Packers Defensive Stats Over Past 8 Weeks Are an Indictment on Mike Pettine

The Green Bay Packers entered Week 12 extra rested, but were destroyed 37-8 by the San Francisco 49ers. While many point to the Packers offense being unable to get anything going against the tough 49ers defense, Green Bay's defensive unit still looked like they were on the bye week.

Unfortunately for Green Bay's defense, their struggles have been obvious for the past eight games. Sheil Kapadia of The Athletic revealed the dreadful defensive stats by the Packers in that span, and full responsibility falls on coordinator Mike Pettine.

The Packers spent their entire offseason bolstering up their defense. In free agency, the team spent big bucks on Za'Darius Smith, Adrian Amos, and Preston Smith. On top of that, general manager Brian Gutekunst used his two first-round picks on defensive end Rashan Gary and safety Darnell Savage.

Even with these additions, there's been no improvement. The numbers are even worse when compared to last year's Packers team that had little depth on defense. Ironically, the coordinator in 2018 was Mike Pettine.

To make matters worse, the Packers were fully healthy exiting the bye week. How does having all this talent yield such poor results? That's an indictment on the defensive coaching staff, with Pettine deserving full blame.

Either way, if the defense doesn't step things up in the five weeks remaining in the regular season, Pettine will surely be shown the door at year's end.