Acme Packing Company
Sunday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals isn’t supposed to be a close one. However, if the Bengals are able to effectively establish the run for the first time this season, then they might be able to hang around more than Packers fans would be happy with.
It has been an *ugly* season for Cincinnati’s offense, which ranks 31st overall in FTN Fantasy’s DVOA metric, ahead of only the struggling Tennessee Titans. A lot of that has to do with Jake Browning’s inability to take care of the football or get the team’s superstar receivers in Ja’Marr Chase or Tee Higgins involved, but the inept run game might be even worse.
Heading into Week 6, the Bengals rank dead last with 57.0 rushing yards per game. The next closest team? The Pittsburgh Steelers at 80.0, a full 23 yards more than Cincinnati per contest. Chase Brown, the team’s starting running back, is averaging just 2.5 yards per carry, rushing for 160 yards on 65 touches.
It doesn’t matter what direction the Bengals try to run, either. Their EPA per rush is horrendous regardless of which side of the offensive line that they try to run behind.
After trading for former Cleveland Browns veteran quarterback Joe Flacco this week and announcing that he’d be their starting QB shortly after, the Bengals will likely have to lean even more on their run game this week. Flacco arrived to Cincinnati in the middle of the week and will likely only have learned a portion of Zac Taylor’s playbook in preparation for Sunday’s game against Green Bay.
That makes stopping the run an even bigger priority for the Packers defense this week. While they have a top-three defense by DVOA and a top-10 rushing defense, things went downhill quickly in their previous game against the Dallas Cowboys when starting defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt went down, leading to a 40-40 tie.
That’s not the only reason that the defense struggled, but Wyatt’s presence was certainly felt. The Packers had to lean more heavily on undrafted rookie Nazir Stackhouse for stretches and he looked unplayable, posting a team-low 30.1 overall grade by Pro Football Focus.
Wyatt did not participate in the team’s first official practice on Wednesday, and is trending to be inactive for Sunday’s game. That likely means another heavy dose of Stackhouse, but also opportunities for Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks to prove that they can be reliable players on this defense.
The Packers appear to be fully aware of their lack of depth on the interior of their defensive line. The team brought five different defensive tackles in for workouts on Monday, signalling that Stackhouse may be firmly on the hot seat.
At the very least, the defensive line needs to hold its water to open up opportunities for Green Bay’s ascending linebacker duo of Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker. The two have looked like one of the best LB pairs in the league at times this season, but missed...
