The Packers Are Starting To Marry the Run And the Pass

While he certainly wasn’t rewriting any record books in Sunday afternoon’s 20-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love showed encouraging progress when effectively pushing the football downfield. It’s no secret that it came in conjunction with the team’s best rushing attack of the season. Most of Love’s effectiveness came in the second half as the game progressed.

The Packers averaged just better than 88 yards per game rushing, good for 25th in the league entering Sunday. However, they leaned on a seemingly healthy Aaron Jones to the tune of 73 yards on 20 carries, while A.J. Dillon and Emanuel Wilson added 40 and 43 yards, respectively, for a season-high rushing mark of 184 yards. Green Bay’s 4.8 yards per carry is more aligned with what Matt LaFleur would like to see out of the offense, partially due to what it opens up for Jordan Love in the offense.

Green Bay leaned on the run game and the short passing attack early on. They completed the first pass of over 10 yards with 19 seconds left in the first half on a sliding catch by Romeo Doubs right at the first down marker. As the defense did its job and the lead slowly grew, they also expanded the offensive playbook. The Packers incorporated Dontayvion Wicks and Luke Musgrave, and they racked up the most yards of their young careers.

Their usage of Wicks was particularly noteworthy. He picked up first-down yardage on all four of his catches despite losing the ball on an unforced fumble on his second touch. Regardless, after connecting with Wicks on third-and-seven for the first completion, Love looked downfield on first-and-10, second-and-four, and another first-and-10 after struggling on early downs a week ago.

Musgrave had three catches, the final one being the star on the stat sheet, on an expertly designed play that drew the defense in on Jones on Dillon with the pump fakes. The defense bit on the play, leaving Musgrave open over the middle for the final score of the game. Coming with 3:46 left in the game, the run game had garnered enough respect from the defense that, coupled with an expert play call, allowed Love to take a dagger of a shot down the middle.

Love didn’t truly air it out until a 37-yard throw and catch by Christian Watson two plays before Musgrave’s touchdown, and it felt like the whole game plan was building up to that opportunity. Still, Love built some efficiency as the game progressed, converting four of five passes with a target between 10 and 19 yards and two of three with a target over 20 yards. As mentioned earlier, Love didn’t light the world on fire, but his 77% completion percentage with 228 yards and a passer rating of 115.5 was a marked improvement over the quarterback we saw during Green Bay’s four-game losing streak.

While the improvement was there, it seemed to come from a holistic improvement of the offense, from play calling to run blocking to just having Aaron Jones healthy. The baseline of Love’s success comes from how he can operate within the offense. However, if the Packers will be a truly dangerous unit, Love will need to show more of what he did against the Rams. His average air yards per attempt, or how far the passes traveled before being caught, essentially doubled over the mark he had in the past three weeks. He totaled six air yards per attempt, good for second in the NFL this week behind only the unreal day by rookie C.J. Stroud. Love bested the marks of 3.1, 2.7, and 2.1 air yards per attempt in the losses to the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos, and Las Vegas Raiders, respectively.