Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has seen the flashes. He knows his group can get it done. There’s evidence of high-level play from the Packers defense throughout the first 11 games.
A frustrating lack of consistency has been the problem. For every third-down sack, there’s a 50-yard completion. For every three-and-out, there’s a 12-play scoring drive. The quality of play ebbs and flows.
Unevenness has been the defining feature of the Packers defense in 2019.
“It’s been frustrating,” Pettine said Friday. “Every game we play well for stretches and we can be dominant for stretches. You look at the first 20 plays against San Francisco. I think a lot of it is a consistency thing. It’s something we’ve battled in the room. We have to be able to focus on our jobs.”
The Packers talk all the time about all 11 players on the field doing their respective job. All it takes is one failure out of 11 for an otherwise good play for the defense to turn into a big play for the offense. Often times, communication has been to blame.
“Unfortunately for us, we’ve had too many (self-inflicted mistakes) and we’ve had them at some inopportune times. It’s a thing we talk about each week. Our guys know, for us to get where we want to go, we’ve got to become way more consistent,” Pettine said.
Despite a strong three-game start to open the season, when Pettine’s group looked like a potential top-10 defense, the Packers have faded back to the middle of the pack in the NFL over the last two months. Green Bay ranks 14th in points allowed, 28th in total yards allowed, 30th in yards allowed per play, 27th in passing yards per attempt and 27th in rushing yards per attempt.
By DVOA, the Packers are 22nd overall, 19th against the pass and 28th against the run.
Down-to-down struggles defending the run, covering the middle of the field and preventing explosive plays have plagued the defense all season.
“We’re all frustrated together. These are competitive guys. They’re professionals, they want to win, they want to get it done,” Pettine said. “We have to break through that, get over that hump of having those handful of plays that are lapses and we end up giving up explosives.”
Pettine said the Packers have to better at focusing on every single play and avoiding the communication problems that continue to come up during games.
The next three games should provide a chance for Pettine’s group to get back on even ground, correct the obvious mistakes and get hot for a playoff run. The Packers will face rookie quarterback Daniel Jones on Sunday in New York, rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins next Sunday at home and struggling Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky in Week 15.
Now is the time to get right, because the Packers have a pivotal game in Minnesota against the highly efficient Vikings offense on Dec. 23, and no team can win in the postseason without a high level of consistency on defense.