Sometimes the thing that separates the best teams from the rest is injuries. Bryan Bulaga is a quality starter at right tackle for the Packers, but he has now missed more time injured than they can be comfortable with, and was forced out of the game last night against the Seahawks after just 20 snaps of action.
During those 20 snaps Bulaga allowed two hurries, both to Cliff Avril, so he wasn’t exactly perfect, but the difference when his backup, Derek Sherrod, came in was marked. Sherrod played 42 snaps, 30 of them pass blocking and allowed two hurries as well as two catastrophic sacks for an overall PFF grade of -6.4. Bulaga had played a little less than half the snaps but his grade ended up at just -0.1 or almost exactly average
The sacks conceded by Sherrod were on consecutive dropbacks and couldn’t have had worse results for the Green Bay offense, resulting in a fourth down stop and a safety respectively. What was perhaps most worrying for Green Bay fans was the speed in which Sherrod was beaten on the plays.
On the fourth down play the quarterback was hit in 2.1 seconds, and for the safety, Seattle defensive lineman Michael Bennett was around him in 1.7 seconds only for Aaron Rodgers to buy a little more time before finally going down.
Sherrod played only six snaps the last two seasons combined and his career is only 163 snaps old. The issue for him is that three of the four games in which he has recorded any snaps of any significance have seen him earn a PFF grade firmly in the red, and all of them have seen him give up multiple pressures.
Green Bay needs to hope that Bulaga’s knee injury isn’t serious, because the problems they’re facing if Sherrod has to start from what we have seen so far most certainly are.
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