The Green Bay Packers run defense was gashed again in Pittsburgh on Sunday, and missed tackles — among other issues — were at the root of the problem.
“Defensively,” said coach Matt LaFleur when discussing what went wrong against the Steelers, “stopping the run, we had way too many missed tackles.”
As a team, the Steelers rushed for 205 rushing yards. They became the third team this season to rush for over 200 rushing yards against Green Bay. Najee Harris averaged 5.1 yards per carry and Jaylen Warren 6.7. Keep in mind, this has not been a dynamic rushing offense this season. Pittsburgh entered Week 10 averaging just 3.7 yards per carry.
Even when the Packers were positioned well to have the opportunity to make a play on the ball carrier, missed tackles were too often a part of the equation. According to PFF, Green Bay missed 16 tackles, a new season high. The Packers tackling had been improved in recent weeks, with just nine missed tackles over the last two games. Not coincidentally, they were also holding up much better against the run as well, allowing just 2.3 yards per rush in their last two games.
“A lot of missed tackles,” added LaFleur. “We knew they were going to try to run the football and they did it better than we did. They went out there and executed better than we did.”
Pittsburgh’s ability to move the ball on the ground was a key contributor behind their scoring drives and allowed them to control the clock for stretches of this game. Whether it was due to a rare stop in the run game by Green Bay, a penalty on the Steelers, or Pittsburgh deciding to pass the ball on early downs, where the Packers defense did find success was when the offense was behind the sticks and the onus to move the ball was on Kenny Pickett and the passing game.
On the flip side, when an offense can live in short down-and-distance situations, the defense is forced to play on its heels, having to worry about defending both the run and the pass.
In addition to the missed tackles, this Green Bay defensive front was blown off the ball by the Pittsburgh offensive line. The Packers allowed on average 3.6 yards per rush before contact in Sunday’s game. Add in the missed tackles and you can see why the Steelers found so much success on the ground.
In part, the play of those on the field simply wasn’t good enough even when the right play call was dialed up, but there were also a number of instances where Joe Barry didn’t do his defense any favors either, by playing with light fronts against a team that as LaFleur mentioned, Green Bay knew wanted to run the ball. A compounding effect from the issues up front was that other defenders were out of position with the Packers linebackers were left on an island, at times, and the safeties were tasked with having to take on offensive linemen in the run game, rather than being kept clean to make plays.
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“We had a lot of calls designed to stop the run and they were still gashing us,” said LaFleur. “It certainly wasn’t good enough. Any time, I want to say it was 5.5 yards per carry, roughly. You can’t give up almost 200 yards rushing in this league and expect to win football games.”
After early season struggles to stop the run, it looked like over the last few games that this unit was at least heading in the right direction. However, as has been the case throughout the years, that proved to be a fluke with the Packers dominated on the ground once again.