Overview: Sunday at 1pm EST the Redskins will face off against what many believe to be a powerhouse franchise in the Green Bay Packers. Fortunately for the Skins the Packers game pretty much relies on one player, Aaron Rodgers. The rest of the team has talent especially in Clay Matthews but their best corner is injured and won't play, their starting free safety is coming off an injury and their best offensive lineman is also injured and out for a while. Unfortunately for the Redskins Aaron Rodgers is widely considered the best QB in the game and has a plethora of weapons with Jordy Nelson, Jermichael Finely, Randell Cobb, and others. Overall, this is Packers team with an explosive offense but a defense struggling with injuries and backend talent.
Offense: Aaron Rodgers has been one of the best quarterbacks in the country the last few years and even though people think he had a "down year last season his stats were still impressive. He threw for over 4.000 yards 39TDs and only 8 interceptions. To put it simply he is scary good. The other problem with Rodgers is he has surprising athleticism. He won't run for a 70 yard touchdown but he is capable of escaping the pocket and picking up 5 to 10 yards. On the outside he has one of the premier young receivers in the game in Randell Cobb.
The good thing for the Redskins is that the Packers have yet to establish a run game even with rookie Eddie Lacy. Lacy has shown that he might have the ability to make some noise this year but at this point isn't a true threat. He doesn't have the shiftiness that LeSean McCoy has but does break tackles and is known for his spin move.
The biggest weakness on the team though is their offensive line. Bryan Bulaga, the Packers starting left tackle, is out with an ACL injury and the rest of the offensive line isn't fantastic. They did, however, perform well against the 49ers only allowing 2 sacks. This is still the best area to attack against the Packers. Last season Green Bay lost 5 games in the regular season and in those 5 losses Rodgers was sacked a total of 26 times including an 8 sack game against the Seahawks. That is an average of more than 5 sacks a game. In the other 11 games last season Rodgers was only sacked 25 times for an average of less than 3 sacks a game. This makes it clear that in order to beat the Packers the Redskins must hit Aaron Rodgers early and often. 5 sacks should be the goal for the Redskins this week.
Defense: Clay Matthews without a doubt the best player on this side of the ball for the Packers. He led the team in sacks last year with 13 and that came in only 12 games. However, besides Matthews there isn't a whole lot of talent. Their leading tackler from last year, safety Morgan Burnett, is questionable and their best corner will not play. Last week they let up over 400 passing yards to Colin Kaepernick which is his career high by over a 100 yards. 200 of those yards went to Anquan Boldin who has only had one other 200 yard receiving game in his career. That game was also in 2003 and his first game in the NFL. If RGIII can play like he did last year there will be plenty of holes in the Packers secondary.
Their rushing defense was more stout and they only allowed 44 yards on 21 carries to Frank Gore. However, last year that same defense allowed almost 200 yards on the ground to Colin Kaepernick and another 100 to Gore. Essentially the game plan for the Redskins offense should be to take Matthews out of the game and force the rest of the defense to make some plays.
Week 2 Prediction: The Packers are a tough team to stop and the Redskins have plenty of holes of there own in the secondary. The Redskins MUST find a way to get pressure on Rodgers and maintain long drives on offense to keep the Packers off the field. RGIII will need to take a big step toward his normal level of play if the Redskins want to win, but Alfred Morris might be even more important. On defense Orakpo needs to have a better game than he did last week. Kerrigan and Perry Riley just need keep doing what they did last week. The Packers will probably score quickly but if the Redskins can force a few three and outs and hang around until the end of the game there will be a possibility for an upset. The Redskins need to seriously improve though or this could be a blow out.
Redskin 27, Packers 38
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