Courtesy of the Green Bay Packers
Jaire Alexander
Real Super Bowl contenders tend to blow out bad opponents, and if the Packers are good at anything this year, it’s blowing out bad teams. The offense did exactly what they wanted to in a nice rebound performance, torching an overmatched Houston secondary. That said, the real reason to be excited is the performance of the defense, which played its most complete game of the year against a formidable offense led by a good quarterback.
Kamal Martin and Krys Barnes
Every week the Packer defense seems to have some glaring deficiency which allows the opposing offense to stay in the game and put up points. Usually the guilty party is the inside linebackers, but Green Bay may have a solution in Krys Barnes, and rookie Kamal Martin. Martin was injured to start the year, but in his first game back he contributed immediately on run defense. Martin was quick to the hole and more importantly, a sure tackler. The Packer inside linebackers tend to be on the lighter side and they’ve been pushed around for a long time, but Martin brought power along with his speed and ended the game as the highest graded defensive player according to Pro Football Focus.
Krys Barnes will never be as good as Martin at going North and South, but he continued his good work in lateral pursuit. He still needs to work on his coverage skills, but he has the speed to make up for his mistakes. Combined with Martin, the duo makes it tough for opposing running games to win through either power or speed.
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The Elite Secondary
Prior to this game, cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Chandon Sullivan ranked as two of the league’s elite players, but the rest of the secondary was below average. Against Houston, the stars continued to shine as Alexander shut down Houston’s Will Fuller, and Sullivan played well across several assignments. The difference was in the supporting case led by backup corner Josh Jackson. Jackson has struggled for much of his young career as he is prone to getting too physical and committing pass, but starting for the injured Kevin King on Sunday, he was excellent. That makes two good games in a row for Jackson, whose only blemish against Tampa was a pass interference penalty while guarding Scotty Miller. Jackson excels on the outside in zone coverage, and it seems the Packers are finally starting to play to more of their strengths.
Finally, safety Raven Greene looked healthy for the first time this season and played his best game since the beginning of 2019. Greene is a difference-maker in Mike Pettine’s scheme as the “big nickel” defender. While slightly undersized for the position, no other Packer defender is as versatile as a coverage defender and a run-stuffer.
The Packer defense, above all, is healthy. They are usually vulnerable against running quarterbacks, but they shut down Deshaun Watson without issue. Usually you can run on the Packers, but David and Duke Johnson had absolutely no success. The offense made things easy by pouring on the points, but Pettine made good use of a low-stress game to find his best combinations going forward.
Wide Receiver Still and Issue
There is still no concrete timeline for the return of Allen Lazard, and without him, Green Bay really should think about making a move at the position. Outside of Davante Adams, Packer receivers were targeted 7 times, catching two balls (both Malik Taylor) for a total of 6 yards. After a nice first game, Marquez Valdes-Scantling has been terrible, and everyone else on the team is a huge unknown.
Against Houston there’s no excuse for the backup receivers getting shut out this badly. While Adams is capable of dominating all but the best defenses, at some point Green Bay will face those defenses and he will need some help to take the pressure off. It happened last week against Tampa, and similar defenses will be awaiting Green Bay in the playoffs. The acquisition of Andre Rison once aided the Packers in a Super Bowl run and making a play for Houston’s Kenny Stills in the last year of his contract, or a similarly situated player may be necessary again. Stills has been relegated to backup duty in Houston, but he’s an above average big play threat who caught an impressive 73% of targets last year for 14 yards per reception. He is only 28 years old, and there is a good chance that getting him out of the dysfunction of Houston would usher in a career renaissance.
