It certainly was not the only thing that had gone wrong with the Green Bay Packers over their first seven games. But the seeming imbalance between the running game and passing game has consistently jumped off the box score as a glaringly obvious reason why the Packers were under .500 heading into Sunday night’s game against the Buffalo Bills. The Packers couldn’t add a tally in the win column this past weekend, but personnel losses in the receiving corps forced the hand of the Green Bay offense, which provided a blueprint worth repeating over the second half of the season.
With Davante Adams gone, general manager Brian Gutekunst cobbled together a position group that included returning vets Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb, a pair of wild cards in Amari Rodgers and Sammy Watkins, and the freshly drafted trio of Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Samori Toure. The wide-receiver-by-committee approach has been underwhelming, with Watson and Watkins battling hamstring injuries, Cobb spraining his ankle, and Lazard just generally getting beat up every week.
Mix in some injuries and inconsistencies on the offensive line, with the health of David Bakhtiari seemingly fluctuating from series to series, and there’s a desire to “simplify” the offense, according to Aaron Rodgers. Well, through the first eight games, Green Bay has averaged better than 35 passing attempts per game, good for 10th in the league. Contrast that with the rushing game, led by a dynamic (and healthy!) talent in Aaron Jones and a perfect complement in A.J. Dillon. That rushing attack ranks just 16th in the league per attempt, despite averaging just under half a first down per carry at 4.9 yards.
Heading into Sunday night, the Packers knew they would be without Lazard and Cobb. Therefore, they were looking for Watkins and the rookie trio to help cobble together a coherent passing attack. Mix in Watson’s early concussion, and the offense was left with their backs against the wall with only one real option: run the damn ball.
And guess what? It worked! Jones ran for 143 yards on 20 carries, better than seven yards per carry. Dillon also chipped in 41 hard-earned yards to help push the team total to a season-best 208 yards on the ground. Rodgers had five pass attempts against three runs on the opening drive, one of which unfortunately ended with Watson’s injury. A sputtering three-and-out with three pass attempts ended the next Green Bay drive before the quarter turned, and the team put together its best drive in quite some time.
Jones for seven yards. Dillon for seven yards. Three straight runs by Jones and a completion to Doubs. Back-to-back runs up the middle by Dillon. Jones for nine yards. Jones for 13 more. Rodgers sees coverage that he likes with Doubs, takes a chance throwing to the end zone on second down, and, boom, touchdown Packers. The Bills had led by 14 before the drive, but there was still plenty of time left, so it wasn’t as if the defense was in any sort of prevent mode. This was simply the Packers doing what this version of the team is capable of and doing it with a frustrating level of efficiency.
Frustrating, you say? It’s borderline infuriating to look at the box scores from the New York Giants, New York Jets, and Washington Commanders games to see the lack of usage for the backfield duo, particularly for Jones. Fifteen touches against the Giants; nine and eight carries, respectively, against the Jets and Commanders. Dillon had just six touches against the Giants and four against Washington. It’s a lack of ingenuity and a lack of desire to get the ball into these two playmakers’ hands. With a better gameplan, the Packers go 2-1 in those games instead of 0-3 and are looking at a 5-3 record right now instead of 3-5.
It would be purely hypothesizing wondering how that balance between the pass and run would have gone had Lazard and Cobb been healthy. I think it’s safe to say that Matt LaFleur wanted to incorporate Watson before he was knocked out early. Left with an even more barren cupboard than usual, LaFleur — and, more importantly, Rodgers — leaned into the run game and saw what the effects could be.
It didn’t lead to a win. There wasn’t any realistic strategy shift that would lead the Packers actually to beat Buffalo. Sunday hopefully made all relevant parties realize that the offense’s success runs through No. 33 and No. 28 on the offense. All it took was for Rodgers and LaFleur to be almost completely out of other viable options. Jones and Dillon help keep the offensive line moving forward instead of relying on rookies to continually pass block move backward. It helps to control the pace and the clock, which also keeps an underwhelming defense on the sidelines.
The November schedule doesn’t let up. October was supposed to be the easy month of the schedule, and Green Bay flopped and flailed its way to Halloween. A road game against Detroit isn’t tough on paper, but nothing has been easy for the Packers lately. Rodgers has shown that he can still put the ball on a dime at times — see the touchdowns to Doubs and Samori Toure on Sunday — but rather than relying on that every play, there’s a way to do it better.
