Packer Central

Expand His Role: Three Overreactions From Packers’ Win Over Vikings

The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-6 on Sunday. Here are our three big takeaways, including the rise of the role players.
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson catches a pass against the Vikings on Sunday.
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson catches a pass against the Vikings on Sunday. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-6 on Sunday. They did it in a way that’s mandatory for any Super Bowl contender.

Here are this week’s Overreactions.

1. Role Players to the Rescue

Every team that gets to the playoffs is going to have difference-making players. The Packers have those with Jordan Love, Josh Jacobs, Micah Parsons and others.

What championship-winning teams have are role players that rise to the occasion. That, perhaps more than anything, was the most noteworthy development from Sunday.

Emanuel Wilson was superb. Of his 107 rushing yards, 98 came after contact, by our count (it was 100, according to Next Gen Stats). Not that Josh Jacobs should have his role drastically reduced, but could it be a case that a little less Jacobs could mean even better Jacobs?

“It means a lot to me personally just because I went out there and performed when my number was called,” Wilson said of getting a game ball.

Defensively, rookie Warren Brinson has barely played (or not played) for most of the season. He led the team in pressures. Linebacker Isaiah McDuffie shared a sack with Brinson and had one of the team’s two interceptions. Cornerback Kamal Hadden hadn’t played a snap of regular-season defense in his career. Jordan Addison wasn’t even targeted with Hadden in coverage. Safety Zayne Anderson had the game-changing play on special teams.

Green Bay Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie set the tone wtih this physical tackle of Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson.
Green Bay Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie set the tone wtih this physical tackle of Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“For me, it’s doing my job, right?” Anderson said. “And for our team, it’s playing complimentary football. When we do that, we can beat anybody, when we play together, each phase of the ball. So, it’s just doing my job. I take pride on special teams. That’s what I do.”

On a day when Jacobs was inactive, Love threw for 139 yards and there wasn’t a single offensive play that gained 20 yards, the Packers handed the Vikings – who won at Detroit a few weeks ago, by the way – their second-worst loss of the season.

2. Unleash Christian Watson

When Tucker Kraft suffered his torn ACL, the strength of Green Bay’s passing attack was sidelined, as well.

Through the win at Pittsburgh, quarterback Jordan Love was the biggest beneficiary of yards after the catch per catch in the NFL. Against the Steelers, the Packers piled up an incredible 246 YAC. The following week, Kraft was injured against Carolina. The Packers had 104 YAC against the Panthers, 77 against the Eagles, 33 against the Giants and 63 against the Vikings. That’s 277 yards the last four games – not much more than against Pittsburgh.

There’s no replacing Kraft, obviously, especially with the remaining tight ends. There are two players who could help, though.

One is receiver Jayden Reed, who was designated for return from injured reserve last week. It might be too much to ask for him to play against the Lions on Thursday – the Packers won’t practice this week – but he should be back for the final five games. He ranked sixth in the NFL in YAC per catch last season.

Christian Watson could help, too.

In the 2022 game at Philadelphia, with Jordan Love playing for injured Aaron Rodgers, Watson scored a 63-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. There wasn’t anything special about the play – other than Watson’s breathtaking speed. Watson ran a simple in-breaking route, caught the ball in stride and outran two Eagles defensive backs to the end zone.

The touchdown included 53 yards after the catch. Since his return from a torn ACL, Watson has caught 17 passes in five games and gained 32 yards after the catch. That includes five catches for 49 yards but just 6 YAC against the Vikings on Sunday.

Of 97 receivers to be targeted 24 times (Watson’s number) this year, Watson is 87th with 1.9 YAC per catch. In 2022, of 97 receivers to be targeted 40 times, Watson was fourth with 6.4 YAC per catch.

Watson hasn’t gotten worse. He hasn’t gotten slower. It’s not like he’s incapable of doing those things. With Watson five games into his comeback, it’s time to diversify his route tree and give him some chances on the move to catch a pass and turn on the jets.

It won’t be easy against the Lions. While Detroit gave up 142 YAC in its overtime win against the Giants on Sunday, it yielded 41 against the Eagles in Week 11, 42 against the Commanders in Week 10, 36 against the Vikings in Week 9 in the three games since the bye. In fact, the Lions have given up a league-low 796 YAC, according to Pro Football Reference.

3. The More Things Change …

General manager Brian Gutekunst drafted three linemen last year, including Jordan Morgan in the first round. This year, he signed guard Aaron Banks to a colossal contract in free agency, drafted two more linemen and traded for Darian Kinnard.

Despite the considerable investment with seven new faces, Green Bay’s offensive line is not good enough. It’s not even close to being good enough.

This is the time of year when offenses need to be rounding into form to make a playoff push. Instead, the Packers continue to play musical chairs in hopes of stumbling upon a winning combination when the music stops.

Morgan had played every snap the last three games. On Sunday, he rotated with Belton at right guard for the first half and didn’t play in the second half. It’s quite a feat for a first-round pick to be benched, but Morgan is so out of place at right guard that coach Matt LaFleur, in a hugely important divisional game, decided to give Belton his first career snaps at a new position.

It was a mixed bag for the line. Emanuel Wilson ran for 107 yards, but the Vikings had four tackles for losses on running plays and Jordan Love was pressured on almost half his dropbacks.

A few plays stood out.

On third-and-1 from Green Bay’s 39 midway through the third quarter, Wilson didn’t have a prayer when he was tackled in the backfield by Eric Wilson for minus-2.

“We had a pass play canned to the run and we don’t block Eric Wilson and he just runs through and stuffs our back in the hole,” LaFleur said. “He should be accounted for. We don’t target him and, unfortunately, that was the result.”

Early in the fourth quarter, on third-and-3 from Minnesota’s 12, Belton missed his block and Wilson was devoured in the backfield, so the Packers had to settle for a field goal to lead 20-6.

Later in the fourth quarter, the Packers were in position to deliver the knockout following Christian Watson’s 11-yard catch at the sideline on second-and-14. On third-and-3 from Minnesota’s 22, LaFleur treated it as four-down territory. Instead, tight end John FitzPatrick whiffed on Andrew Van Ginkel and Wilson was stuffed, though the field goal put the game out of reach.

“We weren’t sure about the catch on the sideline, whether or not we caught the ball or not, so we jumped the ball,” LaFleur said. “Unfortunately, we missed a block right at the point of attack that should have been accounted for. That was the thing that disappointed me the most in some of those critical situations.”

Heck, even on Wilson’s touchdown run, nobody blocked Blake Cashman. Only Wilson’s determination got him into the end zone.

With six games to go in the regular season, the interior offensive line could be the team’s kryptonite. Going into another huge divisional game on Thanksgiving at Detroit, Banks has at least been OK, especially as he’s gotten healthier, but Sean Rhyan will be making his third career start at center and Belton probably will be making his first career start at right guard.

Cranking up the challenge will be the power and physicality of Detroit’s front and the deafening environment at Ford Field.

Can the Packers really challenge for a Super Bowl? If that group rises to the occasion against the Lions and shows it can consistently open holes and give quarterback Jordan Love some time, then the answer is an overwhelming yes. What was encouraging is, other than the one third-and-1 in which Wilson was stuffed, the Packers were 4-of-5 in that situation.

Through 11 games, though, there’s little reason to believe the line is capable of playing 60 or 70 consistent snaps. If the running backs keep getting hit in the backfield and Love has to continue running for his life because of blown blocks or missed assignments, the Packers probably aren’t viable contenders and a change in leadership on the offensive line will be a necessity for next season.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.