Green Bay's Special Teams Appear To Be Turning A Corner

It was the play that changed the game.

Leading 10-6 at the start of the second half, the Minnesota Vikings' defense stopped the Green Bay Packers on their opening drive and forced them to punt. Then something happened that’s pretty rare these days: Green Bay got a takeaway.

The fumble recovery by Zayne Anderson led to a touchdown just two plays later. It’s only one play, but it’s not the only piece of evidence that begs the question: Are the Packers turning things around on special teams?

Remember all the reactionaries imploring the Packers to cut ties with Brandon McManus after a few misses as he tried to play through an injury? All it took was two missed PATs from Lucas Havrisik against the New York Giants to quiet most of those people.

McManus went 20-for-21 a year ago when he joined the Packers and had been nails to start this year before the quad injury. It was bizarre that many wanted him gone. McManus went three for three on his field-goal attempts on Sunday in the 23-6 win.

Do you hear that? It's a collective hush from those who overreacted just a couple of weeks ago.

Now back to the game-changing play on Sunday.

The Vikings have their own special-team woes this year and got the stop they needed to start the second half when they were down by just 4 points. Then Myles Price didn't get away from a bouncing ball, and the Packers pounced. Anderson came out of the pile with the ball, and it set Green Bay up at Minnesota's five-yard line.

Head coach Matt LaFleur

Romeo Doubs isn't an ideal punt returner, and for some reason, Savion Williams still returns kicks with a hesitancy that borders on nervousness. However, Sunday's win truly

”Those are the ones where you've got to capitalize,” Love said of the first of special teams takeaway. “You've got to take advantage of the opportunity. That's the complementary ball we've been talking about.”

The defense was dominant. The offense knew keeping it simple would suffice. Green Bay only had two penalties for the game and gave away zero turnovers. And special teams, a widely criticized group online, delivered on multiple occasions.

Per Anderson, who recovered that muffed punt:

Daniel Whelan has been a rock at punter all season long. He's third in average yards per punt at 50.5 a pop. McManus has been solid when healthy and looked good on Sunday.

Those are two big boxes the Packers have seemingly checked off. Penalties on special teams have cropped up a little too often. And nobody can forget the blocked kick against the Cleveland Browns or the blocked PAT against the Dallas Cowboys, which Dallas ran back for two points. However, might it just be possible that this group is starting to figure it out, rather than this just being a good day against a fairly bad team?

Sunday was as close to a clean sheet as we've seen from Green Bay's special teams this year. They potentially left something on the table in the punt-return department. That’s been a problem for most of the season, with different personnel shuffling in and out of the punt-return game.

But if Packers fans could see that overall special teams performance every week for the rest of the season, they’d be thrilled.

Nobody is asking for Green Bay to do anything crazy on special teams. Eliminate some of the penalties, of which the Packers have 14 this year, tied for the 10th-most in the NFL. Get a little something out of the return game, which has been putrid — perhaps getting a boost via the return of Jayden Reed.

Green Bay’s performance on special teams this Sunday might have been an anomaly, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest it’s a sign of things to come.