Ever want to know what an opposing coach thinks of the Green Bay Packers and their scheme? Well, you’re in luck, because Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell went into some detail about why his team struggled against the Packers in Week 1.
Defensively, here’s what he said about Green Bay after the game:
They play deep coverage. They play a lot of Cover 2. They’ll play some 3 buzz. They keep everything in front of them. That’s how that defense is designed. So we knew that, and the plan was to stay
patient. Be patient, which I thought [quarterback Jared] Goff was. We took what was there and felt like eventually those shots would show. Just couldn’t quite get to them. By the time you get a chance, or you hope you do, you’re down two scores.
Funny enough, the Packers’ biggest play of the game was probably a 3 buzz call, the play where Evan Williams picked off Goff in the red zone. Initially, it looks like Williams is going to play the middle of the field, but he rolls down into the hook at the snap and is able to pick off the ball with an assist from Micah Parsons’ pressure.
And here’s what Campbell said gave them issues with the Packers offense:
We did some things where we sent inside interior pressure, and I know that there’s a few times that I thought they did a good job of bottling it up. You can hit some of that stuff head-on, especially your halfback, or go up and take on the backer. You know, you can get bottlenecked in there, and that happened a few times. So we got out of it and then just tried to do some straight rush. They nudged the edges. They made sure they got [defensive end Aidan Hutchinson].
It wasn’t deep shots or the running game that made the Lions adjust their game plan. It was Green Bay’s running backs’ ability to pick up blitzes that threw them for a loop. Josh Jacobs is a true-blue every-down back, but it’s worth noting that Chris Brooks, a blocking back, received the second-most snaps in the backfield this week, not ball-carrier Emanuel Wilson.
Campbell also stated that Matt LaFleur’s Packers had a good game plan through the air, coming out with “early answers” to their coverages. He said by the time the Lions adjusted to Green Bay’s “answers,” they were already down multiple possessions.
