To say the Green Bay Packers offense is still a work in progress wouldn’t be a stretch. It’s halfway through the season and that shouldn’t be the case, but then, Mike McCarthy is your coach. No one — even his own players — seem to be too hyped up on McCarthy at the moment.
It took McCarthy four weeks to figure out Aaron Jones was the best running back he had. Jones missed the first two weeks of the season because of a suspension. However, despite his robust yards per carry average, now at 6.0 yards per carry — the best in the NFL — McCarthy didn’t give Jones a start until two games ago. Jones carried 12 times for 86 yards against the Rams. He then carried 14 times for 75 yards against the Patriots.
In the games leading up to that, Jones not only didn’t start, he played fewer snaps than Jamaal Williams and the since-traded Ty Montgomery.
I don’t have to tell you how stupid that is. In fact, it’s beyond stupid. It’s buffoonery, perpetrated by none other than The Buffoon himself.
So it was interesting when running backs coach Ben Sirmans came out this week and said he’d like Jones to have 20 carries.
“If we’re running the ball 30 times, you’d like him to have 20 of them,” Sirmans said of Jones. “I think that’s something he would benefit from, we would benefit from.”
The Packers have only ran the ball 30 times once this season. They did so in the blowout of the Bills. Jones has not carried the ball more than the 14 times he did against the Patriots this season.
It’s possible things could change as the weather gets cold, but… Mike McCarthy. He’s often given lip service to running the football more. He’s never actually run the football more.
Maybe now that his job is seemingly on the line, things will change. We’ll believe it when we see it, of course.
It’s interesting that assistant coaches are openly talking about the game plan though, isn’t it?