Packers Finally Mix It Up on Offense, Give Underutilized Weapons an Opportunity

You have to at least give them credit for trying.

The Green Bay Packers opened their matchup against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday by featuring some new offensive plays and underutilized weapons.

The offense's lack of explosiveness, predictability and slow tempo have allowed opponents to easily defend against it in recent weeks, and part of that was due to the same personnel sets and play calls being used repeatedly.

Things looked a bit different early in the game against Carolina, but getting into a 27-7 hole at halftime forced the Packers to switch up their game plan in the second half.

On their second drive of the day, the Packers got a big return out of a play involving rookie fullback Aaron Ripkowski. Aaron Rodgers' short pass to the fullback resulted in an 18-yard gain, the biggest play of the day for Green Bay to that point and only its second play resulting in positive yardage.

Early on, the offense also featured second-year receivers Jeff Janis and Jared Abbrederis as well as tight end Justin Perillo, instead of the usual 11 personnel groupings featuring Randall Cobb, Davante Adams and Richard Rodgers.

"We did that to start the game," head coach Mike McCarthy said afterwards, per Michael Cohen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "We just wanted to get some clean runs and just kind of commit to some concepts or parts of our offense that we haven't done this year."

Mike McCarn/Associated Press

In theory, it was an excellent idea—and a relief at that.

It proved that McCarthy, associate head coach Tom Clements and offensive coordinator Edgar Bennett haven't been willfully ignoring what has been obvious on the tape from the last couple of games: The offense is not deviating enough from its usual spread formation and isolation routes, and receivers are struggling to get open in man coverage.

However, the offense was entirely unproductive to start the game, with its only praiseworthy drive being the 11-play, 65-yard one late in the first quarter.

That, incidentally, was the drive that began with the Ripkowski reception, but the big players involved in moving the ball down the field were the usual suspects: Adams, who had two receptions for 17 yards and James Starks, who rushed three times for 28 yards.

The drive ended in a one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Rodgers, which at least reinforced the notion that the second-year player—whose development, as well as his play, seems to have slowed this season—can at least be a hard-to-cover target in the end zone.

The first half of the game featured a bit of the shotgun formation and very little no-huddle.

That changed in the second half, however. The offense began to pick up speed quite literally when it went to the no-huddle and was, for a couple of drives anyway, reminiscent of the high-powered Packers offense of last season.

"They reverted to some of their most treasured personnel combinations—three receivers, one running back, one tight end—and went without a huddle as Rodgers hurled them back into contention with pass after pass after pass," Cohen wrote after the game.

The worry there, however, is that McCarthy and his team will review the tape from this game and conclude that sticking with the same personnel groupings and isolation routes will continue to work.

After all, it's not obvious that it was the attempt to get creative on offense in the first half that failed. It may have just been the blocking and protection.

For the second week in a row, the offensive line was a failure, allowing five sacks and 14 hits on Rodgers and being unable to sustain blocks.

When the Packers are running isolation routes, Rodgers typically scans the field quickly from left to right, already knowing where he wants to go with the ball.

If they're going to get different personnel onto the field and mix up the play-calling, the line will need to give Rodgers enough time to diagnose the defense and progress through his reads.

"When tackle Bryan Bulaga wasn't giving up a sack, center Corey Linsley was getting blown off the ball on the fourth-down play at the end of the game," wrote Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "When guard Josh Sitton and Linsley weren't screwing up a call, tackle David Bakhtiari was getting called for holding."

Variation and creativity are still sorely lacking in this offense, but playmakers aren't.

Sunday proved that unlikely contributors such as Ripkowski can have an impact, and even though Rodgers did not target Abbrederis or Janis, they at least introduce an element into the offense for which defenses likely have not prepared.