Punchless and Pathetic, Packers’ Offense Going Nowhere Fast

The Green Bay Packers’ offense, with too few big plays and too many mistakes in a loss to the Washington Commanders, remains one of the worst in the NFL.

Bill Huber | Oct 23, 2022

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Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers’ passing game? Ineffective.

Their running game? Abandoned.

The play-calling? Uninspired.

The execution? Awful.

Sunday’s 23-21 loss to the Washington Commanders was the Packers’ third in a row. Last season, the New York Giants (4-13), New York Jets (4-13) and Commanders (7-10) combined to go 15-36. They finished in the bottom 10 in points allowed. This supposedly was the soft part of the schedule. And yet coach Matt LaFleur’s offense failed to top 20 points in any of those games.

Led by a four-time MVP quarterback and one of the bright offensive minds in the game, the Packers have scored three offensive touchdowns over their final 10 quarters.

“We’ve just got to play better – all of us,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. After a lengthy pause, he continued, “If we all look at the film, there’s probably a number of plays in every phase that we could have done better. But I’ve said it before, the margin for error is so tight. A couple calls don’t necessarily go our way and we don’t execute at all on offense in certain situations — simple things. We’re behind the sticks, penalties, we’re dropping balls, we’re not putting balls in the right spot. It’s not winning football.”

Following the trade of Davante Adams, Rodgers expected the offense to be a work in progress. This early stretch of games should have been that time to progress. The only progress has been in reverse, though.

With Week 7 not quite complete, Green Bay is 23rd in points, 20th in total offense, 20th in yards per passing attempt and 25th on third down.

Green Bay’s 107 points in the first seven games is its fewest over the last 30 years. The 2020 team had 219 points through seven games. That’s double this year’s production.

After going 0-for-6 on third down vs. Washington, the Packers are 8-for-32 (25.0 percent) during their skid. Through 56 minutes, they didn’t have a single play of 20 yards.

“We haven’t found our groove yet,” tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “All it’s going to take is one. Once we get that one, shit comes in bunches after that. Tough position to be in right now but I believe in the guys in this locker room that we’ll get it turned around.”

Afterward, Rodgers clung to hope like it was a life preserver. In 2016, the Packers lost at Washington. Following that game, the team’s fourth consecutive loss to send it to a 4-6 record, Rodgers famously proclaimed the team could “run the table.” And it did.

It started with a 27-13 victory at Philadelphia in which Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams combined for 19 receptions, 245 yards and two touchdowns. These Packers, of course, don’t have anyone like those receivers on the roster. At this point, 245 passing yards and two touchdowns in total would be reason to party.

“I talked about simplification last week,” Rodgers said. “I don’t really know where to go when it comes to that. There has to be something inside that has the accountability for performance where we’re just having way too many detail mistakes. It’s just not winning football. When you’re expecting, it could be a total wrong route or it could be a wrong stem or it could be the release, we’re just not good enough to overcome some of those things right now.”

An abundance of mistakes and a limited amount of talent add up to what happened on Sunday, when the Commanders looked at Green Bay’s offense and shrugged its collective shoulders. Coach Ron Rivera and his defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio, barely blitzed. Washington sat back and played coverage, content that its pass rush would force quick passes and its coverage could handle that duty.

“They didn’t need to” blitz, Rodgers said. “That’s what they thought. They thought their rush could get home and they could cover it up on the back end.”

Helped by De’Vondre Campbell’s pick-six, the Packers led 14-3. They could have taken command in the first half. Instead, three consecutive series died with holding penalties – two by right tackle Yosh Nijman and one on tight end Robert Tonyan. Then, in the fourth quarter, with the Packers trailing 20-14 and in need of a score, Sammy Watkins didn’t block anyone on a receiver screen to Romeo Doubs. The man Watkins should have blocked, Kyle Fuller, helped force a drop.

Meanwhile, LaFleur has said countless times that he needs to get the ball to running backs Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon. And yet, in the three consecutive losses – none of which were lopsided – the Packers had 41 passes and 20 runs vs. the Giants, 49 passes vs. 20 runs vs. the Jets and 35 passes vs. 12 runs by the Commanders. That’s 125 passes vs. 52 runs – or 70.6 percent.

Too many penalties. Too many dropped passes. Too much shotgun. Too few successful deep shots. Too few runs.

Too much futility. Too many problems. Too few answers. Too many losses.

“If we knew what the answer was right now, we wouldn’t be standing here,” LaFleur said. “Whatever it is right now, what we’re putting out there and what I’m calling, it ain’t good enough. It’s a tough pill to swallow. We’ve got to do better.”

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