In both the run and passing games on Sunday night, it was a dominant performance by the Green Bay Packers offensive line against Minnesota.
“How about the offensive line?!” yelled Matt LaFleur in the locker room after the game when he was addressing the team.
The Vikings entered Week 17 with one of the more stingy run defenses in football, allowing only 3.7 yards per carry on the season, good for the fifth-lowest average. But for the second week in a row, Aaron Jones rushed for over 100 yards, totaling 120 at 6.0 yards per rush, with the Packers as a team finishing with 178 yards on the ground.
Last week against Carolina, Jones’ ability to create for himself was an important part of his success. But against Minnesota, there were more running lanes generated by the Green Bay offensive line for Jones to take advantage of.
“The run game was really great tonight,” said Jordan Love after the game. “Aaron Jones, AJ (Dillon), PT (Patrick Taylor), those guys battled the whole time. The OL did great. I just think everyone was executing at a high-level tonight.”
In the passing game, Minnesota came into the game ranked first in blitz rate in 2023, sending pressure on 49 percent of their defensive snaps. Against Green Bay, the Vikings turned up the heat to near maximum, blitzing Jordan Love on a whopping 76 percent of his dropbacks.
As they do, the Vikings sent the pressure from a variety of places and did their best to disguise where it was coming from. However, the Packers offensive line held up very well, with Love pressured on just 33 percent of his dropbacks, including no sacks surrendered and only two quarterback hits given up.
In fact, against the blitz, Love was lights out, completing 18-of-25 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns.
“Guys came, played and dominated,” said Elgton Jenkins. “That’s what we say we wanted to do. Run the ball and protect the quarterback, and I feel like we did that. We did good as an offensive line. Coach called good plays. Quarterback got the ball out. Overall, it was a good performance, but we could have been better.”
Part of Green Bay’s early and mid-season struggles on offense started with inconsistency up front. From Weeks 4 through 8 – during the Packers’ four-game losing streak – Love was pressured on the fourth-most dropbacks during that span. But since Week 11, despite being blitzed at the highest rate in the NFL, Love ranks 30th (as in on the very low end) in the percentage of dropbacks under pressure.
>On the ground, we’ve seen a similar surge from the offensive line. From Weeks 3 through 8, Green Bay averaged just 4.1 yards per carry, but since Week 11, when the offense really began to take off, that figure has jumped to 4.6 yards. While that may not sound like a huge jump, 4.1 yards per rush ranks 20th in the NFL this season among teams. 4.6 would be the sixth-best–so that’s a pretty substantial difference.
Coinciding with the improved play from the offensive line was Green Bay rotating players at the left tackle and right guard positions. As of Sunday night, Rasheed Walker took 100 percent of the snaps at left tackle for the second week in a row, but Jon Runyan and Sean Rhyan continue to split snaps at right guard. Although unconventional, the coaching staff believed this approach enhanced the competition and elevated the play of the entire unit.
“It’s created competition,” said offensive line coach Luke Butkus, “and everybody in that room is getting better because of the competition. Am I happy with it? Definitely. I think everybody is buying in, seeing it, and competing their butt off every week. Just trying to get better, and that’s our goal, to get better every week.”
It goes without saying, but really, any success that this Packers offense as a whole is going to have starts up front with the offensive line. Moving the ball on the ground helps to create opportunities in the passing game, while time in the pocket for a quarterback to not be hurried and to allow plays to develop is always a good thing. When throwing from a clean pocket over the last seven games, Love is sixth in completion rate and fifth in touchdowns.
We saw all of that on display in Minnesota, and not surprisingly, the result was a really efficient performance from Love and the Green Bay Packers offense.