There's a chance the Green Bay Packers won't play any no-huddle offense against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night.

And there's a chance that they will.

Whatever the case, the purpose in using so much of the no-huddle scheme had more to do with coach Mike McCarthy's concern about a slow offensive start than any game-plan feature for the Saints game.

"We just didn't click," McCarthy said. "We weren't humming out of camp last year."

The offensive struggles are part of the reason the Packers faced a do-or-die situation at the end of the regular season. They sputtered coming off the starting line, failing to score 21 points in three of their first six games, converting just 36% of their third downs and, most importantly, starting out the season, 3-3.

"We left a lot of plays out there," wide receiver James Jones said. "We easily should be a top three to No. 1 offense in scoring. We let a lot of opportunities slip away. Hopefully, this year we capitalize and we're on the same page and get this thing rolling."

McCarthy had grand plans for the offense during the off-season, but they were derailed with the lockout. And by the time the players got to camp, he was fighting a losing battle against time. How do you prepare a team to come out of the gate smoking when you've barely had time to light a match?

The answer he and his staff came up with was the no-huddle offense. The Packers had used it some in the playoffs against Atlanta and succeeded in dictating the rhythm of the game and giving themselves lots of plays to be successful.

So McCarthy and his offensive staff decided the no-huddle would help them in several areas leading up to the season.

"Aside from getting a lot of plays run, there's conditioning, timing," McCarthy said. "That's where you want to start the season. That's what you're kind of chasing a little bit from an offense. Just getting up and getting going and getting in that rhythm. No-huddle helps you with that."

The Packers had their best success during the preseason running it, scoring touchdowns on three of the seven series and driving more than 55 yards on two others for a field-goal try, one of which was missed. The touchdowns came on drives of 73, 78 and 81 yards.

McCarthy's decision to speed things up was definitely related to the lack of time his team spent together in the off-season and the way he installed his offense. There were no right ways or wrong ways to prepare your team to return from a lockout because the NFL had never gone through anything like this in the modern era.

jsonline wrote: