Despite Preston Smith vs. Davante Adams, Packers’ Defense Did Its Job
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ defense was on the field for 64 snaps against the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night. Only one of those went viral.
That would be the 21-yard completion from Jimmy Garoppolo to Davante Adams on the Raiders’ game-winning drive spanning the third and fourth quarters. Jaire Alexander wasn’t on Adams. Rasul Douglas wasn’t on Adams. Nor was Keisean Nixon.
Rather, it was outside linebacker Preston Smith.
Smith played a tremendous game, but Adams vs. Smith is as big a mismatch as Giannis vs. a 50-year-old sportswriter in a game of one-on-one. Adams beat Smith a quick move at the line for an easy pitch-and-catch. With 14 yards after the catch, the gain was 21. Four plays later, Josh Jacobs was in the end zone and the Raiders led 17-13.
Why? What happened?
The Raiders went with an old-school, run-centric package of two receivers, one running back, one tight end and one fullback. Defensive coordinator Joe Barry, logically, went with base personnel.
The Raiders didn’t line up to run the ball. Instead, they went empty. To the left, running back Josh Jacobs was the wide receiver and Adams was in the slot. To the right, fullback Jakob Johnson lined up as the wide receiver with receiver Tre Tucker and tight end Michael Mayer as twin slots.
There was nothing wrong with Barry’s personnel grouping. There was everything wrong with how his players lined up to defend the play. On the left, cornerback Rasul Douglas matched up on Jacobs and Smith was on Adams. On the right, outside linebacker Lukas Van Ness was on Tucker, safety Jonathan Owens was on Mayer and cornerback Jaire Alexander was on Johnson.
In other words, the Packers had their outside linebackers on the Raiders’ receivers and their All-Pro cornerback on a fullback.
“That’s happened a lot when Davante was playing for us,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “You put a receiver in the slot. You’ve got five bigs on the field and a lot of times that backer has to walk and you’re playing quarters coverage and that’s what happens. Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s obviously not the most advantageous for us.”
Davante Adams beats Preston Smith for a gain of 21 in the third quarter.
Photo by Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports Images
The Packers aren’t the only team to make what seems like an obvious personnel mistake. During the height of the Seahawks’ powers, then-Packers coach Mike McCarthy would send fullback John Kuhn out wide against All-Pro Richard Sherman, who always played left cornerback. Doing so meant wasting Sherman’s dominant talent on a relative nonfactor in the passing game.
“Obviously,” LaFleur said, “want to have better answers than that.”
That one play was a black eye on an otherwise-strong performance by a defense that was trashed the previous week by the Detroit Lions.
Jacobs, who led the NFL in rushing last season, had his best game of a dismal start to the season but that still added up to only 69 yards on 20 carries. Even with Tucker gaining 16 on an end-around, the Raiders managed only 3.3 yards per carry.
Adams, who is coming off a third consecutive season of 100-plus receptions and led the NFL in touchdown catches in 2020 and 2022, was limited to just four receptions for 45 yards.
Last year, between rushing and receiving, Jacobs and Adams averaged 210 yards per game. On Monday, the Packers held them to 134 yards.
That should have been enough to win.
“It wasn’t about that, though,” said Douglas, who was brilliant in his best game of the season. “We wanted to go home, into the bye, with a win. Now, Matt about to talk our damn head off tomorrow. You get back in the morning, he about to talk our head off because we lost.
“We came here to win and we just fell short of that. That was really the only goal. It wasn’t about Tae doing nothing. It wasn’t nobody doing nothing, no matchup. It wasn’t nothing. It was just win. Do what you’ve got to do to win and we ain’t do it.”
Entering Monday night, teams allowing 17 or fewer points were a resounding 45-5. That’s a .900 winning percentage.
That should have been good enough to win.
The Packers managed to lose, anyway, because of their horrendous offense.
“Any time you hold somebody to 17 points, I think that’s enough to win football games in this league,” LaFleur said.
To be sure, despite their star running back and receiver, the Raiders have one of the worst offenses in the NFL. They’re 29th in scoring. Bigger challenges await.
After the bye, the Packers will play at the Dener Broncos, who are 10th in scoring. The Detroit Lions (fourth), Los Angeles Chargers (seventh) and Kansas City Chiefs (ninth) also are top-10 scoring offenses. The Chicago Bears (12th) have hit their stride and the Los Angeles Rams (15th) should be better with the return of Cooper Kupp.
“I think at this point it’s pretty obvious that the defense has to not give up any touchdowns,” Alexander said. “I think that’s the part of being self-critical of our defense because the offense is pretty young and they’re still figuring out their mojo. The defense, we’ve got to do more to score and stop them from scoring.”
More Green Bay Packers News
Packers report card from 17-13 loss to Raiders
Comparing Love’s first five games in 2023 to Rodgers in 2008
