Game Plan For Jets to Stop Aaron Rodgers, Defeat Green Bay Packers

Here's a breakdown of what the Jets need to do on Sunday to limit Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers offense.

There is a way New York can win Sunday against Green Bay.

The Jets need to play eight in the box and focus on stopping the run.

That sounds super counter-intuitive, because Rodgers loves to throw, right?

As counter-intuitive as it may sound, playing with eight defenders near the line of scrimmage gives New York their best chance at winning, based on game film study of their last three games.

I went back and studied Green Bay against TB (9/25), NE (10/2) and NYG (10/9), and this is what I saw:

Scouting Report on Green Bay Packers Offense

The Packers may have Aaron Rodgers, but the New York Jets have an avenue to another upset victory this week if they can contain Green Bay's offense.

Green Bay will run first to set up the pass

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The Packers are sporting the No. 11 rushing attack in the league (134.8 yards per game).

Their offense loves pounding the ball on the ground, and then having Rodgers slice up secondaries across the middle at the intermediate route level.

Green Bay has a punishing one-two punch on the ground with running backs Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon.

Jones is the No. 6 leading rusher in the NFL (61 carries, 390 yards, 6.4 avg.), and Dillion is not far behind him as the No. 29 ranked ball carrier (63 carries, 245 yards, 3.9 avg).

A couple of things stand out about these numbers...

Jones average-per-carry shows he has been gashing defenses and between the two of these backs, they have a whooping 124 carries.

New York must have an answer Sunday for Green Bay's aggressive ground attack.

Green Bay loves the short passing game, especially on the perimeters

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Rodgers has been spreading the ball around to his backs, tight ends, and receivers with a ton of short passes.

The running attack and short passing game has become Green Bay's bread and butter of their offense.

Rodgers' average-per-pass this season has fallen off to 6.9 yards-per-completion, after being at 8.2 (2020) and 7.8 (2021).

The departure of wide receivers Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling has left a void, as the timing is clearly off between Rodgers and his newer cast of receivers.

As a result, Green Bay has had to reign in their passing game, and this is why there have been rumblings Rodgers wants free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in Green Bay.

New York will need to stop Green Bay's incessant short passing game and be able to flow out to the sidelines in time.

Rodgers has been off target deep

Over the past three games, Rodgers has not been able to hit the broad side of a barn deep. I counted two completions out of 15 attempts.

Nowhere is Rodgers more out of sync with his receivers.

It makes no sense for New York to sit back and play the deep ball, while allowing Green Bay to nickel and dime them with their aggressive running attack and short passing game.

Green Bay has been doing a fine job stopping themselves from completing deep passes. It’s almost like having an extra defender on the field.

Bottom line:

Rodgers has looked like a machine in the short-to-intermediate route levels.

He has been releasing the ball quickly from the pocket, throwing with pinpoint accuracy into the short-to-intermediate route levels, and he has been beating the blitz consistently.

Pressure in his face isn’t phasing him.

Playing zone coverage against Rodgers is the kiss of death.

The only hope is playing tight man coverage. That is what worked best for the Patriots and Giants.

The Buccaneers got an interception disguising their pre-snap look just enough to confuse him.

Outside of that Jets’ fans, keep your fingers crossed.

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