solutions and we all have to play better, we’ve got to coach better, and it starts with me. We’ve got to make sure that we take care of our own business. When we know that teams are going to try to run the football, we can’t let them. We cannot let them. We’ve got to force them to throw it. Whether that’s within the call or whatever it may be, we’ve got to be in the business of finding solutions.”

The team’s championship hopes, not to mention Pettine’s future in Green Bay, probably depend on it.

2020 vs. 2019 Statistical Comparisons

Scoring

2020 – 20th, 26.7. 2019 – 9th, 19.6.

Interception percentage

2020 – 31st, 0.93. 2019 – 3rd, 3.11.

Takeaways

2020 – T-30th (last), 0.57 per game. 2019 – T-7th, 1.56 per game.

Red zone

2020 – 28th, 73.9 percent. 2019 – T-6th, 50.0 percent.

Run defense

2020 – 22nd, 4.65 per carry. 2019 – 24th, 4.67 per carry.

Tackling (Pro Football Focus)

2020 – 9.00 missed per game. 2019 – 7.19 missed per game.

Opponent passer rating

2020 – 29th, 109.8. 2019 – 5th, 82.8.

Receiving yards by running backs

2020 – 32nd, 63.3 per game. 2019 – 17th, 40.4 per game.

Quarterback pressures (Pro Football Focus)

2020 – 10.43 per game. 2019 – 19.00 per game.

20-yard Plays

2020 – T-4, 3.29 per game. 2019 – T-19, 4.00 per game.