In the aftermath of the Green Bay Packers' historic victory over the New England Patriots, there are tons of questions about this team floating around in the ether.
Most of these questions are positive. And how could they not be? Sunday's performance was the kind of game that can set teams on a blazing path of glory. Dominant performances like that are few and far between, especially for a Packers team that has struggled to play cohesively through a full four quarters.
Let's flash back to how we collectively felt about this team after the Week 3 home loss to the Atlanta Falcons. The sky was falling. The team was in a tailspin. Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst were already fired, and Green Bay's championship window had slammed shut.
Now, the team has rallied to reel off wins in five of their past six games (it could have been six for six, were it not for some ref-ball shenanigans in Detroit).
The Packers' defense has been a revelation, as they have played their way into top-five consideration league-wide (with some guy named Micah Parsons' return on the horizon). But the more impressive turnaround, for me, has been what this offense has become in the last few weeks.
It is, quite frankly, a genetically modified super soldier with a flamethrower in one hand and a chainsaw in the other.
But now, in the middle of this winning streak and a pivotal matchup with the Vikings on the horizon, it's time to really sit down and think about why this is happening. And more importantly, how.
Well, it's actually quite simple.
The Packers' offensive line can survive, and that might just be enough
Since the Week 3 matchup, the Packers have marginally improved their offensive line (in pass blocking, at least) to be middle-of-the-road. Per SumerSports:
They aren't mind-blowing numbers by any means, but they are enough to let the Packers' offense reach the level it has. That is the most important thing to keep in mind.
Laken Tomlinson and Jordan Morgan have been huge factors in this change, and Morgan, particularly, is on a pass-blocking hot streak right now. John Williams hasn't played well, but he's allowed the line to survive. Anthony Belton has been hot and cold, but the offense can play around that. And if Sunday's performance is any indication, Kevin Zeitler might finally be handed the RG spot.
So, we've got an offensive line that is (knock on wood) surviving in the pass game. But at the same time, the running backs and the coaching staff have combined to create a three-headed monster of ineptitude in the run game.
I'm not going to get too far into this, because there really isn't any point in rehashing it. The Packers are historically bad at rushing the ball, have been all season, and will continue to be very, very bad. The point is that Green Bay's offense has essentially neutered itself from half of its potential threats. Or has it?
Let's remember something very important about the balance of passing and rushing. Theoretically speaking, the mantra of every football coach since time immemorial has been that you run the ball to set up the pass. But what happens when, all of a sudden, an offense has to do the opposite?
The Packers are breaking the norms of football
So far through the 2026 season, the Packers have rushed the ball 202 times, which is 27th in the league. Compare that to the last few seasons, when they were very close to the top of the league in rushing attempts, at seventh in 2025 and fifth in 2024. Conversely, Green Bay is third in the league in passing attempts, after finishing 2025 as the 27th team and finishing 2024 as the 30th.
Two things can be true at once: The Packers don't have the horses they need to run the ball effectively, and they don't need to.
Green Bay's offense leads the league in deep passing attempts, at 58 attempts intended for 20 yards or more beyond the LOS. That's more than double the league average of 28.4 attempts. On its face that seems like a risky proposition.
Longer passes need more time to develop, more time for the offensive line to block, more opportunity for the line to lose their blocks. With that in mind, where would you guess Jordan Love's average time to throw ranks league-wide? Probably pretty long, right?
Jordan's average time to throw is 2.47 seconds, which is the quickest average in the entire league. That means opposing defenses are in an extraordinarily unique pickle: defending a quick passing game that can threaten you deep.
This is the epitome of making a defense defend every blade of grass, and it's the answer to how the Packers keep getting away from it. There's no playbook for it. For context, the last two season-long leaders in deep passing have averaged time to throw of 2.67 (LA Rams in 2025) and 2.7 (Colts in 2024).
Green Bay's offense will face a major test this weekend when the Vikings come into town for their second game of the season, with a new(ish) QB in purple. When these two teams played in Week 1, the Vikings' defense ambushed the Packers' offensive line with a preposterously high blitz rate.
Will history repeat itself, or will the Packers' new strategy for generating deep passing prove to be an effective counter? Their performance will be a measuring stick for the remainder of the season, but a win this weekend would finally lift Green Bay out of last place in the division. At this point in the season, and in this division, you've just got to go 1-0 each week and stack those wins.
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