Paul Bretl | 12/14/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — In a loud road environment against the Lions, it took the Packers’ offensive line time to settle in. Now awaiting them is another road game in Seattle, a stadium known for being one of the loudest venues in the NFL.
For much of the season, the Packers’ offensive line unit has performed quite well. The Green Bay run game will enter Week 15 averaging 4.8 yards per attempt, which is the seventh-best mark this season, while also ranking eighth in quarterback pressure rate.
A key factor in that overall success has been the continuity up front–an important element to successful offensive line play, where the sum of the parts are greater than any one individual performance.
“In the run game,” said Adam Stenavich when asked where that continuity shows up. “Things like that where guys can just play next to each other, it’s one thing when you’re just doing combination blocks and things like that when you’ve got a consistent person next to you making those calls, blocking those people.
“And in pass pro, we’re doing an excellent job in pass pro as well, for the most part. So I think just having those guys get reps next to each other, the communication, just all being on the same page, is something that people take for granted for sure.”
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However, particularly early on against Detroit, the offensive line was being pushed around by a Lions’ defensive front that was short-handed due to injuries. Josh Jacobs would average only 3.7 yards per carry, although in part, that was a product of the Lions’ loading up the box to stop him, while Jordan Love was under pressure at the 10th highest rate in Week 14.
Struggles in the run game put an offense behind the sticks and in disadvantageous long down-and-distance situations where the defense has the upper hand. Pressure, meanwhile, disrupts the timing and rhythm of the play and can lead to mistakes. But not coincidentally, as the offensive line play improved as the game went on, so did Green Bay’s performance on offense.
“I thought we started slow, especially in the pass game,” Stenavich said on Thursday. “There were a few instances where we leaky in our protections, they got to the quarterback a few times early.
“But I did think as the game went on we settled in and rallied and did a better job. But yeah, we definitely needed to start faster to just be more productive at the beginning of the game, which hurt us in the long run.”
In addition to the innate challenge that comes for an offensive line with facing a Lions’ defense that is one of the stingiest in football or a Seattle defensive front that features Leonard Williams and has been one of the best at pressuring the quarterback this season is the noise that’s part of the equation as well.
“We’re just gonna have to be very deliberate in our communication,” said Sean Rhyan on dealing with the noise. “Making sure that everyone knows what the call is, the adjustment is. We just gotta be very deliberate on communicating, especially on combos.”
Dubbing their fans the “12th man,” Seattle’s Century Link Field is arguably the loudest in football, which at one time included breaking a Guinness World Record for the loudest sports stadium back in 2013, during a Monday Night football game with New Orleans where the noise from the home crowd reached 137.6 decibels.
For the road team, this can make hearing the play call difficult in the huddle, and for the offensive line specifically, it hampers their ability to communicate protections pre-snap and can even make hearing the quarterback’s cadence difficult.
Struggles in this area could lead to pressures once the ball is snapped or pre-snap penalties, which the offensive line had issues with through the first half of the season, putting the offense behind the sticks and making them one-dimensional, and plays into the hands of the Seattle defense.
“It can be difficult,” said Rhyan about hearing Love in loud environments, “but the thing is being with Jordan as long as you catch something when the cadence starts, you have a pretty good idea of when we’re going to go. So as long we just catch one part, we’re going to be okay, but if we can’t catch any of it, then we’re going to have to be reactionary.”
Lining up across from the Packers’ offensive linemen will be the aforementioned Williams. On the season, Williams has recorded 40 pressures, seven sacks, and a pick-six against the New York Jets. Those 40 pressures rank 11th among all defensive tackles, with Williams also having the ninth-best run-blocking grade from PFF.
Seattle will move Williams up and down the defensive front and he’s a player that the Packers have to know where he’s always located. As a unit, the Seahawks have generated the 11th-highest pressure rate this season.
“He’s having a monster year,” said Matt LaFleur of Williams. “I mean, shoot, the Jets game, he overtook that game and he’s got that capability, so he’s a guy that you better understand who you’re going against and what he’s capable of doing and we’re gonna have to do a great job of playing with great fundamentals, pad level and making sure we have a plan for him on every play.”
However, if there is an area where the Seattle defense has been susceptible, it’s in the run game, surrendering 4.7 yards per carry this season–the eighth-highest mark in football. Couple that with this being a defense that’s good at getting after the quarterback and features an aggressive secondary that’s been among the best in yards per pass attempt allowed and in ball production, and that’s a recipe for a more Josh Jacobs-centric game–at least to start.
As Tucker Kraft has described before, when the Packers are able to lean on Jacobs and the run game, as they did against San Francisco and Miami, it opens up the entire playbook for the offense.
When an offense is operating from short down-and-distances, really any play can be called in those situations and the defense has to be prepared for that, which can spread them out and it takes away some of the bit from a potent pass rush or a press-heavy secondary, thus leading to opportunities in the passing game.
We saw this effect on display against Miami, who is another defense that has done well to prevent explosive passing plays this season. Through the first half, we saw Green Bay lean on the run game and those short to intermediate throws. Then as the Miami defense started to creep up to better defend those plays, Love connected with Christian Watson down the right sideline for an explosive play.
“They rely a lot on their guys that they have up front,” said Jacobs of the Seattle defense. “You know, their DBs are not really afraid to hit, come up and hit. So, I think that’s a testament to how they’re coached and how they’re being trained over there.
“They’re very ball aware that I’ve noticed just on film. So, for me, just trying to run with the same determination that I’ve been running with. Try to come out there and just put my stamp on the game.”
Depending on how the NFC West shakes out, along with the rest of the playoff seeding in the NFC, this might not be the only time that Green Bay travels to Seattle this season. The Seahawks are trying to fend off the Rams for the division title, so this will be another playoff-like atmosphere for the Packers to compete in.
Behind any success or failure in football, there are numerous factors that determine the outcome of a game or even a single play. But how the Packers’ offensive line handles the noise in Seattle and Leonard Williams will play an important role in determining what kind of success the offense as a whole has on Sunday night.
“The mindset is this is a playoff game,” said Xavier McKinney. “It’s like any other mindset, any other game, we’ve got to go in focused and ready to play. Obviously the atmosphere they provide is pretty crazy. I played there once before, I know how loud it can get and I know their fans are crazy, crazy loud in that way.
“They’ve got a really good team, so it’s going to be a challenge for us going in there for a road game, tough team, playoff opponent team, so that’s the mindset that we’re carrying into it.”