The Green Bay Packers Hope Inept Raiders Are The Cure For Their Shoddy Run Defense

The Las Vegas Raiders can’t run the football.

The Green Bay Packers can’t stop the run.

Something will have to give, though, Monday night when the teams collide in ‘Sin City.’

Green Bay ranks a miserable 30^th in rushing defense, allowing a whopping 155.3 yards per game and 4.5 yards per carry.

Las Vegas, meanwhile, is averaging just 65.3 yards per game on the ground, a figure that ranks last in the NFL. The Raiders are also averaging only 3.0 yards per rushing attempt, which ranks 31^st in the league.

Can this finally be the week the Packers get their shoddy run defense fixed?

“I hope so,” safety Darnell Savage said. “But at the same time, it’s Week 4. So like, you can’t burn down a house after one week.

“So, we’re just staying the course. We’ve got confidence in everybody in this building. I’ve got confidence in everybody on this defense. We’ve just got to stay the course and keep pushing.”

Savage is correct that the NFL campaign is just four weeks old. But with just 17 games in a season, that’s already 23.5% of the schedule, which is equivalent to 38 games in a baseball season.

It’s certainly too early to say Green Bay can’t stop the run. But the Packers’ suspect start — and shoddy run defense during the Matt LaFleur-era — are cause for concern.

Green Bay ranked 26^th in the NFL in rushing yards allowed per game (139.5) last season and 28^th in yards allowed per carry (5.0). Their average ranking during LaFleur’s first four years is 19^th.

This year, both Atlanta and Detroit gashed Green Bay for 211 yards on the ground and each team averaged nearly 5.0 yards per rush.

“We’ve got to communicate better, we’ve got to execute better, we’ve got to play better technique and we’ve got to be more consistent,” Packers defensive end Kenny Clark said. “All 11 have to be more consistent.

“We’ve definitely got the guys to do it. We’re not going to dwell on it. We’ve lost two games, they did a good job running the ball. It is what it is. We’ve got to do a good job stopping the run. It’s football. It’s a week-to-week league. The best thing about it is next week we get a chance to prove it again and play again and put our best foot forward.”

The good news for Green Bay is Las Vegas has been as inept running the ball as the Packers have been trying to stop the run.

Raiders running back Josh Jacobs, a first round draft pick in 2019, led the NFL with 1,653 rushing yards last season. Jacobs also averaged 4.9 yards per carry in 2022 and had 12 rushing touchdowns.

Jacobs held out much of training camp, though, hoping to get a long-term contract worked out. When that didn’t happen, he agreed to a one-year, $12 million deal in late-August, but hasn’t been the same player since.

Jacobs is averaging just 41.5 rushing yards per game and a career-low 2.7 yards per carry. Jacobs hasn’t rushed for more than 62 yards in a game this year, but there’s no doubt the former Alabama star is licking his chops as he awaits to play Green Bay.

“I think he’s starting to find his groove,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of Jacobs. “I think you saw it last week, he was able to break some tackles, and this guy’s got incredible balance. He’s got incredible hands.

“He can make you miss. There’s nothing that he can’t do, so I think he’s a guy that you have to have a plan for when you’re approaching him in terms of how you want to tackle him. And the best way to bring him down is to have multiple hats at the point of attack.”

Whether or not the Packers can do that remains to be seen.

Green Bay insists it has the talent and proper scheme to eventually become a solid run defense. And facing a Las Vegas offense that can’t run the ball, the Packers should have a chance to get healthy this week.

Of course, the Raiders probably feel the same way after studying Green Bay’s shoddy run defense to date.

“It’s a number of things, but we’ve got to correct it, we will correct it,” Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry said. “We’re exploring everything right now. When we’re in one of those games, we have to put our foot down and stop it.”