Packers' Joe Barry says defense 'will correct' run game issues
Another year, another serving size of pitiful run defense from the Green Bay Packers defense. This was a hot-button topic coming into the season and with good reason. The unit was one of the NFL's worst in 2022 and it's been consistently bad ever since Joe Barry was hired as defensive coordinator in 2021. Hell, […]
Another year, another serving size of pitiful run defense from the Green Bay Packers defense.
This was a hot-button topic coming into the season and with good reason. The unit was one of the NFL's worst in 2022 and it's been consistently bad ever since Joe Barry was hired as defensive coordinator in 2021. Hell, it was even bad before he took over.
Regardless, the defense has now allowed two 200+ yard games on the ground and the month of October just started. It's clear this problem has to get fixed, immediately, the only problem is we are obviously already four weeks into the regular season, so it's certainly going to be an uphill battle.
But that doesn't sway Barry's confidence when it comes to getting things on track.
"That's something I've definitely gone back over the last 72 hours and looked at," Barry told reporters Monday. "We've had some time [so] I went back and looked at all four games and it's not one thing that you can pinpoint. I just went back again this morning and watched all 42 runs from from Thursday night. And it's not one thing. It's one thing on this play, it's another thing on this play, then you know, you have 30 runs that you play really well. So, it's a number of things, but we got to correct it. We will correct it. We're exploring everything right now. And when we're in one of those games we have to put our foot down and stop it. It wasn't obviously good enough Thursday night."
"Oh, yeah, absolutely," Barry added later after he was asked if the Packers have the guys and the mentality to "put their foot down". "I think when you're in a type of game like that, you have to be able to do something structurally, just from a system standpoint, and we can and we will, and when we're in those situations, we have to do it. So those are all things we're working through, right now…
"… When you're in a situation, when you're in a game like that, you got to be able to have an answer. And you know, it's my job to give our players an answer, and we will moving forward."
Per head coach Matt LaFleur, the coaching staff took the extra time over the weekend to do some heavy self-evaluation like he alluded to Thursday night after the loss to the Detroit Lions. He said the team is going to go over a few more things tonight before the players take part in a light practice on Tuesday.
At this point, there really isn't much more to discuss when it comes to the Packers run defense. Talk is cheap and action is the only thing that's going to lead to any kind of improvement.
Right now, the Packers currently own the league's third-worst run defense. They're giving up 155.3 yards per game. Only the Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals give up more yards per game. And, the team has the NFL's second-worst run defense over the last three games, giving up 166.8 yards during that span. Only the Broncos are worse at an incredible 214.3 yards per clip.
So, until Barry actually proves he can provide an answer to this ongoing problem, you can't blame people for doubting his ability to fix a problem he's never been able to fix.
