The new-look Green Bay Packers offense is coming off a sound debut against the Chicago Bears in Week 1. However, one area where they must improve moving forward is in the run game.
The Packers offensive line did an excellent job in pass protection, giving Jordan Love plenty of time and clean pockets to throw from, which played a key role in his overall success. But where the offensive line took some lumps was in the run game.
As a team, Green Bay averaged just 2.9 yards per rush against Chicago, and while the Bears made some additions this offseason to their front seven, this was also a unit that was one of the worst at defending the run last season. On toss plays or outside zone runs, too often Chicago defenders were able to make their way into the backfield quite easily.
Individually, AJ Dillon would average just 1.5 yards per rush and while Aaron Jones averaged 4.6, atthough that figure was more so a product of Jones being able to find running lanes and create opportunities for himself. With Dillon not having that same ability as Jones to adlib as a ball carrier, his struggles to find running lanes are more indicative of the offensive line’s actual performance.
“I think the Bears defensive front did a nice job against the run,” said center Josh Myers on Wednesday. “(But) just continuing to press our aiming points, that’s something we always harp on pretty big. And just continuing to work and find what our thing is going to be in the run game.”
The Green Bay offense was able to overcome it’s inefficiencies in the ground game against Chicago, but consistent success in the run game this season is going to be a must for this unit. With a first time starting quarterback and a young group of pass catchers, regularly being put in predictable passing situations – such as second and third and longs – is likely not going to be a sustainable recipe for success for this group.
On the flip side, a steady run game to lean on can really open up the playbook for Matt LaFleur as a play caller, keep the defense off-balanced, and open up opportunities in the passing game as well, specifically off play-action—a key element of the LaFleur offense.
“I think that’s always a goal for us to run the ball well,” said Love on Wednesday. “It sets up so many different things in the play-action pass game. I think it just helps out the pass game in general when the defense has to worry about the run. It’s something that strive to be great at every week and something we’ll do this week.”
This week the Packers will be up against an Atlanta defense that LaFleur called ‘very aggressive.’ When defending the run, this is a Falcons unit that ranked 10th last week in ESPN’s run-stop rate metric. Led by Grady Jarrett in the middle, they also have a potent pass rush and a secondary that is willing to challenge receivers and does a lot of mixing of personnel, along with utilizing late movement to cause confusion.
Against this Atlanta defense, the inability to pick up yards on the ground is going to make moving the ball, in general, all the more challenging for the Packers offense.
“You always got to have everyone on the same page,” said LaFleur. “You got to make sure you’re targeted. You gotta make sure it’s not always just the offensive linemen, a lot of times it could be the wide outs or tight ends and making sure that they’re going to their specific people. There were too many times (against Chicago) that we didn’t have all 11 on the same page.”