Packers' failure to utilize Aaron Jones, AJ Dillon leads to demise against Vikings | Opinion
MINNEAPOLIS — If at any time during a Green Bay Packers postgame news conference you hear coach Matt LaFleur say he needs to get the ball to his play-making running backs more in the future, just roll your eyes.
It’s as empty a declaration/mea culpa/promise for the future as you’ll ever hear.
Maybe it just comes with the job because former coaches Mike McCarthy and Mike Holmgren used to say it, too, but those two just couldn’t help themselves because no matter what they said, they would throw the ball every down if they could.
In LaFleur’s case, there’s reason to believe he truly does want to run the ball more, but he has a four-time MVP quarterback who has the power to change any running play into a passing play and many times does. The fact Rodgers has the potential to turn a 20-0 deficit into a 21-20 lead in a flash, is the reason LaFleur — and McCarthy before him — don’t dare take it away from him.
Still, if circumstances Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium didn’t make LaFleur and Rodgers want to put the ball in the hands of A.J. Dillon and Aaron Jones more, what would?
It can be argued that the Packers lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 23-7, because their defensive coordinator didn’t have the guts to put cornerback Jaire Alexander on receiver Justin Jefferson, who approaches zone coverage — at least when the Packers play it — like a sundae bar, treating himself to as much as he wants whenever he wants.
But it’s only part of the story.
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The Packers produced 338 of the hollowest yards you’ll see in an NFL game, coming away with seven points despite drives of 79, 75, 57 and 65 yards. Even if rookie receiver Christian Watson doesn’t drop a sure 75-yard touchdown on the Packers’ first offensive play of the game, you wonder if it would have even made the Vikings blink.
For the first time in 18 regular-season games against the Packers, safety Harrison Smith didn’t play in the box. He spent almost every down playing deep, which meant the Vikings were more interested in playing zone coverage and keeping Rodgers in check than they were stopping the run.
“I don’t recall much man,” receiver Randall Cobb said. “It was a two-deep safety look, sometimes quarters to one side and Cover 2 to the other. So, that was their game plan for much of the day. It makes it hard to stretch them, but we definitely had some opportunities we missed out on.”
It’s a surprise that the Vikings kept Smith back so much, but it’s not a surprise that’s the defense they played. It’s the same kind of scheme that Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry employs and so the Packers knew what to expect.
But they were determined to spread the ball around, try to get their young receivers involved and not overcommit to one thing or the other. It ended up biting them in the rear.
“It's the mental stuff that we just can't have because we're hurting ourselves, whether we're going the wrong way on a block or missing a protection-something, missing a ‘hot’, not running the right route, the right depth,” Rodgers said. “There was just too many mental mistakes.”
Still, if you go into halftime down 17 and you’re in position to get the second half kickoff, it’s time to play to your strengths. The Packers don’t have Davante Adams anymore and Allen Lazard was sidelined with an ankle injury, so the strength of their offense wasn’t the medium-to-short passing game.
It was running the ball and throwing short to the backs.
If you don’t believe it, look at their first two drives of the second half.
Starting at their 18, they got 2 yards on a short pass to receiver Romeo Doubs and then gave the ball to Dillon (once on a pass, twice on the ground) for 24 yards. The drive ended with a screwup up front that led to a sack fumble.
On the next possession, the Packers drove 75 yards for a touchdown.
Dillon ran for 4 on first down and Jones ran like a man possessed for 29 on the next, breaking tackles and grinding for extra yards.
“There was one point where I ran out there, I was like, he just fired up the whole sideline,” Dillon said. “And that was the one drive that we ended up scoring on.”
The Packers finished the drive with five carries for 57 yards, including Dillon’s 2-yard touchdown run that cut Minnesota’s lead to 20-7. At that point, Dillon had 10 carries for 45 yards and three catches for 25, and Jones had four carries for 44 yards and two catches for 22 yards.
"We did some good things,” Rodgers said. “But maybe we have to get some more touches for Jonesy and Dillon. We made a lot of mistakes on the perimeter. Missed some throws. We have to clean it up all the way around.”
Commence with the eyeroll.
The game plan featured a fair number of snaps with Dillon and Jones together, but it did not employ receiver Amari Rodgers, who is serving as the No. 3 running back. Anytime, Jones and Dillon were in the game together, Rodgers seemed to get a good matchup with a middle linebacker with either of the two backs or the tight end.
Not having tackles David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins, both of whom were inactive, certainly hurt because the consistency of the blocking wasn’t great. But that’s where LaFleur and Rodgers had to come together and agree that they should get tight ends Marcedes Lewis and Robert Tonyan in the game and get the line feeling good by pounding the rock.
“I think we had a good game plan,” Dillon said. “I think when everything was clicking you saw that we were getting some good push up front. We were getting some good runs and some good passes. If you're looking for the silver lining, there were parts where we were moving the ball, we were doing what we needed to do on the offensive side of the ball.”
Somehow, the momentum Dillon and Jones had built was short-lived.
On the next series, Dillon caught a 9-yard pass on first down and Jones ran for 5 on the next. But Rodgers got sacked looking for someone down the field on first down and threw the ball three consecutive times after. He was sacked again on third-and-7 at the Packers' 48.
From that point on, with Minnesota up, 23-7, it was almost all passing.
Dillon never had another carry after his touchdown. He had two more catches for 21 yards. Jones had one more carry for 5 yards and one more catch for 5. That’s a combined 31 yards on four touches from the middle of the third quarter on.
“We've got to look at the plan that we had, making sure that we're putting our players in a good position,” LaFleur said. “I think we just talked about it in terms of A.J. Dillon and Aaron Jones, how important they are to our football team.
“We've got to get them more involved, whether it's in the run game, pass game, however it may be. But we've got to lean on those guys.”
Commence with the eye roll.