Quarter report: Where are the Packers at on offense?

As the Green Bay Packers begin to gear up for the second quarter of the 2009 NFL season, we’re going to take a look back at how the first quarter went and determine just where this team is at.

The good and bad elements of the team’s offense, defense, special teams and schedule will all be analyzed.

In part one, we’ll look at the offense. Part two, which will be up tomorrow morning, will focus on the defense. The special teams and schedule will be discussed in part three, which will run later Monday afternoon.

Is there anything else I should mention before we begin?

Um….no, I suppose not.

Offense

The Good

• Donald Driver (18 catches, 288 yards, two touchdowns, all team-highs) has been arguably the best player on the offense through four games. As I wrote after the St. Louis game, he can still do all the things you need a No. 1 receiver to do and he is in no way showing his age. Don’t expect him to slow down, either.

• Aaron Rodgers (77 of 127, 60.6 completion percentage, 1098 yards, six touchdowns, one interception) has once again shown that, when he has confidence and is given time, he can be pretty damn good.

• The interior offensive line has done a nice job in pass protecting. As a whole, the o-line has been pretty terrible, but in terms of pass blocking, the interior group – first Daryn Colledge, Jason Spitz and Josh Sitton, then Spitz, Scott Wells and Sitton – has done a solid job. Very little of the pressure Rodgers has faced has come from right up the middle.

• After a sluggish start, Jermichael Finley (11 catches, 190 yards one touchdown) showed in the Monday night game against the Queens that he very much could be a young Antonio Gates. Expect his freakish skill set to flourish even more as the season progresses.

The Bad

• The offensive line as a whole. Yes, the interior has done a solid job in pass protection, but they have been very mediocre in opening holes for Ryan Grant and run blocking is the primary concern for any interior o-line. That’s not even to mention the tackles. Right tackle Allen Barbre has rebounded somewhat after a terrible first game, but he still hasn’t been that good either. It sounds like the team is close to bringing back Mark Tauscher which might help. Then again, Tauscher is 32 and coming off serious knee surgery. Left tackle Chad Clifton was playing decently enough before he got hurt. But when Colledge moved over to that spot, he was a trainwreck. Clifton’s return this week should provide some stability, but the group has to be better. Period
• Ryan Grant (67 carries, 257 yards, 3.8 average, two touchdowns) has not run with much authority or tenacity. Yes, his line has been bad and, yes, he’s very much built for the zone-blocking scheme. But, since the line and the scheme have been failing, he has to step it up and run a little harder. He turned in, I thought, his best performance yet against the Queens so hopefully he can build on that.
• For as good as he looked at times, Rodgers has also looked pretty bad at times. Indicision has been his main problem. Rodgers clearly doesn’t trust what he sees downfield a lot of times, which is the main reason he hangs on to the ball too long and ends up taking sacks. He needs to display more confidence in that area. And if he doesn’t trust what he sees, he needs to either throw the ball away or use his feet. Coverage sacks are, like holding calls, drive killers.
• There are, as Gene correctly pointed out to me recently, only so many things a wide receiver can control. Still, Greg Jennings (11 catches, 240 yards, one touchdown) has not looked good at all so far. He’s struggled to break off of coverage and appears to be getting easily frustrated. Is the new money messing with his head? I don’t know, but he needs to learn from Driver’s example.
• Jordy Nelson and James Jones (combined 10 catches, 162 yards and one touchdown) were expected to provide depth and round out what, before the season, looked like the deepest wideout corps in the league. They have essentially become non-factors, struggling to get open and, when open, hang on to the ball.

There are, as you can see, more negatives than positives with the offense four games in. I’m not trying to be overly negative myself, but the fact is this group was expected to be much better than it has been thus far

That said, it’s not like the group can’t turn things around. But better o-line play is the key to everything. That will allow Grant to run better and Rodgers to develop more confidence in himself. As a result, perhaps Jennings, Jones and Nelson can finally get going.

It all starts up front.

-Chris Lempesis