The biggest worry about the Green Bay Packers’ “winning ugly” routine revolves around their inability, on both offense and defense, to find ways to assert their will. Usually, it has been a just-good-enough approach on both sides of the ball.
Obscured by three less-than-stellar offenses (Giants, Redskins, and Bears), the Packers defensive resurgence had been an underrated storyline entering Monday night’s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings.
While the Packers continued to struggle on offense for the better part of a half (at least), the defense turned in one of its most impressive performances in recent memory.
The Packers felt the Christmas spirit early on, giving the Vikings the ball three times in the form of an Aaron Jones fumble, an Aaron Rodgers interception and a Davante Adams fumble. Still, the defense wouldn’t budge.
In the end, the Packers won 23-10. And while they left points on the field, it’s hard to call this performance a prototypical “ugly” win. The defense dominated. Insofar as the Packers have won games behind a dominant offense in the past, they won tonight’s game because its defense refused to concede yards and points. Tonight, “ugly” is pretty.
Onto the takeaways.
Za’Darius Smith turns in All-Pro performance
Za’Darius Smith isn’t a Pro Bowler. But that’s because voters (and the voting process) are dumb.
Before the game, Za’Dairus Smith told Preston Smith that all he wanted for Christmas was a hat and a shirt. Well, he earned it.
Monday night was yet another reminder why Smith isn’t just a Pro Bowler this year but an All-Pro.
His stat line: seven tackles (six solo), five tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks.
Smith was everywhere; the Vikings were incapable of blocking him as he lined up all over the formation. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins could rarely get settled in the pocket, and Smith was a primary reason for that.
Somehow, the biggest offseason financial offseason acquisition from the spring is playing at such a high level that he’s arguably underpaid. Smith is unblockable, and it’s making everyone else play high-quality football.
Offense avoids going full Icarus
Committing turnovers on offense is, in essence, a death knell in the NFL.
The Packers gave the ball away three times. Once with a Jones’ fumble, then a Rodgers’ interception and finally an Adams’ fumble. Somehow they didn’t fly too close to the sun.
The Packers left the first half down 10-9; they finished the game clean, adding 14 more points en route to a two-score win.
The Vikings were favored going into this game – even with the knowledge that Dalvin Cook wasn’t going to play – but the Packers simply fought through adversity better.
Again, kudos to the defense. Faced with their backs against the wall in their opening appearance, the defense held the Vikings to just three points. In fact, the Vikings would move the ball just five yards after getting the ball on the Green Bay 10-yard line. The Packers started off similarly in San Francisco. This time, however, the defense held its ground and limited the damage.
The momentum would hold. In the second half, the Packers would turn a Kevin King interception into seven points by way of a 12-yard scamper off the left end by Aaron Jones. They would then ice the game two drives later with a 56-yard rushing touchdown by, no surprise, Aaron Jones.
The offense hasn’t yet played its best brand of football against a quality defense, and it’s something they’ll need to iron out if they are to make a Super Bowl run. But Monday night, against one of the NFL’s better defenses and defensive minds in Mike Zimmer, the Packers left victorious.
Line of scrimmage dominance
Strip away the flash. The truth is that the Packers won this game because they won up front on both offense and defense.
The offense kept Rodgers relatively clean all night against the pass-rushing duo of Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter. Hunter got his one sack. Griffen was blanked. Ifeadi Odenigbo earned his sack against one-on-one against Robert Tonyan. Stephen Weatherly added another.
Aside from that, the Packers offensive line played well.
Aaron Jones’ chunk yardage didn’t manifest until late – quick shoutout to time-of-possession dominance – but his early work, as well as Jamaal Williams’, came in the form of a lot of useful, blue-collar four-yard efforts.
On defense, the Vikings simply couldn’t block the Packers’ front four.
Za’Darius Smith, Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, and Preston Smith froze the Vikings’ zone-blocking scheme at the point, and third-string running back Mike Boone didn’t have much with which to work.
In recent weeks, the Packer shave tidied up their run-blocking assignments, playing more gap-responsible football. Against a team like the Vikings who thrive on an effective rushing game, the work has paid off. Lowry found his way a yard or two behind the line of scrimmage frequently, certainly playing a complementary part in Za’Darius Smith’s five TFLs. Kenny Clark added a sack and a TFL, and Preston Smith also rounded up the math with a half-sack.
A ‘hot’ Rodgers will separate this team from good to great
It’s never just one player, but Aaron Rodgers is the most important player on the football team. When he’s on, he’s unstoppable. For a better part of Monday night’s game, Rodgers was off.
This isn’t an indictment of Rodgers’ playstyle; he was more decisive and quick in the pocket than usual. What mattered most was his accuracy, which wasn’t up to his standard.
Take, for instance, the second down throw in the first quarter deep in Vikings’ territory. On 2nd-and-3, Rodgers overthrew fullback Danny Vitale, who faked the iso block and took his route deep through the seam. The play was there. We’ll see if Vitale was held (Rodgers seemed to have protested with the officials on the play), but there was an easy touchdown if the ball is thrown better.
He also tried to fit a ball inside to Davante Adams, who had good leverage, in the final seconds of the first half. Had the ball been caught, it would have been a touchdown. And while Adams should have caught it, the ball placement could have been improved, too.
Add to that an uncharacteristic interception in which safety Anthony Harris undercut Rodgers for the pick and it was an off night for No. 12.
Luckily for him, his Week 1 post-game comment is now more prescient than ever.
“We have a defense.”
The question, though: can they sustain it into January?
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