It’s easy to fall in love with the passing game, as one long connection on third down can erase the wrongs of an entire drive and flip the game’s momentum with one flick of the wrist. Aaron Rodgers set a season-high with 39 pass attempts in Sunday’s 27-22 loss to the New York Giants, when the Green Bay Packers offense — and, just as importantly, the defense — would have benefitted from a much more balanced approach between the passing and running game.
On any given play, the analytics might tell you that the pass is a better idea. Chunk yardage on first down, taking a shot on second-and-short, converting play action on third down. There’s a justifiable reason for dialing up a pass play in every scenario. However, as the Packers were made well aware on Sunday, these decisions to pass, especially when done inefficiently, are not made in a vacuum and have consequences outside of simple incompletions.
Beyond gaining yardage, running the ball helps to do two things. It controls the clock, keeping the offense on the field. That, in turn, allows the defense to rest and make adjustments on the sideline. It also helps engage the offensive line, allowing them to assert their will moving forward within the blocking scheme instead of moving backward and trying to hold up in a pass set. Ask any offensive lineman worth their salt, and they’ll tell you they live for the run game.
The Packers watched the defense get gashed on two scoring drives to open the second half, which included an 11-play, seven-plus-minute drive to set up a field goal and a 15-play, eight-minute, 91-yard(!) game-tying touchdown drive. Then, the Green Bay offense had the tepid response of an incomplete pass intended for Allen Lazard deep to the right, an incomplete pass over the middle to Randall Cobb, and an incomplete pass deep to the left to Lazard. The Packers chewed up all of 26 seconds before sending the defense right back out. To no one’s surprise, they promptly gave up the go-ahead score, lowlighted by a 41-yard catch-and-run by Saquon Barkley and a frustration-induced unnecessary roughness penalty on Rasul Douglas.
The game seemed to be headed toward a Packers blowout at one point. But the Giants did an excellent job of controlling the tempo and took advantage of a defense struggling to find answers. Instead of giving Joe Barry’s unit a chance to find them on the sideline, Green Bay had three-straight balls hit the turf in a frustrating drive that could have been easily prevented — or at least alleviated. Mixing in a run or two would have chewed at least a couple of minutes off the clock rather than just 26 seconds. Rodgers said postgame that the drive featured “three good calls,” but he admitted that they need to hit one to give the defense some rest.
The drive was a microcosm of what’s been a frustration for box-score watchers around Packers Nation. In Green Bay’s three wins, the duo of Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon are averaging 30 carries per game. In the losses, just 17 carries. Sure, the sample size is still relatively small, but there’s enough to the eye test to say that Jones and Dillon simply need to touch the ball more. Jones, in particular, is an all-round back who will break into the secondary more often than not. Giving him the same number of carries as Cobb had targeted and passing the ball more than twice as often as running it seems like a failure on the part of both Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers.
The Packers put together what had the makings of a game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter, with Jones carrying the ball four times for 23 yards on the drive. Facing goal-to-go on the two with two chances to punch it in, Rodgers kept the ball in his hands, only to see it batted to the turf. Jones is seemingly everything you would want in a teammate and isn’t about to start second-guessing his Hall of Fame quarterback and record-setting coach, but this quote gets about as close to that line as he can.
Rodgers has won countless games with incredible throws, but it’s important for everyone involved to recognize that these aren’t the Packers of 2011 or, heck, even 2021. If Green Bay has its sights set on a playoff berth, division title, or more, it will take a complete effort to get there. Relying on the run game, especially with talents like Jones and Dillon in the mix, helps keep the offense balanced and the defense fresh. An inability to recognize that in the moment cost Green Bay a win in London. Hopefully will be addressed before it becomes a season-long — and perhaps season-defining — issue.
