The Packers Are a Good Team
Throughout this NFL season, I have heard the same sentiment over and over – it’s impossible to know whether or not the Green Bay Packers are a good football team. I’ve heard that from the beginning of the season to the end of week 17. Despite Green Bay’s stellar 13 – 3 record in 2019, the national media, my friends and co-workers alike have been shoveling dirt on their pre-disposed grave. To be frank, it has been driving me bonkers.
The Packers’ shortcomings are presented primarily in the “eye test.” They win ugly. Aaron Rodgers has not looked like his once magically accurate self this year.
To be fair to doubters, Rodgers touchdown production has slowed in the past few years since his 2017 collarbone injury. In 2016 Rodgers threw a career-high 40 touchdown passes in the regular season. Over 2018 and 2019 he threw 25 and 26 touchdowns respectively. The loss of wide receiver Randal Cobb to the Dallas Cowboys has seemed to play a factor in Rodgers’ targeting this year. As shown in the Week 17 game against the Minnesota Vikings, where a disproportionately large amount of targets were streamlined towards wide receiver Devante Adams, who caught a career-high 13 receptions that game, while the next Packers receiver in receptions that game was Adam Lazard with just 5.
Luckily for the Packers this year, their first-year head coach Matt LeFleur has been able to utilize incredible running back play from Aaron Jones in a way that previous head coach Mike McCarthy previously found impossible. Jones’ production has been nothing short of remarkable in 2019 with his rushing attempts rising by over 100 this year compared to last as he ran for a career-high 1,084 yards with 16 rushing touchdowns coupled with an additional 3 touchdowns caught in the passing game.
Likewise, the Green Bay defense has risen to elite levels this season thanks in no small part to the leadership of free-agent acquisition Za’darius Smith. Leading the defense at the outside linebacker position, Smith has achieved career highs of his own in 2019 of games started (all 16), sacks (13.5), and tackles (55 combined tackles, 40 solo).
Make no mistake, this team has not been blowing past the competition in the same manner as the 2019 Baltimore Ravens, but it would be a severe mistake to believe that they will be a push-over for the Seattle Seahawks or any other potential opponent later on in these playoffs. Aaron Rodgers may be showing his age, but in a manner likened to Master Yoshi being defended by the ninja turtles, the running game and defense are finally at a level where they can uplift the passing game’s shortcomings as Green Bay makes their playoff run. My money is once again on a Green Bay victory in this divisional matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, ugly or not, and the Packers being ready to face either the Vikings for a 3rd time this season or a re-match against one of their only losses in 2019, the San Francisco 49ers.