Packers’ offense vs. Panthers’ defense
Carolina’s defense has kept them competitive throughout the season, and they have some star power to give them some teeth on that side of the ball.
Brian Burns is one of the league’s best pass rushers and has continued to wreak havoc on opposing quarterbacks this season. He has six sacks and one forced fumble on the season.
Jaycee Horn is working his way back from injured reserve and has a world of potential at cornerback.
The unit is led by Ejiro Evero. Evero, of course, was the runner-up in the Packers’ 2021 search for a defensive coordinator.
After Jim Leonhard turned the Packers down, LaFleur was left with two choices, Evero, and Joe Barry.
LaFleur chose Barry, and Barry has yet to outperform Evero, in either Denver or Carolina. That is a blunder that could keep LaFleur up at night as the team went from Super Bowl contender, to fringe playoff team.
The Packers’ offense continues to play well. The offense scored 20 points against a tough Tampa Bay defense but was a mistake or two away from putting up more points. Jordan Love missed an open Jayden Reed on the opening possession that caused them to come away empty as opposed to having an opening drive touchdown.
They were 2-for-5 in the red zone after struggling against the Giants as well.
The red zone issues need to get cleaned up. If they do, the Packers could light up the scoreboard, as they’ve continued to move the ball well between the 20s.
Jordan Love bounced back from a below average game against the Giants, with a strong showing against Tampa Bay. Love threw for 284 yards and two touchdown passes against a Bucs defense led by the well-respected Todd Bowles.
Dontayvion Wicks shook off an ankle injury to catch six passes for 97 yards. The Packers were uncertain as to whether Wicks was going to be able to play after his ankle injury last Monday night.
Jayden Reed caught six more passes and is becoming a focal point of the offense.
Ditto for Tucker Kraft, who made a nice 40-yard catch on a wheel route last week against Tampa Bay.
The team clearly misses Christian Watson and his deep speed. It’s unclear if he will be able to play this week. He was listed as doubtful for Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay. If he can play, however, that should open up more things underneath for the other receivers similar to the way it did against Detroit and Kansas City.
The run game is still struggling, and that may be the case all season. AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones have rarely been on the field at the same time this year as Jones has battled injuries all year.
Once Jones finally returned, Dillon missed Sunday’s game with a broken thumb. His status for the rest of the month is unclear, but ball security is difficult without a working thumb.
The third running back spot has been a bit of a revolving door, and there weren’t many opportunities for the other running backs last week.
Jones carried the ball 13 times Sunday. The other two backs combined for two carries for six yards. Considering the way LaFleur likes to rotate his running backs, that was an odd development. Maybe it was just a byproduct of trailing by two scores for a majority of the second half.
We’ll see if LaFleur wants to give Jones more of a workload, or if he pulls the reigns back a bit as Kenyan Drake and Patrick Taylor should be more comfortable in the offense.
Packers’ defense vs. Panthers’ offense
Carolina’s offense has struggled mightily this season. Bryce Young has clearly not developed at the same rate as his draft classmate, CJ Stroud.
Young has not been surrounded by a strong supporting cast. His best receiver on the season is former Minnesota Viking Adam Thielen. Thielen has had a strong season, but he should not be the best receiver on any team that has any sort of aspirations of developing a young quarterback.
As a result, Young has struggled. In fact, at the completion of Sunday’s game against Atlanta, Young has not thrown a touchdown pass in a month. His last scoring throw was Nov. 19 against Dallas.
He has nine touchdowns and nine interceptions on the season. If the Panthers had not traded their first-round pick to acquire him, they would likely be in the quarterback market. As it is, they’ll look to continue to build around him this offseason.
Perhaps some good news is on the way for Young. The Packers’ defense allowed Tommy DeVito to earn NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors, and likely will play a large part in Baker Mayfield receiving that honor as well.
Mayfield finished Sunday’s game with more than 350 passing yards and a perfect passer rating to go along with four touchdown passes.
The Bucs could have traveled through the air or on the ground to do whatever they wanted.
Despite the poor performance, Matt LaFleur made it clear that he is not thinking about an in season change at defensive coordinator.
With that being the case, it will be more of the same blueprint for Joe Barry in this defense.
They followed some of that blueprint last week against Tampa Bay. They sacked Baker Mayfield five times, only to see Mayfield convert on third-and-long scenarios through the air later in the drive.
Lukas Van Ness has two sacks in three weeks. Rashan Gary and Kenny Clark continued what has been a strong December in rushing the passer.
The secondary got a boost last week with Eric Stokes returning as a full-time starter to the defensive backfield after being activated from injured reserve.
It was Stokes’ first action on defense since a gruesome leg injury knocked him out for the remainder of the 2022 season and all of training camp this year.
Stokes will have his ups and downs. Carrington Valentine has continued to have his ups and downs as well.
This team was shredded on Sunday by Chris Godwin, who had more than 100 yards receiving in the first half. He finished the day with more than 150. They gave up three touchdown passes of more than 20 yards, including a 52-yarder to seal a win for Tampa Bay.
The run defense only allowed 102 yards to Tampa Bay’s running backs, but both backs averaged more than four yards per carry. Tampa Bay was ranked 29th in the NFL in rush yards per game coming into Sunday’s game.
Green Bay’s defense, as has been the case for years, is simply not good enough. They peacocked a little about a solid points-per-game track record earlier in the season, but the underlying metrics that suggested a regression was coming have hit at the worst possible time.
Special teams
The ups and downs of a young kicker is showing for this team. After making all of his kicks against Kansas City, Anders Carlson missed a crucial field goal against the Giants in a game the Packers lost by two.
Against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he made all of his kicks.
The December temperatures that typically occupy Green Bay have not shown up. The Packers’ most recent game against Tampa Bay had a kickoff temperature over 40 degrees in the middle of December.
Because of that, Keisean Nixon has mostly been put on ice for the season. The Packers have clearly coached him to be more cautious on kicks he takes out of the end zone.
The Packers’ special teams as a whole are ranked toward the bottom of the league in almost any metric and are the most penalized team in that unit. For a team that promoted their special teams coordinator in the offseason, Rich Bisaccia’s unit has been the biggest disappointment on the team.
Carolina’s special teams has been in flux this season with Chris Tabor getting promoted to interim head coach. He is unlikely to keep that title beyond this season. They finished fourth in Rick Gosselin’s special teams rankings from a season ago. Their kicker is former Chicago Bear Eddy Pineiro.
Former Packers’ draft favorite Ihmir Smith-Marsette is the Panthers’ punt returner, and he does have a return for a touchdown this season.
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