Packers: Positives, negatives from Week 9 vs. Patriots

Positives and negatives from the Green Bay Packers’ Week 9 loss to the New England Patriots.

The Packers continue to limp through the season and now find themselves sitting below .500.

Here are some positives and negatives from the demoralizing loss:

Positive: Marquez Valdes-Scantling

The Packers rookie from South Florida looks like he could become a number one receiver one day. Despite being best suited as a deep threat receiver, Valdes-Scantling looks like he could be a much faster Davante Adams once he has completely filled out and gotten his NFL-legs under him.

Valdes-Scantling impressed during the preseason and quickly became the most ready of the three receivers that the Packers picked on draft night.

He only hauled in three balls against the Patriots, but they went for 101 yards. His big-play potential gives the Packers a true threat on the boundary that they haven’t had in years.

Negative: Safeties

The Packers may not tell you as much publicly, but they essentially waved the white flag at the trade deadline by trading Ha Ha Clinton-Dix to the Washington Redskins.

Tramon Williams had a couple of nice plays coming up from the back end, but the rest of the unit looks completely unprepared. The defense is still trying to figure all of it out at so many positions, and the inexperience at safety is not helping matters.

Josh Jones is still learning how to play the position at an even decent level, and Kentrell Brice has been the model of inconsistency for years. The Packers have let both Morgan Burnett and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix out the door in only one year, and have not had an effective plan in place to replace either of them.

Positive: Bashaud Breeland

The Packers finally got their only midseason pickup on the field against the Patriots. The Packers signed Breeland after he failed a physical with the Panthers and lost a long-term contract. Breeland looked fresh and healthy against the quick receivers of the Patriots.

While this season is looking more and more like a lost cause for the Packers, Breeland could be a potentially cheap long-term option for the Packers in the secondary. He had been wildly inconsistent in his time with the Redskins, but when healthy, is still one of the better defensive backs in the NFL.

With Jaire Alexander showing lots of promise, Breeland’s arrival could help supplement his growth.

Negative: Clay Matthews

Clay Matthews doesn’t even look like a starting level linebacker in the NFL anymore. The level at which Matthews’ play has completely deteriorated over the years is absolutely stunning, and the Packers shouldn’t devote a single penny of next year’s cap space towards re-signing him.

With Nick Perry equally underwhelming across from him, the pass rush has become completely non-existent.

Matthews provides the defense with absolutely nothing. His play in recent years has shown how poorly the Packers have managed themselves over time and have been paying one of the most ineffective players on the team premier pass rusher money. Letting Matthews and Perry go will be the first of many steps in fixing the team’s pass rush.

Positive: Mike Pettine

The defense was up against an incredible test on Sunday night. Against the best quarterback in the history of the game, on the road, with numerous injuries, the defense gave absolutely everything it had against superior coaching and competition.

The Packers have a head coach who does not know the first thing about that side of the ball, and against an offense with so much firepower, the defense did every last thing it could.

Mike Pettine’s defense has been creative with various blitz schemes, and managed to limit the big plays for the Patriots offense. It took a trick play for the Patriots to finally break the back of the Green Bay defense.

Eventually, with so much against them, Tom Brady broke through at home. With a healthier unit and better personnel, Pettine might be able to get the Packers into better position to have their defense to carry the team in the future.

Negative: Mike McCarthy

Mike McCarthy is becoming a bit of a laughingstock in Green Bay. While there is only one Bill Belichick, the disparity in coaching on Sunday night was absolutely embarrassing. McCarthy made the Patriots’ coaching job so much easier than it ought to be.

If you take away the Green Bay quick outs, deep ins, and bubble screens, you have solved the entire Packer offense. In other words, if you look at a single possession of offense of any team in the NFL from 1975, you might as well be looking at the 2018 Packers.

McCarthy’s offense is offensively stale and predictable, and he is unable to make up for that with his defensive knowledge. The Packers have been out-coached week after week for years now, and only Aaron Rodgers has provided the cover that the Packers need on offense.

Green Bay would be a perennial top-five team in the NFL draft if they had even an above average quarterback around the league such as Matt Ryan or Andrew Luck. He needs to be shown the door.