World’s Best Preview: Running into a monster

Can the Green Bay Packers' new-look running game have any success against the best run defense in the NFL from last season?

For weeks, the questions surrounded Aaron Rodgers and his lack of preseason playing time. This week, it’s been audibles.

On Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers’ running game will be front and center of their quest to post a defining victory over the powerful Chicago Bears in coach Matt LaFleur’s debut.

Since taking over as the Packers’ coach almost exactly eight months ago, it’s been LaFleur’s stated goal to establish the run and make life easier for Rodgers. Doing so against the Bears will be a daunting challenge, though. Last season, Chicago led the NFL with 80.0 rushing yards allowed per game and was fourth with 3.78 yards allowed per carry. While there’s a change at defensive coordinator, with Chuck Pagano replacing new Denver coach Vic Fangio, there’s little reason to expect a drop-off. While safety Adrian Amos signed with Green Bay, the rest of the Bears’ prized defenders are back, with Akiem Hicks and Eddie Goldman up front, Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd on the edge and Roquan Smith and Danny Trevathan at inside linebacker.

“They have great personnel, great players, a lot of depth, big names and guys without a big name who are really good players,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, it starts up front being able to protect and try and control the line of scrimmage and slow those guys down. Obviously, they added a great young linebacker to the mix last year in Smith, they’ve got a couple of Alabama boys in the back end with Eddie (Jackson) and now Ha Ha (Clinton-Dix), and very solid, solid corners who are veteran players now and we’ve played against them for a number of years now. It’s a great defense. There’s not any holes in it and, I think whether it’s Vic calling it or Coach Pagano, there’s a lot of things you can do with that personnel.”

The Packers staggered to a 6-9-1 finish last season behind the most pass-happy attack in the NFL. LaFleur is seeking a more balanced approach, with a running game to not only move the football but to set up a play-action passing game that was largely irrelevant and impotent last season, with Rodgers ranking 30th in play-action completion percentage and yards per attempt.

LaFleur’s outside-zone running game has flourished around the league and seems perfectly suited to running back Aaron Jones’ explosive, one-cut style. The Bears, however, ate that scheme for breakfast, lunch and dinner in December games against the Rams and 49ers. The game against Los Angeles was particularly striking. The Rams, powered by stud running back Todd Gurley, finished third in the league last season in rushing yards and yards per carry. The Bears held the Rams to just 52 rushing yards, with Gurley contributing 28 yards on 11 attempts. With no running game to speak of, the Bears intercepted quarterback Jared Goff four times en route to a stifling 15-6 victory. Goff averaged 10.0 yards per play-action attempt last season but just 4.6 vs. Chicago, according to Pro Football Focus.

That’s the power of the Chicago defense.

The Rams boasted arguably the best offensive line in football last season, and they were nearing the end of their second full season in Sean McVay’s scheme. That was a polished offensive juggernaut. But it didn’t matter, not against the new Monsters of the Midway. The Packers boast a strong offensive line, as well, but this will be its first real game operating LaFleur’s scheme. Will they be more successful?

“I feel good about where we’re at,” said right tackle Bryan Bulaga, who figures to get a heaping helping of Mack. “It’s a new scheme and, obviously, once we get into it and there’s live bullets flying on Thursday, we’ll get a real good picture because it’s against a really good defense. I feel like, overall, we feel good about the run game. The way we’re running it and how we’re executing it and the communication with the line, I feel like everyone’s on the same page. The backs are doing a great job with their courses and how they’re pressing it and setting up our blocks. I feel like this could be a really good year running the football for us. We’re all excited about. We were excited about it when they installed it Day 1. We’re looking forward to getting out there and doing it against the top one or two defenses in the league.”

The No. 1 offensive line played 15 snaps in the second preseason game but believes facing Green Bay’s defense on the practice field for 20 training camp practices should serve as a good proving ground.

“I feel good about it,” said right guard Billy Turner, who was signed in free agency to solidify a position that’s been searching for an answer since T.J. Lang left after the 2016 season. “We’ve run a lot of stuff against our defense. We’ve seen a lot of different looks, so there’s not a lot of stuff that we’ll see on Thursday night that we have not seen and we have not prepared for. As long as we come flying off the ball, I think we’ll be all right.”

The line doesn’t have much game experience running LaFleur’s scheme but it’s still infinitely more experience than the combined zero preseason snaps for Jones and sidekick Jamaal Williams. Jones led the NFL with 5.5 yards per carry last season. While Pagano will be focused on the two-time MVP quarterback named Aaron, the team’s other Aaron has caught his attention, too.

“He’s a really good runner,” Pagano told reporters in Chicago this week. “I think he averages a little over 5 yards a carry. So, he’s tough between the tackles. People set an edge, he can bounce outside. He can take it the distance. He’s explosive. He’s a three-down player. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. He can do everything. I’m sure they’ve got a plan to give him the appropriate amount of touches in this game.”