The Green Bay Packers’ offense scraped together only 17 points in regulation on Sunday, and after digging into the film, it’s clear there’s some wild stuff going on. There’s good and bad to unpack, sure, but that low point total is screaming for answers, and the biggest one might be a complete overhaul in how they’re running their passing game compared to Week 1.
The Pass Game Flip-Flop: A Divorce Is Brewing
We saw a totally different passing attack from the Packers against the Vikings in Week 2. They leaned heavily on moving the pocket with sprintouts and play-action bootlegs. Remember Week 1 against the Jets? That was all quick-game passing, which definitely took a ton of pressure off the offensive line since quarterback Jordan Love was getting the ball out super fast. Now, you might think, “less pressure on the line, that’s good, right?” And yeah, it was a short-term band-aid for their line issues.
But here’s the kicker: this new approach is creating a serious split. The running game and the passing game are basically divorced now, instead of building off each other. The Packers are still running their outside zone in the ground game, but did you see them pulling a pass off the same look much on Sunday? Nah. That’s a huge red flag. Edge defenders, who normally get left unblocked on the backside of an outside zone and are supposed to be held in check by the threat of a bootleg, are gonna pick up on that pretty quick. And linebackers, who face the most pass-run conflict in zone/boot schemes, are gonna start respecting the pass threat way less. That’s a fundamental breakdown if ever there was one.
Injuries Mount, But Backups Shine?
To make things worse, the injury bug hit hard. Wide receiver Jayden Reed went down with a neck injury, and the offensive line got absolutely hammered. Zach Bako-Bewele (knee), Aaron Banks (knee/toe), and Donovan Jennings (hand) all left the game and didn’t come back. That left the Packers with just five active offensive linemen to finish the game. Yikes. You’d think that would be a total catastrophe, right?
Well, here’s the surprising twist: you can actually make a case that Jager Burton, who was the third left guard option, and Anthony Belton, who stepped in at right tackle for Bako-Bewele, played better than the starters. Talk about stepping up when it counts! Even with the Week 1 “horror show” in pass protection, the unit actually performed “fine” in Week 2. To be fair, they weren’t going up against Brian Flores in Week 2 like the Week 1 players did, and Green Bay made the O-line’s life a lot easier by pushing that quick passing game instead of those longer developing plays. The line wasn’t perfect, only “killed a play” three times: one weird pressure, one bad slide call, and left tackle Jordan Morgan letting his guy cross his face on the Hail Mary. Belton still needs to work on his anchor, which is wild for a dude his size, but his issues aren’t killing plays like some of the stuff we saw that died within the first step of the down against Minnesota earlier this season. It’s an interesting mix of problems and unexpected bright spots for the early going.
What’s next for Green Bay? They gotta figure out how to put their run and pass games back on speaking terms. This early in the season, you don’t want your offense feeling like two separate teams. It’s all about finding that rhythm and making these pieces work together before things really get out of hand.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Acme Packing Company.
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