The Packers Hold On in an Injury-Riddled Shootout

The Packers came into this gamewithout Clay Matthews, Sam Shields, and Morgan Burnett, and can be forgiven forsurrendering much of the first half lead they built. The Lions were also inrough shape on the defensive side of the ball, missing Ziggy Ansah andWisconsin alum Deandre Levy, and a depleted Lion defense was just what thePacker offense needed to get going.

Aaron Rodgers and company put ona show in the first half as the Packers scored early and often with strikes toDavante Adams, Richard Rodgers, and two to Jordy Nelson, who finally lookedlike vintage Jordy Nelson, completing the Packers’ longest pass play of theyear (49 yards) and abusing defensive backs on short routes. His footwork andability to create separation remain unparalleled and he showed off the completeskillset on Sunday.

Nelson was only part of the storyas the Packers showed much greater formation diversity, and incorporated somequick-hitting timing plays. Davante Adams only saw two targets on the day, buthe did a good job shedding his man on a slant and powering into the end zonefor the game’s first touchdown.

Eddie Lacy was also anunstoppable force, ripping off huge gains and reliably setting up the passinggame in manageable situations. Lacy was still too hesitant in the backfield attimes, but the Lion front 7 was no match for the Packer line and Lacy was ableto get into the secondary all day even with less-than-stellar burst.

All of this is positive and therewere definitely some things for Packer fans to be excited about in their 34-27win, but I would take the offensive performance with a grain of salt. Lacy’ssuccess was frankly too easy. The Lions can put a decent starting defense on thefield, but they are severely lacking in depth and as a result this may be theworst non-Bear defense the Packers face all season. Moreover, the extremeconservatism of McCarthy’s second half play-calling almost cost them the gameanyway, and if Eddie Lacy had not been as dominant as he was, the Lions mayhave eked out an additional possession and tied it up.

The defense was bad, but NickPerry and Mike Daniels were outstanding yet again, and even rookie KylerFackrell chipped in with a sack. The secondary was repeatedly torched by MarvinJones, but with no Shields or Burnett, something like this was bound to happen,and the defense did well to contain everyone else. With the bye next week thedefense should have a chance to get healthy before the Giants game, where theywill be severely tested.

The Packers’ Second BestReceiver

Jordy Nelson leads the Packers inreceiving with 206 yards on the season. Coming in at a close second is…

“Pass Interference”. RookieTrevor Davis drew the Packers’ fifth PI penalty of the season, a whopping66-yarder on an unbelieveable 70-yard heave by Rodgers in the 2nd quarter. Thispenalty gave the Packers 177 pass interference yards on the season, 45 yardsmore than Randall Cobb, the official 2nd leading receiver on the team. The teamis averaging over 35 yards per PI penalty thus far and it has been a majorcomponent of the offense, which has actually continued to lack a true deepthreat. Jordy Nelson’s 49-yard reception is the longest of the season for thePackers, but it was a medium-throw that Nelson took a long way. Bombs haverarely connected, and only 7 of Aaron Rodgers’ attempts this season have netted20-yards or more. On the other hand four of five PI penalties have netted morethan 25 yards, filling in nicely for the deep passing game.

The penalties are nice to have,but they also remind me a bit of the Packers’ success in hitting plays afterRodgers draws a team offsides. It paid huge dividends early last season, buteventually teams stopped jumping and the free yards dried up. These free yardsare also not sustainable, as referees are very inconsistent in making PI calls,and in the playoffs they tend to go away entirely. Eventually the Packers aregoing to have to actually hit on some deep balls, but until then, this funlittle fact is keeping them afloat.

Special Teams Saves the Day

There were two huge plays onspecial teams that went a long way towards ensuring a Packer victory. The firstwas a brilliant bit of rule abuse by Ty Montgomery, who turned a touchback (orworse) into an illegal kickoff.

On a kickoff, if a player isstanding out of bounds or touching any area that is out of bounds, that playeris considered to be out of bounds. Since a kickoff that goes out of boundsresults in a procedure penalty and the offense starting at the 40-yard line,the rule applies to a kickoff that hits an out-of-bounds player. Montgomeryestablished himself out of bounds and stretched as far as he could to contactthat ball, resulting in a very short field for the offense, and a touchdown toJordy Nelson.

The second came from the muchmaligned Jake Schum. The new punter has not impressed as of yet, and his 41.5average (on just two punts) looks quite pedestrian until you re-watch hisgame-saving catch of an errant snap and quick punt just in front of anonrushing defender.

Schum not only didn’t get blockedand didn’t fumble, he hit a halfway decent 43-yard punt. It was returned 15yards but under the circumstances, with just 5 minutes remaining in the gameand the Packers nursing a narrow lead, it was a huge play.

The Giants

ThePackers next face the Giants in two weeks. The Giant defense has been playingextremely well (despite a slump this weekend against Washington), but the bigchallenge for the Packers in that game will be their ailing secondary againstOdell Beckham, and rookie wide receiver Sterling Shepard. Beckham gets all ofthe accolades and justifiably so, but according to advanced metrics Shephardhas been even better in this young season. He went into the weekend ranked 2ndin DVOA and put up an impressing 5 catch (on 7 targets), 73 yard, 1 touchdownperformance. Shepard has the early lead on best receiver in his class, and willbe a huge challenge even if Sam Shields has recovered from a concussion. If heremains out, which is entirely possible, we could be in for another shootout.