Aaron Jones outshines the other Aaron in Packers win

A week of questions about Aaron Rodgers’ reduced accuracy and greater tendency to throw the ball away when he used to be adept at throwing receivers open after last week’s loss to the Patriots were perhaps magnified after the Tennessee Titans dominated New England 34-10 this Sunday. Of course, the NFL has a tendency to refuse to play by the usual standards of common sense, as Tampa Bay set an NFL “record” by gaining the most yards (501) while scoring 3 points or less in a game, against a Washington team that seems to be stumbling and bumbling its way to an NFC East title. In the NFC West, the Los Angeles Rams—just two years ago the doormat of the division, has one more victory as of Sunday night than the rest of the division combined. 

So the Packers entered their one home game in five weeks in desperation mode. The surprising Bears, behind a quarterback whose play few want to believe what their eyes are showing them, lead the division. Yet as subpar as they have played this year, the Packers were two costly fourth quarter fumbles in the past two weeks away from potentially being the division leaders (and missed field goals deprived them of potential victory in two other games). Ty Montgomery is gone, but Aaron Jones survived his fumble against the Patriots and came back this week against Miami to put up impressive numbers, at least on paper. He rushed for 145 yards on just 15 carries, including 6 rushes of 10+ gains for 126 yards; his 9 additional rushes were for 19 yards. The Packers’ special teams play, however, continues to be a problem, a blocked punt and fumbled punt return leading to Miami points. But playing at home against a Dolphins team helmed by Brock Osweiler doesn't inspire much fear in anybody, and a 31-12 victory actually seemed harder than it should have been; trailing just 14-12, the Dolphins at that point actually scored on four possessions compared to two for the Packers.

But it all comes back to Rodgers, who threw high percentage passes for short gains in the first half, but in general there was no discernible improvement in moving the ball through the air. Some commentators mentioned that Jones adds a much needed dimension to a Packers offense that relied too heavily on Rodgers, but with a better running game should come with a passing game that opponents fear more, especially with Rodgers, who only threw for 199 yards and again didn’t look all that sharp. While he is still averaging 300 yards a game this season, only twice has Rodgers actually thrown for that many yards in a game—in back-to-back 400-yard performances.