Packers Inexplicably Have Won Seven Straight Without Adams
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Davante Adams’ historic dominance helped the Green Bay Packers win a lot of games.
Oddly enough, though, the Packers have consistently won without the All-Pro receiver. Now, with Adams traded to the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday night, they’ll have to win without Adams not just for a game or two or four but for 17-plus games.
During Matt LaFleur’s three seasons as coach, the Packers went 7-0 without Adams. Their last loss without him came against Detroit in 2018, when Joe Philbin was interim coach and Aaron Rodgers exited with a concussion on the opening series. Green Bay averaged 31.6 points in those seven games. Overall during that span, the Packers averaged 27.2 points.
How is that possible?
“That’s a great question,” LaFleur said before a 24-21 victory at Arizona in 2021 in which Adams and fellow receivers Allen Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling were out with COVID. “I think that’s a great testament to the other players we have on this football team, being able to go out and do their job at a high level and go out there and execute. Certainly, we’re going to miss ’17.’ He does a lot for this football team, brings a lot of leadership, obviously his playmaking ability, but those are the circumstances that are dealt and our guys understand that the standards and expectations don’t change.”
Without Adams and Co. vs. the Cardinals, Randall Cobb scored two touchdowns to extend the team’s no-‘17’ win streak to seven.
“I think that’s a testament to this team and this offense and the way that it goes,” Cobb said before that game. “He’s a huge piece of it, but we have to fill in. There’s other guys who have to step up and make plays in different situations. We have to be able to run the ball and establish that and put ourselves in situations to convert on third down and get in the red zone and score points.”
In those seven games, Rodgers threw 19 touchdowns vs. one interception. In 2019, he threw three touchdowns vs. zero interceptions in a win at Kansas City, which was without Patrick Mahomes but finished as the No. 1 seed with a 14-2 record. In 2020, he threw three touchdowns vs. zero interceptions in a win at New Orleans, which earned the No. 2 seed with a 12-4 record. And in 2021, he threw two touchdowns vs. zero interceptions in a win at Arizona, which was 7-0 at the time and finished as the No. 5 seed with an 11-6 record. He also threw for 429 yards, five touchdowns and a career-high 158.3 rating in a rout of the Raiders in 2019.
“We got some more one-on-ones and we won some of those matchups,” Rodgers said of the team’s inexplicable success. “We have guys who can win one on one matchups. If we have to go with some of the young guys, there won’t be any different expectations. Matt does a good job schematically with man coverage. That’s why you’ve seen this type of offense various places around the league. There’s less people playing man coverage against it because we can create matchup issues and release-pattern issues and some of those rub routes that make it a little harder to play man coverage.”
Of course, as the famous investment disclosure states, past performance is not indicative of future results. Scheming around Adams’ absence for a few games is one thing. Scheming around Adams’ permanent is quite another. Adams is a Hall of Fame-caliber receiver because of his talent, competitive fire and uncanny connection with Rodgers. No draft pick will have what Adams brings to the party.
However, it is worth noting the Packers are only 5-4 when Adams has 140-plus receiving yards. And when Rodgers ignored just about everyone else in the playoff game vs. San Francisco in January, the Packers lost 13-10.
