Entering the Green Bay Packers' Week 3 game against the Atlanta Falcons, the defense seemed to be the last thing you needed to worry about.
Instead, Jonathan Gannon's unit completely cratered, and it has suddenly become a major issue that seemed to be solved just a couple of days ago.
During the Packers' 35-14 loss to the Falcons on Thursday Night Football, the defense looked absolutely awful, to put it lightly. Atlanta totaled almost 500 yards of offense, including 242 yards of rushing alone.
Packers' defense comes undone in shocking display against the Falcons
Bijan Robinson ran for 194 yards and had over 200 scrimmage yards, Drake London had 194 receiving yards, and even Brian Robinson Jr. added 50 rushing yards to put a cherry on top of an awful sundae.
Despite the Packers playing on a short week, it is a genuinely shocking turnaround for a unit that looked to be the one shining spark to start the season. The Packers came into the game holding teams to relatively few big plays.
Against the Minnesota Vikings, they held Carson Wentz to under 250 yards of total offense despite the loss, and against the New York Jets, the defense was a main reason the team came back to win, creating havoc up front and getting key stops when needed.
Now, it looks more like those first two games happened just because of the teams the Packers were playing. Against a Falcons team that has some superstar-caliber players, the defense looked extremely sloppy. Not only could they not contain Bijan Robinson, but they let Michael Penix — who was making his first start of the year — get comfortable.
Most shocking, however, is just how discombobulated the Packers' defense looked at times. Down 10-7 and facing a 3rd-and-goal, they were one stop away from forcing a Falcons field goal that would've made it 13-7 going into halftime. Instead, the entire defense looked lost and appeared to signal to each other that they didn't know the play.
With no timeouts left, the Falcons scored an easy touchdown that essentially began the Packers' collapse. While no plays were as glaring as that, the Packers also were unable to contain the Falcons' run game at all, made shockingly bad tackling efforts, and got absolutely embarrassed in the secondary, with rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse having what can only be described as his first real "welcome to the NFL" game.
Although things were bad, it wasn't all the Packers' defense's fault. The Falcons controlled the ball for almost 40 minutes of game time, a number that shows just how inept the Packers' offense was at doing anything.
Unable to move up the field, the Packers' defense was forced to be out there for much longer than likely anticipated, and they gassed out pretty quickly. It's not an excuse, though, as this might be something they face going forward.
Up next for the Packers' defense is a trip to Tampa Bay. The Baker Mayfield-led offense has also struggled to get going this year, so it'll be a key matchup for the Packers to show this game was more a blip on the radar than the start of a truly bad series of play.
Add us as a preferred source on Google