The Green Bay Packers fell behind 27-3 in the first half and lost 34-20 during the first meeting against the Detroit Lions, and a key contributor to that one-sided final result was the fact that Green Bay’s offensive line was bullied.
“I think it starts up front,” said Jordan Love on Tuesday about the Lions defense. “They’ve got a really good front. Some good linebackers with really good pressure packages that they bring. So it starts up front, handling that, and being able to get the run game going.”
In the Week 4 game, Jordan Love was pressured on 48 percent of his dropbacks, and many of those pressures happened fairly quickly, with edge rushers Aidan Hutchinson and John Cominsky acting as a two-man wrecking crew. When a quarterback – an inexperienced one at that – is under quick and constant pressure, it doesn’t much matter what the play call is at that point–things probably aren’t going to end well.
On the ground, meanwhile, Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon combined for just 13 carries and 29 total yards between the two. That’s just over two yards per rush attempt.
This led to the Packers offense constantly being in second and third-and-long situations, resulting in a litany of three-and-outs. When facing long down-and-distances, it allows the pass rush to really pin its ears back, the defense as a group to get into favorable matchups, and that then puts all of the burden on a passing game, which, at that time for the Packers, was very mistake-prone.
“You’re on your 11th play, and the score is 24 to 3,” said Matt LaFleur after the Week 4 matchup. “That is not very good complementary football, and quite frankly, it gets you out of your game plan before you ever give yourself an opportunity to get the game plan going. We knew that they were going to load the box. I thought we had some opportunities there to make some plays in the passing game, and we went backwards. So it puts you in ‘get back on track’ situations.
“We got three third downs in there, so it looks like you’ve abandoned the run, when really you haven’t given yourself an opportunity to get the run game going. We had some run-pass cans where they gave us the look to the passes. I’m a firm believer in terms of playing probability. What has the best probability of having success? And when it doesn’t work out, you get stuck up here answering a bunch of your questions. That’s just the nature of it.”
Compared to the last time that these two teams met, the Packers’ offensive line has improved in pass protection. Over the last four games, Love has been pressured on just 28.3 percent of his dropbacks, which is the fourth-lowest rate during that span.
It’s also not as if Green Bay’s offensive tackles haven’t faced stiff competition either. In that stretch of games, they’ve faced TJ Watt, Alex Highsmith, Khalil Mack, and Danielle Hunter, not to mention Aaron Donald along the interior. Zach Tom has been by far the Packers’ most consistent player along the offensive line this season, while in the last two weeks, it looks like Rasheed Walker has turned a corner after taking some lumps previously.
With that said, although better than where it was earlier in the season, for the most part, the Packers still do not have a consistent run game to lean on, with the running backs averaging 4.0 yards per carry the last four weeks. Over the course of the season, that would still rank in the bottom third of the NFL.
As a defense, the 3.8 yards per rush that Detroit is giving up is the sixth-lowest this season. Truth be told, given the matchup up front, along with the Packers being short-handed at the running back position this week in not having Aaron Jones or Emanuel Wilson, if Green Bay is going to move the ball at all, it’s going to have to happen through the air.
The good news is that Love and the passing game have been picking up steam. The offense has been much better as of late, generating chunk plays, and as we saw during Sunday’s game against Los Angeles, the advantage that this unit has right now is that they have a handful of players who could get the ball on any given play.
Against a Lions’ front that ranks seventh in pressure rate, a lot of quick, short-area throws are likely to be dialed up by Green Bay in an effort to get the ball out of Love’s hands. However, to counter this, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Detroit shrinking the field by playing closer to the line of scrimmage, taking away space and YAC opportunities. The only way to back those defenders up is to connect on intermediate and deep throws, but time in the pocket is going to be required for that to happen.
“You always as a quarterback have to be conscious of the rush,” added Love. “Just knowing that you can’t sit back there all day and you’ve got to get the ball out at some point. It’s the same thing, going through your reads, being quick through your reads, begin decisive and knowing where your check downs are when you get a little pressure.”
Moving the ball and putting up points likely isn’t going to come easy in this game for Green Bay. But if they are going to find any sort of success on offense, it begins with the play of the offensive line. The run game probably won’t be much of a factor, but giving Love time will be a must. We’ve seen previously and against this same Lions team what can happen when there is constant pressure.
