Suffering a 35-14 home defeat to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football, the Green Bay Packers dropped to a 1-2 record. Post-game, star tight end Tucker Kraft faced criticism, leaving fans concerned about the team’s ability to recover this season.
Under pressure
On 44.4% of his dropbacks this season — 133 overall — quarterback Jordan Love has faced pressure, as charted by Pro Football Focus. It was actually worse for Love and the Packers on Thursday night, as he was pressured on 45.5% of his dropbacks against Atlanta. On those 25 plays, he completed just 9-of-25 passes for 116 yards and an interception.
Continuing with the pass blocking woes, 2.92 seconds is the average “time to throw” Love has had this season, as charted by Pro Football Focus. That ranks Love 33rd out of 33 qualified passers, and he is the only quarterback with an average time to throw below three seconds.
According to ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate, that was the percentage of snaps where the Packers offensive line sustained their blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer, entering Thursday night’s game against the Falcons. That ranked Green Bay 32nd in the league entering Week 3.
This defensive burden has led to Green Bay’s Defensive Expected Points Added per Play sitting at 0.092 for the season. That is 25th out of 32 teams. When you add this with Green Bay’s Offensive EPA, you see the Packers in the lower-left quadrant, meaning they are below league average in both categories.
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Offensive line struggles
A sack from Thursday night showed how quickly pressure reached Love. Brandon Dorlus used a swim move on rookie left guard Jager Burton to get to the quarterback. The rookie was a fifth-round pick from Kentucky. Love threw the ball under pressure over the middle, and his eyes led safety Xavier Watts directly to the ball.
Pressure also reached Love quickly on a Week 1 play. A blitz off the edge caught him as he hit his drop. The source notes that getting pressure below three seconds is generally not a good thing. This consistent pressure forces the quarterback to make decisions earlier than he would like.
Love is not without fault on some plays. A Week 2 play against the New York Jets illustrates this. The play occurred on a 1st-and-25 situation early in the third quarter with the game tied. Love could have thrown a shallow route to Johnson working left-to-right. Instead, he pulled the ball down, allowing the Jets to bring three rushers.
Defensive expectations
ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate statistic for the Packers entering Week 3 was 18%. This number represents the percentage of snaps where the offensive line held blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer. This ranked Green Bay 32nd in the league. It is hard to see how this number improved against the Falcons.
They also sit in a cluster with the Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans, and Miami Dolphins. When the pieces fit together, they tell a story of a 1-2 team struggling in the trenches, failing to run the football, and having a quarterback under pressure.