Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
LaFleur makes right move by resting stars
Green Bay — Thinking long-term didn’t hurt Matt LaFleur’s team in the short run, either.
With a bye next week the Green Bay Packers coach decided to buy an extra week of rest for a couple of injured stars, most notably receiver Davante Adams, by sitting them Monday night against Atlanta.
But playing short-handed on offense, with No. 2 receiver Allen Lazard also out, didn’t slow LaFleur’s diverse and resourceful attack in the Packers’ 30-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons at Lambeau Field.
So now, with a bye about a month earlier than they’d like, the Packers nevertheless head into their week off with prospects as bright as anyone’s in the league. They’re one of only two 4-0 teams in the NFC — Seattle is the other — and are likely to get back a fully healthy Adams and Kenny Clark (groin) when they return to action Oct. 18 against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I like where we’re at. I really do,” Aaron Rodgers said after the game. “I like the diversity in our approach. I think again Matt (LaFleur) was really good kind of mixing it up tonight with the calls. Obviously we had to do some different things without Davante, without Allen (Lazard) and without Marcedes (Lewis), but I thought we had a nice plan and we executed really well.”
Not that all the news from Monday night was good. Cornerback Kevin King didn’t play in the second half because of a quad injury, and that’s especially a concern because of his injury history — he missed 17 games his first two seasons — and the Packers’ lack of depth at cornerback.
Quad injuries generally don’t carry season-ending implications, so there’s no reason at least for now to think King will be out long-term. But two players this team can least afford to lose are King and their No. 1 corner, Jaire Alexander, because of the dropoff in coverage talent behind them.
Still, the Packers head into their bye with an offense that leads the league in scoring (152 points total, 143 by the offense) and quarterback who’s playing as well as anyone at his position in the league.
You might have seen in the offseason the handful of analytics pundits who picked the Packers as the leading candidate to slide this year because of their 7-1 record in one-score games last season and modest point differential (plus-63) for a 13-win team. History says those teams revert to the mean.
We’re only one-quarter of the way through the season, but that looks laughable now. In LaFleur’s second season as coach Rodgers is off to an exceptional start — his 147.5 rating Monday night was the sixth best of his long career, and he did it without Adams and
No. 2 receiver Lazard, who’s out indefinitely because of a core-muscle injury.
LaFleur’s offense, built around the misdirection and play action of the wide-zone run scheme, has proven it can grind through defenses in any number of ways. Without Adams and Lazard, the stars Monday night were tight end Robert Tonyan (six catches for 98 yards and three touchdowns) and running back Jamaal Williams (eight catches for 95 yards).
LaFleur had to reach into his personnel bag for this one. His unusual personnel groupings included the occasional use of running backs Williams and Aaron Jones together, which works because both have the ability to flex out as a de facto receiver. That was a matchup problem for Falcons coach Dan Quinn.
It also wasn’t like the Packers’ run game dominated on this night — Jones,
Williams and AJ Dillon combined for 84 yards on 24 carries. But run stats can deceive, because the run threat served its purpose. Atlanta couldn’t both handle the run and cover Tonyan, Williams and Jones (five catches for 40 yards). The damage on the scoreboard would have been even worse if the Packers hadn’t failed to score after getting a firstand-goal at the 6 in the first quarter.
“I do feel really good in the offense,” Rodgers said. “I feel like Matt (LaFleur) and I are really on the same page. Not that we weren’t last year, I just feel like we’re doing so much more. I think the aggressive nature has been really good.”
Through four weeks what jumps out as much as anything is how LaFleur’s offense in Season 2 is helping his quarterback return to an MVP level of play.
Rodgers had only five incompletions in 33 attempts against Atlanta and was sacked once, bringing his season total to only three in four games. He’s not getting hit much and the ball’s coming out fast to mostly open receivers.
Even though Rodgers is not surrounded by anything like the dynamic talent of the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buccaneers, the 2020 Packers became the first team in franchise history to start the season with 30 points or more in each of its first four games.
“They’re on fire, man,” outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith said of his offensive teammates. “Who I had a talk with? I think it was (rapper) Lil Wayne who called me. He said, ‘Man, whatever Aaron Rodgers is doing, tell him to keep doing it because that man is on fire!’ I just wanted to say that. But, all seriousness, man, they’re doing a great job on their side of the ball and hopefully we can keep it up.”
The Packers will take their rest this weekend, and in this pandemic season that includes daily COVID-19 testing. That means nobody will be going anywhere. That’s no fun for the players, who like to get out of town for a few days over the bye. But it won’t hurt this team’s early roll.
LaFleur made the right call with Adams and Clark, two of the team’s best players. They should be ready to go with the extra week off, and the extra rest ended up costing the Packers nothing.