It’s a mystery at the moment. How opposing defenses will line up against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in 2016.
There was no question in 2015.
Opposing defenses brought an additional safety up to stop Eddie Lacy and the Packers’ rushing attack, virtually daring Rodgers and the passing offense to beat them.
The San Francisco 49ers were the first team to employ this strategy in week 4, holding the supposedly mighty Packers offense to 17 points. Every team throughout the rest of the season followed suit.
It’s amazing Lacy still managed to average 4.1 yards per carry and the Packers were still able to pile up the 12th best rushing total in the league, although don’t ask Sam Gash about that. They did so with opposing defenses geared to stop the running game first and foremost all season and with coach Mike McCarthy constantly getting on Lacy for one reason or another.
In this instance, the question is why did opposing defenses not play what they traditionally do — the cover 2 — against the Packers in 2015?
Overall, the reason is simple. It’s because the Packers passing attack wasn’t good in 2015.
They finished 25th in the league in total passing, with opposing defenses basically daring them to pass. That’s telling.
If you can’t throw the football against a cover 1, then you just aren’t any good at throwing the football.
Period.
Why weren’t the Packers any good at throwing the football?
A lot of people will point to the receivers. Jordy Nelson was out, the Packers couldn’t find (or refused to play) another deep threat, Davante Adams regressed and Randall Cobb underachieved.
Some people will point to the play calling. Tom Clements was a disaster in that department, having play-calling duties stripped from him in December. Clements’ biggest mistake was trying to execute a vertical passing game without a true outside receiver on the field. He simply didn’t adapt to his personnel very well.
As such, you could even say it was a personnel issue. The Packers didn’t have a tight end capable of stretching the middle of the field and they didn’t have an outside receiver Rodgers was comfortable with.
The bottom line is — and this is an unpopular stance — Rodgers should take the lion’s share of the blame.
The Packers offense is built around Aaron Rodgers. When he doesn’t perform up to the standard he set, the one that we all expect, the Packers offense doesn’t work.
We’re not going to get into the myriad of reasons why Rodgers may have been off in 2015. We would just be speculating. The important thing is, if you watch the tape critically, you see that he was off.
That allowed opposing defenses to stack the box to stop the run. They simply weren’t afraid of Aaron Rodgers beating them.
That’s not an opinion either. It’s what happened week after week.
Teams that play Packers at the start of this season are likely going to line up the same way they did for most of 2015. They’ll put an extra safety in the box to stop the run and dare Rodgers to beat them.
There’s simply no reason to do it any differently until Rodgers proves he’s back in top form. Until he proves he needs to be the focal point of the defense.
The offense goes as Rodgers goes.
If he’s really back, opposing defenses will have to go back to playing cover 2. That, not the number of donuts Eddie Lacy eats on a weekly basis, will open up the running game, the middle of the field and the Packers entire offense.