Packers’ Run Defense Implodes, And Timing Could Hardly Be Worse

The Green Bay Packers were destroyed by Derrick Henry and the Ravens on Saturday night. It won’t get any easier in their wildcard playoff game.

Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) runs against Green Bay Packers linebacker Quay Walker (7) and safety Xavier McKinney. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Timing is everything. The timing for the Green Bay Packers’ run defense to topple like Humpty Dumpty in a Wisconsin blizzard could hardly be worse.

The Baltimore Ravens ran for 307 yards in their 41-24 smackdown of the Packers on Saturday night. Over the last 40 years, the Packers have allowed more rushing yards only twice. Derrick Henry ran for more yards than any visiting running back in Lambeau Field history.

It wasn’t just a bad play here or there to skew the numbers. Henry gained at least 5 yards on 17 of his carries. Of the 19 carries that gained less than 5 yards, three produced touchdowns. Considering the Packers still had a chance to win the NFC North, it was one of the most embarrassing performances in the long, proud history of the franchise.

What the bleep happened?

“There’s a lot of reasons for that,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Sunday.

When the Packers weren’t getting punched in the mouth by Henry and his blockers, they were punching themselves in the face with missed assignments.

“When you do that against a good football team, you see the results,” LaFleur said. “That was what was probably the most disappointing thing after watching the tape is just how many times we weren’t playing the right technique or just in the right position to make a play. And then when we did have opportunities when we were in position, there were some moments when we played some really good run defense.”

Just not enough of them. Not even close to enough. Henry carried 36 times. He gained at least 2 yards on 30. Kingsley Enagbare had the only tackle for loss.

“It was just too hit or miss,” LaFleur continued, “stuff that we’ve been calling since the preseason, throughout camp, throughout the course of the season, whether it’s a check or just not getting the right adjustments and you can’t do that, especially knowing just what type of back we were playing. If you get this guy a head of steam, he’s a tough guy to bring down and he proved that last night.”

Big Challenges in Playoffs

The good news for the Packers is they might never play another snap against Henry. The bad news is the Packers’ two potential wildcard opponents, the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles, have elite running games.

The Bears are the more likely opponent, with a probability of about 70 percent, according to Pro Football Network.

Entering Week 18, they are third in rushing yards per game and rushing yards per carry. This offseason, they addressed their biggest need, the offensive line, by trading for guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson and signing center Drew Dalman. Thuney, a perennial All-Pro, and Dalman were selected to this year’s Pro Bowl team.

The Bears averaged 5.8 yards per carry against the Packers in Week 16.

Chicago Bears running back D'Andre Swift (4) finds a hole against the Packers during Chicago's Week 16 win. | Mark Hoffman-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

The Eagles are only 18th in rushing yards per game and 24th in rushing yards per carry. But any team that takes the Philly rushing attack lightly is going to get destroyed. The Eagles have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL and Saquon Barkley has 1,140 rushing yards after leading the NFL with 2,005 yards last season. They averaged about 175 rushing yards per game the previous three weeks before getting stymied in their win at Buffalo on Sunday.

The Packers have pronounced personnel issues that finally came to the forefront against the Ravens. Micah Parsons is on injured reserve, Devonte Wyatt is on injured reserve, Kenny Clark is playing for the Cowboys and TJ Slaton is playing for the Bengals.

Wyatt is the only top-100 pick invested in a defensive tackle. On Saturday, 60 snaps at defensive tackle were played by rookie Warren Brinson, who was a healthy scratch for most of the first half of the season, and Quinton Bohanna and Jordon Riley, who barely played for other teams before joining the Packers.

Unforced Errors

Without a premier defender on the defensive line – Colby Wooden has the most pedigree as a former fourth-round pick – the importance of doing the simple stuff, such as lining up correctly, takes on added importance.

That the Packers had alignment issues in a game played more than four months after the start of training camp is troubling, to say the least.

“Yeah, that’s what was so baffling is sitting in there with the defensive staff today,” LaFleur said. “That hasn’t been a trend. That hasn’t been something that has really happened throughout the course of the season. For it to show up in that game, it was really bothersome.”

The Ravens weren’t bothered at all. They took advantage of the Packers’ inferior personnel and inferior execution to put together a superior performance.

“When we’re calling the line stunt, you got some guys moving the right way, some guys going the wrong way,” LaFleur said. “When you call certain fronts, if we expect a guy to line up over the center and be a zero technique, he’s got to be a zero technique. He can’t be a two-technique or a shade. It’s all intertwined. Everybody plays off one another. So, when you don’t do that, it just puts everybody at risk.

“That’s exactly what happened in the game. You got to give Baltimore credit. They played hard. They played more physical than us and they moved us. They moved us off the line of scrimmage. They controlled that game. I don’t recall seeing a 300-yard rushing performance. That’s tough. That doesn’t happen very often in the National Football League. They ran the ball 55 times or whatever it was. It wasn’t up to the standard.”

The Packers will have a couple weeks to figure it out in hopes of once again playing high-level run defense in the playoffs. That will start with the basics of knowing where to line up, knowing the job and playing at maximum effort.

Those three things were lacking against the Ravens. If they’re lacking in a likely Round 3 against the Bears, the season will be over.

“He shared a little bit of that sentiment after the game that you got to leave it all on the field,” defensive end Lukas Van Ness said of the postgame message by Enagbare. 

“He felt that some people didn’t. At this point of the season, you have to be willing to (put) your body on the line, lay everything on the line because we’re ultimately trying to get to that end game, that Super Bowl. We’re going to have to do that.”