Report Card: Grading Joe Barry, Packers After Loss to Buccaneers
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Baker Mayfield had completed 28 passes combined in the last two games.
He did not get to 28 completions on Sunday, but he did get to an even bigger number: 158.3. That's the number for a perfect passer rating, which he hit in leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 34-20 victory over the Green Bay Packers. He shredded Joe Barry’s defense for four touchdowns and 17.3 yards per completion.
Mayfield will be in line to be the NFC Offensive Player of the Week. That would be the second in as many weeks against Green Bay's defense after Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito took home those honors a week ago.
Green Bay's defense, predicated on limiting explosive plays, was handing them out like Santa Claus on Christmas morning.
The defense and its coaching staff earned low marks in our weekly Packers Report Card.
Pass Offense
The Packers weren't sure if Dontayvion Wicks was going to play after he described his ankle as f***ed up following Monday's 24-22 loss to the Giants.
Wicks played and gave them 97 receiving yards on six catches. He was one of their best players on a dreary day.
Jordan Love had another fine performance. He finished 29-of-39 passing for 284 yards and two touchdowns. He did lose one fumble on a desperation fourth down after the game was in hand.
Considering the team was missing its most explosive weapon in Christian Watson for the second consecutive week, the offense generated enough big plays in the passing game.
Wicks, Tucker Kraft and Jayden Reed all had at least one play of 20 yards or more through the air.
There was point during the season where there was a debate as to whether Love was the Packers' man for the future. That debate is over. Love is the guy. Now, it's up to the Packers to build a team around him.
Grade: B
Rush Offense
Aaron Jones returned for his first action since Nov. 20 against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Coach Matt LaFleur made it a point to get him involved early. Jones touched the ball eight times on the Packers' first possession. He finished the day with 17 touches, with 13 carries and four catches for 69 all-purpose yards.
Jones was the only back who got more than one carry on offense. Patrick Taylor and Kenyan Drake had one each, with Taylor getting 6 yards and Drake having trouble with the exchange and gaining 0.
The Packers trailed by two scores for most of the second half and were unable to stick with their run game.
Ultimately, the Packers’ continued their quest for their first 100-yard rusher since Jones ran for 111 against Minnesota on Jan. 1.
Jordan Love may be coming into his own as a quarterback, but he's not at a stage where he can carry a one-dimensional offense.
The Packers have to be better at playing complementary football, and that starts with one of the most basic principles of offense.
Running the football.
Grade: C-
Pass Defense
Jaire Alexander was ruled inactive before the game started for the sixth game in a row. That gave a tall task to the Packers' cornerbacks. It was a task that rookie Carrington Valentine, who played the entire game, Eric Stokes, who played into the third quarter in his return to action, and Corey Ballentine, who relieved Stokes, couldn’t handle.
Chris Godwin topped 100 receiving yards in the first half, when Tampa Bay’s two incompletions included one throwaway. The Packers' defense forced one punt the entire game. They gave up a season-worst 328 net passing yards despite a season-high five sacks. Mayfield had nine completions of longer than 20 yards.
This defense is schematically designed to stop big plays, but unless the pass rush gets home, like Kingsley Enagbare on his strip-sack in the first half, there are too many holes in Joe Barry's zone defenses.
Perhaps the most damning portion of the first half came after a two-play sequence in which the Bucs lost 19 yards when Lukas Van Ness sacked Mayfield and Gary drew a holding penalty. That knocked Tampa Bay back to its side of the 50.
It didn't matter. Mayfield hit Godwin for 24 yards on the next play to set up the Bucs for the go-ahead field goal and a 13-10 lead at halftime.
The struggles continued in the second half. On the Bucs’ first possession, Mayfield converted two third downs and hit Rachaad White for a 26-yard touchdown to give them a 20-10 lead.
Mayfield's high-yardage mark for the season was 316. He surpassed that before the end of the third quarter.
The Packers sacked Mayfield five times, only to see him convert on long third downs. The five sacks came on five separate possessions. The first limited the Bucs to a field goal on the opening possession and the second was the big play by Enagbare on the second possession. The Bucs scored a field goal after the third sack and touchdowns following the fourth and fifth.
It did not matter the situation. Green Bay's defense had no answers.
Grade: F
Rush Defense
The rush defense in Green Bay has been a point of contention all season.
At least the Packers snapped their dubious streak of four consecutive games of 140-plus rushing yards allowed. The Bucs’ run game, which finished with 99 yards, felt like an afterthought thanks to Baker Mayfield's big day through the air.
Ultimately, the defense was unable to stop anything in either phase of the game.
Tampa Bay came into the game ranked 29th in rushing yards per game and 32nd in yards allowed per attempt. It topped 100 yards and averaged 4.0 yards per carry until Mayfield took a couple knees to drain the clock.
Before Mayfield killed the clock, Rachaan White rumbled for 22 yards and would have scored a 33-yard touchdown had he not given himself up at the end of the game.
The focus will be on the pass defense, but this group has to be much better as well.
Grade: D-
Special Teams
After missing another kick last week, Anders Carlson was money in the bank. He made all his kicks, which is something he has only been able to say twice since the bye week.
The special teams were not penalized and did not make any game-altering mistakes.
After last week's disaster, that is an improvement.
They did not make any plays to affect the outcome of the game, but average is an improvement for this group.
Grade: C+
Coaching
Facing a third-and-1 with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Packers coach Matt LaFleur made a curious challenge after Aaron Jones was stopped about a half-yard short of the first-down marker on a second-down run.
Trailing 27-17, the Packers had two downs to gain a yard. Does LaFleur have so little trust in his line that he had to rely on the replay official?
LaFleur lost the challenge and, more consequentially, a timeout. An odd decision was not rewarded. On third-and-short, a “Love Shove” gave the Packers the first down.
This game, however, is based on decisions LaFleur made last offseason.
After the Packers' defense finished in the bottom third of the league for the second year in a row under Joe Barry, Barry was retained for a third season as the Packers preached continuity on defense with the offense facing a season of drastic change.
There is a line between continuity and stale. The Packers are on the other side of that line.
Barry is not fully to blame for the defense's struggles, but he is the head of the ship.
LaFleur is to blame here, too, as it is ultimately his decision who is on his coaching staff.
Barry has not been successful in Green Bay, much like he had not been successful in either of his previous stints as coordinator in Detroit and Washington.
The defense, once again, is less than the sum of its parts.
Despite all those factors, LaFleur after Sunday’s loss made it clear he was not ready to talk about an in-season change at defensive coordinator.
"Now is not the time for that," LaFleur said. He added, "Now is not the time, I'm trying to find solutions, so I have to go back and look at the film."
Sunday’s struggles all fall on someone. Locked at the hip with his defensive coordinator, this falls on LaFleur and Barry.
Grade: D+
