From Inconsistency to Overthrows, the Question is Why For Aaron Rodgers

Finding answers has been the quest during the Green Bay Packers' bye week

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s self-scouting process during the playoff bye week has been focused on finding “the why.”

“If something is working, why is it working? Or if it’s not working, why isn’t it working?” LaFleur said on Thursday.

As the leader of Green Bay’s offense, there is a critical need to find some answers – and some consistency – ahead of next week’s divisional playoff game at Lambeau Field. In Sunday’s 23-20, come-from-behind victory at Detroit, the Packers scored 20 points in the final 18 minutes. 

In the 23-10 win at Minnesota that clinched the division in Week 16, both touchdowns came in the final 17 minutes. In a 21-16 victory over Chicago in Week 15, the Packers scored two of their three touchdowns in the third quarter. In a 20-15 win over Washington in Week 14, both touchdowns came in the first quarter.

Aaron Rodgers had no interest in a question about “how close” the offense was to playing with consistency – “I’m tired of talking about that” – and didn’t sound overly optimistic that bonus practices on Thursday, Friday and Monday would do anything to greatly change the equation. The key, Rodgers and LaFleur seemed to agree, will be honing in on what’s been working.

“We’ve just got to execute and get on the same page,” Rodgers said. “I think the timing’s been off a lot of the year. I don’t know if that’s going to get fixed. It’s not going to get fixed the next two days. It’s just a matter of finding those concepts where the timing has been good, because there’s been a number of concepts where we’ve looked good. The ball’s been coming out on time, I’ve been feeling good about the rhythm and guys are getting open on time. But there’s too many concepts that we’ve really tried to hit and keep hitting and make it work and we just aren’t on the same page timing-wise. And that’s why this has been a good week to just self-scout.”

Tighter game plans and better execution will be critical when the Packers line up next Sunday against either New Orleans or the winner of the Seattle-Philadelphia game, in the divisional round a Lambeau Field. Green Bay survived a miserable first half against the woeful Lions. LaFleur’s game plan, which centered on deep passes, continually came up empty, and Rodgers had overthrows on 16 of his 28 incompletions.

As was the case with Rodgers on the how-close-to-consistency question, LaFleur recoiled at a question about the overthrows. However, in a comment that corresponded with Monday’s line that Rodgers “can’t do it by himself,” LaFleur went on to provide some interesting incite.

“We emphasize, whenever we talk to … anybody that’s out on a route, whether it’s a back, receiver, tight end, when you look back for the ball, the natural reaction is you slow down,” LaFleur said. “We always have an emphasis on making sure you pump your arms because, if you slow down, that can be the difference a lot of times. I’m not saying that happened on all of them but it definitely happened on a couple of those passes. There were some that you just miss.”

All season, LaFleur has stressed the need for each player to do his one-eleventh. For the passing game to function, it’s up to Rodgers to throw a catchable pass. It’s also up to the receivers to use proper fundamentals and the offensive line to provide time for the routes to develop.

The question is, after 16 games of sporadic play, can the Packers get rolling in the playoffs?

“I think it’s just making plays,” LaFleur said. “We’ve had a lot of missed opportunities this year for whatever reason and we’ve got to come down with those play. I’ve said it a million times, a lot of it comes down to staying on the grass, moving the sticks on third down, being in those manageable situations. It just seems to me that we’ve gotten ourselves in some bad spots. [We’ve got to] take advantage of those opportunity plays so you can have an opportunity at points.”

The Packers have a head start fixing the problem. Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback.