Did Green Bay really find its mojo - in other words, its offense - in the Wild Card playoff victory at Washington last week?
There certainly were green and gold smiles all around in the final three quarters of that game.
The Packers rushed for 124 second half yards. Eddie Lacy and James Starks punctuated that performance with rushing touchdowns.
Starks capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive (56 of those yards on the ground) with a four-yard run. Lacy’s score came at the end of a 10-play, 76-yard march with 47 of those yards coming on the ground.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers struggled early, completing only one of eight passing for 11 yards in the first quarter, but his 34 yard pass play to James Jones early in the second quarter put the Packers in enemy territory for the first time.
That play seemed to open the flood gates for an offense that had been stagnant for too long!
After a slow start, three punts and a safety on its first four possessions, Green Bay scored on five straight drives - four touchdowns and a field goal - to blow the game open.
That’s what has everyone in the locker room excited!
The sustained offensive production, albeit against the 28th ranked defense in the league, was heartening to see. It didn’t matter who they were playing in the last ten weeks of the regular season; offense has been hard to come by for these Packers.
This has been such a strange season in Green Bay. The Packers’ defense rank higher (15th yardage, 12th in points allowed) than the once potent offense (23rd in yards, 15th in points).
In Landover, MD, the two units finally came together.
The defense did its thing, limiting the red hot Redskins offense (especially early) to just 16 points (safety not on the defense) while sacking quarterback Kirk Cousins six times (“We like that!”), while the offense put 35 points and 346 yards on the board in a convincing playoff win.
As we say in horse racing, the Packers are stepping up in class this week as they head back to the desert to take on the Arizona Cardinals.
There is something to be said about taking momentum and renewed confidence garnered on a Wild Card weekend into the Divisional Playoffs the next week, but will it say enough to bridge the 30 point gap between these two teams we saw just three weeks ago?
It’s the playoffs, and anything can happen in the playoffs!
