The Green Bay Packers’ defense struggled in the second half of the Week 6 game versus the Cincinnati Bengals, surrendering three scoring drives and 18 points, closing the gap to 24-18 before a field goal drive by the offense. In recent games against Dallas and now Cincinnati, the defense has given up scores on seven of nine offensive drives by the opposing team.
Is there a chink in the armor, or are we seeing a natural side effect of opposing offenses adjusting to limiting Micah Parsons’s impact?
Perhaps. The evidence is limited at best, but against the Bengals, newly acquired quarterback Joe Flacco (whom they faced in Week 3 in Cleveland), had an average depth of throw in the first half of 7.2 air yards per attempt to just 5.3 in the second half per Sports Info Solutions. His time to throw in the first half was 2.88, and the time to pressure was 2.5 per Fantasy Points advanced data tracking. His time to throw in the second half was 2.12.
In the first half, Flacco was under pressure on 50% of his drop-backs. In the second half, that number fell to 23%, pointing not necessarily to a scheme issue but rather quicker-developing plays that allowed the Bengals to move the ball and limit the impact from a shoddy offensive line on the pass protection.
While Flacco only attempted one pass in the first quarter, in the second quarter, the Bengals’ passing game relied more on heavy play action and long developing pass concepts, with a chunk of plays coming on 1st and 10 and in 3rd and long situations.
Primarily due to play selection, the Packers defense was stingy and did not let Flacco and the Bengals offense get hardly any easy completions.
On their play action passes, the Bengals couldn’t find any easy yards with a throwaway on a play action screen that the Packers defense read well, and the other was a deep miss to Ja’Marr Chase down the sideline when Chase slipped. To be fair to the defense on that one, the corner stayed in phase with Chase and would have undercut what looked to be a deep out.
On other passes, the defense was able to affect the throw and get pressure on Flacco.
Flacco hurried and misfired several throws due to pressure. For the majority of snaps in the second quarter, Flacco looked uncomfortable and out of sync with his new teammates.
In the second half, the Packers’ defense was unable to disrupt the timing of the Bengals’ passing offense. Flacco hit the top of his short dropbacks, and the ball was out to Chase and Tee Higgins on multiple passes for conversions and a couple of touchdowns.
To disrupt the timing, the defense blitzed six but couldn’t affect the throw. Flacco got the ball out to Tee Higgins on a quick slant from the slot versus man coverage.
Later on the same drive, Flacco found Higgins again on a quick 3-step shotgun dropback running a dig route against the Packers’ red zone quarters.
Again, there’s nothing here to disrupt the timing of the throw. Flacco hits the top of his drop and fires the pass. It’s not a huge deal, but relying on the pass rush to get home on quick passes needs to be reevaluated.
Later on the next drive, Flacco found Chase on a back shoulder fade route with Keisean Nixon in coverage.
Nixon gets hands on to disrupt Chase, but it’s useless. As soon as Flacco hit one step, the ball was gone and on Chase’s back shoulder before Nixon could turn to look for it. The coverage appears to rotate to a single high coverage shell with Xavier McKinney opening to the deep middle before turning to the throw.
It’s not clear if Hafley felt some kind of two-deep/bracket coverage wouldn’t be as necessary, or if they planned to rely on the front four to get home with pressure but it didn’t work.
On Chase’s touchdown catch, Hafley called a cover-1 5-man pressure, but the rush still couldn’t get on the Bengals’ makeshift offensive line.
Nixon was in coverage again, singled up on Chase. Flacco threw the pass behind Chase again. Nixon stayed in phase and got his head around, but Chase out-maneuvered him at the catch point as the ball arrived. The safety could not get there in time.
Final thoughts
It’s hindsight to suggest it, but it seems like there should have been some form of bracket coverage in the game plan on Chase. At the very least, a bracket coverage would allow the corner to stay underneath with safety help over the top and compress the throwing window.
The good thing, I think, is that the issues are primarily scheme-related, not talent-related, and going against quarterbacks who get rid of the ball quickly in an attempt to mitigate the impact from the Packers’ pass rush. We should start to see Hafley adjust week to week with new presentations and coverage rotations.
