Exploding Beyond .500: Why Green Bay Packers beat Seattle Seahawks
By Kenn Korb
A positive rushing committee
For much of the Packers’ struggles in 2016, an area many could point to was a struggling running game.
With injuries and ineffectiveness tearing apart the expected rotation almost immediately, the team has had to try cobbling together healthy bodies the spot — and even that didn’t work for the most part.
Eddie Lacy has missed most of the year and went on IR weeks ago. James Starks busted up his knee and missed about a month; since returning, he’s been the same guy — which is to say, not good. Don Jackson was brought up from the practice squad; he too got injured. They made a trade for Knile Davis; he got cut not even three weeks later. With all these problems, Rodgers had to shoulder the passing AND rushing loads, leading the team on the ground while also throwing an exorbitant number of passes each week. It’s surprising it took so long for him to wear down and pick up injuries like he has the past three weeks.
Luckily, it seems the team finally has the workable options at that spot that can take some of the burden off him; most of that showed up here to an impactful degree.
Back early in the year, Ty Montgomery started getting some carries as a rusher despite his usual position being wide receiver; it took a few games, but he started to become effective at it. His skills with the ball in his hands bring a dynamic this offense hasn’t really ever had, and he can also pound the ball in the middle in spurts as well.
Christine Michael is a newer pickup, and brings a level of power someone like Montgomery can’t be expected to consistently provide. He brings the ability to shoulder a workload as well — he’s actually Seattle’s rushing leader for the year right now despite getting cut by them a month ago.
Aaron Ripkowski is not a high-workload guy, but he is such a forceful runner when he does get carries, and recently that has been utilized more by the Packers (as evidenced by him picking up Green Bay’s first two non-Rodgers rushing touchdowns in the past three games).
Even other non-runners have gotten in on the action — particularly Jeff Janis.
Against Seattle, Montgomery was the first option; he got 12 assorted touches and turned those into 86 yards and a touchdown. Michael acted as a powerful change-of-pace; he garnered 10 carries for 36 yards. Ripkowski didn’t do much here, but Janis’ involvement saw him pull of his second strong sweep run in as many weeks, this time for a touchdown.
Mainly through these guys, we saw the Packers pick up 93 yards and 2 TDs on the ground. There were three different plays among those which went for at least 10 yards on the ground; each of them picked up one of them.
It wasn’t a dominant effort, but it was just the right level of balance for a team which had been sorely lacking it during most of the year.