Packers Snap Counts Versus The Tampa Bay Bucaneers - Conference Championship Game

It is time to look at the snap counts in this very winnable game!  The Packers elevated DT Brian Price and CB KeiVarae Russell from the practice squad and as a Covid replacement due to Veldheer, Tramon Williams.  

Inactive Players Love, Garvin, Jackson, Hollman, Sternberger, Scott and Keke.   
Active - DNP Boyle, Tramon Williams

Love, Garvin, Jackson, Hollman, Scott and Sternberger appear to be healthy scratches and have been for several weeks now.  Keke was out with a concussion.  Sternberger has not been listed on the injury reports at all, so it would appear he was a healthy scratch as well.  Williams did not play.  It is hard to say whether the Packers would have tried Veldheer at one of the tackle positions had he been healthy and active.      

 

Name Snaps % ST
Jenkins 71 100 4 - 15%
Turner 71 100  
Wagner 71 100  
Linsley 71 100  
Patrick 71 100 4 - 15%
Nijman     4 - 15%
Runyan     4 - 15%
Braden     4 - 15%
       
Rodgers 71 100  
Boyle DNP    
       
Adams 68 96  
Lazard 58 82  
MVS 46 65  
St. Brown 17 24 7 - 27%
Austin     2 - 8%
Taylor     14 - 54%
       
Tonyan 47 66 4 - 15%
Lewis 29 41 1 - 4%
Daffney 17 24 13 - 50%
       
Williams 35 49 9 - 39%
Jones 22 31  
Dillon 16 23 9 - 35%
       
21 played Off.      

The Packers' five starting offensive linemen played every snap.  The offensive line allowed 5 sacks (all by the Bucs' outside linebackers and largely at the expense of the OTs) and 15 pressures on Aaron Rodgers' 48 pass attempts, per Pro Football Focus.  The Packers sprung some runs, but overall the holes closed quickly.  In the first half Jones ran 6 times for 27 yards, a 4.5 yard average.  He had a long of 12, meaning his other 5 runs averaged 3.0 yards per carry.  Williams carried the ball 3 times for 15 yards with a long of 12, meaning his other two runs averaged 1.5 yards per carry.  Williams added 1 reception on 4 targets for four yards.  In the second half, Jones did not receive a carry due to injury.  He did catch 2 passes on 3 targets for 4 yards.  Williams ran the ball 4 times for 8 yards and caught 3 passes on 3 targets for 18 yards.  Dillon carried the ball 3 times for 17 yards, a 5.7 yard average, and added a nifty 13 yard reception.  The running backs forced just one missed tackle per PFF, whereas Fournette forced 4 missed tackles by himself.  The Packers ran the ball just 16 times for 67 yards and a 4.2 yard average.  There is something to be said for having a running back who is a home run threat.

Aaron Rodgers completed 14 passes on 19 attempts for 169 yards and 1 TD and 1 INT, with a solid 8.9 yards per attempt average, good for a passer rating of 96.2.  Rodgers' interception was thrown behind Lazard.  Sean Murphy-Bunting, a very grabby DB, held Lazard.  Rodgers completed 19 of 29 for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns in the second half.  He finished with 33 competions on 48 attempts for 346 yards, a 7.2 yard per attempt average, and 2 touchdowns, good for a 101.6 passer rating.  The passing game was pretty good, though it looked just a little out of sync, perhaps due to the physicality of the Tampa Bay defensive backs.  Valdes Scantling led the way in the first half with 62 yards and a touchdown, followed by Lazard with 46 amd Adams with 24 yards.  Marcedes Lewis caught 2 passes for 23, which was fun to watch though it looked like he wished he had the same knees he had when he was 25.  Tavon Austin played special teams but did not receive an offensive snap.

Despite the generally decent first half statistics, the Packers scored just 10 points in the first half.  Their first possession ended on a sack.  The Packers scored a touchdown on their second possession, with the main play being a 50-yard bomb to Valdes-Scantling.  Their third possession ended with a field goal after 15 plays.  The Packers had the ball with a 1st and 10 on the 6-yard line but 3 successive incomplete passes forced the field goal.  Their fourth drive ended with Rodgers' interception.  The Packers had a fifth possession but there was insufficient time to run any plays. 

