Churning their way through 17 deliberate plays amassing 78 yards, the Green Bay Packers chewed up 8 minutes and 21 seconds of valuable play clock culminated by a dagger driving field goal leaving the Philadelphia Eagles with less than 2 minutes of game time and a 14-point deficit.

The Eagles sealed the deal promptly and officially by turning the ball over on downs after 5 plays, snapping their home winning streak of 4 games. While the Eagles formalized the matter, it was the Packers’ behemoth of a drive that sucked the life out of their opponent and catapulted them back into the messy NFC North division race.

The drive also helped result in dominating the game’s time of possession by over 10 minutes (35:23 vs. 24:37), nearly assuring the Packers of victory. The team has posted a 7-1 record over the past two seasons when they have the football for 33 minutes or greater. The anomaly was last year’s season finale, in which the gritty Minnesota Vikings used a Captain Munnerlyn defensive touchdown to come out victorious 20-13.

It is obvious the Packers are best suited when their lackluster defense stays off the field, and the offense controls the pace of the game. The less opportunities that opposing quarterbacks can expose the Packers’ secondary, the better for the team overall. On the flip side the more the offense and Aaron Rodgers is on the field, the scarier for opposing teams.

It is imperative that Mike McCarthy continues to establish the quick passing game and utilize some semblance of a rushing attack.

On Monday night, Rodgers was getting the ball out quickly and was consistently moving the chains and taking time off the clock. The Packers only punted once in the game and it was after a 12-play drive that spanned 7 minutes and 48 seconds. This drive didn’t seem like much at the time, but still helped keep the Eagles offense out of rhythm and more importantly kept the defense off the field. The resulting punt from the drive was even better after Jacob Schum pinned the Eagles on their own 1 yard line.

McCarthy unleashed a new creativity on Monday night as well, exposing “Bazooka” to the world. Sure, it was just an option play, but a startling sight to see it ran with Rodgers and Randall Cobb as the featured pitch man. Maybe the head coach needed his “ass against the wall” to step out of his comfort zone and change things up, hopefully he continues to add wrinkles and make appropriate changes.

In regards to the running game, McCarthy may need to shift more carries to Aaron Ripkowski, Ty Montgomery, and the newly acquired Christine Michael. It is important that the Packers continue to run the ball and keep opposing defenses honest.

Though he missed 4 games due to injury, James Starks has been a disaster in 2016 even when healthy. His hesitant, flailing style of rushing has only garnered a measly 2.47 yards per carry in 2016. Starks’ longest carry of his 2016 campaign is an anemic 11 yards. By comparison, Montgomery has 24 and 30 yard runs, Michael has 41 and 21 yard runs and even Ripkowski has a 13-yard run on the season. The trio has a better yard per carry average than Starks as well, suggesting McCarthy should reduce his carries and get the other players more involved. Starks was on the field for 76% of the offensive snaps, but his play doesn’t warrant this workload.

To make any attempt towards an NFC North championship the Packers must continue the short passing game, find a rushing attack and most importantly control the time of possession.