The Green Bay Packers are, seemingly, blessed to never have a successful and universally liked defensive coordinator at Lambeau Field.
After back-to-back losses to the Tennessee Titans and the Philadelphia Eagles, the Packers fell to 4-8, showing inconsistency throughout both primetime games.
On the national scale, the Packers had the opportunity to right their earlier wrongs from this season and transform the team into a table-running, playoff-making team.
However, the inconsistency that has blighted the Packers all season reared its ugly head once more, with Green Bay still unable to complete a complete game.
Although the offense improved against the Eagles on SNF after the TNF matchup versus the Titans, the defense struggled hugely in both outings, with Joe Barry and his unit looking clueless and inept in many situations.
This defense had such potential with its talented and young roster ready to prove what it was capable of, but now only showing that it is an average at best unit, ranking in the middle of the pack for how they play the pass and the run.
It has been an issue all season for one of the most talented defenses that Cheeseheads have seen for a long time, prompting many fans to question if Barry is the right man for the job and if it is the end of the line for him as defensive coordinator.
Soft coverage killer
Soft coverage from Joe Barry is criticized by Packers fans massively and for good reason.
It is inexplicable for Barry to have the defensive backs, whether it be safeties or cornerbacks, to be sitting so far off receivers on critical downs when stops are needed.
There were multiple times against the Titans where that was the case, with players standing 5 or 6 yards away from their nearest receiver, allowing Tennessee to gain easy pickups in the passing game and move the football with relative ease throughout.
With star running back Derrick Henry contained by the Packers run defense, they put Tennessee in many third-down situations throughout the game but easily let them go because of poor schemes and play calling from Barry.
As a result of easily moving offensive drives for the opposition, the Packers defense cannot get themselves off the field quickly, leading to the unit easily tiring out and deteriorating by the end of the game, leading to injuries to key defensive players like Rashan Gary and Eric Stokes.
Questionable calls from Barry
Joe Barry has put himself in the firing line of Cheeseheads worldwide because of some questionable calls that have come from the sideline.
The big call that Barry consistently gets wrong, I believe, is moving away from man coverage and playing much more zonal coverage during games.
Man coverage is what this defense thrives on with this talented and hungry roster.
With one of the best lockdown corners in the game in Jaire Alexander and a tough tacking machine in Rasul Douglas on the other side of the field, man coverage is where these two flourish, not allowing any freedom for receivers.
However, Barry is alienating this away from the defensive playbook, moving to much more zonal plays, allowing receivers to find the open field for easy completions, and not letting stars like Alexander and Douglas succeed in what they do best.
The Packers play a Cover-3 zone look on 40 per cent of their passing plays, which ranks in the top five for the amount of Cover-3 looks used, with Douglas and Alexander dropping back without the injured Stokes and Darnell Savage covering the middle of the field.
Even though Barry is adamant about playing a Cover-3 scheme, the Packers are allowing the third-highest passer rating in the league in that scheme at a brutal 120.3, with opposing quarterbacks having a completion percentage of 79.6%.
