Acme Packing Company
The Green Bay Packers’ defense struggled in the second half of the Week 6 game versus the Cincinnati Bengals, surrendering three scoring drives and 18 points, closing the gap to 24-18 before a field goal drive by the offense. In recent games against Dallas and now Cincinnati, the defense has given up scores on seven of nine offensive drives by the opposing team.
Is there a chink in the armor, or are we seeing a natural side effect of opposing offenses adjusting to limiting Micah Parsons’s impact?
Perhaps. The evidence is limited at best, but against the Bengals, newly acquired quarterback Joe Flacco (whom they faced in Week 3 in Cleveland), had an average depth of throw in the first half of 7.2 air yards per attempt to just 5.3 in the second half per Sports Info Solutions. His time to throw in the first half was 2.88, and the time to pressure was 2.5 per Fantasy Points advanced data tracking. His time to throw in the second half was 2.12.
In the first half, Flacco was under pressure on 50% of his drop-backs. In the second half, that number fell to 23%, pointing not necessarily to a scheme issue but rather quicker-developing plays that allowed the Bengals to move the ball and limit the impact from a shoddy offensive line on the pass protection.
While Flacco only attempted one pass in the first quarter, in the second quarter, the Bengals’ passing game relied more on heavy play action and long developing pass concepts, with a chunk of plays coming on 1st and 10 and in 3rd and long situations.
Primarily due to play selection, the Packers defense was stingy and did not let Flacco and the Bengals offense get hardly any easy completions.
On their play action passes, the Bengals couldn’t find any easy yards with a throwaway on a play action screen that the Packers defense read well, and the other was a deep miss to Ja’Marr Chase down the sideline when Chase slipped. To be fair to the defense on that one, the corner stayed in phase with Chase and would have undercut what looked to be a deep out.
On other passes, the defense was able to affect the throw and get pressure on Flacco.
Flacco hurried and misfired several throws due to pressure. For the majority of snaps in the second quarter, Flacco looked uncomfortable and out of sync with his new teammates.
In the second half, the Packers’ defense was unable to disrupt the timing of the Bengals’ passing offense. Flacco hit the top of his short dropbacks, and the ball was out to Chase and Tee Higgins on multiple passes for conversions and a couple of touchdowns.
To disrupt the timing, the defense blitzed six but couldn’t affect the throw. Flacco got the ball out to Tee Higgins on a quick slant from the slot versus man coverage.
Later on the same drive, Flacco found Higgins again on a quick 3-step shotgun dropback...
