30 Days Until Training Camp: First-Down Defensive Follies

With 30 days until the first practice of Packers training camp, we examine their 30th-ranked first-down defense.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last season, the Green Bay Packers fielded one of the best third-down defenses in the NFL.

The Packers finished eighth in opponent conversion rate at 37.6 percent, their third-best mark over the last 12 seasons, thanks in large part to opponents needing 7.1 yards to move the chains, sixth-longest. They finished fourth with a turnover rate of 4.1 percent, third with seven interceptions and first with five touchdowns allowed. Green Bay was the only team with more third-down interceptions than third-down touchdowns allowed.

Those numbers should have placed Joe Barry’s unit among the league’s top defenses and pushed the team into the playoffs.

They didn’t. Green Bay ranked 17th in points allowed and 17th in yards allowed and finished with an 8-9 record.

So, where’s the disconnect?

The problem, obviously, wasn’t winning on third down. It was getting to third down.

On first down, the Packers finished 30th with 6.05 yards allowed per snap. Getting back into the top half of the league – they were 11th in 2021 with 5.19 yards allowed on first down – has to be a major point emphasis with training camp starting in 30 days.

Fixing first down starts with fixing the run defense, which will be no easy task. Even with a veteran defensive line, the Packers finished 25th with 4.7 yards allowed per first-down run last season. On first-and-10, that rose to 5.0 yards per attempt.

Here’s quite a feat: On first-and-10, the Packers allowed 28 rushes that gained first downs. On third down, no matter the distance, they allowed 26 rushes that allowed first downs.

The surprising part was how horrible Green Bay’s pass defense was, finishing 30th with 7.8 yards allowed per first-down pass. For all the consternation over Barry’s sometimes-soft approach with his third-down coverage, the Packers allowed too many easy completions on first down.

Soft on first down meant easy pickings on second down. Opponents moved the chains 37.7 percent of the time, the third-highest mark in the league, and scored 18 touchdowns, second-most in the league.

Even when Green Bay got hot late in the season and charged into the playoff race thanks in large part to the play of the defense, it allowed 7.4 yards per first-down play – worst in the league by almost a yard.

Added together, the Packers faced the fewest third-down plays of any team in the NFL; their 194 snaps about 25 less than the league median. In the process, they destroyed the mantra of you can’t win games if you can’t get off the field on third down. Actually, you can’t win games if you can’t get opponents to third down.

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