Key Numbers and Stats from the Packers' Thrilling Win in Miami

As we do on occasion, today we look back at the box score and the stat sheets from the Green Bay Packers' most recent game. This week, we are trying to look at a ridiculous 27-24 win in Miami that was defined much more by a final drive reliant on emotion and perseverance than by the final stats. Still, there is plenty of valuable

39%

That's the percentage of Aaron Rodgers' aimed passes that went in the direction of Jordy Nelson. To be exact, Pro Football Focus notes that Rodgers threw 15 passes to number 87 out of his 38 directed throws (he had 42 attempts, but two were labeled as throw-aways and two more were batted at the line of scrimmage). This is pretty well in line with the season average, as Jordy saw 37% of Rodgers' targets over the first five games.

What's the takeaway here? It's probably a sign that even though Davante Adams is emerging as a legitimate weapon (more on that shortly), Jordy will continue to be option number one for both Mike McCarthy as a playcaller and for Aaron Rodgers as the distributor of the football. If you drafted him in a fantasy team, be happy; if not, be happy anyway, because Jordy is as complete a receiver as there is in the NFL today.

62

That's the number of snaps that Davante Adams played in Miami, a season high. And though he technically played a great percentage of the offensive snaps against the Vikings a week ago (81% vs. 78%), there's no question in which game he made a greater impact. Adams is proving to his quarterback that he can be trusted (the fake spike play being the clearest example of that) and, as Jason noted earlier today, his emergence should give the offense a big boost.

This number is also a sign that Mike McCarthy isn't deviating much from his love of the Zebra package.

6 and 11

These numbers, however, are a sign that McCarthy is at least willing to mix up his formations and personnel at least a little bit to take advantage of matchups. Six is the number of snaps that Derek Sherrod played as an eligible extra tackle and eleven is John Kuhn's snap count (and he even got four carries in that limited action). Kuhn did play 13 snaps against the Vikings, but several of those came in garbage time late in the game. The fact that the Packers at least tried to run some power runs out of the I-formation suggests that McCarthy still recognizes the usefulness of those varied personnel packages.

37.5

That was Ryan Tannehill's passer rating when throwing at Casey Hayward and Davon House on Sunday. It's admittedly a small sample size, but an encouraging one - House allowed no completions on two attempts (breaking up one of the passes) while Hayward did allow a pair of completions to Mike Wallace but picked off a pass intended for Jarvis Landry. If Sam Shields and Tramon Williams are indeed forced to miss some time due to their injuries, these two are well-equipped to handle the workload while they recover.

11

The Packers pressured Ryan Tannehill eleven times on Sunday, but the more fascinating number is that those eleven pressures came from eleven different players - not a single Packer was credited with multiple pressures. This is a sign that (1) the defensive front was unable to get a consistent push from any one or two players and (2) that forced Dom Capers to get creative with his blitzes in order to rush Tannehill's throws.

This bears monitoring next week against a Panthers offensive line that has had its share of issues defending talented edge rushers. For example: against the Ravens in week four, their two starting tackles alone allowed twelve pressures, including three sacks. If Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews can put up numbers half that good on Sunday, it will be a long day for Cam Newton.

79

The Packers ran 79 plays on Sunday, which is much more reflective of their goal on offense than being in the mid-fifties like they had been in the previous two wins against Chicago and Minnesota. The team had four drives of 9 plays or more (each resulting in a score) and failed to earn a first down only twice - on a kneel-down at the end of the first half and a single three-and-out early in the fourth quarter.

Those sustained drives helped the Packers win the time of possession battle by a huge margin - 37:18 to 22:42 (thanks to APC user JSOnline Castaway for pointing this out). In the heat, this helped keep the defense fresh and likely contributed to their ability to come up with the critical stop late in the fourth quarter to give Aaron Rodgers and company the ball back with just enough time to find the end zone.

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What other numbers stood out to you in Sunday's game?

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