Flying High Again: Why Green Bay Packers beat Philadelphia

Starting fast for once

One of the more frustrating parts of watching the team this year — and especially during their recent losing — has been how they seem utterly incapable of avoiding falling into early holes. A big part of why they have done so has been the way they’ve started out games.

Take a look at the way their first-half drives have gone in the past six games (a 1-5 skid):

• Dallas (6 drives): FG, fumble, FG, downs, punt, end of half; 17-6 Dallas lead
• Chicago (4 drives): FG, downs, punt, FG; 6-3 Green Bay lead
• Atlanta (5 drives): TD, TD, punt, TD, FG; 24-19 Green Bay lead
• Indianapolis (7 drives): FG, FG miss, punt, TD, punt, punt, end of half; 24-10 Indianapolis lead
• Tennessee (7 drives): punt, punt, punt, TD, FG, TD, INT; 35-16 Tennessee lead
• Washington (6 drives): punt, punt, punt, TD, FG, end of half; 13-10 Washington lead

That’s 35 total 1st half drives in the preceding six weeks; toss out the end of half drives (kneel-downs) and we have 32 to look at. Among those, we have 7 TDs, 8 FGs, 1 missed FG, 4 turnovers (1 fumble, 1 INT, 2 turnover on downs), and 12 punts; this comes out to an average of 2.28 points per drive.

ANALYSIS: Packers stock up, stock down entering Week 13

Based on Football Outsiders’ Offensive Drive Stats, this would rate as #10 in the league; higher than I expected going in, but it is lower than Green Bay’s season average (2.47; #6) and is mostly inflated by the Atlanta game — a clear outlier in this six game skid. Take that game out of the equation, and Green Bay becomes as bad as they’ve appeared to be for most of this skid: 27 drives (not counting kneel-downs) resulting in 4 TDs, 7 FGs, 1 missed FG, 4 turnovers, and 11 punts), which equates to a mere 1.81 points per drive — #20 in the league.

The slow starts in these weeks have butchered Green Bay’s chances to win, especially when you consider how far the defense has fallen off due to a combination of injuries to key personnel and ineffective play from practically every spot on the field.

This week, that changed.

Much like the way they started in that outlier Atlanta game, Green Bay got right to work with putting up points. After two straight weeks of punting their first three possessions and three straight weeks without a touchdown in them, the Packers turned their opening two drives into 14 points.

This fast beginning on the scoreboard completely averted the disastrous problem Green Bay faced countless times in their 1-5 skid, putting them ahead and in control rather than struggling to get back into the contest. Instead of grasping for an opportunity late, they stampeded out early to put the Eagles in the exact catch-up situation their own offense consistently failed to overcome as they flopped to 4-6.

With it, they now have an outside shot at the playoffs again, showing again that they can be the ones forcing the opposition to come from behind, making them need to combat the pressure which comes with it.

At their peak, nobody did this better than the Packers; they aren’t the team they used to be, but that magic may still be there on some level.