Snowy Success: Why Green Bay Packers beat Houston Texans
By Kenn Korb
The Rodgers-Nelson connection
When Jordy Nelson missed all of 2015 the Packers obviously suffered greatly on offense, but from a pure entertainment standpoint fans across the league in general lost out on a full season of one of the best QB-WR connections we’ve had in the past decade. The two had such a chemistry for most of their time playing together which allowed them to combine on plays that dazzled highlight reels and blew apart defenses.
Though Nelson has had a mostly-positive return to the field, this trademark connection has been inconsistent at best for most of 2016, with the biggest factor missing being the big plays down the field.
Through the first 11 games of the season, Rodgers targets Nelson on 34 passes that were at least 15 yards down the field; in those, Nelson came away with a meager 8 receptions and 2 TDs. That stretch includes five different games without a single 15+ yard catch, and 3 where he wasn’t even targeted for one altogether.
Though it’s understandable he wouldn’t be back at full capacity after a full year away, it has still been concerning that someone who became synonymous with explosive gains for Green Bay could spend most of a season with so few.
Against Houston, we got to see some of that pre-2015 magic between these two once again.
Rodgers targets Nelson on 10 different passes in this contest; Nelson turned those into 8 catches, 118 yards, and 1 TD. These two were connecting on passes all across the field, short and long, essentially acting as the only fuel for Green Bay’s passing offense on the afternoon (outside of Nelson, Rodgers went 12/20 for 91 yards and a TD; no non-Nelson receiver did better than 3 catches and 19 yards).
This was also a return to hitting on deep passes between these two: on three attempts of 15+ yards to Nelson, Rodgers connected with him on all of them for a total of 81 yards (21, 28, and a 32 yard TD).
In all, this performance resulted in a perfect passer rating (158.3) for Rodgers on his throws to Nelson.
We can only hope this game isn’t a blip, instead being the grand return of the connection we once knew, one which can stand up a passing game on its own and break the back of the opposing coverage at a moment’s notice.