Matt LaFleur’s offense has had its fair share of explosive plays throughout his two and a half years in Wisconsin. Those numbers have dipped a bit this season, and the Packers may need to break out the big plays against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
So far this season, Green Bay is 10th in the NFL in “big-play passes,” which are completions that go for 25 or more yards, according to STATS, Inc. The Packers have had 20 such plays in 10 games so far, which isn’t too shabby. But contrast that with their two games against the Vikings last year, when Green Bay had a combined eight passing plays go for 25 or more yards against Mike Zimmer’s defense.
Green Bay’s offense hasn’t been quite as dynamic as last year’s group, and Minnesota’s secondary has been much better this season. Still, there will be chances for the Packers to strike.
Aaron Rodgers will have his full array of wide receivers to work with in Minneapolis. That means a healthy dose of targets for Davante Adams, who has historically feasted against Minnesota regardless of team record. Adams had 21 receptions for 209 yards and a whopping five touchdowns in two games against the Vikings last year. This season, Adams has only three touchdowns as more attention has been directed his way every week by opposing defenses. But it’s only a matter of time before Adams starts to put up the crooked box-score numbers again, and what better time to start than against the Vikings?
Rodgers will also have Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Allen Lazard in the lineup. MVS missed five games earlier this year after being put on injured reserve, and Lazard had to sit out a critical matchup against the Arizona Cardinals after returning a positive COVID test. Now everyone is back, and the reigning MVP has a full game under his belt after missing ten days with COVID. They’ll all be back against the Vikings with a chance to rediscover the magic.
While it sounds fine and dandy knowing who should be in the lineup on Sunday, the practice reports haven’t been as optimistic — an ongoing theme for Green Bay.
Rodgers has already said he is playing Sunday even if he doesn’t practice this week. Adams is expected to play as well. But there’s been constant shuffling of guys in and out of the lineup. All the missed practices are starting to add up. Perhaps that’s the explanation for the offense being slightly out of sync. It’s not an excuse, but it may be a contributing factor.
Via the Kenosha News, LaFleur certainly has noticed all of the barely controlled chaos with the shuffling lineup on offense.
“Really, if you trace it back, I mean, shoot, we haven’t really practiced a whole bunch,” LaFleur admitted. “Basically, the week before Arizona was all walkthrough, so it’s not like (Rodgers) was getting a ton of time with these guys. Then we had different receivers the last time he played (against the Cardinals). And then you’re getting all these guys back, so naturally there was probably a little bit of a dip from our passing game.”
The bar was set extremely high last year when Green Bay led the league, averaging 31.5 points per game. To live up to that sort of production again would’ve been a lot to ask. The issue isn’t that they haven’t been as productive this year; it’s that the numbers dipped way more than expected. Even when factoring in injuries, the reality is that the two best players in the group, Rodgers and Adams, have only missed one game apiece.
Adams seems to like where they are at.
“Our standard is obviously to do a lot better than what we’re doing. And a lot smoother in just the way we function as an offense,” Adams said after practice Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve still got some work to do, but I like where we are right now.”
Rodgers seems to know there’s plenty of cleaning up to do.
“If you watch the film back, we had multiple mental errors and just a lot of detail things that we didn’t do very well. Those need to get cleaned up for sure,” Rodgers said. “As far as the timing. I don’t know if there was a lot of timing issues that we had, it was more of the details and in the schematics that we didn’t do very well on Sunday.”
It’s one thing to recognize the issues and another to correct them. The struggles in the red zone have been discussed going back to October, yet they persist.
The big-play passes have been lacking, but it may be a different story with Rodgers buckling the chin strap on Sunday alongside Adams, MVS, Lazard, and Randall Cobb. Sunday will be one of the rare times that they all will be on the field together so far this season. It’s good timing, too; getting things right in the passing game and converting some big-play opportunities will be crucial.
