Despite all of the talent on defense and Aaron Rodgers under center on offense, the Green Bay Packers special teams unit entered Sunday’s game against the New York Jets as perhaps this team’s most consistent unit.
Unfortunately, the special teams reverted back to old ways, contributing to the Packers’ disappointing loss to the Jets.
The special teams operation as a whole has been a lot smoother this season. Green Bay was even ranked as the 11th-best special teams unit by DVOA prior to Week 6 after finishing last in 2021. This group even played a vital role in helping the Packers leave Tampa Bay with a win, in large part because of their punt coverage unit.
The hiring of Rich Bisaccia and the accountability he brings has certainly helped turn this group around, along with the added emphasis overall with several special teams specific additions this year, including Keisean Nixon, Rudy Ford, Dallin Leavitt, and most recently, Eric Wilson, all of whom have had impacts.
However, despite the progress, the Packers’ special teams unit took a big step backward on Sunday.
Return man Braxton Berrios averaged 11.4 yards on his three punt return attempts and had one kick return attempt for 29 yards. For some context, over the course of the 2022 season, averaging 11.4 yards per punt return would rank ninth in the NFL, and an average of 29.0 on kick returns would be the second-best mark.
But as we all know, the truly egregious errors came when Green Bay gave up a blocked field goal and a blocked punt attempt that resulted in a touchdown.
For a Packers offense that really struggled to move the ball, they managed to work their way into Jets territory in the first half before the drive stalled and Mason Crosby’s field goal attempt was ultimately blocked.
The blocked punt then came a crucial time of the game and essentially put it out of reach for the Packers. Following a Jets touchdown, the Green Bay offense went three and out, which was then proceeded by the blocked punt and touchdown. All of a sudden, the game went from being 3-3 to the Packers trailing 17-3 in a matter of minutes.
“On the blocked field goal, there was a high snap which slowed down the operation, but there was leakage in the right side,” LaFleur said after the game via Packers.com. “I’m not quite sure what transpired on the punt.”
Much like the Packers’ offensive line, which was dominated for much of the game by the Jets’ defensive front, the special teams unit struggled to handle the aggressive, gap-shooting defenders as well.
If you’re looking for any sort of positivity, there were still a few bright spots from this unit that included a blocked punt of their own by Eric Wilson – unfortunately, the offense couldn’t do anything with it. Nixon and Amari Rodgers also had some productive returns.
With that said, at the end of the day, the bad far outweighed the good. The special teams unit certainly isn’t the sole reason that Green Bay lost, but they did surrender 10 points that otherwise would have kept this a close game.
