Paul Bretl | 9/26/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — It’ll be a heavy-weight matchup on Sunday between the Packers rushing offense and the Minnesota Vikings stingy run defense. The winner may give their team the advantage when it comes to the outcome of this game.
“He just causes you a lot of headaches,” said Matt LaFleur of Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. “A lot of your run game it can be problematic in the run game, you’re not always going to run it into some great looks. There’s going to be some dirty looks and you’ve got to do your best to gain as many yards as you can. So, like I said, I’ve got a lot of respect for how he’s able to create a whole lot of conflict for opposing offenses.”
The Packers’ offense will enter Sunday’s game averaging 5.5 yards per rush–the second-highest mark in football. They’re also leading the NFL with 204 rushing yards per game and are first in explosive running plays of 10-plus yards with 17 of them.
The beauty behind the Packers’ early season success on the ground is how they’re doing it. Having to adapt on the fly the last two games with Malik Willis at quarterback, we’ve seen a different Packers offense that features designed quarterback runs, an emphasis of getting offensive linemen in space, both gap and outside zone running schemes being featured, and a few receivers contributing as well.
“I mean it’s hard in this league to just line up, be static and beat people,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich. “Like you really gotta have an unbelievable roster to do things like that. Now, I think we have good players, but you just have to keep the defense guessing, you have to make them look one way (and) go the other just to distract them for a split second so you can find seams in defenses or whatever it is, that’s something I believe in and I like to do.”
On the other side of the ball this week will be a Vikings defense that not only throws a lot at opposing passing game with their blitz-heavy approach, but this is also a unit that has been extremely difficult to run on, in part because of the pressure. It’s a physical group that rushes in unison. Similarly to what the Packers do on offense by throwing a lot of looks at opposing defenses, the Vikings do that defensively to their opponents.
As good as the Packers offense has been at generating big running plays, the Vikings have been one of the best at limiting those opportunities on the ground, allowing the third-fewest yards per rush at just 3.6. Opponents have also averaged just 71.3 total rushing yards per game–the second-fewest–and the three rushes of 10-plus yards surrendered by Minnesota is the third-fewest.
“Running the football into pressures is its own challenge in and of itself,” said Josh Myers at his locker. “It’s a difficult thing to do. So we just have to be great at communicating. Understand our assignments. Understand what each call means and how we’re supposed to execute it. And then we have to go and do it. So, it’s tough, we’re going to have to be vigilant, going to be watching for it and communicating it.”
Finding some sort of success on the ground begins pre-snap with the communication and protection calls from the offensive line, specifically identifying where potential pressures could be coming from and then setting the correct protections based on that information. The quarterback also has the ability to make adjustments based on what he sees as well.
Of course, with the Vikings’ ability to disguise what they’re ultimately wanting to do, the set protections are likely never quite full-proof–so oftentimes the blockers will have to adjust as the play is unfolding.
“(It’s about) Having a feel for our offense,” said Myers about adjusting mid-snap. “For the rules within in our offense because for sure, we’re going to get some looks we haven’t talked about or they haven’t shown. I think it’s trusting our rules. Trusting the offense and trusting the guys next to us that they’re going to do their job. Kind of have to work throughout.”
Schematically, in an effort to combat the Vikings front, the Packers could try to spread them out, using a heavy dose of 11 personnel to do so. The continued usage of motion and some pre-snap eye candy will have to remain high, forcing the defenders to move pre-snap, potentially opening up running lanes or the defense tipping their hand when it comes to which players are coming with the pressure.
Chances are, it is going to be tough sledding in the run game for Green Bay in this one. Regardless of whether it is Malik Willis or Jordan Love at quarterback, we probably won’t see the same run game emphasis that we’ve seen the in the previous two games from the Packers’ offense–the Vikings just won’t allow it.
“They pose a big challenge because a lot of their fronts there’s just so many guys up on the line of scrimmage and they’re very multiple with their personnels,” Stenavich said. “And they can give a lot of different looks from a lot of different personnels where it’s not a very good look, or very favorable to run the ball in a lot of situations.”
With that said, even if the Packers are only able to muster three or four yards a carry, what they’ll want to avoid is becoming one-dimensional and pass-heavy, which results in predictability, allowing a very potent pass rush and blitz-heavy defense to really tee-off. This then begins a vicious cycle that can be difficult to get out of for an offense, and that is something the Packers must avoid.
“You just really have to be patient with it and just focus on your mentality because there’s going to be some bad looks and you just got to get what you can out of them,” said Stenavich. “But they pose a problem. They got smart players, they pressure a lot, and their very talented across the board, so it’s going to be a really big challenge for us this week.”
Conversely, the ability to move the ball on the ground–or at least be committed to doing so–can result in short down-and-distance situations, which can help keep a defense off-balanced, to varying degrees, and potentially open up opportunities in the pass game, which this Packers offense will have to take advantage of because the chances to do so could be limited.