Green Bay Packers fans have frequently criticized defensive coordinator Joe Barry for his defensive alignments: playing off-coverage on short-yardage situations, dropping nose tackles into coverage, etc. However, I noticed a change in a certain tactic along the defensive line from Game 1 to Game 2 of the preseason.
Stunts.
No, we’re not talking about Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. We’re talking about the thing that defensive linemen do to get more advantageous rushing opportunities. It’s when a pair of defensive linemen cross each other to try and get to the quarterback instead of rushing through a gap or going one-on-one with the offensive lineman.
Let’s say the nose and defensive tackle are lined up directly over the center and the guard. They would perform a stunt by having the nose tackle go directly into the guard to try and draw the center and the guard. The defensive tackle would hesitate and loop around to the now-open gap that the center vacated.
Make sense?
The film below is from Saturday’s game against Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. The Packers didn’t implement as many on the opening drives, but as the game progressed, Barry started dialing them up.
Green Bay’s defenders Devonte Wyatt and Colby Wooden don’t get home on this one, but you can see Wyatt drive towards the lane that Wooden attempted to create.
Here’s a rare double stunt from Joe Barry. This is an interesting call, but it works to perfection. Wooden drives into the tackle and gives Hollins a lane to rush. The guard is unable to recover in time, and Hollins forces a bad throw on the play. This is textbook stuff from the Green and Gold.
This is another, less successful interior stunt that Green Bay tries to pull off. The Pats get the ball out quickly, and the Packers are slow to get the stunt off. A bit too much traffic in the middle.
Above is a stunt that the Packers tried but didn’t fully execute as the ball was gone before Wooden could get to his gap. Usually, a stunt goes from one gap to the next. It does not usually stretch more than one gap, but this one attempts to. Brooks comes down the line and opens up a lane. However, Wooden doesn’t have time time to get in the lane and make a play before Bailey Zappe gets rid of it for the touchdown to Kayshon Boutte.
The guard and center for New England pick up this stunt super well. Jonathan Ford and Brooks try and pull one off, and it goes much faster this time. However, New England’s center was not fooled.
The Pats also pick up this one pretty easily. The Packers seemed to struggle at running stunts in the A-Gaps. The guard and center reacted to the stunt without much stress.
The interior stunt above works a little better. Brooks and Wooden are a little faster, but Zappe gets the ball out in less than two seconds. While it may have not led to a sack, the pressure on the pocket may have forced a quick throw.
Textbook stunt. This one works to perfection. Wooden drives the guard into the rest of the offensive line and causes some carnage in the trenches. Wooden ends up taking out three linemen and gives Brooks a perfect lane to get to Zappe and forces an incomplete throw. Great work here.
According to PFF, the rate at which teams ran stunts (~30%) was dropping slightly but the effectiveness of those attempts (~42-45%) was up-and-down depending on the season. You can see the pros and cons of it in the clips above. Sometimes the defenders are able to trick the linemen and get a free rush. Other times, they risk their contain and gap assignments on an ineffective stunt. Both of Kingsley Enagbare’s sacks, including the strip sack, were not off a stunt. It’s not like the Packers need gimmicks to get pressure.
While the stunt did not always work for the Packers, it was more effective against New England. Green Bay seemed to have more success in affecting the quarterback when the stuns were executed in the B and C gaps rather than the interior. The Hollins sack and the big play from Brooks were great examples of how the stunt is meant to work.
The increased number of stunts is an intriguing development from Joe Barry. We did not see as much versatility from him last season. This year, he seems to be running it a lot with his young defensive lineman. It’s an interesting strategy that can keep the offensive linemen guessing. Time will tell if Barry will keep dialing them up against the Seattle Seahawks next Saturday in the preseason finale, but the results against New England were encouraging.
