Cheese Curds, 10/9: Packers’ offensive line & slippery Aaron Jones are tough to defend

Football is won in the trenches. It’s an old cliche, but it still seems to hold true — the team that controls the line of scrimmage generally wins the game. Then again, it doesn’t hurt when the guy running behind a dominant line is practically impossible to tackle.

The Green Bay Packers got both of those pieces of the equation on Sunday as they defeated the Dallas Cowboys 34-24 in Jerry World. Line play is often a bit difficult to evaluate live, particularly in the run game; unless there are massive holes on every play, the mass of humanity in the middle of the field makes for some deceiving looks.

But seeing the plays back again helps illustrate the intricacies of that facet of the game, and today’s curds feature an excellent breakdown of just how the Packers were able to dominate the game up front when they had the football.

And then there’s Aaron Jones, whose 182-yard day was a thing of beauty. He probably would have had plenty of yardage thanks to the line even without breaking a ton of tackles. But he did, and that led to a huge day as Jones was the driver of the offense, accounting for 54 percent of the team’s total yards of offense.

What You Might’ve Missed: Second-level blocking | Packers.com
The offensive line deserves some major props for their play in Dallas on Sunday, even despite a few hiccups and penalties here and there. They were consistently able to get to the second level of the defense and make blocks down the field, and even Jimmy Graham gets some praise for what was probably his best blocking game as a Packer.

Packers RB Aaron Jones forced 16 missed tackles against Cowboys | Packers Wire
Of course, it also helps the offensive line look good when they are blocking for a running back who is nearly impossible to bring to the ground. Depending on the definition and evaluation of a broken or missed tackle, Jones had somewhere in the mid-double digits, and his yards after contact and after the catch are sure to be very impressive this week.

Defensive linemen OK with ‘affecting’ the quarterback | Packersnews.com
The Packers' linemen aren't bringing the quarterback down regularly -- they are on pace for just five sacks on the season thanks to Kenny Clark's 1.5 so far -- but they're perfectly happy being in the quarterback's face and letting the Smiths and the other edge rushers clean up.

Rewriting the Aaron Rodgers narrative, according to his backup center - ESPN
You'll see about fifteen different versions of the Lucas Patrick story today, but the short version is that Rodgers displayed a great amount of leadership, friendship, and personal interest in one of his backup linemen who was struggling this summer. Sounds like a good guy to me.

Roundup: Kyle Juszczyk out 4-6 weeks with MCL sprain - NFL.com
Juszczyk is one of the engines that drives the 49ers' offense, particularly on the ground. This timeline would put him back on the field right around the time that San Francisco hosts the Packers in week 12.

Phoenix police: Man upset at neighbors fires gun into ceiling, shooting himself | AZcentral.com
Maybe don't try to shoot up through your own ceiling? Thankfully, nobody besides the shooter was injured.