Packers Notebook (at Lions)

Struggling defense

The Green Bay Packers hadn’t finished in the top quartile of the NFL in points allowed since 2010. They won the Super Bowl that year.

With a star-studded group, this was supposed to be the year that changed. Green Bay’s starting defense didn’t have a single weak link.

On the defensive line, Pro Bowler Kenny Clark was joined by veteran addition Jarran Reed and first-round pick Devonte Wyatt. At inside linebacker, All-Pro De’Vondre Campbell was joined by first-round pick Quay Walker. At cornerback, Jaire Alexander was healthy to create an elite trio with Rasul Douglas and 2021 first-rounder Eric Stokes.

Rising star Rashan Gary and Preston Smith formed a high-quality duo at outside linebacker. At safety, Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage were entering Year 4 together.

While the offense predictably has struggled to adapt to life without Davante Adams, it was supposed to be the defense that was ready, willing and able of picking up the slack. Instead, entering their week nine game at the Detroit Lions, the Packers are 3-5 and losers of four consecutive games in part because their defense ranks 16th in points allowed.

That unit can’t stop the run, doesn’t create enough turnovers and can’t get off the field on too many important third downs.

Against Buffalo on Sunday night, the defense gave up five consecutive scores. The Bills’ offense was on the field for just two third downs during that sequence.

“There’s times we play good football and times we let it get away from us,” Clark said after the Buffalo game. “Whatever it is, we’ve got to correct it. We’ve got to figure that out. I don’t really have an answer for it.”

Something’s got to change. It won’t be the coordinator, though.

“Absolutely not,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday when asked whether he had contemplated firing second-year defensive coordinator Joe Barry.

There are no excuses for the disappointing play. Alexander essentially missed two games early in the season and Campbell was sidelined for the second half against Buffalo with a knee injury that might keep him out for the Detroit game. Otherwise, they’ve been healthy.

They almost lost to one backup quarterback (New England’s Bailey Zappe) and did lose to another (Washington’s Taylor Heinicke).

Frustration is building. A source told ESPN.com (www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34920325/lafleur-no-plans-shake-packers-defe...) that there is “a declining confidence” in Barry’s scheme. LaFleur downplayed any differences in opinion between what’s called by Barry and what has to be executed by the players.

“Well, first of all, it’s impossible to please everybody,” LaFleur said. “Everybody has their own opinions, their own ideas. You have to get the staff on the same page, first and foremost, in making sure that everybody is confident in the plan, and then you teach it to the players. I think we’d be foolish not to listen to our players at certain times. Ultimately, we have to make the best decision for our football team in terms of how do you go about winning the game? You know, there were some great moments and then there were some not-so-great moments.”

The Packers need more of those great moments. Fast. On Sunday, a three-game road trip concludes at Detroit, which is ninth in scoring. Then, it’s a home game against Mike McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys, who are 6-2 and just scored 49 against Chicago.

Then, it’s home against the Tennessee Titans, who are 5-2 behind star running back Derrick Henry, and at the Philadelphia Eagles, who are 7-0 and third in scoring.

The defense has had an annoying habit of playing one good half and one bad half. The good half against Buffalo could be a building block, Douglas said, though that seems more like grasping at straws than anything.

“You can’t come out here and spot a team 21 points and expect to come back,” Douglas said. “What was it at halftime? 24-7? And the final score was 27-17. You can’t spot a good team that many points. I think we played good in the second half. They just made more plays.”

Offensive woes

It’s not all the fault of the defense, obviously. After ranking first in scoring in 2020 and 10th in 2021 en route to earning No. 1 seeds in the NFC playoffs, the Packers are 26th. They’ve averaged merely 17.5 points during their losing streak.

“We’re hurting ourselves,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “We had a touchdown to Bobby (Robert Tonyan) called back on a penalty. We had other opportunities to get points — fourth down, I had Jo(siah Deguara) for a big gainer down the left side but couldn’t get the ball off.

“We’ve got to help our defense out a little better early in the game. When we went on a run back in ‘16, we started those games faster so we could play more one-dimensionally on defense. We just haven’t done that. We haven’t put up any points early in games to get our defense to have a chance to pin their ears back and get after the passer.”

The Packers did run the ball extremely well against the Bills. The question as the team advances into the second half of the season is whether than running game is a building block. While the Packers frequently lined up with two tight ends to run the football, the Bills didn’t play a single snap of their base 4-3 defense.

Essentially, they let Green Bay run the ball, confident in their belief they’d eventually get a stop or the Packers would shoot themselves in the foot.

“We know we have everything in the locker room,” Jones said after running for 143 of the team’s 208 yards. “We just haven’t put it together. We have to be a more disciplined football team. We have to play off each other. I think that’s one of the big things. Just execution across the board, I think. There’s going to be mistakes here and there. Now, we’re causing a mishap on the play or something like that. We got all the talent in this locker room that we need. We’ve just got to put it together now.”

Change at linebacker

Assuming Campbell doesn’t play, second-year player Isaiah McDuffie will make his first NFL start against Detroit. The Buffalo native played the final 40 snaps against the Bills and recorded four tackles.

“I thought Isaiah did a nice job,” LaFleur said. “There was the one play where Josh (Allen) was able to get out of the sack. I think we were a little late getting the call in, our guys weren’t quite ready on the snap of the ball and he has a free runner, but I thought all in all he handled himself well.

“He played with great effort — he always does. He always plays with great urgency, great effort, you can feel him, he’s physical on the football field, not only on defense but on (special) teams, as well.”

Receiver Christian Watson, who had missed the previous two games with a hamstring injury, suffered a concussion on his lone catch against the Bills. Fortunately, there are no other issues. At left guard, Elgton Jenkins was inactive with a foot injury sustained at Thursday’s practice.

“Just one of those deals where he got stepped on and we thought he was going to be all right, I think he thought he was going to be all right, and on Sunday morning didn’t feel great,” LaFleur said. “Took him out in pregame, worked him out and it was one of those deals where he was having pain in his certain area and didn’t feel like it was worth the risk.”