4 Green Bay Packers stars fans gave up on way too soon
By Josh Wilson
Aaron Jones
"Aaron Jones is washed is my big takeaway" -- Nov. 13
Fans were ready to give up on Aaron Jones this season. Looking at his stats, that was a not-so-terrible take at one point. Jones, 29, has already outlived the standard lifecycle of an NFL running back, and this season scored just two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown.
Jones had a slogging majority of the season, to be fair to critical Packers fans that gave up on Jones. He averaged just 3.77 yards per attempt through the team's first 14 games. His final three of the regular season, he averaged 5.68, far more in-line with his 5.0 career average.
Then, of course, Sunday in the Wild Card round, he exploded for three touchdowns and 118 yards on 21 carries (that's 5.6 yards per carry, by the way). Dallas has struggled against the run at times this year, giving up 179 yards on 25 carries to James Cook against the Bills, so there was a world in which this looked like it could happen if Green Bay fed him the ball. But that doesn't detract from the success Jones achieved against Dallas in the most important moment of the year for Green Bay.