Packers Week 6 Snap Counts: What to make of the mess in Tampa?

The Green Bay Packers put Tim Boyle on the field to finish off Sunday’s game in Tampa, making this the fourth out of five contests this year where he has taken snaps. However, unlike the first three, this action came at the end of a blowout loss instead of kneeling down to close out a Packers victory.

The Packers dropped a brutal 38-10 decision to the Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon, and it’s still difficult to wrap our heads around what happened, even more than 12 hours later. The team got back a few key players on both sides of the football, but it didn’t matter much as the shift in the second quarter blew the doors off and left the Packers grasping at straws.

Perhaps the worst part of the second half was an injury to All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, who will hopefully be able to return in time for next week’s game against the Houston Texans.

Here’s how playing time broke down in Tampa on Sunday.

OFFENSE (63 total)

Quarterbacks

Aaron Rodgers 60, Tim Boyle 3

What a brutal day it was for Rodgers. Coming into the game, he was leading the NFL in several passing efficiency categories, but that lead has vanished. He finished the game 16-for-35 for 160 yards and two interceptions. That gave him a passer rating of 35.4, his second-worst passer rating in a single game in his career, ahead of only the 2014 game in Buffalo.

Boyle could easily have come on earlier, especially with Matt LaFleur signaling that he was giving up by punting the ball from midfield when down 21 points early in the fourth quarter. As it was, he came on for only the final series, getting strip-sacked on third down but recovering his own fumble.

Running Backs

Aaron Jones 36, Jamaal Williams 32, A.J. Dillon 10

The Packers’ runners had nowhere to go on nearly every play. They did account for all three of the team’s 20-yard plays, with one apiece — Williams and Dillon on runs and Jones on a reception — but the Buccaneers’ linebackers were simply outrunning blocks and making plays on the backs behind the line of scrimmage with regularity. The trio of backs finished the day with 80 yards on 19 carries, and while Jones had the team’s lone touchdown, he was just 10-for-15 on the ground on the day.

Wide Receivers

Marquez Valdes-Scantling 53, Davante Adams 52, Malik Taylor 32, Equanimeous St. Brown 11, Darrius Shepherd 6

It was a rough day for the wideout group all around. Adams caught six passes for 61 yards, but he was targeted ten times, including on both of Rodgers’ interceptions. He also bailed Rodgers out by hauling in a few inaccurate throws on slants or crossers, as the stat line could have been even worse.

MVS had a few nice plays to move the chains, but continues to be unable to hit on deep balls. He finished with three catches on five targets for 32 yards. Shepherd caught his only target for 16, while St. Brown, in his first action since 2018, looked rusty. He had one miscommunication with Rodgers early on, then dropped an easy catch later. Taylor had one target that fell incomplete.

Tight Ends

Robert Tonyan 37, Marcedes Lewis 21, Jace Sternberger 20, Jon Lovett 5

Tonyan was a bit banged up at one point in this game, as the turf caught his cleat, but he finished with three catches on four targets for 25 yards. Lewis failed to bring in either of his targets, as Rodgers overthrew him while he was wide open up the seam for what should have been a 40-plus yard gain.

Lovett made a great special teams tackle, but his most notable play was an unfortunate one that resulted in an injury to the team’s most important offensive lineman.

Offensive Linemen

Elgton Jenkins 63, Corey Linsley 63, Lucas Patrick 63, Billy Turner 63, David Bakhtiari 40, Rick Wagner 23

That injury was to Bakhtiari, who tripped over Lovett at the end of an unsuccessful running play in the second half and injured his chest. Despite reasonable fears about a torn pec, the Packers believe that Bakh avoided serious injury, though he did not return in the game. Wagner came on in relief, manning the position he played in Madison for a few years, but he struggled mightily in his 23 snaps.

The rest of the line was a mess as well. Linsley could not get up to block linebackers in the run game, as Lavonte David and Devin White ran circles around the linemen. All told, the Packers’ quarterbacks were sacked five times, and few of them were due to holding the ball too long.

DEFENSE (65 total)

Defensive Linemen

Dean Lowry 43, Kenny Clark 41, Kingsley Keke 37, Montravius Adams 28, Tyler Lancaster 9

While the team gave up some chunks of rushing yards late, the line did a good job bottling up Ronald Jones early in the game. Football Outsiders’ analysts, particularly Aaron Schatz, were consistently complaining about the Bucs running Jones for two yards on nearly every first down opportunity. Keke and Lowry had six and five assisted tackles apiece, while Adams had three solos and one assist and tallied the team’s only tackle for loss in the entire game.

Lancaster suffered an injury early on and left the game, likely contributing to the heavier workload for Adams. The team also went to more of a typical three-man line than usual late in the game with the Buccaneers trying to run out the clock.

Outside Linebackers

Za’Darius Smith 49, Preston Smith 43, Rashan Gary 17, Jonathan Garvin 16, Randy Ramsey 10

The Packers got four hits on Tom Brady in this game, but few if any additional pressures outside of that. The Smiths plus Gary were each credited with one hit, though Gary’s came with a well-earned facemask penalty for grabbing Brady’s helmet and poking him in the eye. The group as a whole vanished for long stretches, however, and only Garvin (three) had more than two tackles.

Inside Linebackers

Krys Barnes 57, Ty Summers 22, Oren Burks 14

Barnes continues to be a minor positive on this team, as he led the way with ten tackles, several of them impressive sticks in the run game. He manned the communications helmet for most of the game and certainly looks like the most instinctive linebacker available to this team right now. For all the talk of his athleticism and coverage ability, Burks got beaten by the shambling corpse of Rob Gronkowski for a big gain, showing signs of why Mike Pettine is so loath to use him on defense.

Safeties

Adrian Amos 65, Darnell Savage 43, Raven Greene 24, Will Redmond 22

The Packers’ safeties seemed to struggle mightily in this game. Amos also got beaten by Gronk, with his allowed reception going for a touchdown. He totaled just three tackles in the game, while Savage had five. Greene and Redmond were relatively quiet, though Redmond had the team’s fourth QB hit.

Cornerbacks

Josh Jackson 65, Jaire Alexander 60, Chandon Sullivan 46, Ka’Dar Hollman 5

With no Kevin King, the Packers were forced to suit Jackson up for every defensive snap. At times early on it seemed to be going well — he was willing to stick his nose in and make tackles, getting a few big stops including a run stuff on third-and-two to force a punt. But in the second half, he struggled mightily, giving up a touchdown to Tyler Johnson and then drawing a flag for a clear pass interference penalty near the goal line when he never even tried to play the football.

Alexander struggled at times as well, most notably giving up a big gain to Chris Godwin after getting fooled by his route from the inside position in a tight bunch formation. Sullivan probably played the best of the group, but his status as almost exclusively a slot corner limits just how much impact he will have.

SPECIAL TEAMS LEADERS

Burks 25, Summers 25, Lovett 20, Greene 17, Williams 17, Ramsey 15, Dillon 14