Green Bay Packers: 3 X-Factors in Pivotal Week 17 Matchup
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers Run Defense
Recently, I discussed how the Green Bay Packers’ run defense has been trending in the right direction since their Week 8 matchup with Minnesota, which included some impressive performances against Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Detroit. This culminated with their best performance of the year against Derrick Henry and the Titans as he was held to only 4.2 yards per rush and less than 100 yards on the ground.
This week, they’ll need to slow down David Montgomery and this red-hot Bears’ offense. Over the last four games, Chicago is averaging 36 points per game, and a big reason has been because of an increase in Montgomery’s usage. During this span, he is averaging over 20 carries per game, compared to 14.2 prior to that, and he’s also averaging over 100 yards per game and 5.1 yards per rush.
If the Packers’ run defense can limit Montgomery — or the offense can jump out to a big lead — it is going to put the ball — and the game — in Mitch Trubisky’s hands, which is what you want. With the help of Bill Lazor’s play-calling over the last four games, which has included more play-action and rollouts, Trubisky has played much better, completing over 72 percent of his passes with a quarterback rating of 108.5.
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With that said, we’ve still seen those Mitch Trubisky-esque plays, which includes an interception in each of the last two games, and these performances have come against some of the NFL’s worst defenses in terms of points per game allowed. So defensively, the Green Bay Packers need to limit Montgomery and force Trubisky to beat them.