GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It wouldn’t be unprecedented if the Green Bay Packers decided to turn into a run-dominant offense. At this point, that’s the best thing they have going.
For all that’s ailed the Packers’ offense, they’re finally starting to run the ball effectively. Back-to-back 100-yard games from Eddie Lacy have helped turn his season around even if that has failed to jump-start an offense that still ranks in the bottom third of the NFL.
It would have to be difficult for coach Mike McCarthy and play-caller Tom Clements to go that route when their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, is the reigning NFL MVP, but they might want to research what their predecessors, coach Mike Sherman and play-caller Tom Rossley, did in 2003.
With a 34-year-old Brett Favre at quarterback, the Packers became a run-heavy team. After a 3-4 start with a passing offense that featured Donald Driver, Javon Walker and Robert Ferguson as their top three receivers -- none of them finished that season with more than 716 yards -- Sherman and Rossley decided to ride running back Ahman Green. Over the final nine games of the season, Green averaged 20.4 carries per game, and he finished the season with 1,883 yards -- still the franchise’s rushing record for a season. The Packers won six of their last seven games to finish 10-6.
This year’s Packers might be trending that way. Lacy has averaged 19.5 carries in the last two games. Before that, his season average was just 10.4 rushes per game.
A heavier dose of Lacy and James Starks might have helped in Thursday’s loss to the Chicago Bears. Despite a fumble, Lacy rushed for 105 yards on 17 carries, while Starks had 39 yards on seven attempts.
On their first drive of the second half, the Packers ran six straight times on a 10-play drive that went awry when JC Tretter rolled a third-down shotgun snap that Rodgers had to dive on.
Lacy carried only three more times the rest of the game and Starks just once.
“I think Eddie and James both ran hard,” Packers right guard T.J. Lang said. “The first half I felt like we were really on a roll and in the second half when we did get them the ball, it seemed like they were still working for us. I don’t know the final numbers, but we would’ve probably liked to have a few more attempts.”
In last Sunday’s win at the Minnesota Vikings, the Packers had near-perfect offensive balance with 34 runs (although three were Rodgers scrambles on dropbacks) and 34 passes, plus two sacks. It skewed more heavily toward the pass against the Bears (43 passes, four scrambles, two sacks and 24 non-quarterback runs) despite poor weather conditions that would have seemingly favored the running back.
“If you look at the way the game was called, if you have 73 plays in a football game and you run however many times, you have a pretty good balance,” McCarthy said. “We give Aaron Rodgers the ball 43 times. Other things around it have to happen. We had opportunities to be a little bit more efficient and score some more points.”
Lacy’s second-quarter fumble perhaps caused McCarthy and Clements some concern. He also nearly lost the ball on his 25-yard touchdown catch when he causally flipped the ball at almost the exact instant he crossed the goal line.
“Well, make no bones about it, if you don’t hold onto the football, if you turn the football over, your opportunities are going to decrease or go away,” McCarthy said. “Eddie has played very well the last two weeks, but he’s got to handle the football. The touchdown, he was careless with the ball there, and the fumble is clearly technique. The ball is out away from his body, and that’s what happens. The guy comes in from behind and strips the football. It’s a basic technique of fundamental football, and it’s something we emphasize every day. We have a ball-security drill. It may look like nonsense when they go through it, but that’s why we do it.”
And then there’s this: If teams are going to dare the Packers to throw with seven- and eight-man fronts, unfathomable as it may have once seemed, then it’s going to be harder to run.
“[The Bears] played a lot more two-high [safeties],” Rodgers said. “They were hanging that safety low at times to have a pseudo seven-man box, but we had some better run opportunities. A lot of teams are playing us strictly one high. [Thursday] was more of some combo coverage with some two-high safeties at times. When they do that, we’ve got to run the ball, and we did run the ball.”