Let’s look back at 2020. Green Bay has just given up 31 points to Tampa Bay in the NFCCG and lost. The pivotal play is a hail mary before the half where Kevin King is assigned to cover TB speedster Scotty Miller, and Mike Pettine is rightly criticized for calling man coverage in that situation. LaFleur didn’t hire Pettine, and quietly allows his contract to lapse during the offseason.
Now, where to go? Who’s the new pick at DC for the Packers? It’s a pretty enticing job. Whoever’s stepping in gets to take the reins of the 9th ranked defense by yards allowed, with a bunch of good pass rushers (Smith Bros, up-and-coming Gary), CBs, and safeties. It’s a team with a winning pedigree and a loaded roster; should be able to nab just about any ambitious DC out there, right?
They hire Joe Barry.
Now, immediately, there are some head scratches going on just based on the man’s resume. Barry was famously the DC for the 0-16 2008 Detroit Lions, a historically bad defense, and seemingly got that position by virtue of being married to Lions head coach Rod Marinelli’s daughter. It’d certainly be a remarkable coincidence if that were not the case. “Man, of all the people in the world most qualified to coach this defense, my daughter happens to be married to #1!” Likely? Hmmmm.
So, they went out and got *that* guy? Maybe he’s done something better since? Barry did in fact DC again after 08, for two Washington squads in 2015 and 2016 that both finished 28th in total defense. So he was the worst, and then when he got a chance at redemption, he was almost the worst. Nuff said, right?
Except then Barry goes to the Rams as Assistant Head Coach/Linebackers Coach, and the Rams end up being the #1 ranked defense in 2020. Now, this doesn’t really seem to matter to Green Bay, who [steamrolls](https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401220398) them in the playoffs to the tune of a near-effortless 484 yards, but hey, maybe there’s someone worth picking up on that squad. After all, with a defense highlighted by Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey on the back end, surely the man in charge of.. neither DBs nor the D-Line will do it!
In 2021, Barry achieves an identical result to his predecessor, finishing 9th in total defense. The unit overcomes Z and Jaire being out most of the year and holds San Francisco to 13 points in the playoffs, and looks like they’ll be primed to take over in the coming year. Except they don’t.
2022 Week 1, Minnesota walks all over the Packers’ healthy starting defense. Justin Jefferson goes 9/184 and 2 TDs, and the Vikings are never worried.
A couple of weeks later, the Bailey Zappe-led Patriots under OC Matt Patricia (who will be fired at the end of the season) take Green Bay to overtime at Lambeau. Green Bay ekes out a win after some Rodgers heroics, but by the skin of their teeth.
Then begins a stretch wherein teams average 26 ppg in four losses. Giants/Jets/Washington/Buffalo all essentially have their way with the star-studded defense, and Green Bay skids. Then Gary and Stokes are lost in a low-scoring slugfest at Detroit, and after that the defense looks pathetic for a few more weeks. Green Bay manages to beat Dallas in OT despite surrendering 28 points, and then Tennessee and Philadelphia average 450 ypg and 33.5 points in two brutal losses. Green Bay cleans up Chicago and heads into the bye.
After the bye, Green Bay goes 3-1. They beat a 4-9 Rams team at home led by Baker Mayfield, and then they beat the Dolphins. Now this one is interesting, because the Dolphins are vaunted as an elite offense- is this finally a signature win for Barry? I’d argue no. The Dolphins still put up 376 yards but only 20 points due to 4 turnovers. This is also amid a 5-game losing streak for a skidding Miami squad. Barry gets a win here, but we’re still calling it “average.” His defense has officially managed one average opponent in the past ten weeks.
GB closes out the season 1-1 with a decisive win over Minnesota at home, and then a low-scoring loss at home vs Detroit. I’d say the defense were solid in these two games, but it’s worth noting that Minnesota lost their starting center early, and were never really able to establish anything.
At the end of it all, Green Bay finishes 17th in total defense- their first time out of the top ten in three years. People will say “oh, well he was doing it without Stokes/Gary/Campbell for much of the season” but early on, he had them, and was still underperforming. I’d argue Barry had better players across the board than Pettine ever did, and did worse with them.
Now we’re coming off this Atlanta loss, and it looks like more of the same. Atlanta isn’t a good team. In week 1 they managed 221 yards at home vs the Panthers, and Barry allowed nearly double that yardage. Barry has a defense loaded with first-round talent and pro-bowlers (all pros, even) across the board, and they’re looking every bit as bad as last year.
Why was Barry hired in the first place? He was DC for two awful defenses and then was briefly employed in the same room as Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey.
I’ve seen nothing from Joe Barry apart from regression and a waste of what could be the most talented defensive roster in the NFL. Jaire Alexander is a top 5 CB. De’Vondre Campbell was 1st Team all-pro two years ago (one of Barry’s admitted high points). Rashan Gary is getting healthy and is a top 5 EDGE. Preston Smith is a pro-bowler. Kenny Clark is an elite nose tackle, and Devonte Wyatt is making a step in year two. The team has 7 first round picks out there surrendering 446 yards and 36 minutes to the Falcons.
If this trend continues, Barry needs to be gone. And we need to demand it. He shouldn’t have been hired in the first place, and it amazes me that he wasn’t let go after last season, when the team so easily parted with Mike Pettine for losing a respectable game to Tom Brady two years prior.
