Wicked Weather Shows Why Packers Must Fix Major Weakness

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Would the Green Bay Packers be better served handing the keys of the offensive car to Jordan Love? Maybe.

But the reason why coach Matt LaFleur can’t give up on the running game is days like Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J., against the New York Giants.

According to AccuWeather, Sunday’s forecast calls for a kickoff temperature of 53 degrees with a west-northwest wind of 21 mph with gusts roaring to 43 mph. Gusts will approach 40 mph throughout the game.

Good luck to Jordan Love, no matter how strong his arm, throwing the ball in that weather.

The early forecast for next week’s home game against the Minnesota Vikings is relatively tame, with a high of 48 and west-southwest winds of about 10 mph. But that’s the early forecast, and if there’s one thing that’s for certain when it comes to the weather in November, it’s wait a minute and it will change.

The running game was a strength of the Packers last season. Not this season. Of 46 qualifying players, Josh Jacobs ranks 37th with 3.75 yards per carry. As a team, Green Bay is 25th with 3.95 yards per carry. Last year, Green Bay was sixth with 4.75 yards per carry. That’s 0.80 yards per carry, despite what general manager Brian Gutekunst thought would be a new-and-improved offensive line.

“I like how Josh is running the ball, especially as of late,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said this week. “I think he’s done a really nice job of breaking tackles and just running hard. You watch him down in the red zone and he does an excellent job just willing his way into the end zone, fighting through defenders. You can just see the desire that he has to score, which is really cool.”

While the Packers are a solid 10th with 18 negative-yardage runs, they are tied for 22nd with 24 runs of 10-plus yards and 31st with just one run of 20-plus yards

Jacobs has been good. Of his 3.75-yard average, 2.99 has come after contact. That means he’s getting about three-quarters of a yard because of his line and everything else on his own.

Left guard Aaron Banks, the team’s big free-agent signing, has been in and out of the lineup due to injuries. Center Elgton Jenkins, who shifted from left guard after the Banks signing, suffered a season-ending injury last week. Jordan Morgan might become a good starting left tackle but he’s struggled at right guard.

The Packers are going to need better performances from their blockers, including new starting center Sean Rhyan, and their tight ends following Tucker Kraft’s knee injury.

“I think up front, we can always be better with our pad level and our base and just the fundamentals with that, and we just got to keep hammering that away,” Stenavich continued.

New Giants starting quarterback Jameis Winston is “going to let it rip,” coach Matt LaFleur said this week.
But to whom?

Here are three reasons why the #Packers will win today. ⬇️https://t.co/kXQBJNwmCi
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 16, 2025

“I think wide receivers and tight ends, that’s very underrated. Those guys are huge in creating explosive runs, so we just got to make sure everyone’s tight in our blocking assignments and our effort. And there’s been some really good examples of that. But I think just being consistent with that stuff as we move forward is really going to be important.”

Jacobs hasn’t had a 100-yard game this season. He’s had only two games of better than 4.2 yards per carry.

“It’s definitely hard. It’s hard for me, man, just in general,” Jacobs said. “We mess up plays at practice, I kind of get a little frustrated, honestly — especially when I do it, you know? But I think it’s one of those things where, obviously, you can’t be perfect in this game, but it definitely should look a certain type of way.

“And that’s the thing that I’ll be trying to preach to the guys. I’m like, ‘Man, we’re not going to be perfect, but at least have the effort, and at least have the strain, and then the intentionality that it looks a certain type of way.’ I think that that’s bigger than the mistake, honestly.”

Maybe this will be the turning point. The Giants are 31st against the run and 32nd in yards allowed per carry. They’ve given up more than 140 rushing yards in every game of their four-game losing streak.

“It’s really about us,” Jacobs said.

On the other side of the ball, the Giants will have an equally difficult time throwing the ball. Powerful rookie Cam Skattebo is the perfect back for a day like Sunday but he’s on injured reserve. In fact, the team’s two rushing leaders, Skattebo and quarterback Jaxson Dart, are out. Of the remaining backs, Tyrone Tracy has 248 rushing yards and a 3.9-yard average and Devin Singletary has 147 yards and a 3.3 average.

The Packers held Saquon Barkley to less than 3.0 yards per carry last week.

“I think it came back to the detail and the strain and the fundamentals and technique,” Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said. “I thought our staff had a really good plan and I give them a lot of credit. We put a lot of work into that. We knew how explosive and how talented that offense was and the amount of points that they’ve been able to score, and I just think we went out and executed the plan.

“I thought our line strained. Gosh, they did such a good job of staying square against those big offensive linemen, tearing off blocks (and) guys were in their right gaps. We had safeties running downhill. X (Xavier McKinney) and Evan (Williams) were as physical as they’ve been. We had corners on the edge tackling. I mean, it was inspiring football to watch how physical and violent we were.”

Now, they have to do it again, not just Sunday but for the rest of the season. It will be critical as the weather turns colder.

“That’s how we have to play the run and we’ve showed that earlier in the season. We kind of hit a little bumpy path (but) that’s our expectation and that’s our standard, because if we can do that against that offensive line and that running back, then our expectation is we should be able to do that every week.”

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