Will sack attack continue?
The seven-sack game against the Eagles was a long time coming for the struggling Packers pass rush.
GREEN BAY - The conversations had become so frequent by Sunday afternoon, they sometimes spilled over onto the field.
Za’Darius Smith has a particular way he likes to rush the quarterback. At times, Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine will remind Smith he can’t always rush one way. In Pettine’s defense, Smith occasionally needs to mix it up.
“He likes,” Pettine said, “when it’s just called for there to be a straight rush. And obviously we can’t do that all the time. And there are times where I’ve got to get after him for trying to shake off signs during the game.”
It helps explain why Smith was so effusive in his praise for Pettine after the Packers’ seven-sack barrage of the Philadelphia Eagles last week. What started a few weeks earlier — the Packers have been stripping down their pass-rush scheme, making it simpler — finally clicked with the defensive front’s best game of the season.
The seven-sack eruption was a long time coming for a Packers pass rush that was ferocious last season, but struggled especially early this fall. By December, the frustrations had mounted. Nobody in the Packers’ defensive front was having the type of year they wanted, Smith said.
“We had a chance to talk to the D coordinator,” Smith said after the game. “We told him if he can keep it simple for us, we’ll get after the
quarterback. And he did that for us. And as you can see, we had a field day.”
Smith said he wasn’t the only Packers rusher who talked with Pettine last week. He also named fellow outside linebacker Preston Smith and defensive tackle Kenny Clark. Their conversations were separate. There was no group meeting, but a collection of one-on-one conversations.
Those conversations also didn’t start last week.
For weeks, Clark has expressed frustration with constant double teams, hoping Pettine can free up more oneon-one rushes in his scheme. Preston Smith, perhaps more than anyone, has not had the season he has wanted. After a dozen sacks last year, Preston Smith has just three this season. He had just a half sack in his first eight games.
“It wasn’t like we all went in there and went to go talk to him,” Clark said, “but I had talked to Coach. I’d probably say each week Coach Pettine had grabbed a guy and just spoke to us about how we feel and what we need to do as a defense to take it over the next hump.
“He’s not just going to change everything, but the thing is he always preaches we’ve got to have an open line of communication with him, and he’s willing to hear us out.”
The Packers believe their continuous emphasis on improving the pass rush is starting to show.
The Packers have 11 sacks in their past three games, tied with Seattle for second most in the league during that stretch. Yes, seven of those sacks came against the Eagles, whose 53 sacks allowed this season are nine more than any other NFL team.
Still, the Packers have generated more pass rush, even when they haven’t sacked the quarterback. Preston Smith has been especially productive in recent weeks. In the Packers’ win at the San Francisco 49ers on Nov. 5, he hit 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens to force an interception. Since then, he has 2.5 sacks in four games and on Sunday hit Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ arm while Hurts was throwing, forcing another interception.
“Really since the San Francisco game,” outside linebackers coach Mike Smith said, “he’s been turning it around and doing some good things and responded. The thing about Preston is he wants to be great, and he wants to be successful, and I know we ask him to do a lot and that’s part about being a 3-4 defense. Those Sams are going to do multiple jobs, and that’s the thing I always try to praise Preston, ‘You’re smart, and you can do a lot.’ That holds a lot of value to this defense. He just has such a big role in what he can do.”
It’s no coincidence the Packers have constantly discussed the need to get their pass rush unleashed. It is the foundation of their defense. The big plays, the third-down stops, the red-zone defense — everything branches out from pressuring the quarterback.
The Packers will see Sunday when they travel to the Detroit Lions if they’ve really found the optimal way to pass rush.
“I just think from time to time when you communicate with the players,” Pettine said, “you have to have the ability to truly listen and make sure that you have a good pulse. Because like I said, I’m not the one out there playing. They’re out there. If the players don’t feel good about something, they’re not confident in it, then there’s enough other things to do. But at the same time, we’re going to have things that, hey, these are the musts.
“But you always want to make sure you have a pretty good feel for your players and kind of where they are, what they’re feeling, and, ‘Hey coach, I know I can win with this style, let’s do this.’ You take all of those things into account, you put together a plan and you roll with it.”