The Packers came from behind on Sunday to win 27-23 over the Cardinals, a game which they did not lead until late in the 4th quarter and the defense was both a burden at times and a savior at others.
The
positive: the defense recorded six sacks and pressured quarterback Jacoby Brissett on 19 of his 46 dropbacks per Pro Football Focus, with one sack resulting in a fumble and recovery by the defense. They would have had seven sacks but a hip drop penalty negated a Micah Parsons sack, which would have given him four in the game instead of three.
On the first sack of the game, Parsons won off the right edge but the sack was also created by good coverage on the back end of the defense to force Jacoby Brissett into holding the ball too long with nowhere to throw.
The Cardinals offense aligns in a 3×1 formation with the running back offset to the left of Brissett. They’re running two end zone routes with return routes underneath. The defense is in red zone quarters post-snap and matches the route concept so that there is tight leverage over the top of the routes.
As Brissett drops back surveying the field, he hits the top of his drop and where he’s looking for Marvin Harrison Jr on the double move quick post into the end zone. Against the Packers quarters coverage, there’s nothing to threaten the safety so there’s no window to throw into.
He could have pulled the trigger underneath and set up maybe a 4th and inches situation. Parsons ended up into the backfield before Brissett could reset to look for a throw.
Later in the second quarter, Quay Walker got penetration up the middle when the defensive front was able to get the offensive line to slide away from his blitz. This put him 1-on-1 with the running back in protection.
The defense shows potential blitz front with the linebacker walked up and the rest of the coverage showing press man. The coverage rotation is to Tampa-2 with Edgerrin Cooper zone dropping to the intermediate middle from the line of scrimmage and the corner bailing to the deep half.
With the defensive alignment showing blitz plus two defensive linemen to the offense’s right side, the strength of the protection slides to the right. This leaves Walker 1-on-1 with the running back because the center worked to his right.
Walker blasts through the block of Bam Knight and drives him into Brissett before reaching and grabbing him down to the turf.
Later in the third quarter, Rashan Gary had a strip sack and fumble that was 100% the quarterback’s fault because he should have thrown the ball at the top of his drop.
The Cardinals are running a stick/spacing concept out of a double tight end YY formation with the tight ends running the stick/flat concept and the receivers to the left running spacing. The Packers defense is playing cover-3 vision and reading the quarterback’s dropback and eyes and not gaining too much depth.
Brisset takes a 3-step drop from under center looking for the stick/flat concept. He has the flat route, the first read in the progression, open for a catch but doesn’t pull the trigger. A 3-step drop from under doesn’t allow him much depth in the pocket so that ball has to come out on time. It doesn’t and suddenly Brissett has pressure in his face.
His center gave up a pressure to Colby Wooden who beat him with a nice swim move to get a free run on the quarterback. Brissett sees the pressure and tries to escape to his left but Gary peeled off his rush and chased him from behind, knocking the ball out of his hand causing a fumble with a recovery by Evan Williams.
Quay Walker was in on another sack but this time he’d split it with Kingsley Enagbare. It was on a well-timed 6-man pressure from Hafley that sent both Walker and Cooper on a blitz up the middle.
The Cardinals slid their pass protection to the left, had chip help on the edges, and had running back Michael Carter pick up the blitz from Walker, who nearly had a free run at Brissett. They had up to eight blockers for six defenders and still managed to let Brissett get sacked. There was just nowhere for him to go with the ball.
Walker showed some great block destruction by knocking Carter back and driving through him, and fighting off contact to latch on to Brissett. Enagbare off the edge ensured the quarterback wouldn’t get away.
But perhaps the sack with the biggest impact came a couple of minutes before the halfway mark of the 4th quarter when Parsons collected second sack of the game on a quick pressure win against the right tackle. A quick pressure is defined as a pass rush where the defender gets pressure under 2.5 seconds after the snap.
With the defense playing red zone quarters again on the back end and casting an umbrella over the route concepts and defending the goal line, Brissett had no easy options for a quick throw.
Parsons two-hand swipe pass rush move easily discards the right tackle and gets him free into the backfield where Brissett is sacked for an 11-yard loss and the Cardinals settling for a field goal.
Parsons recorded a third sack in the game on the final drive with just over 30 seconds remaining. It was another quick pressure on the right side of the offensive line.
Final thoughts
Unfortunately, as we’ll see in the next article, some of these sacks were negated by explosive plays from the Cardinals passing offense later in the drive. The Packers have struggled in recent weeks with explosive pass plays going back to the Cowboys game. It is an issue that should be a bit concerning going forward.
