The Green Bay Packers rushed for only 66 yards in their Thursday Night Football victory over the Carolina Panthers. Josh Jacobs, in his second game back from the Commissioner’s exempt list, rushed 21 times for 39 yards and a touchdown. That’s a 1.9-yard-per-carry average, not exactly what Packers fans were hoping for with his return. Over the season, his ypc is a bit better, though it is still only 2.3.
Jacobs isn’t the only Packers running back struggling. MarShawn Lloyd has carried the ball 57 times for 149 yards and 2 scores, for a 2.6-yard-per-carry average. Pierre Strong Jr. has rushed 17 times for 37 yards, for 2.2 ypc. Green Bay ranks dead last in rushing with only 485 yards on the season. Compare that to the Chicago Bears, who have 1,080 yards on the season, or the Falcons’ Bijan Robinson, who has 704 yards on his own.
They are the first team in NFL history to have a running record after eight games with fewer than 500 rushing yards. At this point, there’s simply nothing the Packers can do to turn this around in season. They’ll have to rely on their passing game if they hope to make the playoffs.
Head Coach Matt LaFleur didn’t mince words when asked about the running game after last night’s win.
“It was disappointing. I would say it’s disappointing. Obviously got the one first down, and then we tried to lean on the run game, and we went backwards,” LaFleur said. “That’s an area of emphasis that we have to improve upon because it puts a lot of pressure on our pass game to continue to find ways to move the ball down the field.”
“We have got to find something that we can hang our hat on in the run game,” LaFleur continued. “Unfortunately, we have not done that yet.”
Fortunately, they have Jordan Love under center. Despite the running game being entirely ineffective, Love has had a pretty decent season so far. He has a 61.5% completion percentage with 2,246 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions.
Christian Watson’s emergence as a true number one receiver has helped. Last night, Watson caught 8 passes for 113 yards; he had sustained a rib injury and was coughing up blood, which led to him being taken to the hospital. He returned to the stadium in an ambulance in a moment that will go down in Packers’ history.
This season, he has caught 42 passes for 708 yards and 6 touchdowns. He is currently second in receiving yards behind reigning offensive player of the year Jaxon Smith-Njigba. So for now, Green Bay will have to rely on Love and Watson as they work to take their running game from awful to at least mediocre.
