Green Bay Packers v. Washington: 3 Big Things & Quick Hits
By Paul Bretl
A very pass-heavy Green Bay Packers offense
You all know it, and I talk about it quite a bit, but despite having an offense led by Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams, it is the run game that sets everything up and really makes this unit go.
There have been instances this season where we’ve seen the Green Bay Packers get pass-heavy at times, and we were left scratching our heads, but for the most part, they’ve leaned on Aaron Jones and the run game. However, that wasn’t the case on Sunday–like at all.
According to ESPN, Green Bay ran 53 plays, and just nine of them were handoffs to either Jones or AJ Dillon. Kylin Hill also had three carries, but two of those came as the Packers were trying to run out the clock, and truthfully, you could classify one of Dillon’s carries in that category as well.
Rodgers would say after the game on a few occasions that they “didn’t run the ball well,” and that was true–the Green Bay running backs would average only 2.25 yards per carry. This is a very good Washington defensive front that came into the game, allowing the ninth-fewest yards per carry in football.
So perhaps the game plan was to exploit a secondary that had allowed 309.5 passing yards per game–the most in football. Rodgers was incredibly efficient, completing 27 of his 35 targets for 274 yards along with three touchdowns. He also distributed the ball well, with nine players having at least one target and six of those players having at least three.
But it’s not as if it was all smooth sailing either. Both Rodgers and Matt LaFleur would discuss how the offense still isn’t quite clicking, and a big reason why on Sunday was because of the Washington pass rush that did a good job of getting after the quarterback early on–although adjusting to the quick passing game did help Green Bay.
This approach worked well enough on Sunday against a now 2-5 Washington team, and as I said, it very well could have been a part of the game plan knowing that running the ball wasn’t going to be easy, but they’ll need better balance moving forward.