First Quarters Have Been Exercise in Futility for Packers

Through four September games, the Green Bay Packers’ offense has been the equivalent of molasses in January. It’s a huge problem that must be fixed.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ season-opening game at the Chicago Bears couldn’t have started better. The defense got a fourth-down stop and the offense capitalized with Jordan Love directing a touchdown drive.

That opening drive: 11 plays, 40 yards, four first downs and seven points.

That first-class start has become a first-class problem.

The past three games, Green Bay has scored only three points in the first quarter. That lone field goal came on Thursday night against Detroit, when Rudy Ford’s interception set up the offense at the Lions’ 16, but Love and Co. gained 0 yards on three plays before Anders Carlson’s kick.

After that game-opening touchdown, here are the other first-quarter drives (yards include penalties for and against):

Chicago: Three plays, 4 yards, zero first downs.

Atlanta: Three plays, 37 yards, one first down.

Atlanta: Three plays, minus-12 yards, zero first downs.

Atlanta: Five plays, 41 yards, two first downs (led to touchdown in second quarter).

New Orleans: Four plays, 8 yards, zero first downs.

New Orleans: Seven plays, 32 yards, two first downs.

Detroit: Three plays, zero yards, zero first downs (for a field goal).

Detroit: Three plays, minus-11 yards, zero first downs.

Detroit: Three plays, 7 yards, zero first downs.

“Yeah, it hasn’t been very good, especially the last two games,” coach Matt LaFleur said a day after an ugly loss to the Lions. “Six out of eight quarters have not been very good football. What did we start, three three-and-outs? We had the one, the first possession, in good field position.

Jordan Love has the lowest first-quarter completion percentage in the NFL :: Photo by Benny Sieu/USA Today Sports Images

“And then we threw a pick [early in the second quarter], and you’re on your 11th play and the score’s 24-3. That is not very good complementary football and, quite frankly, it gets you out of your game plan before you ever give yourself an opportunity to get the game plan going.”

Green Bay ranks 29th with 3.1 yards per play in the first quarter. That includes a feeble 2.7 yards per pass play. Jordan Love is a woeful 9-of-24 passing, good for 37.5 percent. No quarterback with more than one passing attempt is at less than 50 percent; 17 starters are at 70-plus percent.

Against Detroit, he was 1-of-5 in the first quarter. With the two sacks, the Packers had minus-6 net passing yards.

“I’ve been a part of some tough games, but that was a very hard first half,” Love said. “We weren’t executing, weren’t moving the ball, we weren’t taking advantage of the opportunities the defense was giving us. It’s something that we’ve just got to look at. I think that’s two weeks in a row that we started really slow on offense, just haven’t been able to get anything going.”

Why not run the football to help Love get through those slow starts? That is, after all, the supposed building block of LaFleur’s offense. In going three-and-out on all three first-quarter possessions against Detroit, it was seven passes and two runs.

Essentially, defenses are daring Love to throw it.

“We knew that they were going to load the box,” LaFleur said. “I thought we had some opportunities there to make some plays in the passing game, and we went backwards. So … it looks like you abandoned the run, when really you haven’t given yourself an opportunity to get the run game going.

“We had some run-pass cans where they gave us a look for the passes. I’m a firm believer in terms of playing probability. What has the best probability of having success? When it doesn’t work out, you get stuck up here answering a bunch of your guys’ questions. That’s just the nature of it. Do we have to do a better job of trying to get the ball into our playmakers’ hands, whether it’s in the run game or the pass game? Absolutely.”

The Packers have been outscored 27-10 in the first quarter and 59-23 in the first half. If not for a massive fourth-quarter comeback against the Saints, they’d be 1-3.

“We’ve got to find out what that is, and I think everybody just has to play better at the start of the game, me included,” Love said. “I’ve got to be able to come out and start fast and put points up so we’re not playing from behind and making it harder on the defense.”

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