Good afternoon, everyone. We’re now into Week 5 of the 2023 NFL season. The Green Bay Packers are looking to get their third win of the season against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium (for the record: Las Vegas Raiders is still weird to me). Even though they are on the road, the Packers will see plenty of Green and Gold in the stands on Monday night. Here are my thoughts on what the Packers need to do to get to 3-2 on the season before their bye week.
On offense, the key for the Packers is to have a balanced attack. It all starts with getting the running game up and running from the first possession onwards (no pun intended). Aaron Jones should be good to go for a full game after being on a limited snap basis last week against Detroit. There is no excuse for the Packers to limit the amount of snaps that Aaron Jones has on Monday night. As long as the offensive linemen create the holes for him to run, Jones should have no issue getting plenty of yards on every rushing attempt. That offensive line will be without David Bakhtiari for the rest of the season as he will have a surgery that will keep him out until next season. I do hope that Elgton Jenkins is able to come back and help the O-Line take care of the Raiders defensive front. Whoever is there at the O-Line need to make the holes for Jones to run through and protect Jordan Love from being pressured and sacked. If Love is given time to throw, then he has plenty of targets to choose from, including Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave (who should be back from concussion protocol), and the running backs. The throws need to be accurate and the receivers need to run their routes well and catch each pass (other than throwaways). Most importantly, the Packers need to play a full game on offense in terms of effort and scoring plenty of points. Getting the run game going early via runs from I-formation instead of shotgun can help set up the play-action passing game and confuse opponents. Running the ball efficiently on early downs can help the Packers convert third downs and keep drives going. Avoiding penalties and turnovers can also help Green Bay win the time of possession battle on Monday night. When they get inside the opposing 20 yard line, the Packers offense needs to score a touchdown on each drive. The game plan that Matt LaFleur and his coaching staff put together for Monday night needs to not have too many trick plays. The option plays need to be taken out entirely. The run plays need to be from under center instead of out of shotgun. That way, the running backs can have a running start which should result in at least a couple of yards. There is no excuse for the offense on Monday night. They need to play well from beginning to end against the Raiders defense.
On defense, the key for the Packers is to keep the Raiders’ running game in check. The Raiders do have one of the worst offenses in football, but Josh Jacobs is a great running back if you give him plenty of room to run. The defense needs to commit to stopping the run with at least 6 in the box (three DL every play). The defenders need to get past the blockers and tackle Josh Jacobs (and any other ball carrier) for minimum yards. If the defense can get the ground game in check, then the pass rush, which includes a fully healthy Rashan Gary, can get after Jimmy Garoppolo all night. I want the defense to sack him a lot of times on Monday night. Jimmy should be pressured to throw errant passes that can be intercepted by the likes of Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas, Darnell Savage, Quay Walker, and any other defender that has a chance for an interception. What I hope to see on Monday night is for Jaire Alexander to cover Davante Adams all night. This game is the first time that Adams will (hopefully) go against Green Bay since being traded to Las Vegas in 2022. I still miss him in Green Bay, but I hope that he doesn’t beat the defense by himself. As long as the pass rush gets to Jimmy, the receivers shouldn’t get a lot of catches on Monday night. Most importantly, the Packers defense needs to stop the Raiders on early downs so third downs are tougher to convert. The defense needs to be schemed to get after the ball and not have the defensive backs or linebackers play 10 yards off on third and 5. Jimmy is not a quarterback to fear when it comes to deep balls. If the Raiders get to the Red Zone, the defense needs to tighten up and keep Las Vegas to only field goals. Any chance for a turnover needs to be capitalized by the defense. Like on offense, there is no excuse for the defense on Monday night. They need to play well for all four quarters against one of the worst offenses in football coached by Josh McDaniels.
Rich Bisaccia makes his return to Las Vegas. For those who don’t know, Bisaccia was with the Raiders for a number of years. After Jon Gruden was fired during the 2021 season for inappropriate emails that were leaked, Bisaccia was named interim head coach. The Raiders made the playoffs with him, but they didn’t make him the full time head coach. Instead, they hired former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who failed as a head coach before in Denver. I sincerely hope that Bisaccia gets the Packers special teams unit ready for anything on Monday night against his former team. When it comes to kickoffs and punts, the coverage unit needs to make sure that the return man is not allowed to go for a whole bunch of yards. Since they are playing indoors, there should be no issue for Anders Carlson in terms of kicking each ball out of the end zone for a touchback. The more touchbacks, the better to not allow any big returns. On the other side, Keisean Nixon needs to do a better job in certain situations. I give him kudos for wanting to make a big play, but more often than not, he doesn’t help the offense due to him taking the ball from deep in the end zone. What has happened a lot is that he gets tackled inside the 20 yard line. Nixon has to let those balls go out of the end zone unless he sees an opportunity for a long return. When he has the ball, Nixon needs to protect it on every run. The same goes for Jayden Reed when he gets a return opportunity on punts (or anyone else for that matter). During field goal and punt attempts, the long snapper needs to snap each ball accurately to punter Daniel Whelon, who needs to catch each ball. Whelon needs to get the hold secure (laces out) for Carlson to kick it cleanly. The linemen need to protect each kick from being blocked, which hasn’t happened so far (*knocks on wood*). Carlson should continue to make each kick, whether it be a 50-yard field goal or an extra point. Daniel Whelon should have no issue punting deep inside Raiders territory when he is called upon (which hopefully is not a lot of times). On the opposite side, I kinda hope that the Packers block a field goal or punt to get extra momentum. I have no doubt that Rich Bisaccia wants his unit to play well against his former team. As long as they keep the mistakes to a minimum, I think that they will accomplish that.
Overall, the Packers need to be consistent on all sides of the football for all four quarters on Monday night. They had a week and a half between games and they are playing most likely in front of a huge number of Packers fans. They can’t let the Raiders, who have one of the worst offenses in football, run all over them. It will be a long night if the Packers don’t get to a fast start. Regardless of the outcome, I pray that nobody gets seriously injured during this game. I’ll be back on Tuesday for my recap of the game. Have a great weekend, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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