4 Stats Packers Fans Should Be Concerned About Heading Into the Postseason

The Green Bay Packers won 13 games and made it to the postseason in the first year of the post-Mike McCarthy era, gleefully helmed by Matt LaFleur. Aaron Rodgers is once again getting it done, but the running game led by Aaron Jones and a stifling defense, two things Rodgers was not accustomed to under McCarthy, have helped Green Bay secure a first-round bye.

Even with 13 wins and a bye, the Pack need to be mindful of these four statistical trends that could come back to bite them.

4. Rookie Head Coaches Don't Always Crush it in the Playoffs

LaFleur has done a fantastic job of guiding Green Bay to a 13-3 record just a year after they missed out on the playoffs all together, but that doesn't mean that the Packers should punch their ticket to Miami just yet. Only two rookie head coaches have won the Super Bowl: the late Don McCafferty in 1970, and the legendary George Seifert in 1989. Both of them also took over teams that were built and overseen by legends in their own right, in Don Shula and Bill Walsh the year before. LaFleur has been excellent in his first year on the job, but taking home a Lombardi could be a pipe dream if history is anything to go by.

3. Their Linebackers and Safeties are Not Good in Coverage

Linebacker Blake Martinez is one of the best run-stuffers in the league, but he still has to improve in coverage. Martinez has allowed catches on 62 of the 74 passes thrown with him as the primary defender, good for a completion percentage of 83.8. Safety Adrian Amos allowing 71% completion on the back end also doesn't help matters much. With Jaire Alexander and Kevin King playing well outside, Green Bay has a clear hole in the middle of the field that passing teams should be able to exploit pretty easily.

2. They've Been Winning Ugly and Rarely Dominate

Over the last 40 years, no 13-3 team has had a lower point differential than these Packers, with a Jeff Fisher-coached Titans team in 1999 that relied on Eddie George running the ball 35 times a game the only team in the neighborhood of LaFleur's inaugural Packers squad. Wins against playoff teams like the Vikings and Chiefs have been nail-biters, while losses like their 37-8 implosion against the 49ers should have set off some alarm bells in Wisconsin. They are 13-3, yes, but has this group ever seriously looked or felt like a 13-3 team?

1. Aaron Rodgers Has Been Good, if Unspectacular

The days of Rodgers putting the team on his back and throwing for 400 yards and four touchdowns just to give the Packers a chance seem to be over. In 2019, the 36-year-old threw for 400 fewer yards and 0.4 yards per attempt less than he did during his final year with McCarthy, while throwing just one more touchdown pass on an almost-equal number of attempts.The emergence of Jones has certainly helped take some of the burden off of Rodgers, but LaFleur hasn't done much to accentuate Rodgers' ability. If anything, one could argue he has regressed.