Paul Bretl | 9/21/20224
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Whether it’s Jordan Love at quarterback for the Packers against the Tennessee Titans or Malik Willis, the offense has to perform better in the redzone.
Although two games is a small sample size in the grand scheme of an NFL season, the Packers are off to a rough start once making it to the opponent’s red area.
In Week 1, against Philadelphia, the Packers were just 1-for-4 on converting their red zone trips to a touchdown. In a game where they lost by just five points, those empty possessions proved to loom large. Then in Week 2 against Indianapolis, the Packers converted 1-of-3 red zone visits to a touchdown.
Overall, that’s a red zone success rate of just 28.5 percent, which ranks 27th in the NFL. With seven red zone visits in two games, average of 3.5 trips per contest which is tied for ninth, the Packers are giving themselves opportunities to find the end zone, but not taking advantage.
“Oh yeah,” said Matt LaFleur when asked about the Packers’ red zone struggles, “we had a long discussion about that last night in terms of, you always go back and evaluate and when I look at it we’ve had a lot of opportunities that we have not capitalized on.”
Moving the ball in the red zone can already be an innately more difficult task given that it is a condensed part of the field and there is less space to operate in. In some instances, you tip your cap to the defense for dialing up the right play.
However, in several instances, the Packers’ red zone woes are from self-inflicted mistakes. On two of their red zone trips against the Eagles, the Packers were penalized and unable to overcome that lost yardage. Then, this past Sunday, Josh Jacobs fumbled near the goal line, a ball that the Colts were able to recover, and then on another red zone visit later in the game, the Packers were again penalized.
“Some of it was self-inflicted and some of it the defense made a play the right way,” added LaFleur. “But in order to get better in the red area we have to stop getting penalties in the red area. We’ve had way too many mistakes and missed opps when we’ve been down there. So we’re going to continue to work hard on that and grind out the details. But we have to go out there and execute much better.”
Turning things around and finding success this week against the Titans doesn’t get any easier against a salty, as LaFleur put it, and stingy defense. This is a veteran defensive unit for the Titans who are willing to blitz under defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson and one that plays extremely physical. The 206.5 yards per game allowed in two weeks is the fewest in football, and the defense has surrendered just 16.5 points per game.
With Jeffery Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat in the middle, the Titans are allowing 4.0 yards per rush–the 10th-lowest average in the NFL. While through the air, an experienced secondary is giving up only 3.9 yards per pass attempt, which is the second-lowest mark in football, and the 114 passing yards per game given up is the fewest.
Add all that together, and this has been a unit that’s been quite successful when in the red zone. For one, Tennessee has only given up three red zone trips in total these first two weeks, with only one of those visits by the opponent turning into a touchdown.
“I think they got a lot of veteran players and they’re a well-built defense,” said LaFleur. “I think schematically it’s a challenge. Dennard Wilson coming from Baltimore and just he’s an experienced guy in this league. And then when you couple that with really good players, you have a chance to be a really good defense. And they do all the little things the right way, in terms of the effort and physicality that they play with. So we’ve got our work cut out for us this week.”
In a game where the margin between winning and losing is often razor thin, as we saw in Week 1 against the Eagles, not capitalizing on these scoring opportunities can leave a lasting impact on the game. And right now, the Packers’ biggest adversary in the red zone is themselves.