You name it, and it probably went wrong for the Green Bay Packers pass defense against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At the root of it all, according to Matt LaFleur on Monday, was a lack of communication.
“When you’re having basic communication problems,” said LaFleur, “and you’re supposed to be in a certain coverage, or certain rotation and we’re not getting that communication, that’s what’s disappointing to me.
“The fact that it was poor communication. And it always starts with us. It starts with myself and it goes to all of our assistant coaches. So obviously, the coaching wasn’t up to the standard and our performance on the field showed that as well.”
The lack of communication from the linebackers and back-end of the Green Bay defense resulted in several broken plays with defenders out of position. In general, there were a lot of pitch-and-catch opportunities for Baker Mayfield and his receivers as they consistently found the soft spots in the Packers’ heavy zone defense.
The end result was Baker Mayfield completing 22-of-28 passes for 381 yards and four touchdowns. LaFleur said on Monday that he counted 14 explosive plays surrendered by his defense and on eight possessions, the Bucs scored on six of them, including three touchdowns in the second half.
“It happened by people not talking and setting the front a certain way,” said LaFleur. “Or making sure the safety rotation is the right way. So you’re backers aren’t glossed over one way and you’re rolling that way. There was way too many examples of that. As dumbfounded as you are right now, that’s how I felt watching it.”
When things go this poorly, especially in a de facto playoff game for the Packers, everyone is to blame, including the players. However, if multiple players throughout a game don’t know what to communicate or where to line up, that ultimately falls on coaching—defensive coordinator Joe Barry, specifically, for not having his group prepared in Week 15.
These issues aren’t new to Green Bay. They just so happened to rear their ugly head over and over again in a crucial game. Keisean Nixon said after the game, “they knew what we were in,” referencing that the Bucs’ offense knew what was coming. This shows a predictability and lack of creativity of the Packers defense, along with a lack of adjustments being made.
When an opponent finds instant success on the first few drives of the game, you can blame the gameplan. When they find success in the third quarter, it can often be chalked up to a lack of adjustments. When individual players aren’t progressing throughout the course of the season or are making mistakes that should have been cleaned up in training camp, it’s a lack of development. All of that happened on Sunday and all of it falls on coaching.
However, with all of that said, at least for the time being, there won’t be any changes to the Green Bay coaching staff.
“Yeah, that is the plan,” said LaFleur when asked if he would keep Barry as defensive coordinator for the remainder of the season. “If I thought that was the best solution today, then we would make that decision.”
Perhaps with the Packers playoff hopes still alive, LaFleur doesn’t want to shake things up with a drastic change—although the 10-3 Philadelphia Eagles just made a change of their own at defensive coordinator over the weekend. Or perhaps LaFleur is sticking with Barry because there is no clear cut replacement for him on the current coaching staff.
We will likely never truly know the answer to that question. But when LaFleur was asked why now wasn’t the time for a change given how Sunday unfolded, well, it’s because this defense has previously been able to execute on all the things that went wrong against the Bucs.
“I’ve seen us execute this stuff before,” LaFleur said. “It’s unfortunate that it happened this time of the year in such an important game. But I’ve seen us execute it in previous games.
“Now, certainly are there some calls, I’d be the first to admit, there’s a couple play calls I’d like to have back in that game. I know there’s some Joe would like to have back, in particular. Some of those third and three to four yard plays where we are playing soft zone and they can easily get a free completion. Just like there were a couple of calls I’d like to have back in the red zone. But hopefully we can learn from that and not make the same mistake twice.”
To add more accountability and to make sure that everyone is on the same page, LaFleur said that throughout the week he will take on a larger role with the defense, making sure the coaching staff is aligned and the communication responsibilities among the players are clear.
Understandably so, Barry has and will continue to take the brunt of the heat as the defensive play-caller. However, at the end of the day, LaFleur is the head coach and the one in charge. He decided to bring Barry back for a third season. He signs off on the game plan each week. And as the Bucs were shredding the Packers throughout the game, he didn’t step in and force Barry to make changes.
Already the offensive play-caller, is having to be fully engaged on the defensive side of the ball a lot on LaFleur’s plate on game day? Absolutely. But it’s his team and it’s the position that he and the Packers find themselves in. The status quo isn’t working and if Barry is going to remain the defensive coordinator for the final three games, as LaFleur said on Sunday, he needs to find solutions. But I’m not sure that they exist as things are at the moment.
“I’ve got to be more present with those guys and making sure we are all on the same page,” LaFleur said on Monday. “Football is, if you don’t have all 11 on the same page, obviously it starts with our staff. Making sure all our coaches are in lock step, but if you don’t have all 11 on the same page, it takes one guy and then everything goes to crap after that and you get exposed. And unfortunately, we got exposed in a really bad way.”
Barry was LaFleur’s hire. Barry was brought to Green Bay to run a specific style of defense that LaFleur wanted. The two are already very much connected, but the longer this relationship goes on, especially if this unit continues to struggle over the final few weeks, the more this situation reflects negatively on LaFleur.