Packers potentially returning to pass-defending dominance

Green Bay's defense is trending the right way but bigger challenges await after Sunday's game against Joe Flacco and the Broncos.
Packers potentially returning to pass-defending dominance
Packers potentially returning to pass-defending dominance /

When the Green Bay Packers were at their best earlier in the decade, their pass defense was superb.

From 2010 through 2015, the Packers were No. 3 in the NFL in opponent passer rating (80.5), No. 4 in opponent completion percentage (58.6) and No. 1 in interceptions (118). The previous three seasons, however, have been a stark turn in the wrong direction. Green Bay allowed an opponent passer rating of 99.5 from 2016 through 2018. That’s not only the worst in the league over that span but the fifth-worst for any team over a three-year stretch in NFL history.

It’s early, but Green Bay has shown signs of dominating the airwaves once again. Through two weeks, the Packers have allowed a passer rating of 58.3. That’s the second-best in the league, behind only New England’s 43.8.

To be sure, the Packers haven’t faced elite quarterbacks, with a 10-3 victory over Mitchell Trubisky and the Chicago Bears in Week 1 and a 21-16 victory over Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2. However, it’s worth noting that Trubisky had a 62.1 rating vs. Green Bay and 70.0 at Denver, and Cousins had a 140.8 rating vs. Atlanta but 52.9 vs. Green Bay.

Up next: Denver’s Joe Flacco, who was red hot in leading Baltimore to a Super Bowl win in 2012 but otherwise has been the definition of mediocrity. After four consecutive seasons of sub-85 passer ratings, the Ravens dealt him to the Broncos in the offseason. Through two games, he’s completed a superb 69.1 percent of his passes and is averaging a career-high 280.0 passing yards per game, but the Broncos are 0-2 and have scored a 28th-ranked 15.0 points per game. In a 16-14 loss at home to Chicago on Sunday, Flacco was 35-of-50 (70.0 percent) for 291 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

“I think it’s overall been good,” Denver coach Vic Fangio said on Monday of Flacco’s performance. “That’s a pretty good defense they went against yesterday and we were able to methodically move the ball at times and convert some third downs and had a pretty good mix of run and pass. I think Joe played well yesterday overall. Now, it’s hard to say you’ve played well but you only scored 14 points. We’re not getting the points that we need to get out of our first downs. We had I believe 27 first downs yesterday and you should get more than 14 points with 27 first downs.”

On paper, it should be advantage to Green Bay. After giving up 767 passing yards and seven touchdowns to Cousins last season, the Packers turned the tables. With Jaire Alexander seeing a lot of Adam Thielen and Kevin King seeing a lot of Stefon Diggs, Minnesota’s prolific receiver duo combined to catch just 6-of-15 passes. While one of those was a 45-yard touchdown to Diggs, another was on the final play of the game, with Thielen uncovered and most of the Packers’ defenders playing deep coverage.

Me and him, shoot, the best tandem in the league, I feel like,” Alexander said of he and King. “Go watch the play-by-play. We strapped them boys up.”

Are Alexander, the team’s top pick in 2018, and King, the team’s first pick in 2017, really an elite tandem? The true tests are just down the road. In Week 4, it’s a home game against Philadelphia’s Carson Wentz. That’s followed by Dallas’ Dak Prescott, Detroit’s Matthew Stafford, Oakland’s Derek Carr, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and the Chargers’ Philip Rivers. 


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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.