4 Concerns for Green Bay Packers Entering Playoffs
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers are the No. 1 seed in the NFC, hold the best record in football with Tampa Bay, and likely once again have the league’s MVP. While there certainly have been numerous injuries and absences to overcome, outside of that, there isn’t a lot that has gone wrong this season.
However, with that said, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any concerns for the Green Bay Packers entering the playoffs either.
In addition to pointing out the negative, I’ll also have another article out shortly discussing why this is Green Bay’s year to win the Super Bowl. But for now, there are four real concerns that fans should have about the Packers as they begin their playoff journey.
Concern No. 1 for the Green Bay Packers: The red zone
On both sides of the ball, the Green Bay Packers have had their share of issues in the red zone this season.
During the 2019 and 2020 seasons, this Packers offense was one of the most efficient red zone teams in football, finishing second in touchdown success rate inside the 20-yard line two seasons ago, and then first this past year, scoring a touchdown in the red zone a ridiculous 80 percent of the time.
Unfortunately, this season, Green Bay ranks 19th in red zone success rate, and honestly, that’s up from where they were for much of the season.
Earlier this season, Aaron Rodgers told reporters that he would like to see the offense be more aggressive inside the 20–and by more aggressive, he doesn’t mean throwing the ball every time, but rather being more creative with the plays that are schemed up. It also hasn’t helped that the run game hasn’t been as effective as it was a season ago or that the Packers have been without Robert Tonyan and Randall Cobb.
"“We just have to continue to grind, continue to adapt and find new ways because we know that we set the standard last year and a lot of people looked at us,” Nathanial Hackett said via the AP News. “A lot of people looked at the things that we did, and we have to find even more counters and more fun things to do to be able to go get that gold.”"
For the defense, to their credit, they’ve been good at keeping opposing offenses out of the red zone this season, allowing only 2.9 red zone attempts per game, which is the seventh-fewest in football. However, once in the red zone, offenses are finding the end zone 66 percent of the time, which ranks 28th.
"“Everything happens faster in the red zone; everything is condensed,” Joe Barry explained earlier this season via ESPN. “The speed of an NFL football game is incredible, but the closer you get to the goal line it speeds up even more. But it’s definitely an area that we constantly are talking about and working on. It does have to improve, absolutely, because we’re doing a lot of things really well, but that’s something we absolutely have to improve on.”"