National Football League

A Quick Turnaround: Why Green Bay Packers beat Chicago Bears

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Oct 20, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams (17) celebrates scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers/The Post-Crescent via USA TODAY Sports

Following an unsightly offensive performance against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6, the Green Bay Packers needed to find a way to turn things around quickly, with a Thursday night matchup versus their division rival Chicago Bears coming to town.

It was yet again ugly to start, but the Packers eventually found some things which worked well enough to come away with a 26-10 victory and set themselves at 4-2.

What did they find exactly?

Let’s take a look.

Oct 20, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) hands off the ball to wide receiver Ty Montgomery (88) in the first quarter against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers/The Post-Crescent via USA TODAY Sports

The New RB

The running back rotation for this team has quickly turned into the injury-marred mess that the wide receiver spot was for them in 2015.

In the past couple weeks we’ve seen Eddie Lacy damage his ankle (first limiting his snaps and effectiveness; now, it has sent him to IR) and James Starks tear his meniscus (putting him out of commission for a few weeks following surgery).

With those two being the only pure running backs on the roster, Green Bay had to not only pull someone up from the practice squad (Don Jackson), but make their first in-season trade since 2010 (acquiring Knile Davis for a conditional draft pick) just to have a couple natural running backs to throw out there. This wasn’t the end of the problems either, unfortunately; Jackson ended up hurting his hand, leaving Davis (who had only been with the team a few days) as the main running option for most of the game.

Or so it seemed.

With the injury to Jackson, Green Bay decided not to put the ball in Davis’ hands; instead, they turned to Ty Montgomery. Montgomery had taken some snaps in the backfield in recent weeks — with a few carries to his name in that time — but none of those amounted to the kind of production that would seem to warrant much expectation of success going forward (5 rushes for 7 yards while fumbling twice — losing one).

The early going of this game didn’t prove much better for him either, rushing for 9 yards on 3 carries in the first half (including a 7 yard run, but also getting stuffed on 4th & 1 on the goalline), but in the second half we saw Montgomery become much more effective in this backfield role.

Following a terrible fumble recovery TD by the Bears to put Green Bay down 10-6, they began their next drive with a handoff to Montgomery in the backfield. While everyone watching probably expected this was just another effort destined to end quickly as part of an attempt to keep the thought of running the ball somewhere in the Bears defenses’ heads, surprisingly it wasn’t; he proceeded to break through the defense for a 30 yard rush to get the Packers up near midfield in a hurry.

That strong effort was only the beginning of a change in the Packers’ offensive plan: to heavily utilize formations which placed Montgomery in the backfield. On this drive in particular, that huge run was part of 5 plays in total (including four straight) where he was the target.

After the big run, Montgomery was hit for a 5 yard catch, a 3 yard run, and a 6 yard catch; after a handful of short plays to other players, Aaron Rodgers returned to looking for Montgomery, finding him for a superb 7 yard catch on third down; following a challenge (which upheld his excellent effort to protect the ball from ever hitting the ground), Green Bay had another first down in what ended as a touchdown drive to take the lead for good.

On the night, Montgomery saw the most combined action of any non-Rodgers player. He had 9 rushes for 60 yards, as well as 10 catches for 66 yards. Most importantly however would be his snap numbers: his 60 total were more than he had garnered through the previous five games combined, and 49 of those came from out of the backfield.

Montgomery has been a player many (including myself and Pro Football Focus) have wanted to see the Packers find ways to utilize better all year, and putting him as the running back is something I’ve talked about for a few weeks as a way to do so (especially considering the injury issues with Lacy and Starks).

Seeing how well Montgomery was able to produce in this role — and given that the team’s usual options in the backfield won’t be available for some time — we can expect to see a lot more usage of him in this role going forward.

Oct 20, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) looks for a receiver in the first quarter during the game against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Short-Range Efficiency

Ever since Jordy Nelson went out prior to the 2015 season, Green Bay has struggled with finding consistent effectiveness with deep passes.

