Dangerous Packers Have the Right Balance to Be the Team to Beat in the NFC

The Green Bay Packers went into Thursday night's matchup in the oddest of positions. A team seemingly surging and reeling at the same time—surging because the Pack hadn't lost since getting blown out by the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, and reeling because Green Bay had to face the 7-0 Arizona Cardinals short their defensive coordinator and top two wide receivers.

There is only surging now.

The short-handed Packers (7-1) did more than just dethrone the NFL's last unbeaten team in Week 8. More than win a game in one of the wilder ways you'll see. More than establish themselves as one of the teams to beat in the NFC.

In essentially being forced to lean more heavily on the ground game and the defense rather than the aerial antics of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams, the Packers may have found the recipe for the sort of balanced, well-rounded attack that could make them the team to beat in the conference.

The Packers went into this game amid massive turmoil—defensive coordinator Joe Barry and wide receivers Davante Adams and Allen Lazard all landed on the COVID-19 list and were unavailable against the Redbirds. However, earlier this week Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said that he expected other players to step up in the absence of arguably the league's best receiver.

"Certainly we're going to miss 17—he does a lot for this football team, brings a lot of leadership, obviously his playmaking ability—but those are the circumstances that are dealt and our guys understand that the standards and expectations don't change," LaFleur said, via ESPN's Rob Demovsky.

Just as they have in all six games that Adams has missed since 2019 (no, really—Green Bay is now 7-0 without him dating back to the start of the 2019 season), the Packers did just that. They stepped up.

Aaron Rodgers actually entered the game with more passing yards per game and a higher completion percentage since 2019 without Adams than with him. But with Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling joining Adams on the shelf and tight end Robert Tonyan going down during the game, that wasn't the case Thursday. Rodgers was efficient (184 passing yards and two scores), but it fell to Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon to carry the offense on the ground.

Again, they stepped up. In a big way.

Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

Jones and Dillon combined to carry the ball 31 times for 137 yards and a touchdown, with Jones adding seven grabs for 51 more yards. Time and time again, the Packers' backs fought through arm tackles, picked up first downs and extended drives. Green Bay possessed the ball for over a full quarter more than the Cardinals in this game and ran 17 more plays.

This, against a Cardinals team that entered Week 7 fourth in the NFL in total defense and tied for first in scoring defense. And after an uneven offensive effort against the Washington Football Team in which the Packers ran the ball just 15 times for 57 yards.

That running game didn't just pick up yards. By dominating time of possession, the Packers kept Kyler Murray and an explosive Arizona offense off the field. And when Murray did get on the field, a fresh Green Bay defense was up to the challenge.

Defensively, Green Bay (wait for it) stepped up.

Playing without their best edge-rusher (Za'Darius Smith), No. 1 cornerback (Jaire Alexander) and defensive coordinator, the Packers held the Cardinals to 334 yards and 21 points—numbers well below their season averages entering Thursday (402.1 yards and 32.1 points per game). The Packers forced three turnovers and for the second week in a row stiffened up in the red zone with the game on the line.

Say what you will about whatever Cardinals wideout A.J. Green was doing on the game-deciding interception. But it was still a great heads-up play by Packers cornerback Rasul Douglas to corral that ball in bounds. It's even better when you consider that in the last month or so Douglas has gone from the Arizona practice squad to starting for the Packers with Alexander out.

While speaking with Erin Andrews of Fox after the game, Rodgers had nothing but good things to say about the 26-year-old defensive back.

"This is why I love this squad," he said. "The guy that made the pick was with [Arizona] for four weeks. He was on the street. We brought him in and he's starting for us. He's a great dude. He's really meshed well with our team, and to come up with a play like that with 15 seconds left is incredible."

After a tumultuous offseason, Rodgers is seemingly nothing but smiles now. And the only thing that should be more frightening for the rest of the NFC than a happy Rodgers is a balanced Packers team that should only get better as its injured players return.

Yes, Adams is quite possibly the best wideout in the league, and Rodgers is a surefire first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback. The pair combine to make beautiful music—to dissect opposing defenses with ease.

They are going to get theirs.

But when Jones and Dillon are breaking tackles and cramming the rock down an opponent's throat, it both takes pressure off Rodgers and Adams to carry the offense and makes it that much easier for them to do damage.

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

Running to set up the pass may be an antiquated notion to some. But it works as well in 2021 as it did in 1991.

When the Green Bay defense is making big plays, harassing opposing quarterbacks and getting stops, it takes even more pressure off Rodgers and the passing game. He doesn't have to think in terms of winning shootouts and trying to force the action. That running game can stay involved. The whole playbook is at Matt LaFleur's disposal. And if one facet of the offense is slowed, the other is there to take up the slack.

That's championship football. Balance. Each phase complementing the others. A circle of game-winning goodness. And circumstances beyond their control may have just shown the Packers how to get that wheel-a-turning.

That sort of balance should scare the defending NFC champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have issues on the back end of the defense. It should scare the Los Angeles Rams, who have everything to match the Packers and Bucs in the playoffs except a quarterback who has hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. And it should scare the Cardinals, as soon as they recover from having their collective hearts ripped out at home.

By the absence of three wide receivers, the Packers were just shown the key to finding it the rest of the season.

And that makes them very, very dangerous.