Three Overreactions After Packers Beat Cowboys: House of Cards

A win is a win. The Green Bay Packers earned a big one against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. It was a surprisingly easy victory considering the number of self-inflicted wounds that prevented the Packers from winning by30.

Here are this week’s Overreactions

1. The Packers’ Impossibly Bad Running Game

If ever there were a chance for Green Bay’s slumbering running game to at least crack open its eyes, yawn, stretch and shift possessions, it was this game.

On offense, the Packers entered the game ranked last in the NFL with 60.4 rushing yards per game – almost 20 yards worse than any other team – and next-to-last with 3.05 yards per carry. On defense, the Cowboys entered the game ranked last with 168.4 rushing yards allowed per game and 29th with 5.10 yards allowed per carry.

Instead, the Cowboys looked like the Tom Landra-era Doomsday Defense and the Packers looked, well, exactly like they have all season.

The Packers ran the ball 26 times for 57 yards. Even with Jordan Love’s 13-yard run putting some cologne on a swine, they averaged 2.2 yards per carry. The 20 handoffs to running backs generated 36 yards, or 1.8 yards per carry.

The offensive line didn’t provide many openings. When there was a crack of daylight, the backs acted as if they were blindfolded in a cave trying to find a lost black sock.

The Packers’ run game almost impossibly went from worst to more worst – the intentional butchering of the English language a perfect fit for the butchering of the building block of offensive football. Green Bay is down to 59.8 rushing yards per game (Dallas is next with 76.0) and 2.87 yards per carry (Las Vegas is next with 3.03).

The 2000 Chargers set the dubious NFL record with 66.4 rushing yards per game. Over the past 70 seasons, only the 1994 Patriots’ 2.79 average was worse.

The Packers have 359 rushing yards in six games. Thirteen individuals have more rushing yards.

“Certainly, there’s some stuff that we can clean up where we’re maybe not winning a block or whatever it is, or we miss a cut,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “But we got to keep hammering it because it is critical in today’s football to be able to run the football at a decent level.”

A “decent level.” What a damning statement. Not a top-10 level. Not a winning level. The Packers, who are so far down the rankings that they have to reach up to touch bottom, would settle for decent.

A decent running game would open a world of possibilities. Against Chicago last week, Love in the play-action game was 12-of-14 passing for 245 yards and one touchdown. Against Dallas, those play-action fakes elicited giggles, with Love going 1-of-6 for 7 yards and getting pressured four times.

Maybe the vision and power of Josh Jacobs will be the salvation. If nothing else, he’ll fight for a gain of 3 yards rather than running sideways for a loss of 3.