Green Bay Packers v. Arizona: 5 Big Questions Ahead of Matchup
By Paul Bretl
Will this be an Aaron Jones game?
I wrote about this more in-depth recently, but during the previous six games that Davante Adams has missed during the Matt LaFleur era, the Green Bay Packers have relied heavily on Aaron Jones in those games–as they should.
Through the air, he has been targeted 36 times during that span and caught 29 of them for 337 yards, along with five touchdowns. On the ground, Jones has averaged over 14 rushing attempts and almost 70 yards. All together, that’s nearly 125 all-purpose yards each game.
I would expect a similar approach on Thursday as Green Bay tries to control the clock and get their playmaker the ball in space.
Can the Green Bay Packers be effective in establishing the run?
Even with Davante Adams and Allen Lazard, moving the ball through the air was going to be a tall task against this Arizona defense. The Cardinals secondary is allowing the third-fewest passing yards per game with just 201, and they also give up the third-fewest explosive pass plays. Not to mention that their pass-rush ranks eighth in pressure rate.
However, this is also a defense that is allowing 5.0 yards per rush as well. As I already mentioned, Green Bay does not want this to turn into a back-and-forth scoring battle. Instead, they’ll want to string together long drives that allows them to control the clock–and to do that; they’ll need to find success running the ball.
With what seems like a new offensive line configuration each week, for the most part, Green Bay has found a way to be just effective enough running the ball, but they’ve been far from dominant–ranking 19th in yards per rush with 4.2. But nonetheless, this will be their key to victory on Thursday, so hopefully, we see plenty of Jones and AJ Dillon.