The Green Bay Packers, coming off of a bye week that followed a demoralizing 26-17 home loss to the New Orleans Saints, will look to get back on track on Monday Night Football as they face the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field. The Lions, who have fallen to 3-4 after a 3-0 start, are also looking to get back on track this week. They’ll face a Packers team with a lot of uncertainty on offense, especially at the quarterback position, as Brett Hundley will make just his second NFL start following the loss of Aaron Rodgers to injury a few weeks ago. Here are three Packers keys to victory for a Monday Night win over Detroit.
Week Nine Green Bay Packers Keys To Victory
Establish the Run Game
Without Rodgers, the Packers are in desperate need of an offensive spark. Back in 2013, when Rodgers last went down with a collarbone injury, that offensive spark was Eddie Lacy. Lacy kept Green Bay’s offense afloat in Rodgers’s absence, running for 1,178 yards on the year and helping the Packers scrap together a few wins before Rodgers came back to save the Packers in Week 17 against the Chicago Bears.
This year, without Rodgers, the Packers will turn to the shifty Aaron Jones, who has scored four touchdowns and ran for 346 yards at 5.6 yards per carry in just four games this season. Jones has the potential to become a huge weapon and take pressure off of Hundley, but he’ll be facing Detroit’s fourth-ranked run defense, allowing just over 91 yards per game on the ground this season. Yards will be hard to come by, but the Packers will have to find a way to get the ground game going, or they’ll be forced to come from behind with a very inexperienced quarterback.
Unleash Brett Hundley
In his first NFL start against the Saints, Brett Hundley was rattled from the start. He showed glimpses of his talent with big runs and escaping the pressure, but he was unable to find a receiver he could rely on or get into a groove. Part of this had to do with the playcalling of Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, who didn’t allow Hundley to throw much further than 10-15 yards down the field until it was too late and routinely called plays that forced Hundley to throw from the pocket, an area he did not fare well in. Hundley finished with just 87 yards passing and a pick.
This week, the Packers must get a better performance out of Hundley if they hope to win. That means that the Packers must open up the playbook and call plays that they know Hundley is capable of successfully running. Expect to see many more read options, rollout passes and run/pass options out of the Packer offense. Don’t expect the limited performance you saw against the Saints.
Bend, Don’t Break Defense
At this point, you know what you’re going to get with the Packers defense. They frequently give up big yardage plays and have struggled mightily defending the run and the pass. They’ll need to step up on Monday night against Matthew Stafford and company by limiting the amount of points the Lions score in the red zone.
It’s no secret that the Packers are going to give up plenty of yards to the Lions, but holding them out of the end zone will be key if the Packers want to stay in the game and have any hope of pulling off a victory. They had some success early on against New Orleans using this method as they forced the Saints into field goal attempts and intercepted Drew Brees twice in Packers territory. But ultimately by the end of the game the defense was too worn out to get any stops with the offense unable to sustain any drives. They’ll need to do a better job of getting off the field and giving Hundley and the offense as many opportunities as possible if they hope to win this game.
Even without Rodgers, this is a very winnable game for the Packers. They’ll have the home crowd behind them, and Monday Night Football at Lambeau Field is always an electric atmosphere. This Packers team under Brett Favre always had a little Monday Night magic in them, so maybe we’ll see the new Brett in town channel his inner Favre and lead the Packers to a much-needed victory.
