For the first time since 2015, the Green Bay Packers are 3-0. Their defense, long the organization’s Achilles’ heel, is second in scoring (11.7 PPG) and leads the league in takeaways (8). In an NFC North that through three weeks includes zero teams under .500, Green Bay is alone at the top.
And yet, the Pack still have significant room from improvement, notably on the offensive side of the ball, where first-year coach Matt LaFleur’s scheme is just getting off the ground.
Ahead of their Thursday night clash with the Philadelphia Eagles, the leader of that offense, Aaron Rodgers, called upon his Pack to pick up the slack.
“It’s time for us to do our part on offense,” Rodgers said Tuesday, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. “Moving forward, we’re going to play a stretch of really good football teams. At some point, we can’t expect our defense to shut everybody down. They have been, but at some point the offense is going to have to wake up and start making some plays.”
Whereas Green Bay’s defense leads all teams in QB pressures (46), the Packers offense has struggled to put pressure on opposing defenses through three weeks. Green Bay ranks 28th in total offense (286.7 YPG) and tied for 23rd in scoring offense (19.3 PPG).
Even worse, the Packers rank 30th in third-down conversion rate (25 percent), just above the hapless and winless New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. They’re not sustaining drives and are instead relying on an opportunistic defense to shut down opponents.
“We’ve never wanted to just manage the football game around here,” Rodgers added, per Demovsky. “The standards are very high for us. We’ve got to play a lot better on offense. We’ve played some good defenses, no doubt about it, but the standard and expectations are very high here, and we haven’t met them on offense. Thankfully, our defense has not only been opportunistic but stout, holding them to field goals in the red zone, taking the ball away, putting us in good field position.”
Every time in the Super Bowl era that Green Bay has finished with a top-two scoring defense, it was won the Super Bowl (1966, 1996, 2010) — but those teams also boasted world-class offenses quarterbacked by future Hall of Fame QBs.
With games upcoming against playoff contenders like Philadelphia, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City and the Los Angeles Chargers, Rodgers and the Packers offense have a great opportunity to prove they can live up to that championship standard.