Jets defensive front dominates Packers offensive line

The Green Bay Packers offense could barely move the ball against the New York Jets, and it started with the play of the offensive line.

Overall, the Packers averaged just 4.0 yards per play and had 278 total yards while finishing 5-of-20 on third and fourth downs. And, oh yeah, they put up only 10 points.

The Jets came into this game ranked fourth in pressure rate, and fifth in yards per carry allowed this season. The Packers, meanwhile, had been effective on the ground and improving in pass protection.

However, in Sunday’s matchup, it was the Jets, not the Packers, who dominated the trenches.

There were few running lanes for Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, who averaged three yards per rush–and it was Dillon’s 19-yard rush that helped inflate that figure. New York finished the game with five tackles for loss, four sacks, and nine quarterback hits—generating consistent push into the backfield.

Quinnen Williams, in particular, had an impressive performance against the Packers’ interior offensive line, with 14 total tackles and a number of pressures. Green Bay also had issues handling stunts and twists from the defensive front as well, who got home mostly with just a four-man rush. This was an aggressive group who shot the gaps hard.

The Jets’ secondary also didn’t help the Green Bay offensive line either. There were several instances where Aaron Rodgers’ initial reads weren’t there, which resulted in him holding on to the ball and the pressure getting home.

The end result of all of these issues were the Packers finding themselves behind the sticks, and in a number of second and third and long situations.

It seemed as if each offensive lineman had their issues at one point or another, including David Bakhtiari. Elgton Jenkins was called for multiple penalties and was beat on a few occasions. Jon Runyan also had his issues at guard against Williams after not allowing a single pressure through the first five weeks of the season, as did Josh Myers.

However, it was Royce Newman who was consistently losing his matchups–both as a run-blocker and in pass protection. Newman entered the game with 12 pressures allowed and three sacks surrendered, both of which were the most on the team, and those figures will only grow after Sunday’s performance.

Newman was eventually replaced on the final drive of the first half by Jake Hanson, who took some lumps of his own in Week 1 the last time he played, but Newman ultimately returned when Hanson left with a biceps injury.

In previous weeks, Matt LaFleur had been asked about moving Yosh Nijman to right tackle with David Bakhtiari back, and he said that it is something that they have discussed. One would think those discussions are only going to ramp up following Jenkins’ and Newmans’ performances on the right side, along with Bakhtiari playing just about the entire game at left tackle instead of rotating series with Nijman.

Nijman doesn’t have any NFL snaps at right tackle, and it sounds like he has minimal reps in practice as well, so there may be a learning curve–although one could easily argue that something has to change. With Nijman at right tackle, the Packers could either move Jenkins to right guard or back to left guard, with Runyan transitioning to the right side in that instance.

Naturally, Aaron Rodgers, the Packers’ passing game, and Aaron Jones are going to garner a lot of the attention, but it’s the play of the offensive line that will determine how good this offense is. And as we saw against the Jets, when they’re struggling, the results aren’t good.