Packers Keep Playoff Hopes Alive

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Photo by Evan Siegle - packers.com

AJ Dillon vs Panthers, December 24, 2023

AJ Dillon rushes against the Panthers, December 24, 2023

Bryce Young, the rookie quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, is not having a good season. Entering Sunday’s game against the Packers, the most passing yards he has accumulated in any NFL was 247, against the Lions on October eight, which is also his only game of more than one passing touchdown. He did, however, throw two picks in that Lions game, which was the third time this season he had thrown multiple interceptions in a game. Under Young, the Panthers have never exceeded twenty-four points. Against Green Bay, Young and the Panthers blew all of those numbers out of the water, scoring 30 points on Young’s impressive 23/36, 312-yard performance. Young tacked on two passing touchdowns without throwing an interception, and almost rallied the 2-13 Panthers to a thrilling comeback win. 

This was the third consecutive game in which Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry’s defense was embarrassed by an inferior opponent, as they allowed 30 points to a terrible offense, and almost gave the game away. No other defense in the NFL has had any difficulty slowing down the Panthers. Even the highlight of Carolina’s offensive season against the Lions was almost entirely in garbage time of a 42-24 loss. Carolina had not eclipsed 20 points since week six against Miami, let alone thirty, and if Matt LaFleur was attempting to bolster Joe Barry’s confidence the previous week, it’s safe to say it didn’t work. 

It is also hard to blame injuries for this performance as the defense was healthier than it’s been in a while thanks to the return of Jaire Alexander, along with Eric Stokes at corner. Preston Smith did record 1.5 sacks, and the pass rush was a factor, but it certainly should have been a larger one. Young has been sacked on over ten percent of his drop backs in 2023, making him one of the most sacked quarterbacks in the league, but Carolina managed to keep him mostly clean, just as the Giants did with Tommy DeVito two weeks ago.

Aaron Jones was Back

Fortunately, the return of running back Aaron Jones to full time work, plus a solid performance from Jordan Love was enough to compensate for another week of defensive inadequacy. Carolina’s Achilles Heel is its run defense, and Jones punished them for it with an explosive game between the tackles, racking up 127 yards on 21 carries, while both AJ Dillon and Love took in short rushing scores. Love’s numbers may seem a bit underwhelming, as he went 17/28 for 219 yards and two scores, however he was without Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave, Christian Watson, and for the most part, Dontayvion Wicks, who suffered an upper body injury early in the game on a tough throw from Love. 

Fortunately, the passing game adjusted, and managed to complement the running game just enough to get it done. Romeo Doubs was especially impressive in his expanded role catching four balls for seventy-nine yards and a score, including a key conversion on third down late in the game, which was the subject of a controversial video review. Tight end Tucker Kraft continues to impress as a run blocker, and as the teams’ best yards-after-catch generator. He converted several key first downs as well. 

The offense was humming until Wicks (two catches, twenty-nine yards, one touchdown) went down, at which point Aaron Jones really took over, however the late defensive collapse was the story of the game. Green Bay had a 30-14 lead early in the fourth quarter, but they settled into their soft zone, as they did last week against Tampa, and allowed Carolina to come all the way back. The Packers managed a late Anders Carlson field goal to go up 33-30 with just 19 seconds left, however the soft zone allowed a huge 22-yard completions to DJ Chark, who got out of bounds with 13 seconds left, followed by a 31-yard bomb to Adam Thielen over the middle, which put the Panthers into field goal range. 

Fortunately for Green Bay, the Panthers did not manage to line up and spike the ball before time expired, but it was a matter of a single second. There is no excuse for a defense to be that soft nursing a three-point lead with so little time left. The Chark play in particular cannot happen, as any tackle in bounds ends the game. The defense continues to suffer embarrassing schematic breakdowns every week. Carolina was running a template established by Tampa and New York the previous two weeks, using their running backs on the outside to create mismatches inside. Adam Thielen’s game was almost identical to Chris Godwin’s game last week. 

The frustrating thing about Joe Barry is that he never seems to learn, while his opponents seize on every weakness and attack it mercilessly. The offense did an incredible job of keeping the Packers in the playoff hunt. Next week they will face another non-NFL quarterback against the Vikings (likely Nick Mullens), however the Vikings have one of the best defenses in football in Brian Flores. The Vikings saw that their defensive coordinator last season, former Packer Ed Donatell, was a liability. They hired Flores and ascended from 24th in defense to fifth. The Packers, meanwhile, have one of the worst defenses in football, after sticking with a coach who always coordinates one of the worst defenses in football.