Packers overcome more special-teams nightmares to demolish Bears

Not even a complete collapse of the Packers' special-teams units could prevent them from demolishing the Bears on Sunday.

Good morning!

The Green Bay Packers demolished the rival Chicago Bears, an expected result achieved via unconventional means. The Packers' special teams reached a new level of crisis Sunday, managing nearly every mistake the units hadn't yet put on tape already this season. Still, Aaron Rodgers and the offense righted the ship during the second and third quarters will the defense delivered yet another pick-six courtesy of Rasul Douglas.

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The Packers' special teams are performance art. To what masterpiece from music, cinema, television, or other medium do they best compare?

Jason B. Hirschhorn: Captain Beefheart's seminal 1969 release Trout Mask Replica. The album forces the listener to endure a cacophony of unusual soundscapes and takes a nonlinear path that challenges nearly every conventional notion of music. "Frownland" seems like two different songs playing at once while a track like "Moonlight In Vermont" sounds like Jim Morrison having a nightmare. Each turn feels more surprising than the one that preceded it, and no two experiences with the record are alike.

Like Trout Mask Replica, the Green Bay Packers' special-teams effort against the Chicago Bears lacked any central theme or consistency, finding new and inventive ways to unnerve observers, head coach Matt LaFleur in particular. Not content to merely reprise the missed field goals and extra points of earlier in the year, the Packers instead bungled kickoffs and punts, both coverage and returns. Surely, Green Bay's special teams will find more ways to torture fans and coaches alike, but none will match the sheer shock value and ingenuity of Sunday's outing.

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Peter Bukowski: Birds of Prey. Did you see that? No, almost certainly not. But it’s the Suicide Squad spinoff featuring the most bankable star in the series Margot Robbie who is beloved for her acting prowess and … well, for being one of the most beautiful human people to ever live.

Here’s the thing: The movie wasn’t good. The Packers, including and especially Matt LaFleur, insisted Maurice Drayton was the man for the job after doing what was being asked by most Packers fans and finding a new special teams coach.

But it hasn’t worked. The Packers were 30th in special teams DVOA coming into the game against the Bears. That will only get worse after the game in which Jakeem Grant sent a Bears record for punt returns for a franchise that includes Devin Hester.

This is a disaster and LaFleur no longer gets loyalty points for sticking with “his guy” in all of this.

When will the Packers make a move with special-teams coordinator Maurice Drayton?

JBH: Apparently not this week, as Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said the team will "absolutely not" make a change now during his postgame press conference. That doesn't come as too much of a surprise, as Green Bay has little history of in-season assistant changes. The last such move, if it even counts, occurred in 2015 when then-headman Mike McCarthy took away play-calling duties from Tom Clements.

Still, the Packers cannot pretend that the results on special teams will improve without meaningful alterations. That can include personnel moves — a reliable returner would make a world of difference — but a coordinator change has to enter the discussion after a performance like the one on Sunday night. It seemed more than a little odd when LaFleur went with an internal hire when replacing Shawn Mennenga this past offseason. Whether or not Green Bay goes the interim route at some point in 2021, a full-time, external replacement appears a fait accompli after the season.

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PB: The answer is this offseason even if it ought to be this week or sooner. If LaFleur isn’t going to make a change after the hot garbage fire of this week, he’s going to wait until after the year to make a change, but he’s going to make a chance.

The Packers cannot continue on this path and even though sticking with a problematic coordinator was a bit for Mike McCarthy, LaFleur has proven he’s not the type to suffer fools very well. This will be over soon.

Now, will it get any better? Well …

Why do the Packers consistently get off to slow starts on offense?

JBH: During LaFleur's first two seasons in Green Bay, arguably no offensive play-caller did a better job of creating opening scripts for games. The Packers had some of their best drives during that portion of the contest, with the middle sometimes turning into a cold period before heating back up to close the game.

This season has unfolded differently. The Packers have largely struggled on the opening drive or two in most contests, leading to point discrepancies that, to LaFleur's credit, they have usually overcome. But while the offense has demonstrated the ability to rebound after slow starts, avoiding those starts altogether could push an already good team into best-in-class territory.

It seems the opening drives this season have moved away from the core concepts of LaFleur's offense. Rather than build drives through quick game, wide-zone and split-zone runs, and play-action off of it as in years past, the early series feature longer-developing plays with an eye on kill shots.

LaFleur doesn't see the situation that way, claiming that the coaching staff still scripts out "25, 26 plays" with many forming the crux of the third-quarter offensive game plan constructed during halftime. But he also made reference to the in-game self-scouting on the Packers' tendencies and the adjustments made as a result. Perhaps therein lies the reason for the offense's struggles; LaFleur has needed to see how defenses react to him more than in past years.

Even so, Green Bay could help itself out considerably by simply finding better ways to catch opponents by surprise at the start of games. Playing with an early lead makes for a much easier existence in the NFL.

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PB: It’s hard to explain why, but the Packers were -27 in the first quarter and +68 in subsequent quarters heading into the game. They lost the first quarter -3 and fell down -10 in this game.

Green Bay fell behind 7-0, 14-7, and 17-14 against the Lions in their first matchup. The Bears jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first game of the series and the Vikings 16-3 in their first matchup.

The only reasonable explanation for what we’ve seen is the type of offense being run. In the scripted series, this Packers offense no longer resembles the 2020 Green Bay group running heavy personnel, play-action, and trickery, but much more closely resembles the mid-2010s Packers under Mike McCarthy. In other words, the Aaron Rodgers offense.

Once the group reverts to the Lafleur scheme with quick passing, balance, RPO’s and play-action, the offense catches fire. Makes you think.

Parting shots

PB: Do. Not. Mock. The. Belt. After Robert Quinn mocked the belt, the Packers scored on five of their next seven drives and won the game. Green Bay basically doesn’t lose when teams are dumb enough to do this and the Bears did it not once but twice.

Maybe it’s because Chicago knew the Bears were would lose, but come on. This is stupidity. Don’t tug on Superman’s cape or he’ll hit you for 341 yards and 4 touchdowns.

The Packers didn’t win because the Bears mocked the belt but sweet baby Jesus why would you tempt fate that way against a quarterback who has owned you and against whom any opponent who has mocked the felt has felt the wrath.