The Good, Bad and Ugly at quarter-pole of Packers season

The Ugly from the Packers’ first four games

The run game

Well, I’ve alluded to it enough. Now, let’s talk about it. Through four games, the Packers are averaging just 3.3 yards per carry as a team, ranking 28th in that category. Of course, not having Aaron Jones for two games doesn’t help. The Packers have had to rely heavily on AJ Dillon, who doesn’t have the burst or playmaking abilities Jones does, but he has also struggled with vision and balance. However, the blame does not only fall on Dillon, but the offensive line has also struggled with blocking. Running lanes just aren’t there with any sort of consistency, and too often, Dillon has been hit in the backfield before he even gets an opportunity to get going.

As I’ve already discussed, these issues on the ground then negatively impact the Green Bay passing game. For a LaFleur offense where the passing game builds off the run-action, moving the ball through the air, and in general, becomes really difficult, as we’ve seen when the run game can’t be relied on.

The run defense

Green Bay’s run defense on the other side of the ball hasn’t been much better. In two of the four games, the Packers have allowed 200-plus rushing yards and overall are allowing 4.5 yards per carry, which ranks 23rd. As LaFleur said following the Detroit game, changes will have to be made. In short, what he was referring to was taking a look at everything, specifically, the team’s defensive philosophy, breaking out of that shell coverage Joe Barry loves to play, especially when they know the opponent wants to run the ball.

The Packers’ struggles against the run helps open up the passing game for the opponent, especially off play-action, and puts them in second and third-and-short situations with really the entire playbook open to them. The strength of this Green Bay defense, the pass rush, then can’t play as aggressively because they have to defend both the run and the pass. With the defense having to defend a variety of different plays in these short down and distances, the offense is now doing the dictating, and the defense has to be more reactive than proactive.

Also, as we saw in the Detroit and Atlanta games, where both teams dominated the ground game, success on the ground can lead to a huge discrepancy in the number of plays ran and time of possession. It’s difficult to win when the gaps in those categories are as huge as they were in these two games.

Injuries

It’s an unfortunate part of the game, but the Packers have had to navigate a number of key injuries this season. So far, at various times, they have been without De’Vondre Campbell, Jaire Alexander, David Bakhtairi, Aaron Jones, Christian Watson, and Elgton Jenkins. For any team, not having those players is a lot to overcome, but especially for such a young group like the Packers have.

Green Bay has a mini-bye following their Thursday night game and then their regular bye after their Monday night matchup with Las Vegas. Hopefully, this will give them the opportunity to get healthy.