Why Is Packers’ Powerful Run Game Stuck in Neutral Before Facing Cowboys?

The Green Bay Packers had one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL last season. Through three games, however, Josh Jacobs is going nowhere fast.

Cleveland Browns safety Grant Delpit (9) tackles Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) during the second quarter. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – It’s been said that carrying the ball as an NFL running back is the equivalent of getting in a car crash.

For Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs, those accidents have mostly taken place in the parking lot.

After a Pro Bowl season in his debut year with the Packers, Jacobs has been going nowhere fast through three games this season. Entering Sunday night’s game at the Dallas Cowboys, Jacobs is tied for second in the NFL with 58 carries but is tied for 15th with 180 rushing yards and ranks 42nd out of 49 qualifying players with 3.10 yards per carry.

It’s not Jacobs’ fault. Of his rushing total, 91.7 percent of the yards have come after contact, according to Pro Football Focus. That’s the highest percentage of the 20 running backs who’ve rushed for more than 155 yards.

Too often, Jacobs has had a defender in his face before he’s got a chance to get up to speed or build momentum. According to Next Gen Stats, he's averaging just 8.14 mph when reaching the line of scrimmage, second-slowest in the league.

“I always know, I said this coming into the season, when it comes to running the ball and things like that, it always takes like three to four weeks before you really just kind of figure it out as a unit,” Jacobs said this week.

Why? Because there’s no way to simulate truly running the football without full-speed reps between offensive linemen and defensive linemen and full-speed collisions between running backs and defenders.

“We don’t get so many areas [in training camp] where we’re getting tackled and getting hit and actually go 100 on 100,” Jacobs said. “Even when we do good on good, you still kind of taper yourself back a little bit because it’s a teammate.

“To be able to really feel that special for me, feel like getting hit by six or seven people at a time and have to lower my pads and still drive and things like that, or run through contact or things like that, it’s something you’ve got to build up the first two weeks.”

Jacobs is the engine that drives the offense. Until he gets going, the offense is going to be stuck in second gear.

That was evident against the Browns, when Green Bay couldn’t run the football and then couldn’t protect Jordan Love on second- and third-and-long.

“What it really comes down to is we have to play fast on our side of the football,” tight end Tucker Kraft said. “We have to show our brand. We have to get 8 going. That’s going to be another critical emphasis this week is to get Josh going.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) hands the ball to Josh Jacobs at the Browns on Sunday. / Scott Galvin-Imagn Images

“Josh will never say (it). I’ll say to him, ‘Man, we’ve got to get you going,’ and he’ll be like, ‘The plays will come to me.’ That’s what he says. ‘Those plays will come to me.’ If we continue to use Jordan’s arm and get the ball down the field with his arm and the wideouts, then that’s what we’re going to have to do. I’ll take my role in pass protection. That’s why he’s such a good leader. Regardless of the circumstances, as long as we’re winning the game, that’s all he cares about.”

It will be easier this week against the Cowboys, though not necessarily easy. Cleveland leads the NFL with 2.29 yards allowed per carry. Sunday’s game against Jacobs marked the third consecutive week in which the Browns’ defense allowed negative yards before contact to the No. 1 running back.

Dallas, with former Packers defensive tackle anchoring the run defense, is ninth with 3.74 yards allowed per carry.

Stopping Jacobs is the focal point for opposing defensive coordinators. Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said as much last week, with the goal to stop Jacobs to eliminate Green Bay’s play-action passing game.

The goal of stopping Jacobs isn’t unique, though. This season, 33 running backs have had 25-plus carries. According to Next Gen Stats, Jacobs has run into a stacked box – defined as eight-plus defenders – on 27.6 percent of his carries. That’s the 11th-highest rate, so it’s not as if he’s been facing a unique challenge.

“At the end of the day, it don’t matter if a team’s going to load the box or not. We still got to find a way to win,” Jacobs said. “It’s like fourth-and-1, we go for it and they know it’s a running play, we still got to get the run, we still got to get the first.

“It’s something that we’ve just got to lock in on our details and you know really focus on moving forward, whether it’s me knowing a safety’s going to be in the box and knowing I’m going to have to give him something or whatever, or a person hanging on to their blocks longer or whatever, whatever the case may be, we’ve just got to lock in as a unit.”

The obvious counter to facing a loaded box is to throw the ball all over the yard, though the injuries on Green Bay’s offensive line could make that easier said than done. Ultimately, the run game has to execute better even if the defense has more players than there are blockers.

“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” coach Matt LaFleur said before Friday’s practice. “Maximizing your opportunities, we just went through our run meeting and looking at some of these opps that we’ve had this year that we haven’t capitalized on, whether it’s poor aiming points, whether it’s not sustaining blocks, that we’ve got to get corrected.”

Adding to the challenge has been Green Bay’s revolving-door offensive line, with eight linemen playing at least 30 snaps this season and four players playing right tackle last week alone.

Still, Jacobs sees progress. He believes a rushing attack that ranked fifth in yards and sixth in average last season, will find its groove sooner than later.

“If you ask Josh, he’s always going to say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to do this better or that better,’” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “I think it’s everybody just going out there and executing.

“I see a lot of really good play style clips of how we’re doing things the right way, but again, it’s just being consistent, eliminating those pre-snap penalties to put yourselves in favorable positions and not being behind the sticks, things like that. Once we get over the hump with that stuff, then we’ll put ourselves in better position to make plays.”

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