The Green Bay Packers are finally back in Lambeau for the first time in over a month, gearing up for their third divisional game against the Minnesota Vikings. Let’s break it all down.
Buckle up, kids.
Mile Low
Well, here we are, gang. The Green Bay Packers are at rock bottom.
We talked last week about how the Broncos game felt like a must-win, that it would be a gauge to see where the Matt LaFleur/Jordan Love Packers rank compared to the rest of the league. So, what did this team do?
- The offense went scoreless in the first 35 minutes of the game
- When they did produce touchdowns, they were either ugly or due to sheer dumb luck
- Against an offensive line that’s given up the 5th most sacks, the Green Bay pass rush recorded one sack and seven pressures on 29 pass attempts
- Let Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy do whatever they wanted, combining for 11 catches for 140 yards and a touchdown
- Held Javonte Williams’ hand as he ran for 82 yards, 44% of which was gained before contact
- Maybe worst of all, allowed the Broncos to win and gave Sean Payton any form of happines
The kicker to all of this is it came off the heels of the Packers bye week. 13 days since their last game, only the second game in 24 days. This young team was given a gift horse by the schedule makers in the early part of the season, and they proceeded to stare it directly in the face.
Vikings Airing the Ball
If you were hoping the Minnesota offense would struggle without Justin Jefferson, Monday night stifled that pretty quickly. In the two games since Jefferson went on IR, the Vikings are 2-0, and Kirk Cousins is coming off maybe the best primetime performance in his career: 378 yards and 2 touchdowns, good enough for a 107.2 passer rating.
He’s putting up similar numbers to Tua Tagovailoa, but with a worse…everything. There is no shade at T.J. Hockenson or Jordan Addison, but they ain’t Tyreek Hill or Jaylen Waddle. And sure, he’s thrown 51 more passes than Tua. But right now, the alternative is handing the ball off to either Alexander Mattison or Cam Akers. Speaking of which…
The Vikings running game is setting NFL records and not the good kind. They were the first team in NFL history to score 14+ passing touchdowns and zero rushing touchdowns. They’ve still yet to reach the endzone on the ground, so I think you all know what to expect on Sunday. Did you hear that noise? It’s the sound of the “Mattison Rushing Touchdown” odds getting absolutely hammered.
Under Pressure
It’s become very hard to get excited about the Green Bay offense moving forward the rest of the season. Their last two games were against some of the worst defenses ever to bless God’s green Earth, and we saw how they worked out.
The Vikings defense aren’t exactly world-beaters themselves. They’re middle of the league in terms of yards and points per game. They’ve given up 300+ yards of offense in four of their seven games, including 378 Monday night, a season-high.
Do you know what they do really well, though? Pressure the quarterback. Brian Flores loves to bring the heat on opposing quarterbacks. His Vikings defense has been blitzing quarterbacks at a 56.4% rate this season. The next closest team? The Patriots are at 42%.
Maybe the most impressive stat from this defense is Danielle Hunter is very quietly leading the league with 9 sacks. This stat means even more when you remember Dean Lowry is now one of his running mates on the defensive line. Get ready for the Lowry sack celebration.
On the flipside, Jordan Love is 31st out of 34 qualified quarterbacks in completion rate vs the blitz. It’s going to be a tall task for a Packers offensive line that’s not only regressing but dealing with a new slew of injuries coming into this week, with Josh Myers, Elgton Jenkins, and Yosh Nijman all on the injury report.
The upside for the Packers’ Offense?
If we’re looking for a silver lining going into this week, the strengths of this Vikings team might end up forcing the Packers to simplify things and provide Jordan Love and the offense some chances to get into a rhythm. The threat of the pass rush could take some of the less successful deep shot/long developing plays out of the picture. If I’m Mat LaFleur, I’m keeping things within 10-15 yards and quickly hit my way down the field.
We saw a very similar offense in the 49ers being able to pick up big chunk plays when they could beat the blitz on Monday. Hopefully, this team watched what worked and has taken that extra day to prepare and can find some kind of success vs their division rival.
