Green Bay Packers vs. Denver Broncos: What's the Game Plan for Green Bay?
In the most anticipated game of Week 8—and potentially the entire regular season—the Green Bay Packers will face the Denver Broncos Sunday night in a matchup of two 6-0 squads.
As recently as last season, a meeting between these two teams meant an Aaron Rodgers-Peyton Manning battle and solely that. The 2015 version, though, is slated to feature two of the league's best defenses respectively tasked with shutting down a former MVP on the other side of the ball.
Green Bay and Denver—both coming off bye weeks—will meet in just the fourth game ever between two undefeated teams with six or more wins and the first since 2007.
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The franchises have only faced each other 12 times before in the regular season, with the Packers holding a 6-5-1 series advantage, including wins in five of the last six meetings.
Let's get down to the offensive and defensive strategies Green Bay should use in its Week 8 matchup with Denver to come out ahead.
Offensive Game Plan
The Broncos defense has allowed the fewest passing yards per game this season—still the Packers' best chance to win Sunday may very well come down to a certain quarterback in the shotgun with four receivers out wide.
Why, you ask? The answer is a three-parter.
For starters, Rodgers is playing some of the best football of his career. His 115.9 passer rating and 15-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio are both second in the league.
Meanwhile, Denver's stout run defense is giving up 89.2 rushing yards per game—the fourth-fewest in the league—and has allowed just two running backs to eclipse the 80-yard mark in its six games. For what it's worth, the names of those backs are Adrian Peterson (81 yards) and Jamaal Charles (125).
Finally, consider Green Bay will likely be without James Starks—he's been limited in practice this week with a hip injury and is listed as questionable on the team's Friday report—and must rely heavily on a struggling Eddie Lacy.
It now seems like a no-brainer to put the game in Rodgers' hands.
As he's done all season, expect Rodgers to utilize the short passing game to move the ball downfield and create long drives. Green Bay's signal-caller may be one of the best at this, but it'll be more imperative Sunday against a ferocious Denver pass rush that ranks first in the NFL in sacks and thrives on creating turnovers.
To throw a couple more stats in there, Rodgers will be facing a defensive unit that ranks near the top of the league with 6.0 yards per pass attempt allowed (third in the NFL) yet closer to the middle of the pack in completion percentage (62.4 percent is 11th).
We could see Rodgers use a lot of dink-and-dunk passes to attack a defense that is exceptional all across the board.
Defensive Game Plan
It seems crazy to suggest a unit recently torched to the tune of 503 Philip Rivers passing yards should force an opposing quarterback to beat them through the air—let alone when that opposing quarterback is Manning—yet here we go.
Again, the stats don't lie in this instance.
Manning has thrown a league-leading 10 interceptions thus far and has tossed at least one in all six games this season—including multiple picks in his last three. It's a far cry from the same guy who finished 2013 with 10 interceptions over 16 games.
Furthermore, Manning has the second-worst passer rating (72.5) of all qualified QBs this year and is on pace for his worst total in that category since his rookie year in 1998.
In order to win this game, defensive coordinator Dom Capers and his unit must create turnovers to give Rodgers and the offense as many chances to score as possible. It may seem like common sense, but when facing a stingy defense like Denver's, even the best quarterbacks need all the help they can get.
It's a risky play to rely on turnovers as a defense. But with Manning, whose interceptions seem inevitable, the Green Bay secondary just needs the timely picks to win the game.
Players and Matchups to Watch
WR Davante Adams
The second-year receiver is expected to play Sunday for the first time since he reinjured his ankle in Week 3. Adams practiced this week without any setbacks, according to ESPN's Rob Demovsky, and was listed as probable on the team's most recent injury report after being a full participant in Friday's practice.
The wideout's mere presence in the passing game should give Rodgers another weapon on the outside and slowly open up some room in the middle for Randall Cobb to do his damage as a true slot receiver.
With secondaries now keying in on James Jones as a red-zone threat, Adams could even see some targets in the end zone with a lesser-tier cornerback on him.
In addition, we've seen Rodgers get almost everyone in the offense involved this season. Against the Chargers in Week 6, he completed passes to nine different receivers, including two each to Jeff Janis and Ty Montgomery. And with Montgomery looking like a no-go after not practicing at all during the week, Adams will probably get the rookie's share of targets.
Packers O-line vs. Broncos OLBs Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware
Denver boasts one of the league's best pass-rushing duos with a Von Miller-DeMarcus Ware one-two punch. The pair headlines a Broncos defense that's racked up 26 sacks in six games—tied for tops in the NFL. Ware leads the team with 4.5, while Miller's tallied three of his own.
It'll be a tall task for Green Bay's big men up front to keep their quarterback clean. Luckily for the offensive line, Rodgers is one of the best at scrambling out of the pocket and extending plays with his feet.
Yet he can only do so much on his own—especially with Miller and Ware attacking from both ends.
This matchup will ultimately come down to how well Green Bay's offensive tackles Bryan Bulaga and David Bakhtiari block Denver's outside linebackers when they're the only threats.
As ESPN's Jeff Legwold notes, the Broncos defense can create pressure on the quarterback with four-man rush packages—allowing the unit to drop seven players into pass coverage. That four-man rush has forced 14 sacks, three interceptions and two fumbles this season on its own, according to Legwold.
Miller and Ware dominate the edges in that four-man package and could potentially do the same Sunday.
Game Prediction
As much as everyone would like to see a classic Rodgers-Manning matchup on prime time this week, we probably won't get one.
Instead, Sunday night's game will feature the league's top two scoring defenses going head-to-head for the right to remain unbeaten.
Although Rodgers—or Manning, for that matter—could throw for a few hundred yards and a couple of touchdowns, the team that dominates on the defensive side of the ball will decide the winner.
Creating turnovers, holding opposing offenses to field goals or less and forcing quarterbacks to win on the final possession—it's the recipe both Green Bay and Denver's defenses will try to follow to move to 7-0.
Whether you're pulling for the Packers or not, Sunday's game will be one of the best regular-season matchups in 2015. It's a potential championship preview with a couple of MVP-caliber quarterbacks on center stage.
Final Prediction: Packers 20, Broncos 17
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