Bakhtiari, Barclay had hands full with Seahawks’ rushers

Starting left tackle Bulaga out with an injury

GREEN BAY, Wis. — There aren’t many times that your starting tackles can allow a combined 19 combined quarterback sacks, hits and pressures and you can still feel good about things.

But given the quality of the opponent – and quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ ability to step up to avoid a collapsing pocket – the Green Bay Packers weren’t displeased with the play of left tackle David Bakhtiari and fill-in right tackle Don Barclay in Sunday night’s win over Seattle.

Despite pressure throughout the game, Rodgers was only sacked twice.

“We played against a very good defensive line [Sunday] night. I mean, that’s a heck of a bunch, now,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said of when asked Monday evening about the tackles’ play. “We were able to move the football consistently and so forth … But we could be a little better on a certain type of pass rush that we saw a lot, and those are the kind of things we’ll focus on during the course of the week.”

McCarthy pointed out after the game that the certain type of rush was a power bull rush, which gave both Bakhtiari and Barclay trouble.

Advanced analytics site Pro Football Focus charged Bakhtiari with seven pressures in addition to the two sacks he surrendered, while Barclay – starting in place of Bryan Bulaga, who is expected to miss four to six weeks after spraining the medical collateral ligament in his left knee and reportedly having surgery to repair the meniscus in the knee – was charged with 10 pressures.

PFF credited Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril with nine quarterback hurries, linebacker Bruce Irvin with a quarterback hit and four hurries, and defensive end Michael Bennett with five hurries. Irvin and Bennett were credited with the Seahawks’ two sacks.

Rodgers threw 33 passes Sunday night, scrambled five times and was sacked twice – meaning he was under pressure on roughly half is drop-backs.

“It’s a very good defense,” associate head coach/offense Tom Clements said. “We threw the ball I think 33 times, got some pressure at times. That’s to be expected.

“We tried to help [the tackles] at times and Seattle did some things to try and counteract that, so it’s always a chess match. But the bottom line is – we always talk about it – individual players have to win their individual battles. We’ll try to give help when needed, but when you’re playing against a good opponent you’re not going to shut them down the entire night.”