Hall of Famer’s Rankings Put Packers at Bottom of NFL

The Green Bay Packers rank 32nd in these stat-based rankings and aren't even close to moving up to 31st.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman – universally beloved by Green Bay Packers fans for his work on Fox’s NFL broadcasts – has produced his own NFL rankings since 2005. Coming out of Week 1, the Packers are at the bottom of the pecking order.

The Aikman Efficiency Ratings measure seven categories of performance on offense and defense. Devised by Aikman in 2005 and compiled by Sportsradar, “they provide a better measure of the qualities that win football games than simply total yards gained, the method used by the NFL to rank offenses and defenses.”

The categories are points (20%), red-zone efficiency as measured by points per red-zone possession (20%), turnovers (20%), yards per rush (10%), yards per pass (10%), third-down percentage (10%) and first downs (10%).

Published at The33rdTeam.com, the Packers are in last place by an enormous margin following their 38-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints. Green Bay has 69 points, 34.5 fewer than No. 31 Atlanta. What does that mean? Well, if you were to add 34.5 points to Chicago’s total, the Bears would zoom from 26th to eighth.

Green Bay’s offensive performance was particularly horrendous. If you doubled Green Bay’s 29.2 points, it would rank 30th. The average is 86; you’d have to triple Green Bay’s total to get even to that level. Defensively, with 39.8 points, Green Bay was just a half-point ahead of Atlanta for last place. The average is 64.

Where the Packers were really clobbered was their work in the red zone. Offensively, the Packers had two turnovers from inside the Saints’ 10. Meanwhile, New Orleans scored touchdowns on all four of its red-zone possessions.

“We’ve just got to get back to work and we’ve got to stay resilient, we’ve got to stay together,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday. “It’s one game, and that’s the beauty of the National Football League is nobody’s going to feel sorry for you and you better not feel sorry for yourself. You’ve just got to get back to work and try to hit that reset button and focus on your upcoming opponent. You have to have a short memory in this league both as a player and as a coach.”

The Packers will host the Detroit Lions on Monday night.