GREEN BAY, Wis. — Rashan Gary started crying when Matt LaFleur flipped him a game ball amidst the postgame locker room celebration on Sunday. Gary, still being used on a limited basis in his third game off a torn ACL, paced Green Bay’s defense in an 18-17 comeback win over the Saints with a career-high three sacks, two of which came in the Packers’ second-half shutout.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in here that wouldn’t go to war with this dude,” LaFleur said to the team before it erupted in cheers while surrounding Gary.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry wrapped his arms around Gary as the 25-year-old edge rusher laid his head on Barry’s shoulder and cried.
“I’m gonna try not to get emotional just because it means so much to him,” Barry said Monday. “To truly sit here and witness what he’s gone through — I’m the most positive, upbeat person on the planet, as you guys know. I was like, ‘Ah, god, there’s no way Rashan’s gonna be ready Week 1.’ And just to watch what he’s done Week 1, Week 2 and then to see that, it was really, really cool, so it was a cool moment to be a part of, not only the entire game, but just the postgame and you could see how much it means to that kid.”
Rashan Gary and Quay Walker wrap up Saints quarterback Derek Carr on Sunday. (Wm. Glasheen / USA Today)
Gary tore his ACL in Detroit last season on Nov. 6 after a first eight games that had placed him firmly among the NFL’s best defensive players. The Packers’ pass rush vanished after his season ended, as they went from second in pressure percentage the first nine weeks to 28th from Weeks 10-18, according to TruMedia. Gary himself ranked tied for second in the NFL in pressure percentage through the first eight games among players with at least 100 pass-rush snaps with Cleveland’s Myles Garrett and behind only San Francisco’s Nick Bosa. Gary also ranked tied for seventh in the NFL with six sacks in that span.
Back in time for this season’s opener in Chicago, barely more than 10 months after his injury, Gary picked up right where he left off. The Packers charted him with a whopping seven pressures in only 10 pass-rush snaps against the Bears.
As the Packers ease Gary back into a full workload off such a significant injury, he has proven that he remains among the league’s elite edge rushers. He ranks tied for sixth in the NFL with 3.5 sacks and everyone above him has at least 25 more pass-rush snaps this season (Gary has only 44). Among players with at least 25 pass-rush snaps entering Monday night’s games in Week 3, Gary ranks first in percentage of pass-rush snaps resulting in a pressure (29.5 percent).
Gary played 70 percent of the defensive snaps last season before getting injured and the season before that, 68 percent. This season, he has played in only 26 percent of them. If what he’s done so far is any indication of what’s to come, other teams must be shaking in their cleats for when the Packers finally let him loose.
“He’s a dog, man,” defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “I tell everybody all the time, I’m so proud of him. Just watching him battle back from his injury and he always gets emotional about it. I just know the work that he put in. I know how much he cares about this team. I know how much he loves football and he loves to be out there. I was excited to see that. That was a blessing.”
“That is the most resilient performance I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Down 17-0 & still got it done 💪#NOvsGB | #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/q95gfzKn0U
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) September 24, 2023
The Packers still haven’t extended Gary and his price is only going up while on the final year of his rookie contract, but that’s a topic for another day. It was the former No. 12 overall pick leading the defense to a second-half shutout of the Saints, during which every stop proved vital as the offense mounted a stunning comeback to help the Packers win by one.
Gary led the way with two sacks, one of Derek Carr on third-and-9 for a seven-yard loss with 10:39 left in the third quarter. Gary beat right tackle Ryan Ramczyk and whipped Carr to the ground at the Saints’ own 43-yard line while leaping through the air, causing Carr to suffer a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the game. Then on first-and-14 early in the fourth quarter and the Packers still trailing, 17-3, Gary breezed by Landon Young on the edge and bulldozed Jameis Winston for an eight-yard loss to the Saints’ own 21-yard line.
“Days like this, you kind of get in the zone,” Gary said. “Of course, I woke up feeling like I was going to beat the man across from me, but I can’t tell you I woke up feeling like it was going to be that type of game. Like I said, man, I like where I’m at, I like where I’m going and I’ve just got to keep going. That’s it.”
It wasn’t just Gary who helped stifle the Saints in the second half after allowing 10 first-half points.
To set up Gary’s aforementioned third-down sack of Carr, both Clark and inside linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, filling in for injured starter De’Vondre Campbell, stuffed a Tony Jones Jr. run for only one yard. On the next play, cornerback Rasul Douglas upended running back Kendre Miller on a screen for no gain. Douglas had another impressive play later in the third quarter, this one a pass breakup on wideout Michael Thomas after he ran a seven-yard stop route on first-and-10.
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After hope seemed lost after the Packers’ failed fourth-down attempt from the Saints’ 13-yard line to start the fourth quarter, the defense restored it. Defensive lineman T.J. Slaton and McDuffie stopped another Jones run for only a yard before safety Rudy Ford read an end-around to wide receiver Rashid Shaheed perfectly and halted it for no gain to set up an unsuccessful third-and-long try.
Even cornerback Corey Ballentine made a pivotal play just a day after he was elevated from the practice squad to the game-day roster. Filling in for the injured Carrington Valentine, who had been filling in for the injured Jaire Alexander, Ballentine broke up a third-down go ball to receiver Chris Olave down the right sideline while face-guarding the Saints’ star wideout to force another fourth-quarter punt.
“We made plays when we had to, got off the field when we had to,” Barry said. “Limited them from obviously explosion plays, which is always huge. Collectively, the group — the coaches and the players down on the grass — did a great job.”
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Barry’s unit almost spoiled the comeback attempt by letting the Saints march downfield, thanks in large part to Olave’s incredible 28-yard grab down the right sideline against Ballentine to move the Saints to Green Bay’s 42-yard line. But an impressive tackle of Thomas by safety Darnell Savage Jr., who closed rapidly on Thomas after he caught Winston’s pass on a shallow crosser with Douglas trailing, kept the Saints at a 46-yard field-goal try that rookie Blake Grupe drifted wide right to keep Green Bay’s second-half slate clean.
“Made an unbelievable play on a flat route and a great tackle,” Barry said of Savage. “In that situation, once they do get in that position, you’re just saying, ‘OK, if they are going to attempt a field goal, it’s got to be as long as possible.’ Thankfully, Sav made a great tackle on the guy to make it a long field goal that, thankfully, he pushed.”
After collapsing in the fourth quarter against the Falcons in Week 2 en route to the Packers blowing a 12-point lead, Green Bay’s defense, led by Gary, responded admirably on Sunday when a lifeless offense needed it most.
If only for a week, the hounds can back off Barry, who got a group without two of its best players to play like it’s capable of doing every week.
“We needed it,” Douglas said of the defense’s performance. “I think that boosted all our confidence up and just made us realize that we are who we think we are.”
(Top photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
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