Green Bay offense searching for consistency

GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Packers head into their week three matchup with the Denver Broncos sporting a perfect record, but that doesn’t mean the first two weeks have gone perfectly, especially for the offense.

In the week one win over the Chicago Bears, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was only able to lead one touchdown drive, with the defense taking things from there. Week two saw the Packers’ offense put together an incredible first quarter against the Minnesota Vikings before things fizzled out in the second and eventually looked a lot like it did for most of the Bears game.

While the Packers are certainly thrilled to have a 2-0 record so far, the offense knows it needs to start playing more consistently if they hope to achieve more success and potentially have a magical season.

“I think we just didn’t, we stopped being aggressive a little bit. I think, you know, we got comfortable with the lead and the aggression wasn’t there, how we started off the game,” said receiver Davante Adams after the win over the Vikings.

Rodgers credited the Vikings’ defense for making adjustments that made life tougher on the offense, but also said there were opportunities to make plays.

“We just didn’t execute. We had some chances at some stuff. I think they just tightened up. They made some good plays on contested balls,” said Rodgers on Sunday.

While there are several things the offense hopes to clean up over the course of the season, there also was plenty of reasons for optimism after what transpired in week two.

The Packers running game totaled 144 yards in the contest, with Aaron Jones responsible for most of the damage. Jones toted the ball a career-high 23 times, tallying 116 yards.

After fans clamored for Jones to receive that many carries in 2018, it appears they will get their wish with coach Matt LaFleur at the helm this season. Now its up to Jones to prepare himself for a bigger workload, especially during the stretch the team is on now (playing the second of three games in 11 days).

“You just got to be on top of your preparation and get your body right. That’s the biggest thing,” said Jones on Wednesday. “You got to be mentally focused, locked in. Your reps aren’t going to be as much in practice just because of the quick turnaround and they want to get your body right.”

For as great as the Packers’ run game looked in week two, Jones also said, “There’s still a lot we can do, still a lot of yards out there that we left out there.”

Fellow running back Jamaal Williams didn’t have as productive a day as Jones did against the Vikings, but was still asked to carry the ball nine times.

The duo also played a big role in the passing game, combining for seven receptions, including Williams’ first quarter touchdown reception to get the scoring started against Minnesota.

“I feel it gives defenses something else to worry about besides Tae (Adams) and passing the ball,” said Williams.

Giving Jones and Williams plenty of carries and looks out of the backfield as receivers will help open things up in the play-action game for Adams and the receiving corps.

Adams caught seven passes for 106 yards against Minnesota, with all other receivers combining for just eight catches for 46 yards. No Packers recorded a catch against the Vikings.

With the trade of Trevor Davis, Green Bay will be looking for Geronimo Allison, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Jake Kumerow for more production. Rookie Darrius Shepherd also appears about ready to get back on the field after a promising summer camp.

When the Packers were marching up and down the field against the Vikings, they were consistently in third-and-manageable situations that they were able to convert. LaFleur said getting into third-and-long situations really affected the offense in the second half.

“If it’s third-and-six or longer, the defense can do a lot of different things, show a lot of different looks and it’s a little more difficult for us to pick up every look,” said offensive tackle Bryan Bulaga. “Now, can we? Yeah, we can and we should. We need to be better, I’m not saying that. But being in that third-and-five and less is more ideal, so it’s something we’re working on. I thought we made another good step last week and you know, just trying to improve upon it this week.”

For a third straight week, the Packers’ offense will go up against a strong defense.

The Broncos don’t have the amount of defensive playmakers that the Bears or Vikings do, but they do have the pass-rushing duo of Von Miller and Bradley Chubb.

Somehow, Denver has yet to register a sack this season, and if the Packers hope to improve to 3-0 on Sunday, keeping the sacks to a minimum will put the team in a good position to do just that.

Expect the Packers to use the quick passing game and a heavy dose of running to limit the Broncos pass rush. Another fast start on offense would be ideal so that Denver wouldn’t be afforded the opportunity to pin their ears back and get after Rodgers.

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