27 comments
We’ve invested far too much in our defense for far too long for it to be this __fucking pathetic__ – coordinator problem or not.
Calling them bad doesn’t do enough justice when they have the talent to be better. Use the term *pathetic* because that better fits that shell of a unit. Those who watched the JT O’Sullivan breakdown saw this coming.
It has to get fixed. It’s beyond ridiculous.
FJB!
Nobody on Reddit has the power to make this change, else it would have happened already.
Defense was decent in 2021 despite an atrocious special teams that hurt our D in so many different ways.
We shut down the 49ers in the playoffs but they beat us because we couldn’t score on offense and a blocked punt. If our modern day defense was just as good as 2021, I’d be fine with him having his job.
We’ve allowed 20 points, and then 25 points meaning we are only allowing 22.5 points per game. Not awful not great. Honestly yeah I hope he gets fired if nothing improves. We need 2009 and 2010 Dom Capers back. Greatest DC in the history of Packers football
We all have PTSD from Joe Berry’s defense the last couple of years, but I don’t think this game is on him.
The players seemed to be in position most of the time. Players just didn’t make plays. Saw a 2 dropped interception ( one of them would have been a TD ) and a bunch of missed tackles against what looks like an elite running back.
Remember the reason of Joe Barry hiring because LaFleur wants to bring in the Brandon Stayley-ish defensive scheme, and now even Brandon Stayley defense is giving up 36 points with 536 yards to Tua and Hill-led Dolphins and 27 points with 341 yards to Tannehill and Henry-led Titans (LOL)
This team is allergic to good defense. They’ve been absolute dog shit since 2015. New DC, new players, doesn’t matter. We somehow continue to fucking suck on defense. It’s actually pretty impressive at this point how they’ve been so bad for so long.
Am I the only fan that fully expects all sorts of games like todays this season? Some of y’all need to chill. If the 2 dropped interceptions were caught and/or Aaron Jones was playing we would have won.
His scheme is basically perpetual prevent defense. We rarely blitz, the primary coverage is soft zone, the safeties are kept far from the line of scrimmage, we don’t press on the outside and we don’t care about stopping the run. The main concern is not letting the offense score too quickly. Mission accomplished today.
Wow I can’t believe you typed all that. You could have just said fuck Joe Barry and we’d all agree. Also I still hate the Pettine thing. He had a lot less talent to work with. He at least understood the fundamentals of defense. King was just a liability on the field at that point. He’d probably have had a top 5 with this team. Remember before jaire we had two busts at corners plus king.
Maybe he’s not great, but the defense today held the Falcons to two field goals in the last two possessions. Offense just needed something in the 4th quarter…couldn’t stay on the field to kick a FG or at least give the D a breather. It’s a team game, I will file this one under *growing pains*
Great summary of the situation!
Touch grass
I wanted Flores or Vic Fangio. Flores would’ve been such a great hire.
Barry should’ve been gone 2 years ago. He’s inept and should be nothing more than a position coach. Retaining Barry for too long might be lafluers downfall
Excellent post. The hire made no sense at the time, and only looks worse in hindsight.
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Now do MLF.
He needs to go if this trend continues? This trend has been going steady for a while now. He should have been fired before this season, if not far sooner. He is awful and has been holding this team back since the day he arrived.
Fire Joe Barry.
Cry me a River!!!
Am I crazy to say that we would be lock down on defense today? Just giving up nothing, making opportunities, then when we got up the play calling completely changed? We played defense scared and went back to playing 10 yards off the ball? Then we shit the bed? We looked great on defense then second half we just regressed back to playing so far off the ball. I don’t understand
That’s a lot to type for the second game into the Love era. Beat the Bears and Vikings and maybe lions if ya can and let’s get a high draft pick and this young team some experience.
Also, they went for Leonhard he declined. Barry wasn’t the first pick.
My biggest problem with it is the stupid zone they’re always in. You have good cover corners let them man up and jam receivers at the line. As far as the falcons game I think the game plan was stupid as hell. Ridder is basically a rookie…stack the box and sell out to stop the run. Make ridder beat you by throwing the ball. Why they were playing back and not run blitzing didn’t make sense to me. Players on defense didn’t play very well but I think the game plan sucked
Yeah lets not do that.
not only was it a terrible loss, it’s also the night i was nearly mauled to death by a dog.
lets just go ahead and leave that one in the past
For all the people saying “this is just one game it’s not the end of the world” yes it is. I live in Atlanta and I’ve been talking so much shit all week at work 😔
I’m not a huge Barry fan.
But if those two easy INTs hadn’t been dropped, this game likely ends different and we’d be talking about something else entii. This loss wasn’t really on him imo. Our guys were where they needed to be several times and they didn’t execute.
Honestly, at the end of the season, when the Packers are still somehow fighting for the division title because the division is dogshit and the Lions just don’t know how to be winners, ever…the Packers will lose out because of coaching. LaFleur and his aggravating refusal to keep the foot on the gas with a lead of any size and just as infuriating need to stand by his hiring decisions, and Barry because he just will not, ever, adapt his defense to the needs at hand. Yes, no one was expecting a dominant season, but they look like a pretty damn good team, good enough that they shouldn’t be losing to a rookie QB in his second game on one of the absolute worst teams in the league. Yes, they’re young, but this definitely seems like it will be a case of needing the games you should have won in September once December rolls around.
Joe Berry is Dom Capers 2.0