Green Bay Packers: 11 Quick Observations from Win in Houston

After rewatching the Green Bay Packers’ performance in Houston, here are 11 quick observations from their win.

Led by Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams on offense along with a much sharper looking defensive unit, the Green Bay Packers bounced back in a big way against the Houston Texans. After getting punched in the mouth by Tampa Bay just one week ago, this performance looked much similar to what we had seen during the first four weeks of the season.

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to go back and rewatch the action, here are my 11 quick observations from Green Bay’s dominating win.

Green Bay Packers’ Offense gets back on track

After a brief hiatus in Tampa, the Packers’ offense was firing on all cylinders against Houston. The offensive line held up very well against a stout Texans’ pass rush, there was a good run/pass mix, and Aaron Rodgers had plenty of easy throws to take advantage of, but he was also effective with the deep ball as well. Ultimately, the players executed at a much higher level than what they did a week ago, but Matt LaFleur’s game plan and his play-calling deserve some credit as well.

Jamaal Williams handles RB1 duties with ease

You never want to go into a game without Aaron Jones, but the Green Bay Packers are as well-equipped as any team to absorb that loss with Jamaal Wiliams as the backup. We saw Williams making plays both on the ground and in the passing game, while also picking up blitzers in pass protection, which remains a highly underrated aspect of his game.

Williams finished the day with 77 rushing yards, averaging 4.1 yards per carry, along with a touchdown. He would also tack on 37 receiving yards – the second-most on the team – on four receptions. After the game, LaFleur summed up Williams’ performance quite well by saying “Jamaal is a starter in our eyes.”

Davante Adams…my goodness

Below you will find Davante Adams’ route chart from NFL Next Gen stats, illustrating just how dominant he was in all parts of the field. Adams would finish with three receptions of at least 20 yards, he was effective on crossing routes, and he turned some quick receptions into chunk plays.

When it was all said and done, Adams hauled in 13 receptions on 16 targets for 196 yards with two touchdowns, and perhaps even more impressive, all seven of Green Bay’s third-down conversions were Davante Adams’ receptions. As is often the case, the one-two punch that is Rodgers and Adams was nearly impossible to stop, but perhaps that was even more true on Sunday.

Billy Turner impresses at LT

This past week I discussed how I thought starting Elgton Jenkins at left tackle was the prudent play, but Matt LaFleur instead went with Billy Turner who was coming off a rough performance against Tampa Bay. However, to Turner’s credit, I was pleasantly surprised with his play at left tackle and really the entire offensive line was very good against Houston.

On most dropbacks, Rodgers had more than enough time to get the ball out of his hands, he was rarely under duress, and the Packers’ offensive line only allowed one quarterback hit along with no sacks. And that strong performance all started with Turner holding his own by allowing just one pressure at the most important position on the offensive line.

Welcome to Jaire Island

I wrote an article a few days back, discussing just how good Jaire Alexander had been against Calvin Ridley and Mike Evans. Well, he continued that stellar play against the Texans. According to Next Gen Stats, Alexander followed Fuller on 28 of his 41 routes where he was targeted just one time and it was an incompletion. We are now six games into the Green Bay Packers’ 2020 season, and Jaire Alexander has looked every bit like an All-Pro.

Preston Smith has his best game

There’s no sugar coating it, Preston Smith has been underwhelming through the first handful of games for the Green Bay Packers, but against Houston, he had his best game of the season. Now, he didn’t fill up the stat sheet by any means, but he created pressure that led to sacks and he also had this excellent read and finish on Deshaun Watson that came on a crucial fourth down. Hopefully, this game was the spark that Smith needed.

Mike Pettine responds

The defense we saw this week was much different than the unit that we’ve seen for much of the 2020 season. The pass rush, tackling, coverage, I mean just about everything was kicked up a few notches this weekend. And, of course, the players deserve the credit, but we also saw more aggressive play-calling from Mike Pettine, which included several blitzes and trusting that his corners will do their jobs. This certainly helped put those defenders in better positions to make plays. Let’s hope that play-calling and overall intensity is here to stay.

The Green Bay Packers have something in Krys Barnes and Kamal Martin

Krys Barnes made my observations article last week and here he is again, but joining him is fellow linebacker, Kamal Martin. Barnes recorded a team-high eight tackles with Raven Greene – who I’ll get to here in a minute – but these weren’t stat-padding tackles, they come at the line of scrimmage or quickly in coverage. He would also add a sack along with a tackle for loss.

Meanwhile, Martin made his NFL debut and made some noise in the run game. He filled holes and delivered the boom just as he had done all through training camp. As the headline says, the Green Bay Packers have something here and appear to have found their ILB’s of the future.

Raven Greene was EVERYWHERE

Today’s game was the perfect example of what Raven Greene gives this defense. He really did a little bit of everything. The tweet below from Andy Herman of Packer Report is the perfect summation of Greene’s performance; we saw him making plays in the run game while also being effective in coverage as well.

In the end, he’d finish with eight tackles, including five solo, along with two pass breakups. Unfortunately, Greene did leave the game with an injury, so let’s cross our fingers he won’t miss any time because he is a vital member of his defensive unit.

WRs not named Davante Adams

We saw this a few times last year, and of course, not having Allen Lazard doesn’t help, but outside of Adams, the Green Bay Packers’ wide receiver production was nearly non-existent. The rest of the group totaled only two receptions on seven targets for six yards. Although one of those receptions did go for a touchdown to Malik Taylor.

In the LaFleur offense, tight ends and running backs play key roles in the passing game as we saw Jamaal Williams, Robert Tonyan, and Jace Sternberger combine for 72 yards and a touchdown. So it’s not as if Rodgers didn’t have other options outside of Adams. With that said, today’s performance from the receiving corps looked very familiar to what we saw on several occasions last season.