Paul Bretl | 10/2/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers offense has had moments in the early going this season where they’ve looked incredibly explosive and other times where, oftentimes, self-inflicted mistakes have taken the air out of that unit.
Of course, some of these ups and downs have come from having to navigate not having Jordan Love under center for two weeks and adapting the offensive game-plan to fit Malik Willis on the fly. But even if we exclude Weeks 2 and 3 from this and only focus on the games that Love has played, the offense has still been just off in each of those two games.
As always, there are a myriad of reasons for this. In part, Love was shaking the rust off during that first half against Minnesota, which resulted in some off-target throws–although he did very much begin to find his groove as the game went on.
“I think the biggest thing for me getting back was just continue to get reps, getting the throws back down and the timing of everything,” said Jordan Love at his locker on Wednesday. “So yeah, definitely feel like as the game went on, I started improving, getting back comfortable with the timing and ball placement, things like that, so yeah, getting all those reps and all those throws definitely helped and helps me going forward.”
Not helping the situation is that there have been some dropped passes as well. Currently, the Packers have the fourth-highest drop rate, according to Pro Football Reference.
In addition to all of that, there have been penalties–a lot of penalties. On offense specifically, the Packers have been flagged 22 times, which is the second-most in football through four games. Heading into the Packers Week 4 matchup with Minnesota, Matt LaFleur mentioned that penalties had wiped away two touchdowns and 120-plus yards of offense through the first three games.
“I think No. 1 is you’ve got to be aware of what your issues are,” said LaFleur about the penalties. “Certainly, we’ve had a lot of pre-snap penalties, so, to me, that comes down to the focus and you’ve got to really try to put our guys in uncomfortable situations in practice to make sure they’re dialed in, to make sure that we’re working the cadence the right way on both sides of the ball.
“And then the second part of that is there’s going to be things that happen within a game but you just want to make sure your fundamentals are up to the standard that we need so that guys react the right way so they don’t get out of position to put themselves in a bad position to get called for penalties. I think that’s some of it, as well. There’s a lot that we can do, I think, to help get that corrected.”
However, despite all of that, we’ve also seen a very dynamic offense that for stretches has looked close to unstoppable. The 38 explosive plays that the Packers have generated up to this point are the most in football, and they’ve been accomplishing this both on the ground and through the air.
An explosive run is categorized as a rush of at least 10 yards and the Packers lead the league in that category with 21 of them. Through the air, the Packers have created 17 passing plays of at least 20 yards, which is the second-most. The end result is an offense that ranks sixth in points, third in yards, and second in yards per play, even while being without Love for two games and relying on a run-heavy game plan during his absence.
“We got some players on the team, man,” said Dontayvion Wicks. “We want to work for each other. We want to help each other get big plays like that. We do it in practice. You see it every day. It’s not a surprise to us. We know who we are as an offense. The big plays, we work on them. We work through them.
“Big plays, you see Reed catch. He do that at practice. That’s not just something to just come out and do. We’ve been working through it, working on it. We all trust each other, got that connection and we know we’re going to make those plays.”
Yes, even with all of that total production, it’s also fair to say that, largely due to the reasons already mentioned, things haven’t quite fully clicked for four quarters for the Packers’ offense this season either. This week, however, could provide the Packers with an opportunity to do that.
A potential big catalyst behind that could be the continuity of having Love back at practice this past week, under center Sunday against Minnesota, and then back at practice on Wednesday, and the consistent reps that come along with that. That’s not something that the Packers have really had since before the season began.
“I think that’s a byproduct of not practicing for a couple weeks,” said Matt LaFleur of Love’s ups and downs against the Vikings. “I thought just in our limited practice today he did a really nice job. It looks like he’s just getting back in the groove and like I mentioned the other day, not that we want to throw 50-some odd times in a game, but I thought the more we threw, the better he got, and it’s just kind of working through it.
“It’s hard to go out there when you just don’t have a lot of practice or you have a lot of time off and expect to be at the top of your game. I think it’s a process and I know he’s doing everything in his power and I think he looks better with each and every day.”
This week, the Packers will also be facing a Los Angeles Rams defense that has taken it’s lumps this season. The 28.8 points per game that the Rams are surrendering is the second-most in the NFL. The 5.0 yards per rush being given up ranks 27th and the 8.6 yards per pass attempt is the most.
The bind that the Packers have the ability to put defenses in is–what do you try to take away? If you go heavy and try to limit the run game, that leaves defenses light and exposed on the back end to an explosive passing game. On the flip side, providing the secondary with added help results in lighter fronts and more opportunities in the run game.
And the Packers have shown they won’t only hurt teams in either facet of the game but have the ability to generate explosive game-changing plays.
“They’ve got a good defense,” said Love. “It’s something that we are familiar with. The style of defense is what our defense was running the past couple years. I feel like we’ve played them every year since I’ve been here, it feels like. So we’ve seen them a lot and we’ll go through the week and put a good plan together, but they’ve got some good guys on defense and I think we’ll be able to put a good game plan together and be able to take advantage of some of the stuff they do, but it’s definitely a defense we’re familiar with.”
On paper, the opportunity for a big day for this Packers offense does certainly seem to exist. But, as always, it will come down to execution to take advantage of those matchups and situations. Perhaps some added continuity and consistency from last week to this one will play a key role in that happening.