Packers’ Jekyll and Hyde defense must find consistency Against the Bears Montravius Adams Jersey , it was the first few drives. The next week, it was the final few for the Vikings. On a sloppy day in Washington, it was the entire first half. Mike Pettine’s defense has given up 10-0 runs, 14-0 runs, and 14-3 runs at various points this season. Alex Smith and Co. hit up the Green Bay Packers’ defense for 28 in the first half. Kirk Cousins hung 22 on Pettine’s crew in just the fourth quarter. Even Mitch Trubisky got 10 straight to open the season.On those drives, the Green Bay defense looked discombobulated and undisciplined. Missed tackles and missed assignments marked long scoring drives kept alive by key penalties and key conversions. What makes this even more maddening for fans is the rest of the game, this unit looks ferocious.After that 10-play, 86-yard drive to open the Bears season, Chicago managed just 210 total yards in 56 plays after that. That’s 3.75 yards per play and dominating defense. But that’s against Mitch Trubisky, hardly a high bar right?Before the third quarter drive that ended in fourth-quarter touchdown for the Vikings in Week 2, Green Bay held Minnesota to 147 yards in 36 plays and just the lone touchdown. That’s barely four yards per play. After that, they gave up 191 yards on 20 plays and three touchdowns plus the two-point conversion to tie. And against Alex Smith in Week 3 the defense allowed 336 yards in 34 first-half plays, giving up 28 points. In the second half, the Packers defense gave up just 50 yards on 21 plays, with 3 points coming off a short field following Randall Cobb’s fumble. Defensively, the Packers have played two dominant second halves and one dominant first half. Jay Gruden was protecting a lead and may not have been as aggressive, up double digits against the Packers, but if that’s true he’s a bad history student. We’ve seen what Rodgers can do. It’s still up to the defense to make those plays and they did. It’s worth mentioning that the Vikings’ offensive explosion correlates directly to the loss of Kevin King with injury. Davon House got torched on the 75-yard touchdown to Stefon Diggs and generally struggled against Washington with bad penalties and poor technique. His injury could be a blessing in disguise for the Packers, who now bring in Bashaud Breeland — one of the prized cornerback free agents this offseason — to add stability to the cornerback room. Breeland would be an upgrade over House in any circumstance, but getting him for cheap just when this team needs depth could provide the ideal shot in the arm for Mike Pettine’s group.But they have to do better on early downs and in the red zone. When the Packers blitz, they’re highly effective, but they’re saving that mostly for third-and-obvious passing situations. According to The Athletic’s Ben Fennell the Packers have the second-most effective blitz package in football this season, giving up a 31.2 quarterback rating with two picks Jamaal Williams Jersey , two sacks, and no touchdowns. On the other hand, when teams are driving it and getting in scoring position, they’re too often finding paydirt. This was a common problem for the Packers last season under Dom Capers when they were the worst situational group in the league. Quarterbacks inside the 30 are 16/20 with 4 TDs and 0 INTs for a 135.8 rating, second-worst in football. Part of that comes from a lack of top-tier talent in their primes. Clay Matthews isn’t a field-tilter and Nick Perry runs too hot and cold. While Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson could be stars in the future, they’re not ready to put a defense on their back and there are too many holes right now in communication and execution when defending the goal line. Situational defense should improve as the defense works more in unison, but they also need some of these young players to grow into playmakers. Kevin King must stay healthy, with his impact on this defense so evident. There may not be a way to hide the obvious deficiencies of Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Kentrell Brice, but Pettine will have to find a way. This defense has flashed brilliance and utter incompetence. If this defense can just replace the latter with mere competence, it should be good enough to give Aaron Rodgers and this offense plenty of chances to score enough to win. The disdain and dysfunctional between Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy was no state secret. We won’t know if these issues uncovered intractable problems until we see Rodgers with a new coach."Aaron Rodgers thought he knew better than a coach that players, coaches, and personnel people inside and outside of the Green Bay Packers organization believed had lost his touch. Where’s the controversy? Why is anyone sure this will be a problem for Matt LaFleur? In Tyler Dunne’s opus for Bleacher Report on the divide between Mike McCarthy and his star quarterback, nearly every source provided damning criticisms of McCarthy. Whether it was not showing up to a meeting to get a massage in his office, failing to push the offense forward, or not calling plays effectively, it’s hard to find defenders of the former head coach, even amidst criticism of the quarterback who reportedly grew to resent and despise him. Reports of playcalling questions from the players go back to the early 2010’s, but the issues of complacency reared their heads more recently. McCarthy, in an interview with ESPN, went out of his way to defend himself from those allegations, but the front office put it on the record they contributed to his firing. Players in the organization, including leaders like David Bakhtiari, openly criticized the lack of accountability within the franchise. So if Rodgers Kenny Clark Jersey , a Hall of Fame quarterback emboldened to change plays at the line of scrimmage, is doing what he was given the freedom to do, who really cares? He changed plays because he