Finding rhythm in Motown: Why Green Bay Packers beat Detroit

Return of the deep attack

Yet another missing piece to the formerly destructive offense of the Packers has been their ability to attack defenses deep.

Though some of the numbers ended up being relatively the same between 2014 (59 pass plays of 20+ yards) and 2015 (55) for big plays by the Green Bay offense, the kinds of plays being performed and the situations those plays were made in were vastly different.

When the offense has hummed in the past, a large portion of those big plays have come built right into the play-calls (think: Nelson’s 66-yard TD bomb vs Minnesota in 2014), happening within the flow of the game and not something which needed to be forced due to the score and/or game situation.

Spanning from last year however, the team has struggled mightily to create those huge gains within the flow of their offense; when they have made plays happen, many have been either through taking advantage of free plays (a mechanism you have to be prepared for, but cannot exactly plan to have happen on any given play-call) or when they were forced to come from behind.

With those being the only reliable means for the offense, the level of deep shots teams used to have to try defending haven’t been there much at all. In 2014, Green Bay created 15 pass plays of 40+ yards; in 2015, that number was only 6. That lacking attack had continued into this season, with the team having just 5 passing plays of 20+ yards and exactly 0 of 40+ yards through two weeks.

This week saw multiple deep attacks from Green Bay that were within the flow of the offensive game plan in the first half. The first drive saw Cobb snag a 33-yarder. Nelson got in a 49-yarder on the second drive. The third drive saw that huge 66-yard defensive pass interference penalty aimed at Davis happen.

These huge plays helped Green Bay reach a 21-3 lead just into the 2nd quarter on the way to an eventual win. If the Packers are able to continue threatening defenses deep, they force the opponent to adjust their scheme from the straight one-vs-one matchups that have befuddled them recently and allow themselves to find a more consistent rhythm.

Better rhythm brings better opportunities for the offense, and better opportunities means more likely chances to score, and more scoring increases the chances of victory.

It remains to be seen if this was just a blip against an injury-maligned unit or a welcome trend, but the very fact of seeing it happen at all can gives us hope we’ll be able to see it again.