Prior to 2015, Aaron Rodgers had seen only two seasons since he became Green Bay’s starting quarterback where his average yards per attempt were under 8.00 yards per game (one of which was his first season as starter, at 7.53 YPA). Since 2015 started however, he has failed to even reach 7 yards per attempt for either season so far, averaging a mere 6.40 yards per attempt in the 24 games (including playoffs) in that time and only going over 8.00 YPA in one of those contests.

That is a problem the team still needs to figure out — through better play in that aspect from both their quarterback and his receivers — but while it it still a major issue, the Packers can still find some level of success if they do well in other facets of their offense.

One of those is the quick passing game, and on Thursday night they proved just how effective that can be.

Of Rodgers’ 56 passes on the night, Rodgers managed to get 34 of them out within 2.5 seconds of the snap; on those throws, about 80 percent of these were completed (for a 117.4 passer rating on those throws).

With his overall accuracy being one of multiple recent areas of struggle, this played a huge part in helping both himself (he completed nearly 70% of his total passes despite the 2nd-highest number of pass attempts in his career, and his 39 completions were the best he’s ever managed in a single game) and the offense at-large find and hold onto a rhythm.

Due to that rhythm, we saw this become the first game since their victory in the NFC Divisional Round playoff game against Dallas in 2014 (and first regular season contest since a win over New England in Week 13 of that season) where Green Bay managed to not have a single 3-&-Out.

Remember as well, this happened with a running game that is down to a two wide receivers, a little-used fullback, and a former 4th-string runner acquired mid-week being the only healthy options available for carries.

This type of quick-hitting gameplan may not be a sustainable long-term answer for the offense, but with the running game unlikely to be a focal point due to injuries and the current lack of deep ball success, the Packers will likely have to continue to thrive with it to have a chance at any form of consistent offensive production.

The Bears may not be a great barometer to judge success on, but with the way Green Bay has performed for most of the past two years, anything that shows signs of success is progress worth trying to invest in.

Oct 20, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) looks to pass the ball in the first quarter against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers/The Post-Crescent via USA TODAY Sports

Excellent Protection

Green Bay has had one of the best offensive lines in the league all year (and for most of the past three seasons really). While that has come in both aspects of blocking, the main area they have earned their contracts is in their work on passing plays.

Going into this game against the Bears, even with the struggles of their quarterback, the offensive line was still far and away the best pass blocking unit in the entire league by PFF’s ratings; while they didn’t have a perfect game in this one (notably allowing multiple players to get to Rodgers on the fumble-TD despite a three-man rush) the overall performance was mostly in-line with their usual stellar protection efforts.

Most of the few problems which did occur can be chalked up to Green Bay having to insert the infamous Don Barclay for 16 snaps (T.J. Lang missed some time with an injury). He was responsible for the initial pressure on the aforementioned fumble-TD and generally continues to be the bane of Packers fans everywhere when he sees the field.

When he wasn’t out there though, the unit had just about zero issue holding off the Bears’ efforts to get to Rodgers all night. According to PFF, on the 59 dropbacks by Rodgers, 42 of them resulted in no pressure being applied by the defense — and that includes Barclay’s snaps.

With their performance in this contest, we saw the overall PFF grades jump up for all but one of them (David Bakhtiari), almost exclusively due to their pass blocking work.

Now, only Lane Taylor is under an 80 overall in their 0-100 grading system (and just under, at 79.6) on the season, and each of them is currently rated over an 83.0 in terms of their pass blocking grade. In terms of this game in particular, three of PFF’s top-graded offensive players for Green Bay on the night were members of this unit (Taylor, Lang, and Bryan Bulaga).

If these guys can keep up their incredible blocking efforts, you have to think Rodgers and his receivers will find a way to get into a consistent rhythm against opponents. Hopefully for them, the second half of this contest can be the catalyst for finding that success.

Oct 20, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb (18) stiff arms Chicago Bears strong safety Harold Jones-Quartey (29) on a fourth quarter reception at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers/The Post-Crescent via USA TODAY Sports

The Non-Nelson Triumvirate

On a night where the offense found something which was working for them (finally), it may surprise you that Jordy Nelson was barely involved in the newfound successful attack. On the night he was only targeted four times for one catch (9 yards), and while he did get also get a defensive pass interference call in his favor at one point, he wasn’t a focal point.

