With Rashan Gary on Move, Packers’ Pass Rush Brings Heat vs. Texans

Facing the best quarterback they’ve seen all season, the Packers added a blast-from-the-past wrinkle to get Rashan Gary free against the Texans’ C.J. Stroud.

Green Bay Packers defensive end Rashan Gary (52) rushes Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) on Sunday. / Tork Mason/Green Bay Press-Gazette via the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Let’s go back to 2019.

Mike Pettine is the defensive coordinator, and Za’Darius Smith is his premier pass rusher.

Smith lines up on the edge primarily, but one of his strengths is his ability to move around the defense.

The strength of the defense in 2019 was their pass rush, led by Smith’s versatility.

Fast forward to 2024, and everything is different but also feels the same.

Green Bay’s defensive coordinator is Jeff Hafley, and his best pass rusher is Smith’s former teammate, Rashan Gary.

Gary was off to a slow start this season with one sack in the first six games.

There have been some reasons for that.

Three of the first six games of the season involved mobile quarterbacks, and the Packers’ primary focus was staying disciplined in their rush lanes. That allowed them to keep Jalen Hurts, Anthony Richardson and Kyler Murray in the pocket, but that discipline came at the expense of sacking the quarterback.

While disciplined play matters, the Packers are paying Gary to be a disruptive force.

Gary, and the pass rush as a whole, has been inconsistent at best.

Apart from their eight-sack outburst in Week 3 against the Tennessee Titans, they’ve mostly been quiet.

That was a big concern with the Houston Texans and C.J. Stroud coming to town.

Stroud is the best quarterback the Packers have played this season. Great quarterbacks are even better when they are protected and have time to throw.

Those facts brought together a big challenge for Green Bay’s defense.

It was one they were clearly ready for.

Before the game, there was a lot of juice on both sides. Jaire Alexander and Texans receiver Stefon Diggs got into a tussle before the game started.

At the start of the game, the defense was full of energy and clearly playing with a different level of emotion than previous games.

“Every game that we play is a big game, but just understanding the type of team they are, understanding where we want to get to in the season, you've got to take care of business today,” Gary said.

“And all of that chirping before the game, we don't like that fake tough stuff because we've got 60 minutes to play ball, and that's what we did today.”

Regardless of what was said, the Packers were clearly inspired and played their best game of the season.

If you would have told someone that the Packers held Stroud to less than 100 passing yards, the likely response would have been that Stroud had to have left a game with an injury.

In an era in which passing is easier than ever, holding any passer to less than 100 yards is almost unfathomable. It’s even less foreseeable when you consider the talent of Stroud, last year’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.

The Packers raved about him all week. They knew the challenge they were facing.

They met it head on, but also had to make some changes schematically to keep him under pressure.

They finished the day with four sacks.

Two from Eric Wilson. One from Xavier McKinney. One from Gary.

One of the wrinkles that was put in this week by Hafley was channeling a package from one of his predecessors.

Gary played the role of Smith, while Hafley played the role of Pettine. Gary moved over the center and was able to pick his gap as a way to get him one-on-one matchups.

“A little splash here, a little splash there,” Gary said. “Just understanding our personnel and how people want to block our personnel. We added things, different package, trying to make the most of our defense and personnel.”

The results were positive.

Gary had his first sack since Week 1. It was a bit of a gift as Tytus Howard fell down, but getting the quarterback to the ground had to feel good considering Gary’s drought.

Gary entered the game with three quarterback hits all season but had three against the Texans. He had a season-high six pressures, according to PFF, after having nine the first six games. That was due, in part, to finding different ways to use him.

Going into last week’s action, Gary had been chipped on 21 percent of pass-rushing opportunities, which was tied for third in among edge rushers.

3. Rashan Gary - 21.48%

Which defenders have been chipped the most this season:https://t.co/oDOGmRuLJG

— PFF GB Packers (@PFF_Packers) October 12, 2024

The understanding for how opponents want to block Gary is partially why they moved him around.

“Coming into the season, getting chipped a lot, finding ways to free up the top players, that’s something Coach Hafley has done since week 1,” Gary said. “Understand our personnel and how teams want to block us, especially me, it helps us as a team.”

It certainly helped on Sunday. The Packers shut down one of the top offenses in football.

Some big challenges lie ahead on the schedule.

They’re going to need to continue to turn up the pressure. That starts with their best player. 

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