After having placed multiple players on the Covid list, on Saturday the Packers re-activated Corey Bojorquez, Ben Braden, Oren Burks, Tyler Davis, Marcedes Lewis, and Ty Summers (still on IR, however). Kingsley Keke and Amari Rodgers remain on the Covid list along with Chauncey Rivers, who is on Injured Reserve and is expected to miss the rest of the season. The Packers signed WR David Moore to the Practice Squad and elevated Moore and DE Abdullah Anderson as Covid Emergency Replacement Players to the active roster for the game against the Vikings. Jaire Alexander was also placed on the Covid Reserve List.
David Bakhtiari and Billy Turner were not active due to injury. Safeties Shawn Smith and Vernon Scott, and defensive lineman Jack Heflin were healthy scratches.
Player | Snaps | % | STs |
Nijman | 75 | 100 | 7 – 26% |
Newman | 75 | 100 | |
Patrick | 74 | 100 | 7 – 26% |
Runyan | 74 | 100 | 7 – 26% |
Kelly | 74 | 100 | |
Braden | 1 | 1 | 7 – 26% |
Van Lanen | 1 | 1 | |
Hanson | 1 | 1 | |
Rodgers | 63 | 84 | |
Love | 12 | 16 | |
Dillon | 39 | 52 | |
Jones | 31 | 41 | |
P. Taylor | 12 | 16 | |
Davis | 32 | 43 | 24 – 89% |
Deguara | 30 | 40 | 2 – 7% |
Dafney | 19 | 25 | 4 – 15% |
Lewis | 13 | 17 | |
Adams | 62 | 83 | |
Lazard | 56 | 75 | |
Valdes-Scantling | 49 | 65 | |
St. Brown | 18 | 24 | 4 – 15% |
Winfree | 14 | 19 | 17 – 63% |
Moore | 8 – 30% | ||
The Packers ran the ball well. In the first half Aaron Jones carried the ball 6 times for 69 yards (11.5-yard average), including a 28-yard ramble. Even excluding the long run, Jones still rushed 5 times for 41 yards, a healthy 8.2-yard average in the first half. Jones only carried the ball twice in the second half, gaining 7 yards to finish with 8 total carries for 76 yards.
A.J. Dillon carried the ball 6 times in the first half for 19 yards, a 3.17-yard average. In the second half, he carried the ball 8 times for 44 yards, a 5.5-yard average. Dillon finished with 14 carries for 63 yards, a 4.5-yard average, including 2 touchdowns. Dillon gained some tough yards while the offensive line also wore down Minnesota. Dillon’s longest run was 9 yards. Patrick Taylor rushed 6 times for 18 yards, all in the second half, with a long of 11.
The offensive line kept Aaron Rodgers clean. Per Pro Football Focus, Minnesota only generated 9 pressures as a team on 45 passing attempts (and there probably were multiple players getting credit for a pressure on a single play). NBC indicated during the game that Rodgers had only been pressured twice on 25 passing attempts. Rodgers continued with his trend of getting the ball out quickly, averaging 2.36 seconds to throw against Minnesota, per PFF. The Packers allowed just 3 quarterback hits and zero sacks.
Davante Adams caught 11 passes on 14 targets for 136 yards and a touchdown. Allen Lazard added 72 receiving yards on 6 receptions and 6 targets, including a beautiful contested touchdown catch. Jones and Dillon contributed 30 and 20 receiving yards, respectively. Rodgers finished with a 114.8 passer rating.
It is interesting that Tyler Davis got more snaps than Deguara. It is possible that Marcedes Lewis’ low snap count was due to being on the Covid Reserve List during the week.
Player | Snaps | % | STs |
Stokes | 54 | 100 | 5 – 19% |
Savage | 54 | 100 | |
Douglas | 46 | 85 | 9 – 33% |
Amos | 46 | 85 | |
Sullivan | 35 | 65 | |
King | 11 | 20 | 8 – 30% |
Jean-Charles | 9 | 17 | 18 – 67% |
Black | 8 | 15 | 19 – 70% |
Yiadom | 8 | 15 | 19 – 70% |
Campbell | 46 | 85 | |
P. Smith | 43 | 80 | |
Gary | 42 | 78 | |
Barnes | 37 | 69 | 4 – 15% |
Garvin | 12 | 22 | 8 – 30% |
Galeai | 11 | 20 | 16 – 59% |
Burks | 8 | 15 | 20 – 74% |
McDuffie | 20 – 74% | ||
Clark | 39 | 72 | |
Lowry | 35 | 65 | 9 – 33% |
Slaton | 21 | 39 | 10 – 37% |
Anderson | 16 | 30 | 3 – 11% |
Lancaster | 13 | 24 | 9 – 33% |
DeVondre Campbell rebounded with a nice game. He finished with 8 tackles (7 solo), including a tackle for loss. Campbell even got a few snaps off. He seemed very physical and did a nice job limiting gains. Krys Barnes also seemed to rebound with 5 tackles (3 solo) and 2 passes defensed. Rashan Gary and Preston Smith each added two tackles for loss, while Chandon Sullivan had one.
The Packers limited Dalvin Cook to just 17 yards on 7 carries (2.4-yard average) in the first half. Cook rushed twice in the second half for minus 4 yards to finish with 9 carries for 13 yards, a 1.4-yard average. The snap counts show that the Packers played just 2.3 defensive linemen per play, well below recent games. It is my sense that the Packers played 3 defensive linemen quite a bit in the first half, but nflgsis does not give totals for each half. It is nice to see Clark with just 39 snaps. Lancaster may have been on a snap count or limit since he was listed as questionable with a back injury during the week.
The Packers only had 5 quarterback hits. Gary had 4 QB hits with a sack, while Preston Smith had one which was a sack. Preston Smith now has 9 sacks on the year and needs one more to earn another $750,000. Smith has earned $1.25 million in sack incentives to date. It will be interesting to see if the Packers sit Smith against the Lions.
The Packers played a lot of players who do not normally see the field. It did not seem to matter much. The Packers held Dalvin Cook to next to nothing and limited Justin Jefferson to 58 receiving yards on 6 catches, though he had 11 targets. The Packers did seem to lose track of TE Tyler Conklin a few times in the first half. Conklin finished with 47 yards on 5 receptions (9 targets) but he had a 24-yard reception negated by a penalty.
The kicking operation looked smoother, although there was one high snap on a field goal that Borojquez got down in time. David Moore seemed to know how to catch a punt and what to do with it after he caught it. Borojquez shanked a 24-yard punt and finished with a 21.5-yard net on two punts (one touchback). As a note, nflgsis only lists 4 offensive linemen with 7 special team snaps (3 field goals, 4 extra points), and there are always five offensive linemen so listed. I do not know if it is some kind of misprint or if the Packers did something radically different.
All statistics courtesy of Nflgis unless otherwise noted.
WR: 2.65
TE: 1.25
RB: 1.09
DL: 2.30
ILB: 1.69
OLB: 2.00
DB: 5.02