According to Pro Football Focus, Green Bay Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie has been targeted 23 times over the last two games and has allowed 20 receptions for 209 yards and two touchdowns. On top of that, fellow linebackers Quay Walker and Eric Wilson have been targeted a combined 20 times for 19 receptions, 155 yards and a touchdown over that same time span.

These problems aren’t the same linebacker issues that popped up in Week 1, though, when the Packers were caught with McDuffie covering a wheel route up the sideline for a Saquon Barkley touchdown. Green Bay isn’t giving up plays on the perimeter. It’s all over the middle of the field.

If you’ve been watching these past two games, you’ve probably noticed that the intermediate middle of the field, right behind linebacker level, has been where both Tua Tagovailoa and Jared Goff have thrived in the passing game. If you need an illustration of this, check out their spray charts from Next Gen Stats, which show virtually no perimeter success while the middle of the field is lit up like a Christmas tree.

On individual plays, you can parse out different issues. Sometimes there are assignment problems for the linebackers. Sometimes the linebackers aren’t dropping into their zones deep enough, but once they overcorrect teams will throw screens at them — which the Lions did very well on Thursday. Sometimes plays are covered for a moment, but the Packers’ pass-rush can’t get home with four players, despite everyone being told to expect a more aggressive unit under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.

The reasoning doesn’t matter in the end. What this all boils down to is that the Packers can’t cover the middle of the field right now, and back-to-back games on film prove that. Other teams will look to repeat the success of Tagovailo and Goff moving forward.

For Green Bay, having a better plan of action for this area of the field will be the key to the end of their 2024 season, as they’ll see throws into the middle of the field until they can prove that they can stop them.