The Packers had six possessions in the second half and scored 16 points.  One ended with an Aaron Jones fumble, and there were two 3 and outs.  Valdes-Scantling caught 2 passes on 4 targets for 53 yards, Adams added 43 yards on 6 receptions, and Lazard added 16 yards on 1 reception off of 3 targets.  Tonyan added 15 yards and a touchdown on 2 receptions.  The running backs managed 25 yards with a long of 9 on 7 carries in the second half.       

The Packers played 2.66 WRs (up from 2.47 last week), 1.30 TEs (down from 1.41), and 1.103 RBs (down from 1.12) per play, on average.  Those are all fairly normal figures.  The Packers' TOP was 34:37 for the game and they ran 71 plays.  The Rams held the ball for 25:23 and ran 65 plays.  Tampa Bay was 10 of 15 on third and fourth down plays and the Packers were 8-14 on third down plays.  Tampa Bay scored both times they reached the red zone while the Packers went 2 for 4.  Tampa Bay had 3 turnovers and the Packers 2.

  

Name Snaps % STs
Savage 65 100 2 - 8%
Amos 65 100 3 - 12%
Alexander 65 100  
King 63 97  
Sullivan 47 72 11 - 42%
Redmond 14 22 22 - 85%
Black     19 - 73%
Russell     14 - 54%
       
Z. Smith 57 88  
P. Smith 50 77  
Gary 42 65 6 - 23%
Barnes 37 57  
Kirksey 29 45 5 - 19%
Summers 28 43 22 - 85%
Martin 14 22 11 - 42%
Burks     22 - 85%
Ramsey     18 - 69%
       
Clark 60 92  
Lowry 49 75 9 - 35%
Harrison 16 25 5 - 19%
Lancaster 12 18 8 - 31%
Price 2 3 6 - 23%
       
22 played Def.      

The tale of the defense is that they allowed far too many big plays. 

The Rams' running backs rushed for just 75 yards on 23 carries, a 3.26 average.  Fournette had one long touchdown run for 20 yards [big play #1], which means that other than that run, they rushed for 55 yards on 22 carries, a 2.62 yard average.  In the first half, the Rams rushed 10 times for 38 yards with a long of 20.  Without the long run, it was tough sledding, as they rushed 9 times for 18 yards.  In the second half, Tampa Bay ran 12 times for 33 yards, a 2.75-yard average.  Clark played 60 of 65 snaps and Snacks Harrison (16), Lancaster (12 prior to his injury) and Price (2) were on the field on 45% of the snaps.

Brady had a fine first half, completing 13 of 22 passes for 202 yards, a 9.2 yard per attempt average, and 2 touchdowns, good for a 119.9 passer rating.  Big plays included a 27 yard completion [#2] to Evans on their first possession, which ended in a touchdown, a 52-yard bomb [#3] to Godwin followed by Fournette's 20-yard touchdown run on their third possession.  Brady completed a 39-yard touchdown pass [#4] to Miller with six seconds left in the half to go up 21-10 even though the Packers ran more plays and won the time of possession battle by about 3 minutes. 

In the second half, Tampa Bay's offense inherited the ball at the Green Bay 8-yard line and Brady threw an 8-yard touchdown to TE Cameron Brate on the first play.  Later, Brady threw a pass to Gronkowski for 29 yards [#5] to set up a 46-yard field goal for their 31st point.  In the second half Brady completed 7 of 14 attempts for just 78 yards, 1 touchdown and 3 interceptions.  Chris Godwin caught 1 of 3 for 11 yards, Mike Evans 1 of 5 for 9 yards, Fournette 1 of 1 for negative one yard, Brate 2 of 2 for 14 and Tyler Johnson 1 of 1 for 16.  As noted above, the Bucs ran 12 times for 33 yards.  The Tampa Bay offense came to a standstill except for the touchdown off the turnover and another explosive play.

That brings up the controversial decision by Matt LaFleur to kick the field goal on 4th and 8 from the 8-yard line down 8 points with 2:05 left in the game.  According to Ben Baldwin's Win Probability analysis, it is a close call whether to go for the touchdown and 2 point conversion or to kick the field goal, with a slight preference for going for the touchdown.  Rodgers had just thrown 3 straight incomplete passes, none of which appeared to have had a good chance of success, and the Bucs' offense had been poor.  On the other hand, the Packers' offense had not been stellar, but it was moving the ball and scoring some points.  After the field goal, the defense forced a 3rd and 4 with 1:39 left (the Packers had one timeout), but the Bucs converted by virtue of a pass interference call on King.   Had the Packers forced a punt, they likely would have gotten the ball back around their own 25 or 30 (barring a decent punt return) with a minute and a half left with one timeout needing a touchdown.  It is unfair, but Green Bay puts that burden on Rodgers and the offense on a far too regular basis.

