Dom Capers wasn't planning to go back to the drawing board this week, but the detailed and ambitious defensive coordinator has some proverbial fires to put out with the players out of sight for the team's bye.
The Packers are the league's premier team with a 7-0 record, but Capers isn't thrilled that his unit has been vulnerable to giving up substantial chunks of yardage.
"The biggest challenge and biggest area of focus over the bye week here is we've got to give up fewer big plays," Capers told reporters Monday, before the players were excused for the rest of the week.
The Packers will return to work next Monday with a scheduled practice ahead of their Nov. 6 game at the AFC West-leading San Diego Chargers.
"You've all heard me say before that if we don't give up big plays, we'll be hard to score against," Capers added. "When we give up big plays, it normally results into points on the board."
Capers was lamenting six explosive plays of at least 24 yards the defense allowed to a Minnesota Vikings offense that had rookie quarterback Christian Ponder as a first-time starter Sunday.
Half of those were huge runs by Adrian Peterson, including one for 54 yards as he finished with 175 yards in 24 carries. The other three long-gainers came on passes thrown by Ponder, highlighted by a 72-yard deep ball to receiver Michael Jenkins on a coverage lapse by cornerback Tramon Williams on the first play of the game.
"I think it's a number of things," Capers said. "It's a little breakdown here or there. That's all it takes. The very first play, we're in a three-deep zone, and they run an out-and-up on us. We just weren't very good technique-wise on that play.
"The cutback run (by Peterson) for 54 yards on us, we had three missed tackles. We knew going in that Peterson could make you look bad because he's such an explosive guy."
Although the Packers have allowed 288.9 passing yards per game, ranking 31st out of 32 teams, and are 27th in giving up an average of 391 total yards per contest, Capers can take some solace in that his struggling defense has been resilient.
Green Bay is allowing an average of just 20.1 points per game, ranking it 10th. Better yet, the Packers have a league-high 13 interceptions and are tied with the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets for the top spot with 16 takeaways.
"We're leading the league in takeaways, which has always been a staple of our defense," Capers said. "If you can win the takeaway-giveaway (ratio), I think that gives you a winning formula. We've got a lot of things to work on. We're not where we want to be. I think we can improve in a lot of areas.
"Our bye week comes at a good time for us on defense. We'll step back, look things over and know we have a tough stretch when we come back here and work in another week."