GREEN BAY – For years, the success of the Packers has been attributed to superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers and a stellar overall offense. Even players on Green Bay’s defense have seen it that way.
While the Packers’ offense is still performing above average this season (currently ranking fifth in the NFL in points and 10th and yards) and Rodgers is once again the frontrunner for the league's Most Valuable Player, the defense has been the main reason for Green Bay’s last two wins.
That has certainly been a welcome change for a defense that’s been perceived at times as not holding up its end of the bargain on enough occasions.
"This is definitely an offensive team, there’s no doubt about that," linebacker Clay Matthews said. "But it’s nice when you can carry your own weight, (because) it seemed for the longest time it’s been offense, offense, offense."
In recent victories at San Francisco and over St. Louis, the Packers have allowed just one touchdown. Green Bay also combined for nine sacks and four interceptions in those two games.
Through five weeks of the 2015 season, the Packers are second in the league in sacks (20), second in interceptions (eight), third in points allowed (16.2) and fourth in passing yards per game (186.2).
At its current rate, Green Bay would set a franchise record in sacks. The 2001 team holds the all-time Packers mark with 52 sacks, and this year’s team is on pace for 64 sacks.
"I think we definitely have a chance to be the best in 10 years," head coach Mike McCarthy said when asked about Green Bay’s pass-rush this season.
In the Packers’ Super Bowl-winning season in 2010, they recorded 47 sacks as a team. Green Bay matched that number again in 2012. Those are the two highest totals in McCarthy’s decade as head coach.
"It’s important for us to be a well-balanced football team," McCarthy said. "For as great as 2011 was, winning 15 regular-season games, it was a big piece of humble pie. You get into that playoff race, things are different. Obviously, the competition’s different. The offense has to play to the defense, the defense plays to the offense and I think definitely our special teams fits right in there.
"It’s about playing to a standard of football, complementing each other, make sure we overcome for one another when needed."
It hasn’t been just one star player piling up all the sacks, either. Matthews and Julius Peppers are tied for the team lead with 4.5 sacks each, but Nick Perry has 3.5, Mike Daniels has 2.5 and four other Packers have registered at least a half-sack.
"(Defensive coordinator) Dom (Capers) is doing a great job of playing on mismatches and opportunities," Matthews said. "I think last week (against the Rams) we did a number of pressures with which we were able to get after the quarterback and hit him early. You’ve got to think that affected him for the rest of the game. We really liked what we were able to do as far as getting after the quarterback and letting our guys sit back there and cover the receivers."
The timing for this uptick in defensive performance has been perfect, too. Green Bay’s offense has struggled in the past two games, and the usually ultra-efficient Rodgers even threw two interceptions – and lost a fumble – in Week 5.
For the Packers offense to score a total of four touchdowns in a two-game span would typically spell trouble in terms of picking up a win. But Matthews and the rest of the defense has enabled this 5-0 record to become reality.
"There will be the games where the offense has to bail the defense out, and vice versa," Matthews said. "I think over the last two weeks, the defense has been for the most part pretty happy with the way in which we’ve been playing. Hopefully that’s the case moving forward, along with the offense continuing to put up points, and it leads to more victories."
It would be severely premature to write off Green Bay’s offense or think of them as the weak link of the team. Even while the effects of Jordy Nelson’s season-ending knee injury are becoming more obvious every week, the Packers have led the NFL in scoring in two of the past four seasons. So, more than likely, Rodgers will find a way to ensure Green Bay finishes no worse than its current spot as the league’s fifth-highest scoring offense.
With a pass rush this good, though, it’s allowed some breathing room for the offense.
"It’s important to have some common threads that run through your team," McCarthy said. "Because if you have a high-powered offense but you have a defense that doesn’t have a very good pass rush, that can bite you."