Jaire Alexander had an extraordinary game.  Per PFF, on four targets, Alexander allowed no receptions, had a pass break-up and 2 interceptions.  Amos added a third interception while Redmond dropped one that would have prevented Tampa Bay from completing the touchdown pass with six seconds left in the first half.

Kenny Clark played a strong game, finishing with 8 tackles (6 solo), 1 tackle for loss, a sack and usually generated interior push.  Lowry had 5 tackles (2 solo) and Lancaster chipped in 2 tackles (1 solo). Zadarius Smith had 4 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss.  Preston Smith had 2 solo tackles and a QB hit.  Gary had 2 tackles (1 solo).  PFF notes that the Bucs' right tackle allowed just one pressure in 37 pass attempts. 

Krys Barnes left the game at least twice while managing to play 57% of the possible snaps.  Ty Summers played 43% of the possible snaps, so it may be that he played all of the snaps at "Mike" that Barnes missed.  Summers had 3 solo tackles and Barnes had 3 tackles, one solo.  The Packers finished with just 4 QB hits and 1 sack, but did have 5 tackles for loss.

The Packers played 2.14 true defensive linemen per play (down from 2.25 last week).  The Packers played 1.66 ILBs (up from 1.25 last week), 2.29 OLBs, about the same as last week, and 4.91 DBs (way down from 5.25 last week) on average per play.  None of those numbers are unusual over the course of the entire season.  

Name Snaps % ST
Crosby     10 - 38%
Bradley     7 - 27%
Scott     7 - 27%

Crosby made both of his field goals with a long of 26 and 2 extra points.  He had one touchback on 6 kickoffs.  The opposing team averaged 24.2 yards per return with a long 43.  That is not good.  Scott punted 3 times for a 48.0 gross average and a 44.7 net.  The Packers had no punt returns and allowed two punts to be returned 5 yards each. 

* All statistics per nflgsis unless noted otherwise.

 

 

 

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Comments (15)

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

January 25, 2021 at 09:08 am

I chose to use a photo of Ty Summers. He played a lot of snaps due to the injury to Barnes. It is interesting that the Packers used Barnes (as far as I can tell) at Mike and kept Kirksey and Martin at Will. Martin still gets a dozen snaps or so. Kirksey to do him justice was hitting out there and was active. I watched Barnes (edit - no it was Summers) try to cover Godwin on a crosser - that's not a good matchup for any ILB.

I wonder how many snaps Harrison would have gotten if Lancaster hadn't been hurt.

I don't really get into stats I can't recreate myself, but I thought Ben Baldwin's win probability analysis was at least worth a link.

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murf7777's picture

January 25, 2021 at 08:27 am

Based on MLF presser about the man to man coverage on the Tampa TD with seconds left in the first half as “inexcusable” I would say we have seen the last of Pettine. There is no way King keeps up with the speedy Miller on a 40-50 yard dash. He gets beat 100% of the time.

Disappointing feelings today, but thank you Packers for giving us another exciting, fun filled year. Onto next season and the draft...GPG

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flackcatcher's picture

January 25, 2021 at 01:49 pm

Murf, I was furious that MLF did not call a timeout there. Why either he or Pettine did not stop play was inexcusable. This has been an issue of either MLF being passive-aggressive in the game, or in his pressers, touching on internal problems that should have been hashed out, or dodging responsibility for the screw up. This is not the first time he's played this little game this season either. In his presser after the home Viking game and the Colts game he pulled this 'look a squirrel' on the media. I wish he stopped.

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Lare's picture

January 25, 2021 at 08:30 am

Still can't figure out why MLF won't let Dillon carry the ball more.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

January 25, 2021 at 09:06 am

I was pleased with Dillon's pass reception. He had to adjust to it, which he did admirably in time to turn upfield. I'd like to see a little elusiveness, but it sure looks like he has power. Overall, it looks like he can play in the NFL. My little comment about Jones being a home run threat isn't meant to disparage Dillon, it just notes different abilities.

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murf7777's picture

January 25, 2021 at 08:50 am

TGR, I want to say thanks about you putting together this after every game. You did a great job and I’m very appreciated your efforts.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

January 25, 2021 at 09:02 am

Thank you. If I do it next season (I assume someone will), I might not be so insistent on getting it out by 8:00 a.m. because it makes me hurry. [So Gary did not have 91 tackles - that is 90 too many, so that has been fixed and I have excised the paragraph I accidentally grabbed when I cut and pasted the defensive table with the players' names.

