If there were any doubts about the parity within the N.F.L. right now, Week 6 is putting them to rest. The 1 p.m. window of games is usually where offense goes to die, but this Sunday each of the eight matchups featured either a one-score game that went down to the wire or a preseason favorite that took a bad upset loss.
The Green Bay Packers’ home loss to the Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ flailing against the Pittsburgh Steelers provided some pretty clear takeaways.
The Jets ransacked the Packers’ defense.
The Packers’ run defense was supposed to be better this season. Green Bay drafted a defensive lineman, Devonte Wyatt, and a linebacker, Quay Walker, in the first round and signed the veteran defensive lineman Jarran Reed in the off-season. Well, Wyatt cannot see the field, Reed has not made an impact, and none of the Packers’ edge defenders or safeties have been useful at keeping teams from hitting the perimeter.
The Packers had given up the 13th-most rushing yards per game at 126.4 through the first five games, and the Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur (brother of Packers Coach Matt LaFleur) homed in on Green Bay’s issues defending the run by calling a couple of reverse plays that broke open the game.
Tied at 3-3, with 8 minutes 19 seconds left in the third quarter, Jets wideout Braxton Berrios received the first of those reverses. Jets targets lined up in a tight bunch formation to the left side with Berrios alone to the right. At the snap, the left guard and the innermost player from the bunch, tight end C.J. Uzomah, both pulled to the right side as Berrios worked from right to left behind quarterback Zach Wilson.
Uzomah doubled back after a couple steps and looped around the left end, lead blocking on the reverse as Berrios trotted to a 20-yard touchdown run that put the Jets up by 10-3 after the extra point.
Will Parks’ big touchdown after recovering a blocked Packers punt came on the next drive, sending the Jets up by 17-3.
Mike LaFleur called a constraint to that same look to open the fourth quarter. The Jets came out in the same formation flipped to the other side, but with different personnel. The rookie running back Breece Hall replaced Uzomah as the innermost player in the bunch, while the rookie wideout Garrett Wilson was the lone receiver on the opposite end, in place of Berrios.
Rather than have Hall double back and block for a real reverse, the Jets brought an extra puller in front of Hall and handed him the ball. Half the Packers’ defense ran with the reverse and the other half overran their fits as they panicked at the sight of two pullers. As a result, Hall had all the room he needed to run up the middle for a 34-yard score, padding the Jets’ lead to 24-10.
The Packers’ run defense is bad, but Mike LaFleur and the Jets’ offense made them look more than bad. They made them look silly.
Tom Brady and his offensive line have issues.
All the inexperience along the Buccaneers’ interior offensive line is getting to Tom Brady. After spending his first two years in Tampa Bay with Ryan Jensen at center and Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa at the guard spots, the Bucs are now starting the rookie Luke Goedeke at left guard and the 2021 third-round pick Robert Hainsey at center.
Not only are the two youngsters talent downgrades from their predecessors, but their inexperience and Brady’s lack of trust in them is evident.
From a broader perspective, Brady has been hesitant to hold the ball this season. According to the N.F.L.’s Next Gen Stats, Brady’s 2.42 average time to throw was the lowest in the N.F.L. heading into Week 6 and it is unlikely his performance against the Steelers on Sunday will alter that statistic much. Brady’s average intended air yards has also dropped from 8.0 in 2021 to 7.4 this year.
Brady is getting the ball out quicker and throwing it shorter because he doesn’t want to get hit.
His distrust of the Buccaneers’ offensive line finally came to a boiling point Sunday as Brady went off on his teammates on the sideline right before halftime. With Tampa Bay trailing by 10-6, Steelers pass rusher Alex Highsmith strip-sacked Brady on first-and-10 at the Bucs’ 35-yard line with 1:41 to go in the first half. While the Bucs recovered the ball, it set Tampa Bay up for a second-and-19, all but ensuring the team would have to punt rather than try to squeeze in some points to close the quarter.
It would be foolish to count out the possibility of Brady and the guys up front sorting things out come December, but it looks uneasy right now.