Run the Table 2.0?: One Part Hope, One Part Nonsense

In 2016, the Packers found inspiration from Aaron Rodgers’ “run the table” and finished the regular season with six consecutive wins. Here’s why that seems farfetched this year.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Nov 3, 2022 11:56 AM EDT

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Nov. 20, 2016, the Green Bay Packers were soundly beaten at Washington. The 42-24 primetime loss was their fourth in a row and sent them two games under .500.

“I feel like we can run the table, I really do,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said at his locker the following Wednesday.

On Oct. 30, 2022, the Packers were soundly beaten at Buffalo. The 27-17 primetime loss was their fourth in a row and sent them to two games under .500.

There are easy comparisons to be made between 2016 and 2022. The quarterback, obviously, is the same. The length of the losing streak is the same. The records – 4-6 in 2016 and 3-5 in 2022 – are similar.

But there’s one gigantic, unavoidable, inescapable difference.

The receivers.

In 2016, Jordy Nelson caught 97 passes for 1,257 yards and 14 touchdowns, Davante Adams caught 75 passes for 997 yards and 12 touchdowns and Randall Cobb caught 60 passes for 610 yards and four touchdowns. Those three players alone combined for 232 receptions for 2,864 yards and 30 touchdowns over the course of the 16-game season.

Through the first eight games of this season, every receiver on the roster has combined for 98 receptions for 1,215 yards and eight touchdowns. That’s a pace of 208 receptions for 2,581 yards and 19 touchdowns over 17 games.

Put another way, Green Bay’s Big Three averaged 179.0 yards and 1.8 touchdowns. This year’s entire receiver corps is averaging 151.9 yards and 1.0 touchdowns.

Cobb was mostly a nonfactor during “run the table.” No problem. During that finishing six-game stretch, either Nelson or Adams topped 100 yards in every game and the duo combined for 66 receptions for 928 yards and 11 touchdowns.

With an established star and a budding star on the receiving end, an in-his-prime Rodgers was otherworldly. During “run the table,” he completed 71.0 percent of his passes with 15 touchdowns vs. zero interceptions, 8.34 yards per attempt and a 121.0 passer rating. Compare that to his 66.4 percent, 13 touchdowns vs. four interceptions, 6.57 yards per attempt and 94.5 rating this year.

Can Rodgers turn back the clock and play to that level again? At his age and with his receiver corps? Yes, he said.

“You have to trust, even if you can’t see a specific thing clearly that gives you that confidence to say that,” Rodgers said on Wednesday of the impetus behind his “run the table” proclamation. “Now, the confidence for me comes from within that I feel like that anytime I can go on a run and have gone on runs of playing at a near-perfection level. I know when I’m playing well, I can raise the level of my teammates in the locker room. I’m going to expect to reach that level.

“Obviously, we’ve got to do some things up front and protect and be able to push the ball down the field. But it wasn’t one specific thing that I saw. It was more just a feeling that we needed a little bit of a jolt and maybe take some pressure off the rest of the guys, put it on me to play at a really elite level, and that we would all follow and start to believe. You felt it. The guys started talking about how many we had in the bag and how many we had left to go, and it just kind of became contagious.”

If there were any bold, inspirational phrases from Rodgers this week, they were spoken behind the closed doors of the locker room and not to the media. Maybe, at this point, Rodgers doesn’t have that belief, that trust.

That’s not to say he doesn’t think this team can’t turn it around. But it’s got to get healthy. That starts on the offensive line and the ability to practice their starting five all week, play them on Sunday, and then do it again the following week. The new No. 1 line still hasn’t played in a game. By contrast, in 2016, four of the five linemen started all six games and the preferred starting five was together for the final four games.

At receiver, of course the Packers don’t have anyone like Nelson and Adams. Their best receiver, Allen Lazard, has missed two games and their potentially best receiver, rookie Christian Watson, can’t stay on the field.

“We need our full roster out there,” Rodgers said.

This year’s team does have one big advantage. With Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, the Packers have a top-tier tandem. On Sunday night, they ran roughshod over a Bills defense that had been No. 1 in rushing yards allowed per game and per carry. When the Packers closed out “run the table” at Detroit, their leading rusher was fullback Aaron Ripkowski.

If the line gets healthy and stays healthy, if someone from the rookie pack of Watson, Romeo Doubs and Samori Doubs emerges as a legitimate weapon and if the defense can close the gap between performance and potential, there’s a chance for the Packers to get going. Winning eight in a row (including playoffs), like the 2016 team did, seems impossible. But you can’t start a winning streak without a win. That’s the starting point this week at Detroit.

“It just takes one game, one quarter, one play that can alter the trajectory of a team, both positively and negatively,” Rodgers said, “and hopefully we make that play, that quarter, that half, whatever it’s going to be this week to put us in the right direction.”