The Green Bay Packers are coming off a 17-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. On what turned out to be the game-winning drive, the Raiders got star receiver Davante Adams matched against outside linebacker Preston Smith.
The results were predictable.
Adams got himself open in an instant for what wound up being a gain of 21 yards. A few plays later, the Raiders were in the end zone for what wound up being the decisive touchdown.
The question to defensive coordinator Joe Barry on Monday wasn’t why Smith had to cover Adams (or why Jaire Alexander was on a fullback on the other side of the field). It was why cornerback Rasul Douglas, who was lined up to Smith’s right to cover running back Josh Jacobs, didn’t flip-flop assignments with Smith.
“Yeah, I wish it was that easy,” Barry said. “We called a coverage that required Preston to drop, and he happened to be a boundary dropper, and they happened to put Tae at slot into the boundary. So, sometimes you’ll have mechanisms where you have checks or things built in where you can get out of that.
“We simply, just based on the personnel that we were in and the personnel that they were in, we didn’t have that mechanism, and it ended up being …”
Barry stopped himself, then switched directions with his answer.
“Why didn’t you ask about the other three catches and the 23 yards that Tae had? You just brought up that one catch.”
It’s definitely possible the typically good-natured defensive coordinator was giving this reporter some grief, though there wasn’t a smile on his face when he redirected his response.
Regardless, the question was why Douglas and Smith didn’t switch assignments.
“I wish it was that easy,” Barry said. “If you’re Preston, you almost have to survive the down and keep it to as minimal [of a gain] as you can. But that’s a poor matchup for him to be in, and that’s totally on me. For us to be able to put him in that situation, we’ve got to have a mechanism to get out of it, and we just have to have a built-in check, which we will and we can do.
“But, based on the personnel they were in, we never thought it would come up. So ended up being a bad play. That was me, it was not Preston.”
Barry’s right about one thing: It’s not Smith’s fault that, under a scenario Barry “never thought” would happen, he couldn’t cover a receiver who’s likely going to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But that’s not the point. Why didn’t Smith and Douglas, two veteran players, make their own adjustment so a corner was covering a receiver and a linebacker was covering a running back?
Finally, Barry answered.
“Because Preston’s not a corner and it would be even worse to have to have him a deep third. You wouldn’t want that,” Barry said. “You’ve got mechanisms that you can survive the down and I didn’t give them one. It was probably the worst play of the night, unfortunately.”
With Smith on Adams, the best-case scenario, Barry said, was Smith taking away the inside and forcing Adams outside. Adams would catch the ball, anyway, but the combination of Smith, Douglas and the sideline would hold the second-and-10 play short of the first-down marker.
But Adams is Adams. It would be Adams, not Smith, dictating the action.
“Davante is one of the greatest of all-time of being able to cross people over and beat them inside, and he does it with elite corners,” Barry said.
Adams won the route inside, then picked up about 14 yards after the catch for a gain of 21.
The Packers lost, but Barry liked what he saw from his unit as it gets ready for the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
“We’ve got a ton of football left,” he said. “I’m excited about that.”
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