Paul Bretl | 10/13/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The goal at the start of this week internally for the Packers was to play four quarters of complementary football. In fact, as you exited the locker room towards the tunnel that takes you to the field, that was one of the messages on the TV screen as you walk through the doorway.
Whether it be the Packers or any NFL team, this message isn’t groundbreaking or even new. However, given how the Packers start to the season has gone, it was very much needed.
“Well, we talked about coming into this game just playing four quarters of complementary football, and thought that was about as good as we could’ve done it,” said Matt LaFleur after the game. “There’s always stuff that we can clean up, but I thought all in all, just the effort from start to finish, the focus from start to finish, was exactly what is a great formula for winning football.
“We were plus 2 in the takeaway battle, obviously had the one miscue right before the half where we had a receiver slip, but all in all I thought it was pretty efficient really in every phase of the game.”
Offensively, in recent weeks, it’s been very boom-or-bust for this unit, with either quick scoring drives sparked by a big play or a short possession ending in a punt. On defense, the play has been up and down at times, with some really good stretches and others where the Minnesota Vikings put up points on the first three possessions or the Rams’ Kyren Williams rips off some chunk runs early on.
As LaFleur said, it’s not as everything was perfect this week–there were still errors in all three phases, but in each area, the Packers remained in control from the start to the finish.
The best example of complementary football came in the first half with the Packers up 17-0. Arizona had the ball and faced a third-and-one. Quarterback Kyler Murray ran a read-option, which safety Evan Williams defended perfectly by not being overly aggressive and pursuiing the running back, but instead stayed focused on Murray and made the open field tackle in the backfield. This then forced the Cardinals to punt.
Following a penalty on both teams that negated the original punt, Keisean Nixon returned his punt attempt 39 yards. On the very next play, Jordan Love connected with Christian Watson for a 44-yard touchdown pass.
“That’s complementary football,” said Keisean Nixon of that sequence at his locker. “That’s what we here for.”
Love finished the game completing 22-of-32 passes for 258 yards at 8.1 yards per attempt with four touchdowns and an interception–which most likely only occurred because the receiver slipped. For some context, that 8.1 yards per pass attempt would have been the fifth-best through the first five weeks of the season.
Making matters even more difficult for the Arizona defense was that of Love’s 22 completions, nine different players recorded at least one reception. The Green Bay passing game was attacking all parts of the field and doing so with a variety of skill sets and route combinations.
“That’s just the glory of our offense, man,” Jayden Reed said. “We’ve got a lot of different players that can make plays. We distribute here. Got a lot of different playmakers, and you’ve got to game plan for that.”
A key contributor to that aforementioned boom-or-bust nature of the Packers offense was their struggles on early downs in recent weeks. Oftentimes from self-inflicted mistakes, whether it be penalties, off-target throws, dropped passes, or just a few yards on the ground, the Packers were too often playing behind the sticks, making the offense a bit predictable and giving the defense the schematic advantage.
However, that wasn’t the case this week. With a run game that totaled 179 yards on the ground at a clip of 4.7 yards per attempt, only 40 yards in penalties, and the passing game humming, the Packers’ offense was able to find an early rhythm. This then allowed the run and passing games to build off of each other, which puts the defense in a bind having to defend both.
“I think that’s always the goal is to be able to have a great run game and a great pass game, just play off each other with both of those,” said Love. “And then explosive plays, that’s our mindset. We try to get those explosive plays and then obviously try and take care of the ball, which I think we still (need to) do a better job, build on that next week. But explosives, take care of the ball and have a balanced game is definitely something we want to be on offense.”
The Cardinals came into this game as one of the best rushing offenses in football. Running back James Conner had been one of the better backs through five games at generating rushes of 10-plus yards, and we all know how dynamic Kyler Murray is.
As a team, Arizona averaged only 3.9 yards per rush, which included Conner and Murray combining for just 38 yards. The Packers gameplan was focused around trying to slow this element down, and included a controlled pass rush with an emphasis on keeping Murray in the pocket, as well as playing with heavier boxes on early downs to provide additional support.
But the complementary football component was also important. With the Packers’ offense jumping out to a fast multi-score lead, it forced the Cardinals–especially as the game went on–to be more pass-heavy and less reliant on the run.
“I think we just stuck to our rules and just did a good job of playing four-quarter football,” said Evan Williams of the defensive performance. “Everybody trusting each other to do their job. It was just guys going out there and just doing their job for four quarters and we got a really special group of guys and when everybody does what they’re supposed to, we can be really dangerous.”
And, oh yeah, the Green Bay defense also forced three more takeaways, coming away with three fumble recoveries in this matchup–all of which came in the second half. After totaling 18 total turnovers all of last season, the Packers now have 17 just six games into the 2024 season.
“Crazy,” said Rashan Gary of the turnovers. “Since OTAs before the season started, throughout camp, that’s something that Coach Haf emphasized – just being a defense to get after the ball and playing with maximum effort. As you’ve seen throughout the season, man, we’re attacking the ball, ripping at it. All we’ve got to do is keep on being consistent and keep on holding our standard.
“Every time we have a wrap-up tackle and the ball-carrier’s not down, we’ve got to strip at the ball, we’ve got to punch at it. The more we’ve been doing that and giving the offense back the ball, the more opportunities they have to score.”
After some early ups and downs this season, as the offense gets more reps together with Love healthy and the defense snaps in Jeff Hafley’s system, we are seeing strides made each week on both sides of the football. And this week, it all came together for a fairly dominant showing.
The next step for the Packers will be replicating this performance so that it becomes the norm and not the outlier as just a nice blip on the radar.
“We talked about it all week just play complimentary football from the first quarter to the fourth,” said Christian Watson. “So to be able to go out there and have the game that we did today, I mean we gotta continue to build upon this but this is exactly the kind of game we wanted to have today.”