With a record of 7-8, the Green Bay Packers are on the outside looking in when it comes to the NFC Playoff picture. Only three weeks ago, the Packers, then 5-6, were clinging to the seventh and final seed. Green Bay, on the other hand, has gone 1-2 since then, following three embarrassing defensive performances. While they now have a good chance of making the playoffs if they win their final two games, defensive coordinator Joe Barry is widely regarded as untrustworthy.
Barry’s defense gave up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter of the Packers’ most recent game, a nail-biting 33-30 win over the lowly Carolina Panthers, and would have given up the game-tying field goal had the clock not expired just as rookie quarterback Bryce Young marched his team into field goal range. Young hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass in over a month prior to this game. He scored twice against the Packers.
Frustrations with Barry have been simmering for years among the fanbase, and it’s easy to see why. Barry’s defensive scheme has allowed Young and other bad quarterbacks like Tommy DeVito, Desmond Ridder, Kenny Pickett, and Baker Mayfield to have their best games of the season and/or their careers so far this season.
Many fans understood and supported the Packers’ decision to suspend cornerback Jaire Alexander for their Week 17 game against the Minnesota Vikings, but they also questioned why a player is being punished and held out of a game for hurting the team while Barry is still employed. Barry’s remarks at his press conference on Thursday did not help matters.
The Packers led 30-16 at one point in the fourth quarter on Sunday. While this may appear to be a large lead, it is worth noting that the Panthers had only averaged 14.7 points per game up to that point. As previously stated, Barry’s defensive scheme enabled Carolina to score two more fourth-quarter touchdowns.
In other words, Green Bay was fortunate to escape yet another defensive disaster. Without Jordan Love and the offense’s late-game heroics, the Packers would have lost the game and been eliminated from postseason contention.
However, it does not appear that Barry believes his defense played particularly poorly on Sunday. In a press conference on Thursday, Barry stated:
“I thought for 53 minutes, we played very well, but the last seven minutes of the game, we gave up two crucial third downs and had a couple penalties that hurt us.”
Anyone who watched the game could confidently state that the defense did not play “very well” for 53 minutes. They may have played “okay” for that amount of time, but they never took over the game or played like they were the superior unit on the field.As can be seen, fans and Barry have very different ideas about what “extremely well” looks like. One has to assume that LaFleur has a different definition as well, and one hopes that this leads to a change in the offseason, a change that, frankly, should have happened this offseason.
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