After beating the Bears at home to get their footing, the Packers went on the road to face the Buccaneers in blistering humid conditions.
Green Bay shook off a shuddering recent history with Tampa and came through with a hard-fought win.
The win also gave us answers to the 3 biggest questions we had heading into the game:
- Who will play? David Bakhtiari played… at least a little. His difference was noticeable as the Packers ran his direction when he was in and ran the opposite direction when he was out. His appearance also seemed to give the team an adrenaline push early on. Kenny Clark played and was his usual self. Sammy Watkins and Christian Watson couldn’t make it, but it didn’t matter that much because the wide receiver position is so overvalued and they have plenty of talent to win with.
. - Can the Packers keep running? Yes! Even though no one in the contest had more than 3 yards per carry on either team, the Packers kept running. It wasn’t great for fantasy stats, but the Packers were able to control the clock, tempo, and momentum early by sticking with the run. This kept the defense out of the humidity early so they could save the game late. In the past, the Packers would have reverted to shucking the ball around, but in this game, they stayed true to the plan, running the ball (even without much success against a stacked Tampa front) and hitting the short passing game.
. - Can Joe Barry defer to the clear and obvious solution? Another big Yes! In Week 1, the Packers defense left huge gaps in their spacing and Justin Jefferson went wild. This week, the Packers played much tighter and showed aggressive formations that we usually don’t see much. The results were fantastic, even without Jaire Alexander. Well done, Joe Barry – I think this will dictate how they do things going forward this season.
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