4 Big Things from Green Bay Packers No. 1 Seed Clinching Win

The Green Bay Packers offense stayed aggressive even with the game out of reach

In recent weeks, although the Green Bay Packers had come away with wins, those games became a little too close for comfort, and it took the defense coming up with some big plays in high-leverage situations in order to secure the win.

Following the Cleveland game, which consisted of two fourth-quarter possessions, one of which was a three and out after three straight running plays while the other stalled after a 10-yard loss on an end-around–Aaron Rodgers also had two completions, but only for four and seven yards, Rodgers spoke about the lack of aggressiveness in the play calling:

"“In that situation, maybe we need to be a little more aggressive and just trust,” Rodgers said following the Cleveland game via SI. “That’s what I told Matt. ‘Just trust me. Put the ball in my hands and I’m going to make the right decision and get us in the right play.’ I think that was an opportunity there to turn the tide and get the momentum back on our side.”"

This week, there was a clear emphasis on staying aggressive, even if the game was out of reach for Minnesota.

Up 27 to 3 with five minutes left in the third quarter, the Packers had a seven-play drive that included five pass attempts and resulted in a field goal. The next possession that began in the fourth quarter was a 10 play touchdown drive that included eight passes.

Being aggressive doesn’t mean that Green Bay needs to push the ball downfield late in games, but they do still need to try to move the ball by exploiting the defense’s weaknesses and having each play build off the previous one just like it’s the second quarter as a way to keep the opponent guessing. That is not what we saw in past weeks with some very vanilla and conservative play-calling; however, at least this Sunday, that was remedied.