“There’s not as many free play because they’re blowing them dead now,” Van Pelt said. “We’ve got them offside. They’re just blowing the whistle now. They’re more apt to blow the whistle now than let the play run, and that’s OK. We’ll take the five (yards).”
The disappointment in Van Pelt’s voice was clear. When the defense jumps offside, the Packers are searching for more than five yards.
In the first three weeks, Rodgers converted six of those 11 free-play opportunities into longer gains. They combined for 216 yards, 186 more than they would’ve gotten with penalty yardage. Each conversion was at least 22 yards, with the longest being a 52-yard pass interference call on Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman in Week 2.