By Eric Goska
Since the days of the Great Depression, the Packers have always come up short when their opponent finds it completely unnecessary to throw the ball in the fourth quarter.
In the final 15 minutes of
their game with Green Bay Sunday, the Jets remained solely on the ground.
Any guess as to which team emerged
victorious?
Starting quarterback Zach
Wilson rested his throwing arm in the final period as his Jets trampled the
Packers 27-10 at Lambeau Field. Wilson did not attempt a single pass in the
final period as New York hammered away to end Green Bay’s 15-game
regular-season winning streak at home.
New York’s Breece Hall and
Michael Carter teamed up for 93 yards on 11 carries in the fourth quarter. Hall
ripped off three gains of more than seven yards (34, 12, 12) while Carter had
two (25, 8).
Tight end Tyler Conklin
chipped in a yard and Wilson carried four times, the last three on kneel-downs
to end the game.
New York chalked up 91 yards
on 16 carries in the final period. It gained more ground there than it did in its
first three quarters combined (88).
Much of what was gained came
on a 13-play, 58-yard advance capped by Greg Zeurlein’s 23-yard field goal. The
score put New York up 27-10 with two minutes, 34 seconds remaining.
After Carter zipped 25 yards
on that drive, Fox analyst Greg Olsen had this to say: “But there’s just no
ability by Green Bay to set an edge. You see everybody playing inside out.
Somebody’s got to set a hard edge there. Not just let them run around.”
Let them run around is what
Green Bay has done this season. It entered Week 6 having surrendered 249
fourth-quarter rushing yards. Only the Lions (257) had given up more.
Add New York’s 91 to that total
and the Packers have been gashed for 340 through six games. It’s their poorest
start since Bart Starr’s 1975 team gave up 356. The Green and Gold finished
4-10 that season.
Fourteen years have passed
since the Saints eschewed the pass in the fourth quarter against Green Bay. They
were the last team to do so, running 11 times for 48 yards in a 51-29 win in
the Superdome in 2008.
Dial back to 1931 and the
script does not change. Green Bay is 0-19 (at least) when its opponent stays
grounded in the final 15 minutes. That at-least qualifier is added because five games exist for which it cannot be determined if a pass was attempted.
Doesn’t really matter. The
Packers lost all five.
This inability to stop the
run should be setting off alarm bells within Green Bay’s brain trust. Any team
that cannot stop the run in the fourth quarter likely struggles to do so at
other times as well.
That’s the Green and Gold in
a nutshell. They’ve allowed 811 yards (4.9 average) through six games.
At that rate, the team will
surrender 2,298 yards by season’s end. That would be the most since the porous unit
of 1983 gave up 2,641.
The seven (known) regular-season games in which Green Bay’s opponent amassed more than 40 yards rushing in the fourth quarter while not attempting a single pass play (a sack counts as a pass play) in that period. Totals prior to 1988 are unofficial.
would love to see film of the Oct. 13, 1935 game....what thrills the crowd must have experienced watching the Cardinals grind out 21 carries as they milked the clock in a 0-3 shootout.....weather?
ReplyDelete