In most of their five games, the Green Bay Packers have gotten off to strong starts.
Their offense finds success and scores early on, and their defense shuts down the opposition.
However, Jeff Hafley’s unit hasn’t been nearly as dominant in the final two quarters of games.
As pointed out by Andy Herman on X, the Packers have struggled to close out games on the defensive side of the field:
“The Packers defense has allowed a total of 20 points in the first half through 5 games. They’ve allowed 80 points in the 2nd half and overtime. Some of that is garbage time, most isn’t. Teams are adjusting to GB’s defense better and GB hasn’t been as effective,” Herman posted on X.
The Packers defense has allowed a total of 20 points in the first half through 5 games.
They’ve allowed 80 points in the 2nd half and overtime. Some of that is garbage time, most isn’t. Teams are adjusting to GB’s defense better and GB hasn’t been as effective.
— Andy Herman (@AndyHermanNFL) October 13, 2025
Granted, some of that has to do with the fact that the team has been up big time in the three wins, and they’ve usually allowed teams to take the middle of the field and move the sticks just to keep the clock going.
Then again, that wasn’t the case in the loss and the tie.
They had shut down the Cleveland Browns for nearly 56 minutes before giving up three scores, and they wound up losing that contest.
Then, they failed to get anything going on defense in the second half and overtime against the Dallas Cowboys.
It’s still way too early to sound the alarms about this issue, and they should continue to give up more points in the second half if they’re already leading by multiple scores down the stretch; that’s just the nature of the game.
Even so, this team has to make sure to keep the foot on the gas for all 60 minutes.
They can’t look past any opponent or play down to their level if they’re serious about competing for a Super Bowl.
