Three Overreactions After Packers Beat Cowboys: House of Cards

GREEN BAY, Wis. – A win is a win. The Green Bay Packers earned a big one against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. It was a surprisingly easy victory considering the number of self-inflicted wounds that prevented the Packers from winning by30.

Here are this week’s Overreactions

1. The Packers’ Impossibly Bad Running Game

If ever there were a chance for Green Bay’s slumbering running game to at least crack open its eyes, yawn, stretch and shift possessions, it was this game.

On offense, the Packers entered the game ranked last in the NFL with 60.4 rushing yards per game – almost 20 yards worse than any other team – and next-to-last with 3.05 yards per carry. On defense, the Cowboys entered the game ranked last with 168.4 rushing yards allowed per game and 29th with 5.10 yards allowed per carry.

Instead, the Cowboys looked like the Tom Landra-era Doomsday Defense and the Packers looked, well, exactly like they have all season.

The Packers ran the ball 26 times for 57 yards. Even with Jordan Love’s 13-yard run putting some cologne on a swine, they averaged 2.2 yards per carry. The 20 handoffs to running backs generated 36 yards, or 1.8 yards per carry.

The offensive line didn’t provide many openings. When there was a crack of daylight, the backs acted as if they were blindfolded in a cave trying to find a lost black sock.

The Packers’ run game almost impossibly went from worst to more worst – the intentional butchering of the English language a perfect fit for the butchering of the building block of offensive football. Green Bay is down to 59.8 rushing yards per game (Dallas is next with 76.0) and 2.87 yards per carry (Las Vegas is next with 3.03).

The 2000 Chargers set the dubious NFL record with 66.4 rushing yards per game. Over the past 70 seasons, only the 1994 Patriots’ 2.79 average was worse.

The Packers have 359 rushing yards in six games. Thirteen individuals have more rushing yards.

“Certainly, there’s some stuff that we can clean up where we’re maybe not winning a block or whatever it is, or we miss a cut,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “But we got to keep hammering it because it is critical in today’s football to be able to run the football at a decent level.”

A “decent level.” What a damning statement. Not a top-10 level. Not a winning level. The Packers, who are so far down the rankings that they have to reach up to touch bottom, would settle for decent.

A decent running game would open a world of possibilities. Against Chicago last week, Love in the play-action game was 12-of-14 passing for 245 yards and one touchdown. Against Dallas, those play-action fakes elicited giggles, with Love going 1-of-6 for 7 yards and getting pressured four times.

Maybe the vision and power of Josh Jacobs will be the salvation. If nothing else, he’ll fight for a gain of 3 yards rather than running sideways for a loss of 3.

“I think that definitely hurts a little bit, especially when we’re trying to sell run action and they’re just sitting there waiting for you to do the passes off of it,” LaFleur said. “You’ve got to get the run game going.”

The Cowboys showed the rest of the league how to beat the Packers. Blow off the play-action game and attack the quarterback. The Packers had better figure it out fast, or the offense will fall like a house off cards.

2. Enjoy Jonathan Gannon’s Time as Defensive Coordinator

The big reason why I predicted the Packers would finish 8-9 is that I didn’t think they had a snowball’s chance in a broiler to earn a win or two against the likes of the Bears, Cowboys and Lions without Micah Parsons.

The Packers beat the Bears, but they didn’t have Caleb Williams at quarterback. So, whatever. The game against Dallas would be an infinitely more difficult challenge. Dak Prescott is an elite quarterback. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens might be the best receiver duo in the NFL. Jake Ferguson is a quality tight end and Javonte Williams is a quality running back.

Without Parsons to protect the secondary, how on earth would the Packers be able to beat teams with real quarterbacks?

That, to me, was the season-defining question. Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon delivered an emphatic answer on Sunday.

It’s a shame a phantom roughing-the-passer penalty on Lukas Van Ness led to the Packers giving up a meaningless touchdown in the final minute, because they entered the final drive having given up seven points and less than 200 yards. It was a defensive masterpiece for a team that entered the season with suspect cornerback and a suspect pass rush.

Green Bay’s cornerbacks helped limit Lamb and Pickens to a combined 4.9 yards per target. The traditional four-man rush was feeble, but Gannon created enough of a pass rush to make Prescott uneasy. The confusion created by Gannon led to two more interceptions.

“I was really happy just overall with our whole defensive performance, especially against that offense,” LaFleur said. “If you told me going into this game that you’re going to score 23 points, I was like, ‘Ah, we need to score 30-plus.’”

As it turns out, the 17 points in the first half were more than enough.

Through six games, LaFleur’s hiring of Gannon looks genius. The problem with hiring a good coordinator is he eventually becomes a head coach, as was the case with Jeff Hafley. Gannon bombed in his three-year run of coach of the Cardinals, but any team needing a coach at the end of this season should be smart enough to acknowledge that his tenure was torpedoed by the lack of a quarterback.

“I definitely think he’s doing a good job mixing it up,” said safety Xavier McKinney. “Putting guys in different positions, placing guys in different spots on the field, whether that’s deep zone, whether that’s in the half, blitzing, so it’s kind of mixing everything up. It’s hard for the opponents when they’re watching film and trying to figure who’s going to be doing what. So, I think it’s been a good mix of all of us kind of doing different things.”

3. Playing With Fire Will Get Packers Torched

The Packers are showing signs of being a pretty good team. But this is unsustainable.

The Packers have been penalized a league-high 57 times for a league-high 465 yards. They are first with six roughing-the-passer penalties, tied for second with four unnecessary roughness and tied for third with 10 offensive holding.

The Packers are No. 1 in dropped passes. According to Pro Football Focus, Jordan Love has had 19 passes dropped; no other quarterback has more than 11. All of the other NFC North quarterbacks have had 15 passes dropped.

They cleaned up their act against the Cowboys, but they’re still tied for the second-most fumbles per game.

They seemingly had cleaned up their act in terms of pass protection, but Love faced pressure on 45.5 percent of his dropbacks against Dallas – the fourth-highest of his career, according to Next Gen Stats.

The Packers have the second-highest stuff rate, with 29.0 percent of their running plays gaining 0 yards or worse. Their first-down rushing average is 2.25 yards – more than a half-yard worse than any other team. It was an even more feeble 1.47 yards against Dallas.

Green Bay’s offense is almost fully dependent on Love. It’s up to Love to navigate dirty pockets. It’s up to Love to make the offense work without a running game. It’s up to Love to follow up a perfect pass that was dropped with another perfect pass. It’s up to Love to pick up the slack by the first-down ineptitude.

Love has been tremendous for most of the season. It’s true for almost every team, obviously, that the season will go only as far as the quarterback can take it. It’s especially true for the Packers because of all the surrounding problems that continue to fester.

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