Green Bay Packers’ Offense will have to keep Christian McCaffrey off field

Carolina Panthers’ running back Christian McCaffrey has been nearly unstoppable this season, so it will be up to the Green Bay Packers’ offense to keep him off the field.

The Green Bay Packers are coming off of a disappointing performance against the Los Angeles Chargers and one that we hope is just an outlier. However, what hasn’t been an outlier and has instead become a trend is the defenses inability to stop opposing running backs.

Green Bay’s run defense – particularly between the tackles – has been gashed this season as they rank 24th in the NFL giving up nearly 128 yards per game and they are third in total rushing yards given up. In the passing game, running backs have caught 53 passes – which ranks as the fifth most in football – and almost 400 receiving yards. But to the Packers’ credit, they’ve only allowed one touchdown to running backs.

However, this week they will face their toughest challenge of the season and one that poses a nightmare matchup for this Green Bay Packers team – Christian McCaffrey.

Whether it’s on the ground or through the air, McCaffrey has torched defenses in 2019. Through eight games he’s already rushed for 881 yards on 5.3 yards per carry with 10 touchdowns. Meanwhile in the passing game, he’s caught 42 of the 52 passes thrown his way for 363 yards with an additional three touchdowns.

Rarely has he been stopped this season and based on what we’ve seen from Green Bay as of late with their poor tackling and lack of gap integrity on the defensive front, it’s hard to imagine that they’ll be the ones to slow McCaffrey down. So what do the Packers do?

Well, as odd as this may sound, it will be up to the Green Bay Packers’ offense.

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Last Sunday in Los Angeles is a prime example of how quickly things can go south if the Packer offense can’t sustain drives. With the Chargers holding the ball for more than 10 minutes longer than Green Bay, the running back duo of Austin Ekeler and Melvin Gordon totaled 150 yards and two touchdowns on the ground with another 52 yards in the air. Those two alone had over 200 yards of offense and by the fourth quarter, the Packer defense was so gassed they couldn’t stop a nose bleed. From a production standpoint, McCaffrey is going to pose a similar threat.

If we take a look back at the previous week in Kansas City, after jumping out to an early lead the Packers struggled to slow down the speedy Chiefs’ offense and they went into halftime down 17-14.

But do you remember how Green Bay was able to neutralize that explosive Kansas City offense in the second half? An 8:33 scoring drive in the third quarter and running the clock out in the fourth with 5:04 left were big reasons why. And that is what they must do against Carolina.

I can’t imagine this Green Bay Packers’ defense stops McCaffrey, since slowing him down will already be difficult enough. So the best way to limit his production and effect on the game will be keeping him on the sidelines.

Now, not every Packers’ drive will be 8:33, but if they can have two or three scoring drives that last six to eight minutes, even if it ends in a field goal, it keeps McCaffrey off of the field. Not to mention that avoiding three and outs will go a long ways as well.

As much as the Green Bay run defense has struggled, Carolina has been worse giving up 133 rushing yards per game. So hopefully this week we see a heavy dose of Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams to control the clock and keep Christian McCaffrey on the visitor’s sidelines as much as possible.