This was partly because of the coverage being thrown his way — as well as him coming up limping at one point — but the main reason was because Green Bay was getting major contributions from the other receiving options at Rodgers’ disposal.

I already discussed Montgomery’s contributions earlier, but he wasn’t the only one making a huge impact for his quarterback; he was joined by Randall Cobb and Davante Adams in forming a hydra which Chicago could not stop.

Oct 20, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams (17) scores a touchdown on a reception while being covered by Chicago Bears cornerback DeVante Bausby (20) during the third quarter at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via USA TODAY Sports

It was a surprise Adams could even play after suffering a concussion against Dallas (with Sam Shields missing multiple games due to concussions the past couple seasons we have an in-house example of how long that process of recovery can be), but it was even more fortuitous than could have been imagined for his team that he could dress for the contest.

Though he was one of many who struggled to consistently get open, it didn’t end up mattering; whenever the ball was thrown his way, he seemed to come down with it despite even the tightest coverage.

His first touchdown catch in the second half was an incredible effort which gave Green Bay the lead for good, but he didn’t stop there. By the end of the night, he had an array of excellent efforts to cap a record-setting night: 13 catches on 16 targets, 132 receiving yards, and 2 TDs — the first-ever 10+ catch/100+ yard/2 TD effort by a wide receiver at Lambeau field EVER.

Cobb meanwhile acted as an excellent outlet for Rodgers, turning a handful of quick throws into decent gains despite having defenders glued to his hip.

He was the only player even close to making noise for Rodgers in the first half, coming inches away from a touchdown catch at the end of the second quarter (the 5th time in the past three games where he and Rodgers should have had a TD connection but it was barely missed), and across the night combined his work in the passing game (11 catches on 15 targets, 95 yards, 1 TD) with a few carries (5 rushes, 21 yards) for a productive evening.

While I’m sure we would all feel more comfortable seeing Nelson be a bigger part of the gameplan in future weeks, if he is unable to perform up to the standards we’ve come to expect from him (whether due to coverage or health issues), we have on the books some hard evidence (i.e.: 10+ catches for three different players) that the players beyond Jordy can perform to a winning degree if called upon.

Oct 20, 2016; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers linebacker Nick Perry (53) sacks Chicago Bears quarterback Matt Barkley (12) in the third quarter at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Defensive Lockdown

I’ve talked a ton about the offense, mostly because that side of the ball has been where everyone has been focusing lately. Do not discount the contributions of this defense, however.

The competition was not great obviously, but the Bears did come in with a quarterback (Brian Hoyer) playing pretty efficiently and some interesting receiving options (led by Alshon Jeffery) to throw to against a secondary which has struggled massively with health and effectiveness.

It didn’t matter; the defense shut them down.

Hoyer was mostly ineffective before being knocked out of the game with a broken arm, and his backup (Matt Barkley) was much worse as Chicago only completed 10 passes on the night. Jeffery was targeted 11 times, but only came down with three of those for a mere 33 yards; outside of him, nobody else caught more than two passes, and the team only converted two pass plays over 15 yards. Along the way, the defense came away with two interceptions of Barkley as well.

The run defense also got back into their pre-Dallas form for the most part, holding Chicago to 69 yards on 18 rushes. This kind of effort is what had the team looking like one of the best ever against the run through four games — and more of this sort of performance will be much-needed in upcoming games against teams like Atlanta and Tennessee.

The efforts in both facets were led by guys from all levels of experience. Rookies like Blake Martinez and Kenny Clark punished the Bears’ rushing attempts (with Martinez also getting one of the team’s two INTs).

Second-year man LaDarius Gunter recovered from his worst game of the year to be key in holding Jeffery to his underwhelming showing. Nick Perry added another sack to his pressure-filled contract season, and Clay Matthews was able to once again make an impact beyond just being on the field. Behind their (and really, basically everybody taking defensive snaps in all-white uniforms) efforts, we saw Chicago score a pitiful 3 points with their offense.

While the Green Bay offense continues to work towards finding a sustainable gameplan in the coming weeks, the defense has shown us once again they should be a force to be reckoned with.

More from Lombardi Ave

This article originally appeared on

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League