Green Bay Packers: 5 Reasons for Their Porous Pass Defense

Picking out flaws in a 10-0 team may seem ungrateful to some Packer fans, but the naked truth is that the Green Bay secondary has been caught with its pants down too many times this season.

Last season, the Packers were the fifth-best pass defense based on yardage allowed, and no team held quarterbacks to a lower average passer rating (67.2).

This year, Green Bay has given up the second-most passing yardage, and has allowed six of the ten quarterbacks it has faced to throw for over 300 yards.  To make matters worse, only one of the six quarterbacks (Drew Brees) ranks in the top ten in passer rating.

Here are five possible reasons for the secondary's drastic decline.

5. Charles Woodson's Age

Even discussing the possibility that Charles Woodson's skills may be declining due to age can be condemned as blasphemy in some circles of Green Bay fans, but Woodson is simply not the same type of player he once was.

He is still a Pro-Bowl caliber player and the unquestioned leader of their defense. However, he no longer has the athletic ability to be a traditional shutdown corner. He does not have the speed to line up in a one-on-one situation with an outside receiver and be effective.  

Woodson excels against slot receivers, where he can use his physical style of play and veteran savvy to shut down wideouts and tight ends trying to find space in the middle of the field. Lining up in the slot also puts him closer to the quarterback, and he blitzes as well as any defensive back in the NFL.

But over the last two years, Woodson has put on a Superman cape and saved the Packers countless times. His presence, along with Nick Collins, have hid a lot of the deficiencies in the Green Bay secondary that have been exposed in the first ten games of the season.

4. Nick Collins' Injury

Nick Collins was an All-Pro three consecutive times from 2008-2010, and had 17 interceptions in those three seasons.  

In Green Bay's second game against the Panthers, Collins suffered a serious neck injury and will miss the entire 2011 season.  

The perennial Pro Bowler is one of the premier ball hawks in the league. His speed allows him to play center field and punish quarterbacks for missing downfield passes.  

In past seasons, Collins was a safety net for the gambling Green Bay cornerbacks. His athleticism allowed other players in the secondary to jump routes and not worry about getting beaten deep. This contributed to the Packer defense's stellar 2010 season.

Packer fans will never forget his interception return for a touchdown against the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, and are hoping and praying for his recovery.

3. Lack of Pressure

The Aaron Rodgers-led Packer offense is the only unit in the NFL to score 24 points or more in all ten games this season.  The dominant passing attack has taken a significant amount of pressure off of the defense.

While imagining Clay Matthews taking a play off is difficult, the defense has shown an alarming lack of urgency at several points throughout the season.

In games against Minnesota, San Diego and Tampa Bay, the defense allowed an inferior team to crawl back into the game after the offense did everything it needed to do to put the game away.  

With all these teams playing from behind, the comebacks came almost entirely through the air.  

The secondary has looked lackadaisical and lost all too often this season, and has been the team's biggest weakness. If Green Bay does not go 16-0 during the regular season, the secondary will almost certainly be at fault.

2. Inadequate Pass Rush

The Green Bay secondary has been taking a lot of criticism, but not all of it is deserved.

The front seven have failed to win one-on-one battles and generate the same sort of pressure that they did a year ago.

In 2010, the Packers won those battles, and ranked third in sacks per pass play when rushing four or fewer players.

But without departed free agent Cullen Jenkins and no pass rush presence to divert attention away from Clay Matthews, Green Bay has been unable to get to opposing quarterbacks without blitzing.

After playing the Chargers, defensive coordinator Dom Capers said, "There are times you have to be able to rush four and win. If you have to depend on scheme, you’re not going to be a very good team."

Unless someone can make a giant leap before the end of the regular season, Matthews will continue to be triple-teamed and the Packers will have to continue to rely on Capers' zone-blitz scheme to remain competitive on the defensive side of the ball. 

1. Aggresive Style of Play

Even though the secondary has hemorrhaged yardage through the first ten games of the season, it has also led the NFL in interceptions with 19.

The defensive backs have been jumping routes, which has led to the interceptions as well as the high amount of yardage allowed.  

The rest of the defense has adopted an aggressive style of play as well. Dom Capers is dialing up blitzes at a much higher rate than in the last two seasons, and in the Packers' second meeting with the Vikings, the defense blitzed a ridiculous 74.4 percent of the time.

While much has been made about the defense failing to live up to the standards set last season, few have considered that last season's success may have been an anomaly.

Last season, both B.J. Raji, Clay Matthews and Tramon Williams all became comfortable in Capers' defense, and emerged as top-tier players at their positions. Other teams around the league did not expect the 2010 Packer defense to be as prolific as it was. 

Now teams are figuring out how the defense operates and are exploiting its weaknesses.

The most glaring weakness has been defending running backs in the passing game. Green bay ranks 26th in receptions allowed to running backs, and 27th in receiving yardage allowed.

This is directly related the high blitz rate, as opposing running backs have been able to find space as check-down options.  

Going forward, the Packers will simply have to win one-on-one battles at the line of scrimmage and in the secondary.

As Raji said, "Last time I checked, we're a championship defense. We haven't really shown that with the numbers, but we know how to play football around here. We understand what it takes to win."