On Friday I published a piece that I thought represented a large portion of the Packers fans feelings. It was entitled, Joe Barry Should Absolutely Be On The Hot Seat. What I got back was some pretty strong push back.
“Relax we are only four games into the season. They’ll figure it out.”
“There’s too many good players and they were too good last year, no need to overreact.”
“Quit being so dramatic. Let the coaches coach.”
Well, on Sunday in London, the coaches coached.
Once again the Packers we’re so inept at adapting on defense that it is making me look past how bad I thought Matt Lafluer was.
This is week five and the defense has stil yet to show any ability to make in game adjustments against what should be inferior opponents. The Giants didn’t have essentially their top five receivers and Saquon was out for a small portion of the game.
I don’t want to hear about the wide receivers anymore.
Barry should’ve been on the hot seat before this game and right now he should be sitting on a campfire as far as I’m concerned.
Booger McFarland said it best on ESPN with Chris Berman when he called out Barry’s underwhelming performance given what he has available to work with.
For a team to spend 8 first or second round picks on your starting 11, 6 of those are first-rounders, that defense is underperforming. Joe Barry, the defensive coordinator, has to get that defense to play better because they have a lot of draft capital invested in that defense. We expected that offense to be slow…it’s going to take a minute but you expected that defense to be dominant and it hasn’t been.
It’s not the sexiest call out of all time. It might not go viral, but it’s important and it hits on what all Packers fans are feeling. You have been given the players and you have the expectations. As frustrating as the offense can be, they have not been given the weapons. I can’t be the only person who saw that insane Aaron Rodgers stat on Sunday.
It’s incredible to think about his weapons over his career. Joe Berry and that side of the ball have been given weapons and the expectation is that they’d be dominant this is absolutely perfect call out
And just to be clear I don’t think I will get any pushback this time. Packer fans seem to be squarely behind the concern.
By late afternoon on Sunday Packers Twitter essentially read as a Joe Barry roast.
I know it sounds insane especially, given there was no love lost between Lafluer and Zimmer, but I actually like that last idea. Rodgers has a huge amount of respect for him and despite being a pretty bad head coach, Mike Zimmer is one of the best defensive mines of the last 30 years.
There’s not much we can do right now, but as far as I’m concerned Joe Barry should have a shorter leash than any coordinator in the league given we are in the middle of a championship window and he can’t pull it together. There’s not a defensive coach in the league who wouldn’t love to be in charge of this unit. It’s put up or shut up time for Barry.
