Joe Philbin’s Packers looked a lot like Mike McCarthy’s Packers

Joe Philbin was an easy choice when the Packers needed an interim head coach for the final four games of the 2018 season. Not only did he have intimate knowledge of Green Bay’s culture after spending the first nine years of his NFL coaching career in Wisconsin, but he’d also spent three-plus seasons as a head coach in Miami before making his 2018 return to the franchise.

Philbin spent more than six seasons as an offensive coach under Mike McCarthy before his firing last week. So it’s no surprise the Packers’ team that took the field against Atlanta with its playoff hopes on life support looked quite a bit like the one that dug itself a 4-7-1 hole under its former head coach.

Only successful.

The Packers watched Philbin burn both his challenges in the first 90 seconds of his 2018 head coaching debut and fall into a 7-0 hole. That grim start gave way to bountiful sunshine as Philbin’s team went on to score the next 34 points, effectively ending this game halfway through the third quarter.

So what did Philbin do that McCarthy couldn’t? And was Sunday’s game a testimony to the effectiveness of either coach to take the reins in 2018, or just the logical progression of a team more talented than its 4-7-1 record ever suggested?

Aaron Rodgers has been the alpha and the omega of the Packers’ offense. Philbin knows that, and he wasn’t about to mess with a good thing. Coming into Sunday’s game, Rodgers had averaged 19.3 passes per half in 2018. In his first game with Philbin as a head coach, Rodgers’ first half saw him throw ... 19 passes.

But there was a difference in Rodgers’ attack. Green Bay relied heavily on a short-range attack on a cold day in eastern Wisconsin. Rodgers’ averaged a meager 8.9 yards per completion in the first half, well off his 2018 average of 12.3.

That attack ramped up early in the second half thanks to a handful of deep throws to Davante Adams and Jimmy Graham, then settled back into a conservative groove as the Pack worked to salt the clock down with a double-digit lead. Rodgers would finish his day with a modest 196 passing yards and two touchdowns on a day where he only needed to put in 40 minutes of hard work.

A big chunk of his quietly useful game came thanks to an extra weapon who missed exactly half of McCarthy’s 12-game reign this fall. Randall Cobb’s slow road back to total health (or something like it) paid off in a big way for the Packer offense. He played an important second option to Davante Adams, taking some of the pressure off the club’s top target and giving Rodgers a sure-handed alternative to late-round rookies Equanimeous St. Brown and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. He showed off his veteran talent with a 24-yard pass that turned third-and-10 and a dicey field goal attempt into seven points for the home team.

Jones emerged as McCarthy’s lead back out of the team’s platoon and had played well enough this fall for the club to ship Ty Montgomery to Baltimore at the trade deadline. Jones averaged 5.7 yards per carry in his second season as a pro, providing a potent counterbalance to the team’s pass-heavy attack.

But his last three games saw some fatigue set in as he was called on for more carries. Jones averaged just 3.8 yards per rush his last three games, raising questions about whether he was ready for a role as the Packers’ lead back.

So Philbin made a change early on Sunday. When the Pack took the field Sunday it was fellow second-year back Jamaal Williams — not Jones — who earned the start in the Green Bay backfield. Jones was an afterthought in the first 30 minutes, picking up only three carries for seven yards. Williams didn’t get much more attention, however — his three runs covered 12 yards in the first half.

Jones started slow, but he made his mark as the team’s primary back later on. With the Packers working to protect a 27-7 second half lead, Jones had his number called six times on an eight-play drive. He’d account for 60 total yards, capping Green Bay’s expedition into Atlanta territory with a 29-yard touchdown run that effectively ended the game.

Jones finished his day by matching his season high with 17 carries, gaining 78 yards in the process. Those aren’t superstar numbers, but when the club needed someone to drain some clock and deliver a knockout blow to a reeling Falcons team, Philbin knew he could turn to his emerging young back.

Green Bay has fielded one of the NFL’s most aggressive pass rushes in 2018, ending an NFL-high 8.9% of opponent dropbacks with a sack. That pressure continued in Week 1 of the Philbin era, where a steady diet of blitzes held onetime MVP candidate Matt Ryan to 98 first-half passing yards. It also forced Ryan into the awful mistake that turned a third-and-four play deep in his own territory into a 22-yard Bashaud Breeland pick-six.

That attack relented in the second half with the outcome of the game no longer in question, leaving the Pack with just a pair of sacks on the afternoon. That helped take the pressure off Green Bay’s young secondary — including rookie cornerback Jaire Alexander in particular, who’d struggled against all-world wideout Julio Jones early on. Dialing back the pressure in the second half allowed Ryan the latitude to throw for 164 second half yards, but also took away the team’s top weapon. After four catches on four targets for 69 yards in the first half, Jones was slowed to four catches on seven targets for 37 yards in the second.

While Jones still managed to be effective, his teammates struggled to catch up. Mohamed Sanu’s biggest plays came in garbage time. Austin Hooper was held to four receptions for just 37 yards. Electric rookie Calvin Ridley was a non-factor, making just a single catch on four targets.

Philbin put a lot of trust in a developing young secondary, effectively daring Ryan to throw his way to a win Sunday. That gambit paid off, and now Green Bay — not Atlanta — is the team who still has slim playoff hopes with three weeks remaining in the season.

Philbin formed a strong bond with McCarthy after spending more than six years on his staff. That influence bled through in Philbin’s first game as Green Bay’s interim head coach. While it’s tough to glean too much from the latter half of a game his team led comfortably, his first two quarters were a McCarthy-ian exercise in Packer football. Aaron Rodgers threw a ton of passes, Aaron Jones eventually emerged as the reliable jab to his quarterback’s haymakers, and Green Bay set the pace up front with a series of blitzes that put a ton of trust in the team’s young secondary.

But Philbin also showed he’d learned from the mistakes that doomed McCarthy’s 2018 by aggressively challenging a pair of questionable calls early on. The interim head coach was smart enough to know his predecessor found plenty of success by putting his trust in Aaron Rodgers, and he followed that blueprint to a commanding lead. 27 of the team’s 33 first half plays were designed passes for Rodgers.

That was all it took to put away the Falcons. The question now is what Philbin will dial up if Rodgers struggles. Solving that puzzle could be the all the proof the Packers need to determine whether or not he’s capable of handling the team’s full time job.