You can say one thing about the Green Bay Packers: When they play terribly, it’s a total team collaboration.
The loss to the New York Giants was a failure on all three levels. But as I sit here writing this on the morning after, the consistent fiasco that is Rich Bisaccia’s special teams units has me most aggravated.
Yes, Jordan Love looked nothing like the confident leader we’ve seen the last three weeks. Without its two most explosive playmakers, the offense looked feeble and timid. Matt LaFleur’s play-calling was terrible. That two-point conversion call was nauseating. I kept seeing Jayden Reed taking handoffs on a loop in my head as I tried to go to sleep after the game. I mean, a defense will figure out how to take that away after they’ve seen it six or seven times.
Joe Barry had no answer for Tommy DeVito’s legs, allowing the Cutlet King to do his best Josh Allen impersonation all night, to the tune of 71 yards on ten carries. And his guys couldn’t sack him even once, even though he was being planted at the highest rate, 16%, of any QB in the league. And then there’s the run defense: Once again, a team with a strong running attack and very little else to fear galloped for over 200 yards on the ground against Barry’s perplexed unit.
But it’s the constant mistakes and terrible performance on special teams that stood out to me. Keisean Nixon flipped the game’s momentum when he coughed up the ball on a punt return. You’d think your All-Pro returner would understand that when he muffs a punt, he should just fall on it and not try to be a hero. Nope.
The rookie kickers had a bad night. Anders Carlson missed a field goal and nearly cost the Pack terrible field position if not for the returner allowing the ball to graze his leg. Daniel Whelan shanked a punt at the worst possible time.
And is it just me, or are there penalties on the Pack on virtually every punt? Rudy Ford got hit with a personal foul to add insult to injury on Whelan’s lousy punt. Anthony Johnson’s blind side block tacked on another 15 yards after a punt. If you took a shot every time the Pack gets flagged on special teams, you’d be blackout drunk by halftime.
Yes, it’s a young team bound to go through its ups and downs, and getting guys like Jaire Alexander, Quay Walker, Aaron Jones, and Christian Watson back will make their life easier. Love is going to have his ups and downs. But after a night of inconsistent plays and a couple of bad turnovers, he got the Pack in the end zone with the lead with 90 seconds to play.
The defense allowed DeVito to pen the latest chapter in his late-season fairy tale by playing soft, undisciplined coverage when the game was on the line. LaFleur needs to move on from Barry, no matter how this season ends. I’m not sure who’s going to tell him he needs to make that move, but it has to happen for this team to take the next step.
And then there’s Bisaccia, who the Packers are paying more than $2 million a year to lead the Pack’s special teams – the highest-paid special teams coordinator in NFL history. There’s been nothing special about his units since he’s been in Green Bay. Yes, they hit on Nixon, who’s (usually) a very good returner. But the undisciplined play week after week, month after month, year after year, has worn out its welcome and is costing this team games.
LaFleur’s perfect December record is history, thanks to a bumbling, flat performance by the coaches and players against a mediocre team led by a free-agent rookie quarterback. We knew this season would deliver ups and downs, but this was a team that looked like it was reading its press clippings and was still proud of the show it put on for Taylor Swift last week.
They blew a golden opportunity to cement themselves in the thick of the NFC playoff race and perhaps even give the Lions something to worry about in the North. Let’s see if they can bounce back on a short week against a mediocre yet division-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers team at Lambeau on Sunday.
They will need to look a lot more special than they did on Monday night.
