The Green Bay Packers will have just six days to think over their most recent loss, as they fell 30-17 to the Detroit Lions at home on Monday Night Football, a game that was far less close than the final score indicates. This week, the Packers will head to Chicago to take on the Chicago Bears in a game nobody expected to be a battle for last place in the NFC North just a few weeks ago. Here are three Packers keys to victory for the Packers to avoid losing their third straight.
Week 10 Green Bay Packers Keys To Victory
Faster Is Better
The Packers looked absolutely pitiful on offense against the Lions, mustering only three points heading into the fourth quarter before adding on two essentially garbage-time touchdowns. The Packers, however, showed a spark of life in the up-tempo, no-huddle offense so often utilized by Aaron Rodgers. All 17 of Green Bay’s points came off of drives in which they ran the no-huddle.
Quarterback Brett Hundley was his sharpest running without a huddle and the running game was at it’s best when Ty Montgomery and Aaron Jones took draws out of the shotgun. Why the Packers didn’t use this more often when it seemed to be working is a mystery to us all, but if the Packers have any hope of beating Chicago at Soldier Field, they’ll want to be using the no-huddle offense a lot more.
Run. The. Ball.
The Packers fell behind early in Monday night’s game against the Lions, and from then on they didn’t do much else besides run conservative passes such as screens, five yard roll-outs, etc. The Packers failed to establish a running game early on and thus were unable to keep their porous defense off the field. Trying to settle Hundley in early is good, but the Packers fell behind early and then seemed to panic and get away from the game plan, which up to that point had driven them all the way down the field on the opening drive before Mason Crosby‘s field goal was blocked.
It didn’t help matters that Aaron Jones was a complete non-factor, partially due to not being allowed to settle in to a groove. When Jones is getting enough opportunities to run the ball and producing the way we know he can, this Packers team can be hard to beat.
Pressure the Quarterback
Green Bay had an incredibly tough time getting any sort of pressure on Matthew Stafford, and he made them pay by passing for 216 yards against the blitz, third-most in the NFL this season. Green Bay’s failure to get home on blitzes is a big part of why they haven’t been successful on the defensive side of the ball.
They won’t be facing a quarterback with quite as much experience as Stafford when they play Mitch Trubisky and the Bears this weekend, so this would be the perfect opportunity for the Packer pass rush to make a statement and get to the quarterback early and often, rattling the rookie’s composure. Covering wide receivers for a long duration without pressure from the front simply has become too much to bear for the Packers secondary. Even the relatively inexperienced Trubisky would have a field day against this Packers secondary if given enough time to throw.
While the Packers have had a hard time as of late, this Bears game could be the perfect opportunity to get in the win column once again and get this team’s confidence back up. With a win, the Packers wouldn’t be out of this divisional race just yet. With a loss, the Packers would fall further into the depths of the NFC North cellar.
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