Packers’ offense loses punch trying to force the ball to Adams
GREEN BAY - There may be another time this year that an opposing defense decides that Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams is not going to beat them.
It might be this week, it might be the week after, it might be in the playoffs.
If it does happen, the Packers are going to have to deal with it better than they did in the second half of their 24-16 victory Saturday over the Carolina Panthers.
The logical thing to do when a team is playing a four-deep zone with the corners funneling everything into the crowded middle is to run the ball. Like
the Packers did in the first half when they rushed 17 times for 159 yards and two touchdowns en route to a 21-3 lead.
But the desire to get Adams going in the second half slowed down the run game and rendered the offense punchless.
“He’s going to be the focus, I think, of a lot of teams’ plan each week,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “So, we’ve just got to keep finding ways to move him around and get him involved.
“At the same time, you know, ‘33’ (Aaron Jones) had a really big game, was going from the start. If we’re going to control the line of scrimmage like we did, and they’re going to give us those money holes, we just got to keep sticking with it. And if they want to die a slow death giving up chunks on the ground, we just got to keep with it.”
Even with the misguided attempt to force the ball through the air, the Packers rushed for 195 yards, their second biggest output behind the 259 they had in Week 2 against Detroit. Jones carried 20 times for 145 yards, all but 31 of which came in the first half.
Had running back Jamaal Williams been available to add to the effort — he left early in the second quarter with a thigh injury — or rookie AJ Dillon been given more than one carry, who knows how high the number would have gone?
Facing an unconventional collegebased scheme got the better of coach Matt LaFleur and Rodgers, the latter of whom was responsible for changing run plays into pass plays at the line of scrimmage.
Several times, it was done just to get Adams the ball.
That flies in the face of LaFleur’s philosophy, which is to be flexible. It means if a team is going to hand you an advantage at the line of scrimmage down after down, you must take it.
“I think you’ve got to stay patient and take what they’re giving you,” LaFleur said. “Like the last game, they did not want us to throw the ball to him (Adams) and now we can get more creative in terms of just making sure we’re moving him around and putting him in different positions.
“But ultimately, it was a game where they were going to not take away the run and they were going to take away the pass. They did a good job.”
This week’s opponent, the Tennessee Titans, are less likely to hand over the keys to one facet of their defense the way the Panthers did, but they are also not a team that has defended both run and pass the same.
Ranked 27th overall, 15th against the run and 29th against the pass, the Titans have let teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars (165 yards), Minnesota Vikings (226), Indianapolis Colts (133), Baltimore Ravens (129) and Detroit Lions (123) run up yards on the ground.
On the other hand, they’ve let Jacksonville (315), Houston (320), Chicago (319), Indianapolis (297 and 280), Cleveland (340) and Detroit (307) sling the ball up and down the field on them. They rank last in the NFL in sacks with 14, which is 17 fewer than the league average.
The Packers are going to have to figure out early if there’s something the Titans absolutely want to take away and, if so, make them pay for it.
It just comes down to us and our performance,” Rodgers said. “A lot of times we’re our biggest enemy. We’re getting in our own way, whether it’s missed assignments or mental errors, there’s a bad throw or route wasn’t right or missing the cut in the hole.”
Or accepting a gift and putting it aside in hopes of something bigger and better.
The Packers rank third in scoring (31.0 points per game), fourth in yards (390.0), third in third-down conversion percentage (49.1) and first in red-zone touchdown percentage (78.4), so there’s always a reason to think they can be successful any way that they want.
But maybe they got a little too caught up in how prolific their passing game has been, how many touchdowns Rodgers has thrown and Adams has caught and what has made Rodgers an MVP candidate this year.
If they’re confused about it, it’s right there in the Carolina game video.
“I just feel like there’s a lot of correctable things from the film and that’s kind of the approach that we take,” Rodgers said. “It’s not a disrespect to the opponent, and we have a ton of respect for every team we play, but we just feel like our execution level, we have a standard that’s set. And we feel like when we hit that standard, we’re able to do some good things on offense.”