If you missed the Green Bay Packers’ Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings…congrats, actually. The offensive line was very bad.
Obviously, a lot of today’s press conference with head coach Matt LaFleur centered around questions about the offensive line, which he mostly chalked up to mental mistakes leading to pass protection busts. When he was asked whether teams would try to replicate the Vikings’ blitz-happy blueprint against Green Bay, he said, “I think there’s things that we definitely have to get
cleaned up that we’ll see this week.”
While the New York Jets don’t lean into the blitz as much as Brian Flores’ Vikings (no one does), they are one of the highest blitz-rate teams in the league. This week will give the Packers an opportunity to prove that they’ve learned from Week 1 and improved. If they fail that opportunity, LaFleur might need to call in the National Guard.
When asked if the team could go another direction at guard, with both Donovan Jennings and Jacob Monk struggling mightily, if Aaron Banks (knee tendinitis) can’t return to the lineup, LaFleur said that the team could “potentially” look at other options at the position. For whatever it’s worth, the other active linemen available to the Packers on their gameday roster yesterday were Anthony Belton, Jager Burton and John Williams.
LaFleur stated that no major injuries came out of Week 1’s action, and confirmed that cornerback Brandon Cisse left the game due to cramps. Cisse’s replacement, Carrington Valentine, was picked on at the end of the game for multiple scores by the Vikings, as they ended the game on a 29-point run.
