Tom Silverstein on the Packers
A lot of the focus for Sunday’s NFC championship game has been on the Bucs’ defensive coordinator.
GREEN BAY - Given the way the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dismantled the Green Bay Packers' offense in Week 6, a lot of the focus surrounding the rematch Sunday in the NFC championship game has been on Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.
And rightly so.
The Packers were averaging 400 yards and a league-leading 32.4 points per game when they took the field at Raymond James Stadium.
They left with 201 yards, 10 points and their tail between their legs.
It's the only time this season the Packers were held under 21 points and stands as the lone fail for a team that enters the rematch 14-3. It also stands as an example of what coach Matt LaFleur and quarterback Aaron Rodgers are up
against in facing Bowles again.
"He is the X-factor,” said John Dorsey, former Packers personnel director and general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns. “Be careful with that guy. He's got his defense playing at a high level.
“He can play man-to-man on one side and zone on the other and he'll bring blitzes from everywhere.”
The Packers know this well because Rodgers threw a pair of interceptions — including a pick-6 — and was sacked four times in the first meeting. Once the Buccaneers got ahead, Bowles unleashed a flurry of blitzes that overran the Packers' protection scheme.
The Buccaneers have played like that all season and it's the main reason they've come this far. After losing twice to New Orleans in the regular season, they picked off Drew Brees three times and finished with four takeaways in their divisional playoff victory at the Superdome.
Bowles is the architect and he has created a system in which his players can thrive.
“Todd does an unbelievable job,” Packers receivers coach Jason Vrabel said. “I was fortunate enough to work for him with the Jets, so I was with him in his defense for two years and he brought most of his staff that I was with down there and they've done a tremendous job building the personnel in the scheme around their guys.
“He's doing some different things than we did at the Jets, but he keeps you off guard, whether it's bringing pressures or whether it's dropping into coverage.”
But while the Buccaneers have Bowles, the Packers have their own savant, someone who is becoming better known around league circles but isn't well-known to the average fan.
His name is Adam Stenavich and he has a large role in devising the protection and blocking schemes the Packers use each week.
The second-year offensive line coach has elevated his status on the Packers' coaching staff with his ability to train his linemen to play multiple positions and function in an offense that requires intelligence and lightning-quick reactions.
“That guy is headed somewhere with the job he's done with that line,” former Packers general manager Ron Wolf said. “Someone's going to want him.”
Stenavich, who grew up in Marshfield, played for Michigan and spent a year on the Packers' practice squad, and coached in the college ranks for five years before joining Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco as assistant offensive line coach. There he spent two years preparing for a job like the one LaFleur offered him when he became the Packers' coach.
Stenavich spent those two years with the 49ers learning the “wide zone” rushing attack Shanahan is known for, but that is not exactly what he runs in in Green Bay.
LaFleur's offense runs a combination of outside zone, inside zone, power (pulling guard) and gap scheme (manto-man) plays that show up based on how the opposition plays defense. There are wide-zone concepts, but it's not what the Packers specialize in.
“That wide-zone thing doesn't exist,” one NFL offensive line coach said. “They all say they run it, but it's outside zone, inside zone, a lot of the same things. It doesn't matter what you run, it's how well you do it. They (the Packers) run everything.”
And they do it well. Even in Week 6, the Packers ran the ball effectively with 21 carries for 94 yards. LaFleur has lamented the fact that he didn't run it more.
But to run it against the Buccaneers' No. 1-ranked run defense, you can't just hand it off and hope for the best. LaFleur and his staff are going to have to figure out how to manipulate the personnel Bowles has on the field and choose their runs and passes based on that.
And they must do it, knowing their All-Pro left tackle, David Bakhtiari, is on injured reserve with a torn ACL and won't be handling Jason Pierre-Paul or Shaq Barrett, the Buccaneers' top two outside rushers, all by himself. And they must do it knowing they lose power and athleticism at right guard because the 6-5, 310-pound Billy Turner must fill in for Bakhtiari.
In the first meeting, they tried to keep the Buccaneers off balance by using running backs Aaron Jones and either Jamaal Williams or AJ Dillon on the field together. There were times the Buccaneers went with nickel personnel and there were times they went with base, but for the most the strategy didn't produce big results.
“It's just trying to get your best players on the field and we feel really good about that room, that running back room with all three of those guys,” LaFleur explained. “Also, just trying to give defenses different looks, throwing different personnel groupings, trying to keep them a little bit more off-balance.
“So those guys have done a great job with that and it can change each week.”
When it comes to varying play calls, Rodgers will bear the responsibility of whether to check to a run or pass and change a run to go left or right.
However, Stenavich and his assistant, Luke Butkus, are the ones who have worked all week on showing their linemen the angles in which the Buccaneers defense will attack, the potential stunts and twists they'll face and what blitzes to anticipate.
Primary to their task will be deciding whether to play it safe in pass protection and keep tight ends and backs in or ride the wave of excellent offensive line play that has led the Packers' latest run.
“They've got a great defense, I mean all around,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said. “Just from a talent standpoint and then all of a sudden you get up there and everybody's running everywhere. There are guys that are looping and moving, and I think it presents a lot of difficulty for the guys up front.
“For us, it's about those fundamentals and being able to understand the different patterns that they're going to be throwing at us and being able to attack them as they're trying to do that back to us.”
The Packers have had 13 games in which they've given up one sack or fewer and they have not given up a sack over the last 78 minutes and 20 seconds, dating to the third quarter of their Week 17 victory over Chicago. They ranked eighth in rushing, which is just their second top-10 ranking since 2004.
Tons of credit goes to Turner for being able to make the switch from right guard to right tackle to left tackle and veteran Rick Wagner, who has fought through two knee injuries and played better than the Packers could have ever imagined.
But Elgton Jenkins and Corey Linsley are one of the best guard-center combos in the NFL (Jenkins was voted a starter in the Pro Bowl, Linsley was voted firstteam All-Pro) and veteran Lucas Patrick has held his own at right guard, making it a complete team effort.
“These guys, they're all about one thing and that's winning,” Stenavich said of the offensive line. “How can we help this team win? And every week it's just fun, going in the room with those guys and watching them compete and everything like that.
“You know, it, it's just a testament to them and testament to Coach Butkus and how he does a great job with them, too. And just, just all around the guys, just buying in and doing whatever it takes.”
Players win football games, but coaches put them in a position to win and there may not be two more important coaches at Lambeau Field than Bowles and Stenavich. The only bigger stage they'll appear on is in two weeks and one of them will know he had a big role in getting his team there once this thing is decided Sunday.