The Packers’ defense is broken. How can Joe Barry fix it?

Following a 2020 season in which they made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game, and Aaron Rodgers was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player, the Packers decided to part ways with defensive coordinator Mike Pettine. Green Bay ranked 14th overall in Defensive DVOA, 15th against the pass, and 18th against the run. So, things weren’t bad, per se, but the organization decide that things could be better.

Through two games in the 2021 season, things are decidedly not better. The Packers currently rank 29th overall in Defensive DVOA, 26th against the run, and 25th against the pass. Joe Barry, Pettine’s replacement, has come under considerable fire, and it’s easy to understand why. When your defense allowed 23 touchdowns and had 11 interceptions through 18 games in 2020, and has already given up seven touchdowns to one interception through games against the Lions and Saints, the new guy is where you start.

This was amplified after Green Bay’s 35-17 Monday night win over Detroit, in which Jared Goff completed 26 of 36 passes for 246 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Head coach Matt LaFleur recently explained to local media that he had to take Barry aside and explain that Barry should pick a lane between pressure and coverage.

Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry is shown during the fourth quarter of their game Monday, September 20, 2021 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions 35-17. (MARK HOFFMAN/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL-Imagn Content Services, LLC)

“You’ve got to give Detroit a lot of credit,” LaFleur said. “They came out ready to play, and I think we did make some necessary adjustments at halftime. One of the things that I talked to Joe about was, hey — either play coverage, or we have to pressure. Because when we were doing out four-man rushes, and playing man coverage behind it, we weren’t hitting. We weren’t getting to the quarterback. So, if you don’t get him off the spot — I’ve been around Jared, and he will be efficient. He’ll make the throws. So, we needed to affect the quarterback much more.”

LaFleur pushed back when asked if this was something the Packers would just have to live with this season.

“Well, I think we have enough guys up front. We have to take a good, hard look at what we ask those guys to do. Detroit’s got a pretty damned good offensive line, and we can’t discredit them. I watched it on tape, and against one of the premier defensive lines in the game of football with the 49ers, and I thought they did a damned good job. But there are things we can do to try and get home with a four-man rush.”

Barry, for his part, denied that the conversation happened at halftime, as was widely reported.

“Matt and I didn’t even talk at halftime,” Barry said, per Tom Silverstein and Ryan Wood of PackersNews.com. “You come in (to the locker room), guys go to the bathroom, you discuss some things as an offensive-defensive staff. You get in front of the players, you kind of hit some of the runs that were an issue. You hit some of the passes that were an issue and then bam, we’re right back out on the field.”

Barry also pointed to the fact that the Packers sat most of their top defensive players in the preseason.

“I don’t want to use that as an excuse. Because we made that decision, Matt and the staff, and I stand by that decision absolutely. But football is a full-speed game, and things happen fast. Not only do they happen fast, it happens physical. You’re getting hit. The weather, it might be hot. There’s a lot of things that go into that.

“I do think it takes potentially some time to get into play shape.”

However and whenever it happened, tt’s not a good time to be figuring this out. After the win over the Lions and a Week 1 loss to the Saints in which Jameis Winston was allowed to throw five touchdown passes, Barry has to test his playbook against Kyle Shanahan’s when the Packers take on the 49ers on Sunday night.

Why the LaFleiur-Barry conversation isn't a big deal.

(Photo By Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports © Copyright 1967 Malcolm Emmons)

That LaFleur had to talk with Barry about this isn't uncommon. It reminded me of one of the most important games in Packers history -- Super Bowl I, in which Vince Lombardi's team beat Hank Stram's Chiefs, 35-10. The game was 14-10 at the half, as Stram had investigated the tendencies of defensive coordinator Phil Bengston and discovered that on average, Green Bay blitzed three times per game in the 1966 season. So, Stram dialed up a bunch of spread offense sets long before the spread offense was a thing -- five-receiver sets in which the running backs would either line up in the formation, or flare out from the backfield. Imagine Kliff Kingsbury or Brian Daboll coaching Len Dawson, and you'd have a decent idea of what it looked like. It also allowed Kansas City to hold serve, and Lombardi wasn't having it. At the half, he told Bengston in no uncertain terms to bring the house. Early in the second half, the Packers dialed up what they called "Blitz-3," which sent linebackers Dave Robinson (No. 82, a Hall-of-Famer) and Lee Roy Caffey (No. 60) after Dawson. Dawson responded by hurling the ball up in the direction of Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Wood (No. 24), who picked off the pass and returned the ball 50 yards to the Kansas City five-yard line. The Packers scored soon after, and that was your ballgame. The Chiefs couldn't run their proto-spread stuff anymore, and the oxygen started to get thin.

So, adjustments based on head coaches talking to defensive coordinators about schematic adjustments are pretty common. They're not a big deal. What is a big deal is that Green Bay's current defense is still full of holes, and was so even after LaFleur's and Barry's conversation.

Making coverage too complex.

