Sunday’s loss to the Packers dropped the Bolts to 4-6 on the year and 2-5 in one-score games this season. It was also the second straight week in which the defense struggled — they have given up a combined 957 yards and 64 points in back-to-back losses.
The defense gave up 424 yards to the Packers, who have had issues producing on offense throughout the season and had not hit 400-plus yards or 300-plus passing yards going into Sunday. This came after the Chargers’ loss to the Lions last week when the defense gave up 533 yards. Overall, the defense has struggled mightily throughout the season, ranking near the bottom in the league in yards allowed per game through Weeks 1-10, leading to questions for Staley about what, if any, changes might be in store for L.A. in order to address and resolve the long-term issues.
But when Staley was repeatedly asked by reporters after the game whether there might be more to the struggles than just a lack of execution, Staley remained vehement that there was not an issue with the defense as a unit or his play-calling, no matter what the media or fans might suggest.
“I’m not here to talk to the fan base, I’m here to talk to my players, the locker room. I know that we give ourselves a chance to win every single week with the game plans that we have, and we have done it here,” Staley said on Sunday. “You guys act like we’ve never played good defense. That’s not the truth. You act like we haven’t made any improvements. … There were a lot of other things that caused us to lose today. It certainly wasn’t our defense. It was the way we played as a team.
“We didn’t play well enough in the red zone on offense, we dropped too many passes, we gave up a few killer sacks, OK, we did this as a team. Stop making it about one unit because that’s not what happened out there today. Our team lost, and I am fully responsible for it, and I take full responsibility. But we lost as a team today, and that’s the storyline.”