3 Big Things from Green Bay Packers Wild Win Over Bears

The Green Bay Packers opening script has struggled

The head coach or offensive play-caller will begin each game with an opening script made up of 15 or so plays that they’ve designed to take advantage of any weaknesses that have shown up on film that they want to exploit early on. Once the script is complete, while there is still an overall game plan coaches will want to stick to, the play calling moving forward is much more based on the situation at hand.

One of the many reasons that the 2020 Green Bay Packers offense was so dominant, ranking first in points per game and DVOA, was that they got off to fast starts, oftentimes finding quite a bit of success with LaFleur’s opening script. Heck, even the 2019 offense was very good with that script; they would just struggle once it was complete.

However, that hasn’t been the case this season. In fact, the Packers have now been held scoreless in seven of their first 13 opening quarters. For whatever reason, early on in games when that opening script takes place, there has been a lot of Aaron Rodgers holding on to the ball as he looks for the big play–we saw this against the Bears as well as in several other games.

But as we’ve now seen over and over again, that is not when this offense is at its best. Just look at quarters two through four on Sunday to see how well this unit plays when they are relying on quick passes, have a good run/pass mix; LaFleur is utilizing motion and getting his pass-catchers in space along with some play-action mixed in.

"“At times the last couple years we’ve been so good in the first 15 to 20 plays that we script, and scoring on opening drives, touchdowns,” said quarterback Aaron Rodgers via Packers.com following the Vikings game. “Hasn’t really been the case this year. We’ve been a lot slower starting, so we gotta look at that.”"

The big play and taking those shots downfield are always going to be a part of this offense, but Green Bay seems to really be trying to force that early on with a patchwork offensive line and against defenses that are playing heavy cover-2, which is designed to take those shot plays away, rather than letting those opportunities develop naturally.

Again, why this has been the case, I do not know. And while there is always much more to it than meets the eye, as described above, the Packers’ path to success on offense seems to be pretty well defined.