Packers’ Defense Working With No Margin for Error
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers lost 24-10 to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The team’s fourth consecutive loss had a common theme.
In successive losses to the Lions, Raiders, Broncos and Vikings, the Packers have scored 20, 13, 17 and 10 points. Including the 18-17 victory over the Saints before the skid, the Packers have scored less than 20 points in five consecutive games. Since the dawn of the Brett Favre-Aaron Rodgers-Jordan Love era in 1992, that’s the Packers’ second-longest single-season streak. The 2005 team failed to bust past 20 points in six consecutive games.
Walking off the field on Sunday, cornerback Rasul Douglas and Love talked about the state of the team.
“We’re not as far off as we think we are,” Douglas said of their conversation. “The score doesn’t always show the outcome. I told him we’ve got to be better on defense to provide more opportunities.”
That’s true but, given the impotent state of the offense, it’s practically Mission Impossible for the defense. If it doesn’t deliver an absolute light’s-out performance, the Packers seemingly have no chance to win.
“We’ve got to be perfect but no one’s perfect but God,” Douglas said.
Then, he hit at the crux of the matter.
For years, Aaron Rodgers and the high-powered offense forced opposing offensive coordinators to try to match them score for score. Not anymore.
“I just think that OCs against us can stay in rhythm,” Douglas said. “You don’t have to do nothing extraordinary against us because, ‘Well, they won’t score.’ So, it’s like, ‘We can stick with what we do and, even if it’s not working out, eventually it might work because our offense isn’t scoring.’ We’ve got to find ways for them to score on offense.”
Douglas wasn’t pointing fingers. As usual, he pointed fingers inward.
The Vikings converted 10-of-18 on third down. Most of those third-down conversions required 8-plus yards. Packers penalties handed the Vikings four first downs. Linebacker Quay Walker dropped an interception on the opening series.
Vikings WR Jordan Addison celebrates a touchdown vs. the Packers.
Photo by Tork Mason/USA Today Sports Images
Those statements are all true. Ultimately, though, the offense’s feeble play has given the defense almost no margin for error. A high-quality quarterback such as the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins – or the Rams’ Matthew Stafford at Lambeau Field next week or the three-game gauntlet of the Chargers’ Justin Herbert, the Lions’ Jared Goff and the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes – is just too good to be held down for too long.
While Love and Douglas agreed the team was closer to winning than the scoreboard suggests, Douglas knows those are hollow words. The only thing that matters are the standings, where Green Bay is 2-5 and tied with the Chicago Bears for last place in the NFC North (pending the Bears' Sunday night outcome).
“No matter what you guys, us, everyone’s looking at the result. How many is that in a row?” Douglas asked.
That’s four consecutive losses, replied a reporter.
“See. See how she knew that that fast?” Douglas responded. “Exactly. Nobody cares how close you are. It’s just the result. It’s hard but we’ve got to keep working. We can’t give up on everything. We’ve got to keep working.”
While reporters waited, player after player came to Douglas’ locker to talk. In hushed tones, Douglas spoke with equal parts frustration and anger.
“I’m both. I’m both,” he said. “We’re saying [sh**] but until we actually do the [sh**], it don’t really matter. I’m thinking about it like, bro, I’ve never been a loser in my life. These last two years have been [f***ing] loser. That [sh**] ain’t me. I don’t think that [sh**’s] us. We’ve got to do something, you know what I mean?”
Douglas said he didn’t know what that “something” was other than getting off the field and making big plays.
“I don’t want to say we feel like we need to play perfect,” outside linebacker Rashan Gary said, “but we feel like we need to get the offense back the ball as many chances as we can because we know the more we get them ball the back, the more they’ve got an opportunity to score.”
If the Packers are going to salvage this season – if they’re even going to have semi-meaningful games in December – the offense must wake up from its first-half coma, stop shooting itself in the foot and make more than the occasional big play.
And yet, through all of Green Bay’s myriad of problems, there was an opportunity.
Defensive tackle Karl Brooks’ blocked field goal set up the offense at its 44-yard line with 9:42 to play. That drive ended with three consecutive incompletions from the Vikings’ 10, including a second-down drop that would have moved the ball near the goal line, at worst.
Moments later, Preston Smith’s sack/strip gave the offense the ball at the Vikings’ 15 with 5:54 to play. A run for 1 yard, a sack, an incomplete pass and a senseless scramble by Love on fourth-and-16 meant another wasted opportunity.
“Yeah, always feels like that,” Douglas said of a potential fourth-quarter comeback. “Raiders game felt like that. Denver game felt like that. ‘OK, we’re about to go down there and score.’ This game, it just felt like, ‘All right, we know the offense hasn’t been scoring but maybe this is the break they need to score.’
“I felt like the crowd started to get back in it. I think the crowd thinks we’re a second-half team, as well, so they’re starting to get into it. And then it just when, ‘Uhh.’ We’ve just got to, like I’ve said, we’ve got to score on defense. We blocked a field goal. I think somehow, some way, we have to score that ball. They’ve got all linemen on the field, we’ve got all defensive guys. We’ve got to find some way, whether we pitch it back or do something, we’ve got to find a way to score that ball.”
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