3 flaws Packers must fix by NFL playoffs
By John Buhler
The Green Bay Packers are good team, but not yet a great team this football season.
2020 could be the year the Green Bay Packers finally get back to the Super Bowl out of the NFC.
Green Bay is the runaway favorite to win the NFC North for a second year in a row. While they are back of the New Orleans Saints in the NFC standings, keep in mind that the Packers hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over them. They can represent the NFC in Super Bowl 55, but have some work to do in December. Here are the three flaws the Packers have to fix before the NFL playoffs.
3. Having the ground game heating up as the weather gets worse
Until Aaron Jones arrived a few years ago, the Packers were incredibly one-dimensional on offense. Yes, a guy would occasionally have a good year or two out of the backfield, but prior to Jones, Ahman Green was the last Green Bay running back the team could consistently rely on. It can be a group effort in the postseason, but the offense must be balanced to advance this year.
Green Bay will host a home playoff game this season, probably two. While fans will not be in the stands at Lambeau Field, this is still the Frozen Tundra. Unless the NFC runs through New Orleans, whoever is going to represent the NFC in Super Bowl 55 will have to play the Packers in their place, either on Wild Card weekend or in the divisional round. It will not be easy for the opposition.
What is important here is for the Packers to be a considerably tougher team than the were a season ago. An improved passing game with a healthy Aaron Rodgers went a long way towards Green Bay going 13-3 during Matt LaFleur’s first season as head coach. However, when they went against a tough opponent who was as good as them in the San Francisco 49ers, they had issues.
Though the Packers have a top-10 rushing offense through the first three quarters of the 2020 campaign, this needs to translate into playing punishing football in January. Green Bay is talented enough to beat whoever it faces in the Wild Card round or the divisional round if its does get the No. 1 seed. However, another postseason of finesse football is not going to cut it in the slightest.