Green Bay Packers running back AJ Dillon was one of the few bright spots on offense during a disappointing 19-17 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 7. Dillon rushed for 61 yards on 4.1 yards per carry and added 34 receiving yards on two receptions. His 95 yards from scrimmage were by far his most in 2023.
More times than not, Dillon looked like the power back the team expected him to be, which hadn’t necessarily been the case through the first six games. On Sunday, he used his 247-pound frame to run through arm tackles and punish Denver defenders trying to tackle him. According to Pro Football Focus, Dillon forced four missed tackles and generated 60 yards after contact, both marking new season highs.
By far Dillon’s best game of the season. pic.twitter.com/eVDd91Q1Oh
— Brandon Carwile (@PackerScribe) October 23, 2023
Prior to their trip to Denver, Green Bay’s ground game was practically nonexistent. The backfield was severely hampered by Aaron Jones’ hamstring injury from Weeks 2-5, which forced Dillon to be the primary ball carrier. Unfortunately, he failed to produce like one.
During that four-game stretch, Dillon amassed just 175 rushing yards on 51 carries (3.4 YPC). He also caught just one pass for eight yards.
Coming out of the bye week, the Packers desperately needed Jones to get healthy to take some pressure off Jordan Love and the wide receivers. Unsurprisingly, the Broncos’ porous run defense proved to be a worthy remedy. Green Bay had their largest rushing output of the season with 137 yards, but it was Dillon who led the way. Jones added 35 rushing yards of his own on eight carries and 22 receiving yards on three receptions. The outcome may have been different if the offense utilized Jones more early on.
Nevertheless, the Packers still had a chance to win at the end. With just over three minutes remaining, Dillon led the team into Denver territory with a 29-yard catch-and-run that saw him break a tackle from linebacker Alex Singleton before being brought down by multiple Broncos defenders at their 44-yard line. Dillon was handed the ball again the next play but managed only to get back to the line of scrimmage when a rushing lane never opened up.
Green Bay likely needed one more first down or maybe even 7-8 yards to give kicker Anders Carlson a shot at a game-winning field goal. However, after Dillon was stopped for no gain, left guard Elgton Jenkins was called for a holding penalty, putting the offense into an undesirable 2nd-and-20.
Jordan Love then tried to force the issue with back-to-back passes downfield, the latter of which was a bomb to Samori Toure that fell into the hands of safety PJ Locke. On the game-ending interception, Dillon was open underneath with room to run but was probably one of the last options for Love to throw to.
After the game, Dillon was still optimistic despite having his best performance of the year thwarted by missed opportunities and poor execution.
“I think we have a lot of talent, and looking around the locker room, there are so many playmakers, and so there’s a lot of guys playing with high effort,” he said. “It’s just one of those things where it’s going to click.
“It’s still so early in the season, so nobody’s pressing the panic button. I’m definitely not pressing that panic button.”
To Dillon’s point, even though Green Bay is sitting at 2-4, there are still 11 games left in the season. That’s plenty of time to right the ship, but there is very little optimism around an offense that was held scoreless in the first half and scored only 17 points against a bad Denver defense, allowing over 30 points per game. Perhaps they can lean on Dillon and Jones for more offense, but the duo will have to produce against much tougher defenses moving forward.