Packers Defensive Coordinator (Sole Stealer) Joe Barry is FIRED!!

It had to be MLF taking a stronger hand in the D. I can't see Barry changing his passive playcalling any other way. I wonder if MLF told Barry that the last weeks of the season are his audition for another job, and if Cardinal was right, he may even have been telling Barry what he wanted or what he was seeing on the field. In addition, someone had to step up to bring Campbell and Jaire back to the table because Campbell said he was done. Love? Jones? MLF? Who knows?

But I am also guessing that today MLF is a bit pissed that he had to bring his starters back on both sides of the ball. That's embarrassing when you have that big of a lead late in the fourth. Yes, MLF might have pulled them early, but with that score at six minutes you'd expect to be safe. If you leave a starter in and he gets hurt... well, danged if you do; and with Barry as your DC, danged if you don't.

I'm not defending Joe Barry in any way. I think he sealed his fate mid-season, and will not have his contract renewed.  That said, the grief he's getting for the 4th quarter is really not warranted.

With about 10 minutes left in the game, the Packers just scored to go up 32 points. In order for the Cowboys to tie/take the lead in only 10 minutes, they would have had to: score 4 TDs and 4 two-point conversions or score 5 TDs. Not very likely, if not impossible.

This is a totally different scenario than the Panthers game. 

The Cowboys take almost half of the game time remaining to cut the lead to 24 points.  There is now now just over six minutes.  The Packers get the ball and go ultra-conservative (the right call) with three straight runs up the gut....WITH THE BACKUP QB AND 3rd STRING RB. Just like the defense, LaFleur pulled several starters and went conservative. They only chem up just over a minute of clock time.

The Cowboys next possession against backups netted another TD. But it only took them 4 plays and 86 seconds.  That's exactly what the Packers don't want to happen - a quick score.  By the away, Eric Wilson and Zayne Anderson were two of the players on the field who almost never see game time (outside of STs).

Packers get the ball, go conservative, call their own time out before the 2-minute warning, and then decide to throw an incompletion before the 2-minute warning to stop the clock. Is it a good call by LaFleur to throw the ball and ice the game? Or was it a stupid call because it failed and stopped the clock when time-remaining was the Cowboy's biggest challenge? It can't be both. Smart play would've been to run the ball and take it to the 2-minute warning.

Dallas gets the ball with 2:22 left in the game, The Packers bring their starters back in, and the Cowboys don't score.  Game over. 

All that said, if any defensive starter, let alone a key contributor, got injured on any of those last couple of drives, fans would be screaming about why [Clarke, Gary, Preston, Quay, etc.] was still in the game when the Packers had such a big lead with so little time left.

A 32-point lead with ten minutes remaining is exactly when a defense should go prevent.

Well, the Cowboys were being kind of rude by still trying to win.

Players making plays. At this point I don't care the reason.

Back in the middle of the season I thought Nixon was done.  His returns were down, he played horrible coverage.   How rong I was.    Like the rest of the D he has turned it around.  I don't know who flipped what switch but it is working.   

Yeah, when Rasul chewed his ass out after the Adams TD in the Raiders game it looked like a low point for him. It probably was but man did he ever bounce back.

Nixon is in a contract year. He's looking to get paid.

Credit FJB with stepping in between #10 and history.

It seems that the defense has had a different attitude since the Jaire suspension and MLF pretty much saying that Barry was likely going to be fired after the season.

Someday we will hear the true story of the 2023/24 Packers....and who was "dialing up" the defense vs. Chicago, Minnesota and Dallas

What I loved, at least in the first half, was less "soft zone" and a type of zone that had players flowing to the Cowboy near them, and unlike Tampa Bay the Cowboys didn't flood any of the zones.

@H5 posted:

   

This is true. As I advanced in my jujitsu training, I realized that a white belt newbie is more dangerous than a black belt because they didn’t know what they were doing, and could hurt you in advertently.

Play on. 😛

I don't want to alarm anyone but Joe Barry might be cooking.

— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) January 14, 2024

I always hated getting hurt in the advertently. 

Autocor rect acci dently sep arated  conjo ined twins

Can we nickname this upcoming game, "The Swordsman?"

Thanks for posting a clip of P. Smith in man coverage against Jefferson.

It's Wednesday Joe....

#Packers DC Joe Barry opens: "Happy Thursday."

He's exactly right. Today is Thursday.

— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) January 17, 2024

Technically, due to practice schedule he’s right because they play on Saturday not Sunday. Dude is playing three level chess while other people are playing checkers. 🤪

<sarcasm alert>

It's always Thursday somewhere.

Joe didn't say it was Thursday. He said to have a happy Thursday, or that Thursday was itself happy. Geesh.

I just wanna know what pronoun Thursday was using.

All this Thursday talk is making be thirsty.  A good stiff belt of kool-aid solves everything - at least until the game is played on Saturday. 