thought McCarthy called bad plays. In a vacuum, that’s not a huge deal. Simply being ‘Not Mike McCarthy’ could be enough to reinvigorate Rodgers. He took hard coaching from Jeff Tedford at Cal, desperately asked to be coached a few years ago, and seemed genuinely delighted to have Joe Philbin at the helm at the end of the season. This all might be as simple as Rodgers didn’t respect McCarthy. In retrospect, wanting to “be coached” may have been code for “I want to be coached by someone I respect.” It was an indictment of McCarthy above all else. Sports Illustrated previously reported a tension within the team that festered due to a push-pull between the two figureheads over who was running the show. Rodgers didn’t trust McCarthy to do it, while McCarthy felt he should be in charge. He’s the coach, after all. It turns out, the Packers decided McCarthy shouldn’t be in charge. Rodgers was right. The question once again becomes: where is the issue with Rodgers? A quarterback is under no obligation to fix a fissure with his head coach, one he doesn’t respect and on whom the team actively quit multiple times in the last two years. You can’t blame Rodgers for what happened in 2017. The players quickly realized Brett Hundley was a zero and they didn’t believe the head coach could put him a position to succeed, nor had he properly coached the backup to be ready for this opportunity. None of this is to say Rodgers is blameless. It’s possible he never gave McCarthy a chance, that the slight from not picking him No. 1 overall when he was with the 49ers was a wound that couldn’t be healed. But early in his career, it didn’t manifest on the field. Rodgers made quick decisions, flinging the ball around the yard with alacrity in a way we’ve never seen. Rodgers and the offense soared with tremendous supporting talent. Beyond the criticisms from known Rodgers cynics Jermichael Finley and Greg Jennings, what are the substantive criticisms of the quarterback? That he’s arrogant? Has anyone met Tom Brady or Ben Roethlisberger or Philip Rivers? Finley recently complained that Rodgers didn’t like him because he didn’t practice hard or run the right routes. How devastating. Jennings was upset Rodgers suggested another team should sign him in the offseason. How many other receivers have opposite visions of Rodgers? Maybe we should ask his best friend Jordy Nelson, or Randall Cobb, who made Rodgers a groomsman at his wedding. Or James Jones, who is still close enough with Rodgers he broke the quarterback’s massive new mega-deal story. Davante Adams and Geronimo Allison have the trust of their quarterback. So do Jimmy Graham and Aaron Jones. If the problem was McCarthy for Rodgers, LaFleur should be able to turn this around. Rodgers has critics inside and outside the locker room. Not everyone approves of his icy demeanor, his high standards, or his prickly way of handing certainly situations. He’s certainly not blameless in this mess. It’s interesting, however Jason Spriggs Jersey , the best leaders this team has had over the last decade, to a man, effusively praise Rodgers. Charles Woodson, A.J. Hawk, Julius Peppers, and others loved the way Rodgers held everyone accountable, insisting they had to get to his level.Icing out rookie receivers? Work harder. Davante Adams managed to avoid the ire of his quarterback despite struggles early in his career because he busted his ass. Rodgers called out the 2018 rookie class in training camp for not practicing up to NFL standards. It takes time to develop a rapport and chemistry with Rodgers because he has to know you give a shit like he does. Adams did. Guys like Woodson, Hawk, Nelson and Cobb, they did too. If your quarterback has high standards, that ought to trickle down to the rest of the team. Rodgers does have to understand how impactful his words are. He has a clean slate to empower this new coach so his team buys in as well. Rodgers’ teammates didn’t trust Mike McCarthy. He didn’t either. Those are certainly related. It’s hard to fault him for believing he was smarter than his coach. He almost certainly is. And most agree his coach failed to do the things necessary to sustain a winning culture. That’s what ultimately cost him his job. Getting him on the same page with these young receivers will be important, although less so if the Packers use a high pick on a tight end and/or a receiver. If Rodgers is so stubborn none of these receivers can ever work out of the doghouse, that’s certainly an issue. That’s what the new head coach is for. Mark Murphy and Brian Gutekunst have to believe they hired a guy who is going to intellectually stimulate Rodgers. Someone who was going to coach him. Was “don’t be a problem” — the comment that Murphy reportedly made to Rodgers when he told him that LaFleur would be the guy — meant as a way of saying “we need you to be on board for this to work”? Or was it an offer of legitimate concern that Rodgers would torpedo this coach’s chances as well? We’ll soon find out. If LaFleur was the right coach and Rodgers is a good soldier, we’ll have solid evidence the problem was truly rooted in a specific interpersonal dispute. If not, there will and should be more questions about Rodgers’ attitude and how deleterious his arrogance is to the on-field play of the Packers. We saw the offense improve under Joe Philbin for stretches, which may be a reason for optimism. Many observers noticed Rodgers appeared to be having significantly more fun playing in the second half of the season. Was it because he was healthier or simply happier with Philbin in charge instead of McCarthy? Either way, LaFleur will be tasked with extracting that same spirit from Rodgers, the one McCarthy had early in his tenure, at least on the field. We won’t know truly how big a problem this rift was until we see Rodgers healthy with a new head coach. The good news is we won’t have to wait much longer. The Packers officially open the 2019 season next week.