One of the reasons Mike Nolan's 2020 time as the Cowboys' defensive coordinator was a series of concepts that were too complex, and the players didn't buy in. https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2020/10/09/why-is-the-cowboys-defense-so-bad-its-complicated/ It's two games in, but I'm seeing a lot of the same issues with Barry's defense when it comes to the back seven. Defensive backs are too often in the wrong place at the wrong time. This showed up more than it should have against the Lions. Having two guys get their wires crossed on post coverage? Not great. Per Sports Info Solutions, the Packers haven't faced a passing attempt this season in which the targeted receiver was running a deep post, but if I'm Kyle Shanahan, I'm watching this tape, and I'm getting ready to dial that up. SiS also reveals that no 49ers quarterback has attempted a post throw this season (it's not really Garoppolo's thing), but again... I'd be looking to take advantage. https://twitter.com/NFL_DougFarrar/status/1441374279354961920

"Exotic" looks that don't matter.

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Even when Barry tries to make things "exotic" or "multiple," it doesn't generally work out as well as the Packers would like. This was the 46-yard pass from Goff to Quintez Cephus for which cornerback Kevin King got posterized on Twitter. It wasn't an ideal rep from King, but King wasn't the only problem here. The Packers opened up with a frontside blitz look that turned into a three-on-three battle, and running back Jamaal Williams (No. 30) made the difference with amazing run-blocking. Williams erased blitzing linebacker De'Vondre Campbell (No. 59), Goff hitched his way out of potential front-side shot play to receiver Kalif Raymond (No. 11), he had enough time in the pocket to step back, realize that Cephus (No. 87) had the play on King (No. 20), and make the throw. You do not want a defense that allows Jared Goff to miss one big play, and then make another.

Eye candy without results are obviously meaningless, and that's what the Packers are dealing with, when they use eye candy, which isn't often enough.

Huckleberries in the run game.

(Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports)

On Sunday night, the Packers will try and deal with the 49ers' diverse run game, which has become even more so with the addition of first-round rookie quarterback Trey Lance. Lance hasn't yet usurped Jimmy Garoppolo as the starter, though that's just a matter of time. Even so, Lance gives Kyle Shanahan some really nightmarish aspects to a run package that was already the second-toughest in the league to defend from a schematic perspective. When San Francisco used their quarterback run packages against the Raiders in the preseason, switching Lance and Garoppolo in and out on a per-play basis at times, the Raiders had no adequate response. https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/lists/trey-lance-kyle-shanahan-jimmy-garoppolo-lamar-jackson/ Last Sunday, Jared Goff had four rushing attempts for 46 yards, and two of those runs exposed major busts in Green Bay's run fits -- both out of designed runs, and when the plays randomized. On Detroit's first offensive play of the second half, Goff took off on a simple read-option keeper, and he had nothing but green grass all the way to the sideline. You can imagine Lance watching this during game prep and smirking. https://twitter.com/NFL_DougFarrar/status/1441382286860054545 And with 3:36 left in the game, Goff scrambled out of pressure and took off for 26 yards. I'm not sure what the run keys should be here, but I'm guessing (and hoping) that these ain't it.

We can assume that Barry will assemble a better plan against the 49ers and Lance. Right? Right?

Tying pressure and coverage together.

(Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

Former Rams defensive coordinator and current Chargers head coach Brandon Staley has talked about it. Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles has done it just as brilliantly. Panthers defensive coordinator Phil Snow is terrorizing the rest of the rest of the league with his versions of it. If you want to succeed on defense in today's NFL, you had better find ways to tie pressure to coverage. If you don't, you will be very much behind the eight-ball defensively, which is where the Packers stand at this point with their front oversimplifications and coverage overcomplications. There is room for hope, however scant it may be. On the play after Goff's 26-yard scramble, the line did get to Goff with a four-man pressure, and Campbell did a brilliant job of following Goff through his scramble drill. Receiver Trinity Benson (No. 17) drifted across the formation to match Goff, but so did Campbell, and he was in the advantageous position.

How to fix it... quickly.

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The Packers have the personnel to play a more modern defense, even with Za'Darius Smith, their best pass-rusher, on injured reserve with a back issue. Smith's absence is a problem, but it's not the problem. If Barry is running what he's running now when Smith gets back, it won't matter, and if he's able to upgrade his playbook, things should be at least okay. Kenny Clark is still a force on the interior, Rashan Gary is showing up more often, and though Preston Smith has been a relative disappointment in comparison to Za'Darius Smith, he can also get things done. But Barry needs to help them out with more front multiplicity to mess up protection schemes, and more consistent coverage concepts that his players can use without overthinking things. You see this with the Panthers, the NFL's best defense in 2021. Phil Snow turns guys like IDL Morgan Fox, a former reserve guy for the Rams, into pass-rushing aliens. In Week 2, only Aaron Donald had more pressures than Fox, who was all over the field against the Saints. Jaycee Horn's first NFL interception happened to a large degree because Fox blew up New Orleans' protections with a killer multi-gap move. https://twitter.com/1PantherPlace/status/1440499667813371907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1440499667813371907%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftouchdownwire.usatoday.com%2Flists%2Fcarolina-panthers-defense-phil-snow%2F If other teams can extract the best from their players, Joe Barry should be able to as well. The time is now for that to happen. If it doesn't... well, we know what eventually happens to coaches who don't adjust to the NFL's realities at any given time.

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