Skewing Run, Green Bay Topples Minnesota

 By Eric Goska

Aaron Jones, shown here in training camp,
rushed for 120 yards against the Vikings.
(photos by Eric Goska)

Win and they are in.

The Packers, left for dead at 2-5 as November opened, need only defeat the Bears in the regular-season finale to make the playoffs. Green Bay’s 33-10 drubbing of the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium was the team’s sixth win in its last nine games, a run that has placed the club on the doorstep of the postseason.

The Packers amassed a season-high 470 yards of offense in dispatching Minnesota. Jordan Love compiled the second-highest passer rating of his career (125.3), Aaron Jones posted his second all-positive 100-yard rushing performance and Bo Melton registered Green Bay’s first individual 100-yard receiving day of 2023.

In the end, the Packers reeled off more running plays (39) than passing plays (34) for a second week in a row. That type of imbalance has been a harbinger of victory for more than 35 years.  

In compiling his ninth passer rating of 100 or more this season, Love confirmed again that he belongs under center. The first-year starter completed 24 of 33 passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns. He excelled on second down (8 of 10 for 134 yards and two scores) where he earned a rating of 158.3.

Love clocked in at 125.5 in a 29-22 win at Detroit.

Jones paced all runners with 120 yards on 20 carries. He gained positive yardage on every carry and did not fumble, the definition of an all-positive 100-yard effort. He accounted for six of the team’s nine rushing first downs and four of its six runs of 10 or more yards.

Only 12 individuals have authored AP 100s for Green Bay over the years. Ahman Green (3) and Jones (2) are the only players with more than one.

Bo Melton

Melton, a first-year player who was on Seattle’s practice squad last season, caught six passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. Each of his catches brought a first down.

Melton’s total could have been higher had he not dropped a fourth-down throw early in the second quarter.

Back in the day, Green Bay ran more often than it passed almost weekly. Vince Lombardi’s charges did so in 96 of 122 regular-season games (78.7 percent). Dan Devine skewed toward the run in 49 of 56 contests (87.5 percent).

Pounding the ball to that extent has lessened considerably over the years. Sunday was only the 14th time in 82 regular-season games that Matt LeFleur’s club wound up running more often than it passed.

LaFleur is 14-0 in those games.

Since 1988, the Packers are 99-2 in regular-season games in which they run more often than they throw. They have won 23 straight, their last loss coming at the hands of the Bears on Nov. 4, 2013 (29 runs-26 passes) when Seneca Wallace filled in for an injured Aaron Rodgers in a 27-20 loss.

So why wouldn’t a coach set out to pound the ball and limit his air attack? Primarily because coming away with more runs than passes is a byproduct of winning, not the cause for it.

Case in point: Sunday in Minnesota. Not until Love’s 2-yard TD late in the second quarter did Green Bay’s run count (18) surpass its pass count (17). That tally swung back in the other direction with Love’s first incompletion of the second half and it remained there (or tied) until Patrick Taylor’s second carry of the Packers’ final, clock-draining drive.

Sean Clifford

Backup Sean Clifford helmed that advance which consisted of seven runs and one pass. Clifford kneeled twice to end the game.

Green Bay has won 22 straight against the Vikings when it finishes with more runs than passes. Its last loss occurred on Sept. 23, 1979 (37 runs-15 passes) where Ahmad Rashad's 50-yard TD reception in overtime doomed them 27-21.