Packers need to keep RBs busy
GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Packers' offense didn't do Sunday what got the team to 7-1 in the first place.
The Packers didn't feed the ball to their running backs, both in the run game and quick-outlet pass game. They took a couple of third-and-medium shot plays instead of looking to keep the chains moving. They didn't call the ballcontrol passing offense that had worked so well the previous four weeks.
To be sure, this was a tough game to get a read on because of the Packers' horrendous start. They had four presnap penalties on their first three (and only) possessions of the first half. That is stunning on both counts. Those presnap penalties — false starts on Bryan Bulaga, Elgton Jenkins and David Bak
htiari, and delay of game on Aaron Rodgers — were drive-wreckers.
They had only 18 plays in the first two quarters, or barely more than half the number of a usual half.
The reason coach Matt LaFleur’s offense had flourished the last four weeks was its patience sustaining drives with runs and quick throws and checkdowns. In this game, the Chargers played the opposite of Kansas City last week, rarely blitzed and tried to prevent the big play. That should have played into the Packers’ hands.
But LaFleur and Rodgers never got into a quick-throw offense on a day when tackles Bakhtiari and Bulaga were overmatched by outside rushers Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram.
Two plays that stand out were the two deep shots the Packers took in this game, one late in first half, the other early in the second. The first was on third-and-7, the other third-and-8. Both were low-percentage throws when higher-percentage options were called for and available to keep the drives alive.
On the first, Rodgers was pressured and hit just after the release by Bosa, who had beaten Bulaga, on a bomb to Allen Lazard along the sideline. Lazard was matched one-on-one with no safety help, so it might have looked attractive to Rodgers or been something he and LaFleur talked about in game-plan meetings last week. But Geronimo Allison was open for a first down on a crossing route underneath. A completion there and the Packers would have been in Chargers territory with the drive alive and a chance to go ahead 7-3, or at least get on the scoreboard with a field goal, even though they’d been badly outplayed all half.
On the second, which was the first possession of the second half, Rodgers took a deep shot to Jake Kumerow on third-and-7. Again, Kumerow was covered one-on-one with no safety help, which is a matchup you look for. And on this one Kumerow had a shot at the ball but it went just through his fingertips. If the play hits, they’re all heroes.
But it was still a lower-percentage throw, and with the Packers’ offense struggling as it had up to that point, the goal should have been keeping the chains moving and getting into rhythm, not taking a shot at the big play.
The Packers’ offense didn’t look like itself until a fourth-quarter touchdown drive when Rodgers hit running back Jamaal Williams three straight times for the final 22 yards.
Remarkably, Aaron Jones, the star of the last two games because of his receiving skills out of the backfield, had only one catch for minus-1 yard. That was on the Packers’ first offensive play, and he never saw the ball on a swing pass or screen or circle route or quick out for the rest of the game. How does that happen?
There was nothing good in the Packers’ no-show offense Sunday, and pretty much everyone on that side of the ball is open to fair criticism. Among other things, their offensive line never got a handle on the Chargers’ pass rush, and tight end Jimmy Graham’s shortcomings after the catch stood out (four receptions for 17 yards).
The early penalties were a major problem, and the defense allowing long, time-consuming drive after drive kept the ball out of Rodgers’ hands and prevented more chances from finding a rhythm.
But the lesson for the Packers, even now with Davante Adams back, is LaFleur and Rodgers need to make sure Jones and Williams keep getting the ball, as much receiving as on hand-offs. The offense needs the same rhythm it had when Adams was out.
Running on empty
Mike Pettine keeps groping for ways to shore up the run-stopping issues that have plagued his defense most of the season, but so far he hasn’t hit on anything that’s done the job.
On Sunday, he regularly matched the Chargers’ three-receiver sets with a five-man front (three down linemen and two outside linebackers standing at the line) to help defend the run, and a nickel backfield (three cornerbacks and two safeties) to match up in coverage with the receiver-heavy personnel. That left Blake Martinez as the lone inside linebacker.
It didn’t work. The Chargers ran the ball effectively all game — Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler averaged 4.7 yards a carry, and of their 16 first-down runs, they from 4 to 7 yards nine times. That’s a lot of favorable second downs for the Chargers. No wonder they had the ball 60 percent of the game.
Pettine also tried second-year pro Oren Burks (eight snaps) at inside linebacker occasionally, but Burks didn’t help, either. He was drafted in the third round last year to add some speed and explosiveness at inside linebacker, but we might have caught a glimpse Sunday of why he’s having trouble getting on the field.
On a first down late in the second quarter, Burks was on the field and the Chargers ran Gordon up the middle. Burks had Martinez as help on his left but for some reason basically crossed Martinez’s path and hit center Scott Quessenberry with his right shoulder, which opened the gap to Burks’ right, where he had no help.
If Burks had taken on Quessenberry with his left shoulder, he’d have covered the gap, and Gordon would have had to run at Martinez. Instead, Gordon ran through the big hole at Burks’ right side and picked up 6 yards. That’s the kind of play that will keep you on the bench.
Extra points
❚ The Packers had a rough time blocking the Chargers’ outstanding pass-rush duo of Bosa and Ingram, especially on the handful of downs when the Chargers lined them up on the same side. On one occasion in the first half the Packers failed to slide their protection to the Bosa-Ingram side — center Corey Linsley instead helped to his left — and Bosa had all the space he needed to beat Bulaga with an inside move for a sack. On the second, Linsley slid to the BosaIngram side, but right guard Billy Turner didn’t slide hard enough with him, and Ingram beat Turner with a quick move to the outside for a sack that the a hard slide would have taken away.
❚ The Packers might have found a way to get first-round pick Rashan Gary on the field a little more. He played a few snaps as a down lineman when Pettine tried to get more athletic by putting four outside linebackers on the field, and Gary looked OK doing it. On one run late in the second quarter, Gary got about a yard of push off the snap, then was explosive enough to turn and catch Ekeler from behind on a 7-yard run.