Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images
How the Packers’ defense started looking creative and dangerous under Jeff Hafley.
The Packers’ defense gave a statement performance in their Week 7 win over the Houston Texans. Coming into the week, Green Bay had been up and down on that side of the ball, sometimes looking great and sometimes looking like the unit that struggled last year. However, what they did to QB CJ Stroud and the Texans has to be broken down, because they poked holes in all of Houston’s protection plans en route to a 24-22 victory.
The Packers held Stroud to 81 yards passing, a -0.14 EPA/play and sacked Stroud four times. How they went about it was really cool to see, and answered a lot of questions I had for first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
Houston does a lot of full slide protections. What does that mean? Well, that means whichever side the Texans call their protection to, the entire offensive line slides that way. You end up with one guy being unblocked intentionally, but what Houston does is chip block him with the tight end to buy Stroud time to evade the pressure. Green Bay knew this, and strained their rules for the entire game.
This one was a mixture of the Texans getting gamed up and just a failure on Houston’s part to sort through this pressure. Green Bay is in a five man front, but have three immediate rushing threats to the right side of the offensive line, our left on the screen. Houston slides everyone to that side, but what Green Bay does is they end up looping EDGE Rashan Gary around to the middle of the pocket. On the other side, LB Eric Wilson attracts the eyes of LT Laremy Tunsil, keeping him unaware of EDGE Kingsley Enagbare, who beats the chip and has a beeline towards the QB. Stroud beats Enagbare, but Gary looping around creates too much pressure and Stroud dirts the ball.
This sack by Packers S Xavier McKinney (who has played at a really high level this season) was another example of gaming up the Texans’ full slide protections. Green Bay begins with seven immediate threats lined up at the line of scrimmage. Houston goes to full slide to the right, with TE Dalton Schultz staying in the protection to block the former unblocked guy off the edge. At the snap, the Packers end up dropping EDGE Preston Smith and both linebackers to the left of your screen. On the right side, Gary loops again, but watch what it does to Schultz. His eyes are so locked in on Gary, while Tunsil and LG Kenyon Green are adjusting to Kenny Clark, that nobody picks up McKinney flying in off the edge. An easy sack, unblocked pressure. The Packers did this to the tune of a 44.8% pressure rate on Sunday, by FAR their highest of the season.
The Texans tried to adjust, going to half slide protections. This means that instead of the entire line sliding to the right or left, only half the line will slide, and the other half will protect the man in front of them. Green Bay poked at this by using a series of picks to free up their defenders. This is a nice one by Eric Wilson, who is on the side the Texans end up sliding to. He collides with Green, forcing the Texans’ center to take on Kenny Clark. Green can’t recover, and Wilson is credited with his hard work with a sack.
Wilson again gets credited with a sack, but this time he’s on the receiving end of a pick between two linebackers. Mugged fronts (2 LBs walked up in both A-gaps) are all the rage when it comes to building pressure packages, and the Packers dialed it up to confuse Houston again. If you noticed in the above clip, the RB for Houston steps up in the pocket against these mugged fronts to block whoever the center doesn’t end up blocking when they slide. What Green Bay does is use LB Edgerrin Cooper to collide with the center, which frees up Wilson. The back has eyes on Cooper, and doesn’t readjust quickly enough to give any resistance.
This was happening all day for Green Bay, finding their weakness and attacking it.
This one was from the beginning of the game, but I thought it was pretty awesome, and shows how Green Bay was just poking and prodding at Houston all game. Green Bay comes out in a five man front, but LB Quay Walker is on the edge. Houston sees this, and points out Walker for the back. Houston is going to try and half slide to their right, with the RB coming across and blocking the LB if he comes.
Well, the LB never comes. Walker drops into coverage, and the five man front turns into four. What really sets this off is the movement of Rashan Gary. Pre-snap, he’s lined up on the left side, which is what prompted the pointing to the left side (you can see the RB look to his left before going into the route). However, he moves off the ball right before the snap, throwing a wrench in all the plans. Cooper runs at the center, but specifically runs to his right, into the slide. After the center declares, Gary has a free run at Stroud and it results in an incompletion. Just impeccable work.
Green Bay takes on a revived Jacksonville Jaguars team on Sunday, but a team that has struggled with different blitz looks this year. If the Green Bay defensive line can continue to play like this and Hafley can coach it up this way, the Packers become even more dangerous than they were before.
