Here are 5 things to watch as the Green Bay Packers face the Washington Commanders
GREEN BAY – Here are five things to watch as the Green Bay Packers face the Washington Commanders at FedExField in Landover, Maryland on Sunday:
Packers are a far better team when Aaron Jones has at least 15 carries
Packers coach Matt LaFleur has called Aaron Jones “a very special player, a special person” and declared more than once that he must do a better job of making sure he gets more touches. Yet Jones has only two games this season in which he has carried at least 15 times. The Packers are 2-0 (New England, Chicago) in those games and Jones topped 100 yards both times. Over the course of his career, the Packers are 24-2 when Jones carries at least 15 times, according to a search on Stathead’s database. He has rushed 456 times for 2,588 yards (5.67 average) and 26 touchdowns in those games. Since 2018, when he became the full-time starter, the Packers are 24-20 when he doesn’t reach 15 carries. He has rushed 456 times for 2,077 yards (4.55) and 18 touchdowns in those games. It’s a damning statistic when you consider the Packers’ offense has been a major culprit in the team’s 3-3 start.
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Washington's front four took it to the Packers the last time the two teams met
The Packers won 24-10 in their last meeting with the Commanders, but it wasn’t easy. The Packers rushed 15 times for 57 yards and 17 of those came on two Aaron Rodgers scrambles. Washington’s front four of Chase Young, Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne and Montez Sweat made things tough for the Packers all day. Rodgers completed 27 of 35 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns, but he was sacked three times and knocked down three other times. The Packers scored only 10 points in the second half, and if Washington had any kind of offense, it could have made it a game. On Sunday, the Commanders will be without Young, their dynamic young end, but Allen, Payne and Sweat are back. The defense has 10 sacks in its past two games and has held its past three opponents to under 220 yards passing. The lone blip was allowing 238 yards rushing to the Chicago Bears last week. The front four is aggressive, but there are opportunities to break off big runs if someone gets out of his gap. “I think they've done some really good things, and again we just have to continue to work on being disciplined,” coach Ron Rivera said. “(We have to) continue to keep getting better as a group."
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Aaron Rodgers hasn't had a big passing game in a while
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has gone 10 straight games without throwing for 300 or more yards. He has just four 300-yard-plus games in his past 22. The days of him dominating opponents with his arm might not be over, but there certainly haven’t been any this year. He’s had a pair of 250-yard games, but until the Packers figure out a way to connect on deep balls, his numbers are going to be down. The first order of business this week is to fix things on the offensive line, so Rodgers has time to get the ball down the field. “I think there’s some things we can do from a protection standpoint to maybe give Aaron a tick more time (to be) balanced in the pocket,” coach Matt LaFleur said before the collapse against the New York Jets. All indications are the Packers are going to shuffle their offensive line and start Yosh Nijman at right tackle and Elgton Jenkins at guard. It’s critical to get the run game going first, but complementing it with some deep balls would help. If receiver Sammy Watkins is activated off injured reserve, they’ll have someone who can get behind the secondary.
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Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke gets another shot at beating his childhood favorites
Commanders backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke’s dad is from Wisconsin, so he grew up a Packers fan, idolizing Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, and playing at Lambeau Field last year was a dream come true. But Heinicke got the team in the end zone only once and much more will be expected of him this time around. “I've been looking at a lot of film from last year and what I played,” Heinicke said of the 15 games he started last year after Ryan Fitzpatrick got hurt. “Good games, bad games, and the game against Green Bay last year. I just feel like I'm head and shoulders above of where I was at that point." Heinicke exposed some discipline problems with the Packers pass rush last year, rushing 10 times for 95 yards, including a 38-yard scramble. He also hit a 40-yard touchdown to receiver Terry McLaurin. Heinicke has McLaurin, Curtis Samuel and rookie Jahan Dotson at his disposal. Dotson, the speedy Penn State first-round pick, is a red zone threat. He has scored four touchdowns on just 12 receptions.
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Personnel aside, Packers offensive line has to get its act together
Regardless how things shake out Sunday, the Packers’ offensive line must turn things around after such a demoralizing performance against the New York Jets. Giving up four sacks and six quarterback hits was an embarrassment, even against as good a defense as the Jets have. It was reminiscent of the game the Packers lost in Tampa Bay in 2020 when the entire unit was blown apart. Adam Stenavich was the offensive line coach then and he managed to correct the problems. Now the offensive coordinator, Stenavich has been spending time with the offensive line to help line coach Luke Butkus fix all the issues that plagued the line against the Jets. “When you play 17 games, rarely are you going to play all 17 games your best,” Stenavich said. “You'd like to believe, ‘Hey, we're going to come out and play our best every single week.’ Sometimes, things go bad. And that's what happened last Sunday. But the best thing about it is we’ve got great guys in that room and on our offense and on our team that worked their butts off. We had a bad day. Well, guess what? ‘Pull your bootstraps up, and let's get to work.’ And that's basically what we said.”