The 6-0 Green Bay Packers need the bye week as much as any 6-0 team possibly could.

They need to get key players healthy such as Davante Adams, B.J. Raji and Morgan Burnett. Who knows what the true health status is on guys like Randall Cobb and Eddie Lacy. 6-0 is awesome, but everyone knows this season is only about the playoffs for the Packers. It’s harsh, but true.

With three subpar offensive games in a row the Packers need to figure it out. Particularly, how to get Cobb and Lacy back to the elite players they were. The Packers aren’t going to hoist the Lombardi Trophy without those two being key cogs. Is Lacy injured or are the Packers unhappy with the shape he is in right now? He seemed to be running pretty well up until last week. The Packers were third in the NFL in rushing up until that point. They need to get back to that for this offense to be successful. Why they abandoned the run against what was ranked the worst rush defense in the NFL statistically is beyond me.

Spin it anyway you want defensively, but giving up 503 yards passing is outrageous no matter how many points you let up. If you’re giving up close to that kind of yardage every game the chances of you holding the opponent to 20 points are slim to none. Phillip Rivers was toying with Dom Capers. He knew where every blitz was coming from and always had the right check called. This is a common theme with quarterbacks like Rivers against Capers.

And the real bad part is now that is all out there on film. The reason you get concerned is that Rivers is the type of quarterback you will have to beat in the playoffs and not Nick Foles or Colin Kaepernick. As previously stated, that’s all that really matters to Green Bay right now.

The Packers have benefited from a weak schedule thus far. They haven’t beaten a team with a winning record all year and have had four of six games at home. The schedule after the bye features road games at Denver, Carolina and Arizona and five division games. The kind of efforts they have out forth over the last few weeks won’t be good enough on the road against those kind of teams.

Fortunately, just because the Packers haven’t looked particularly good for a few weeks doesn’t mean it will stay that way. The Packers have typically gotten better as the season has gone on under Mike McCarthy, so this season may be no different if they get healthy after the bye. The Packers had a stretch like this in 2010 and were actually losing games, so it;s definitely nice to be able to win without playing your best,

They have some time to figure out how to get Cobb and Lacy back on track. Maybe they can figure out how to use Jeff Janis efficiently. They could certainly use that. The Packers can also use any kind of production out of Richard Rodgers, although his lack of athleticism just doesn’t thrill me and never has. The Packers eventually need to find Aaron Rodgers that big and athletic tight end that is so prevalent in today’s game.

These games right now are all about positioning for January and getting that home field advantage. Hopefully, the Packers are not playing then like they are now because it won’t be enough.  Fortunately, they have the time and talent to fix it.

 

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Matt Bove is a writer at PackersTalk.com. PackersTalk.com. You can follow him on twitter at @RayRobert9.

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