Shout out to Grandfathered for noting in last week's article that Sternberger simply appears to be a healthy scratch. He isn't on the injury report but is on the roster but is always inactive. That would be a significant blow if he is having some kind of problem, whether it is just his play or some other issue. If anyone knows what is up with Jace, please do inform us in a comment.

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flackcatcher's picture

January 25, 2021 at 02:13 pm

What Murf said TGR. Seeing the snap counts fills in all the little pieces we don't see in the game. Sternberger is now a medical issue. And as such HIPAA and league and union rules will keep any more information from getting out, only the player can OK release now. So don't expect to hear anything soon.

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Curt's picture

January 25, 2021 at 09:12 am

Game obviously was lost at the end of the first half - if they call the hold which wipes out the interception, the Packers likely score three points if not seven. Final score is likely similar to LA the week before...probably 30+ to 19.

Plus, the whole debacle that likely causes King not to be signed and Pettine to be unemployed doesn't happen. Of course, it also doesn't happen if Redmond catches the ball the play before for interception either. Why sign Tramon Williams for the game if you are not going to use him at all ....if you want him to retire a Packer just wait a few weeks.

All those things go against GB in a span of 30 seconds. Reminded me of Seattle collapse from 2014.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

January 25, 2021 at 09:55 am

I assume that Tramon would have played had there been an injury to Chandon Sullivan, or perhaps to King or Alexander. Since no injuries occurred, Tramon sat but was active and available.

Just as a technical note, Tramon was signed to the practice squad, not the roster. All PS contracts expire immediately and automatically after the last game. We can expect the Packers to sign a flurry of current PS guys to futures contracts.

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stockholder's picture

January 25, 2021 at 09:20 am

The snap counts say it all. The defense must change. I don't care if Gute trades away a ton of picks to get another DL. And if can't find a CB. Get a safety that can help him.

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Lphill's picture

January 25, 2021 at 10:15 am

Packers proved to the world they are a soft team that gets pushed around by physical teams , how nice it would be to have a physical middle linebacker , you know that position the Packers don’t think is important , now for an entire off season they will be remembered as laughing stock who choked at home while some here will gush over winning 13 games. Pathetic

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stockholder's picture

January 25, 2021 at 11:03 am

Lp you know Queen was the answer. Defensively- The last draft put the packers back 2 years. This team has been set up for Rodgers to leave. 1 way or the other. But it didn't have to be that way. Right now Gute must undo what he did last year. Dump salary. And play Love. The LB you seek is now 2 yrs away. Because the secondary is now a mess. AND: No LB will ever hold up if they don't get another DL first.

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jannes bjornson's picture

January 25, 2021 at 09:29 pm

Then run a 4-3/4-2....Spags had a great attack going Sunday in K.C.

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flackcatcher's picture

January 25, 2021 at 01:28 pm

There is going to be a lot of pushing for the firing of Pettine by some fans. I doubt Gute cares for what some armchair GM's say. We have all known that the defense was pretty thin in the secondary, and Tampa schemed to attack those positions in the Packers defense. Bruce Arians is a smart HC and running unscouted looks that attacked Sullivan in the slot was smart and successful early. Tampa's pace was a lot faster than Green Bay anticipated on both side of the ball. Blaming King for a breakdown in secondary coverage at the end of the half is stupid. Where was Amos or Redman, and why wasn't a timeout called to get the defensive formation right. That is as much on Lafleur as Head Coach to stop play, call a timeout, so his defense can get the presnap formation right. (Gray got some explaining to do) During the second half Pettine was making massive adjustment in game which stalled out Tampa's offense and forced three turnovers. Bottom line: Green Bay's defense again gave this team a chance to win during the second half. Why Lafleur went away from the run game in the fourth quarter is questionable. RB Dillion created mismatches that the Tampa LB could not cope with. And even not committing to play action to keep Tampa from blitzing the OL with the game in doubt is going away from Green Bay's offensive strength. The self scouting is not going to be pretty for the offensive staff this week. (And the odds that Lafleur is going to be fired even after failing in his second straight NFC champ game. 0.01%) The other telling point here, is MLF seemed not to have many offense packages ready to go against the Tampa defense, and with key injuries limited what the Packer offense could do in the second half, or equally MLF did not trust his skill personal till be was forced to play them.

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