I agree with this 100%

Thought Joe Barry did a really great job today 🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/1pyWy3Xl6y

— Andy Herman (@AndyHermanNFL) January 21, 2024

I think it really helped with Niners losing Deebo...but Packers played really well on defense vs. the #1 offense.

I'm not saying I want Berry back but they played really well after the Carolina game. Whether that was MLF inserting more of himself on defense we'll find out later I'm sure.....

Love was not good in the 4th.  On the play before Carlson missed. 3rd and 9 at the 23.   You could see SF was selling out on a zero blitz. Love didn’t adjust to it and had no where to go. Floater to no one in particular. Incomplete. He was nails against that same look in Dallas last week. That was frustrating.

I thought that was the one where they showed the look and then bailed or am I thinking of a different play?

https://atozsports.com/green-b...t-lafleur-joe-barry/

Click bait headline on the article.

I want to get the Packer defense DVOA above 14 by the end of the year in 2024.

That just isn't going to happen if they run back Joe Berry again. I believe MLF will move on....just give it some time. 

I also felt like for the most part, Joe Barry did a good job in this last month of the year including last night.

If Joe Barry loses his job, it’s not because of last night.  It’s because of making Desmond Ridder, Tommy Devito, and Kenny Pickett led offenses look as good as San Francisco’s #1 offense.  It’s making Baker Mayfield look like a 1st ballot Hall of Fame QB.  It’s making Bryce Young look like a savvy veteran QB.

For the most part, I felt like the Pack had an incredible cream puff schedule and a better coordinated defense wouldn’t have struggled as much vs so many weak offenses.  We got pretty lucky not having to face Matt Stafford, Kirk Cousins in Vikings rematch, and only facing Derek Carr for a half of a game.

Maybe the scary thing is, there are way more Joe Barrys out there than there are than there are Steve Spagnuolu’s.  Replacing Joe Barry won’t help much if we get another guy just like him.  And in fairness to Barry, there definitely needs to be a few changes in defensive personnel as well for this defense to take another step or 2 forwards.

Take the devil you know over the devil you don't?

Take him to the Red Lobster, order him all the sole he can eat and leave him there.

@ChilliJon posted:

Love was not good in the 4th.  On the play before Carlson missed. 3rd and 9 at the 23.   You could see SF was selling out on a zero blitz. Love didn’t adjust to it and had no where to go. Floater to no one in particular. Incomplete. He was nails against that same look in Dallas last week. That was frustrating.

There should have been a hot read for the gaping hole those 3 blitzers left behind them.  There wasn't.  The closest guy was already in the secondary.  I don't know how much of that was Love and how much was MLF.  But that's the thing when a HC/OC and QB are so in sync.  It's never just one of them.  With AR you could guess pretty well that it was AR because he was filling both roles.

I am not a fan of Joe B but the Packers did not lose last night because of the defense. Unless you want to blame the dropped interceptions on him. If they make either of those plays we are all supporting Joe for an extension. Savage cost them at least 14 points. The dropped PI and the matador tackle on Macaffery both of which were embarrassing.

I don't think any other DC could have gotten any more from what was shown last night.

I would be surprised if he is not fired.

I want to know if the improvement over the last month is due to Barry or MLF telling Barry what to do. If it's MLF telling Barry what to do and even during games -- basically, how aggressive to be or what to call -- that's not sustainable for the long haul. MLF already calls plays and has enough on his plate as HC. If it's Barry making changes, then why doesn't he do it all year? Same thing has happened each year of Barry's tenure, and each year he promises something different. If it hasn't happened yet, it isn't going to happen now. Let him go somewhere else to be great for a month; I want an all-season guy.

Barry needs to be fired. After the missed FG Barry had nothing to lose. Not supposed to be there. No downside. Dial up the most insane nonsense you have in the holster. Throw the house at Purdy  

Instead play vanilla zone and do nothing resulting in only 2 third downs on a 78 yard drive.
No thanks running that back. Fire him.

@Floridarob posted:

I am not a fan of Joe B but the Packers did not lose last night because of the defense. Unless you want to blame the dropped interceptions on him. If they make either of those plays we are all supporting Joe for an extension. Savage cost them at least 14 points. The dropped PI and the matador tackle on Macaffery both of which were embarrassing.

I don't think any other DC could have gotten any more from what was shown last night.

I would be surprised if he is not fired.

Once again, he will not be fired. His contract is up. Either he gets a new contract or he is allowed to walk.   That is the whole premise of MLF/Gutey not doing an in season firing.  It is the exact situation MM is facing in Dallas for next season.

He should be fired but he won’t.  MLF protects him and Murphy is on his way out so I would be shocked if they make changes to the coaching staff, including Barry.

There is no Packers fan alive that thought the defense would stop them on that last drive.