Football Outsiders rankings now have the Packers as the top-ranked defense.

Here is a link to an article about the Packers' defense but it's an insider article...

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/new...%3fid%3d4662631

I remember being excited about this defense after the Bears game. I'm going to hold off until I see how they play the next few weeks. I am cautiously optimistic. I'm really liking what I see out of CM3 and the backers lately.

This defense has the potential to carry the team deep into the playoffs. I really believe that. But Capers has to stay aggressive every week, and the players have to play like they did vs Dallas every week. Remember, they were not only missing Kampman- more importantly they were missing Chillar. Plus, It is possible Raji can keep improving and eventually make an impact. And then, with all that said...it comes down to injuries. All bets are off if Woodson, Collins, or Jolly...etc. are injured.

That's a lot of "ifs" but I don't know how else to say it.

I think the success of this D to keep going revolves around one cornerstone........Charles Woodson

FLASHBACK: In the presweason this defense looked like the one on display Sun vs the Boys.

FAST FORWARD TO WEEK 8: WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT DEFENSE?????

SUNDAY vs BOYS: Charles Woodson was AGAIN placed in position to do what he did in the preseason. wrek havic on an offense.........AND....an offense that has risen to a top level offense at that.

Charles Woodson is not a one man wrecking crew.....BUTTTTTTT...when he is put into a position to make plays and is moved around like he was Sunday, that keeps OC/QB guessing and wondering, it makes the TOTAL defense a work of art..


Charles Woodson is an ALL PRO CB in any press coverage defense.......on an above average defense

Charles Woodson is a HALL OF FAMER when he is used like he was Sunday..on a defense that is TOP 5

Rats. Not being an Insider I couldn't read the article.

The Packers should be able to win any game where they can hold the opposing team to fewer than 20 points. That shouldn't be such an outlandish requirement.

The D seems to do best when they have a lot of field behind them, so a decent special teams performance seems key.

I really don't think any turning point was reached with this game, and I'm not sure Capers called this game any different than he would have a few weeks ago.

He has said this himself a few times since Sunday: they were able to blitz the way they did because they stopped the run so well and Dallas abandoned the run. From that point they were free to focus on confusing and disrupting the passing game. Life is a lot easier when you can focus on stopping one attack rather than two.

Capers has been careful implementing this system, and it's clear he's taken a "walk before you run" approach. He wants them stopping the run consistently with their big three linemen first and foremost. He wants that to be second nature to them. When that happens consistently, THEN they'll have more freedom to send the extra man on stunts and crosses etc.

Consistency is the key. They need to focus on playing that way for 4 quarters, every game. They just gave up 38 points to Tampa a week before this performance. And until they string together 2,3,4 good defensive performances in a row I'm not sure what else to say besides that they're still learning.

Amazing performance against Dallas. But the true test will be how they're looking after the Ravens and Steelers. One thing is for certain though, they're going to have to continue to play lights out the rest of the way, or those offensive woes will drag us down.

We can't afford more than 2 more losses down the stretch. If we're gonna make the playoffs, no unit of this team can take another game off.

Well then they better wake up, because all 3 units have not played well in a game together once this season.

I don't agree with any of that. We know by now coaches say politically correct things, half truths, etc. Never take anything a GM or coach says at face value. This is a great example. They have stopped the run in every game this year, other than the Bengals. So why didn't they blitz like crazy before now? Secondly, they blitzed a lot early on Sunday. In fact, so early that you have to ask...how did they know the Cowboys running game was shut down?

The facts just don't match the "official line" coming from 1265.

Good to see

When I stated in preseason I thought top 5 def. I was laughed at

Why can't they play like this against Minn???

They will in January...

I agree. They also stopped the run brilliantly agains Minny in Week 4 and generated plenty of 3rd and long situations yet didn't blitz. This team has stopped the run pretty much all year save for the Bengals. They are actually #4 in rush defense ahead of the Vikings. I'm not sure I buy Capers explanation. His plan against the Vikings in both games was simply inexplicable. He chose to simply play soft defense against Favre and not get pressure on him. Favre has been playing for a while. He knows how to pick apart a zone defense when given time. And time he was given.

Barber had 5 runs for 26 yards. The Cowboys as a whole averaged over 4 YPC. Its not like the Packers completely shut down their run game. The Cowboys inexplicably simply chose to abandon the run game. Garrett probably thought he could torch the Packers through the air like he has in the past. I knew this meeting would be different than in years past. Terrell Owens' impact was felt in the last two meetings. He absolutely torched us in 2007 and we had two defenders pretty much glued to his hip in the last meeting, allowing Austin and Witten to kill us. We could play a much more balanced and aggressive game plan without a star WR to worry about. Woodson was just phenomenal. 5 INTs for the guy already and he had a sack and two forced fumbles. Capers finally let him roam around the field and make plays. The guy is like a hybrid CB/S/LB all mixed in one. He has pass rush moves. He is a solid tackler in space. He can cover with the best of the DBs in the NFL and he is a natural at generating turnovers. Hopefully Capers continues to let the guy use his natural born identity to be a beast out there.

... on their XBOX ...

I agree with both of you guys. This looked like a completely different defense than the one he schemed for the Minnesota games. This was the first time all year I watched a game and felt as though i was finally starting to see the 3-4 I've been expecting to see ever since I heard Capers was hired. It looked like a chinese fire drill out there - you never knew who was coming, or how many of them, or from where. I kept thinking I was watching that old Eagles defense from 4 or 5 years ago, where every play it looked like the quarterback was being attacked by a swarm of 300-pound bees. This was not the way they played against the Vikings.





They didn't steal McCarthy's playbook, did they? That might explain it.





Woodson is incredible. There just aren't words to describe him. When was the last time Green Bay had a defensive player who, when he was on his game, made it look like we were lining up 12 players on every snap? Because that's what he does. He's like having an extra player out there on every down. Where would we be without him right now, and how many other players on this squad can you say that about right now?

LeRoy Butler

Capers did blitz against Minnesota, just not as much. When he did Favre picked them apart more so. The game icing touchdown on Nov 1 was on an all-out blitz. Favre knew exactly where to go with the ball. Yeah, players were frustrated that they weren't being sent, but they weren't getting squat when they were. Players always want to be aggressive - Capers knew better. He knew that a guy with Favre's experience would tear up a blitz and he was right. In the Oct game in the dome, according to Bob McGinn, blitzing inside LBs were a combined 0-11 in even getting to the QB. It was a combination of poor execution by the players, great protection by Minny and Favre's awareness. Great QB's always want you to blitz, it makes life easier on you.

I still don't think Capers game plan was much different than most other games. Dallas' O became predictable; it makes sense they would blitz more often because for the most part they knew what was coming. But I think they did their share of blitzing against Tampa, they just didn't get home.

I agree with this. Good post. Vikings games were bad examples just due to Brett being so savvy and pinpoint when the blitzes came. While I love the aggressive blitzing, I don't think we'll necessarily see that week in-week out. Unless a team gets one-dimensional either due to a dumb OC or our offense builds a big lead. OL protection schemes and weaknesses will play into that, too.

I partially agree with this. First, nobody is saying they didn't blitz at all vs the Vikings or Bucs. And I can't emphasize enough, it's not the quantity that's most important to me, it's the variety and timing. The bitzes vs Favre were very predictble. When they were coming...and who was coming.

NO QB likes pressure. Favre included. ALL QBs love blitzes when they don't get home. Great Qbs like Favre love TIME. What was discouraging about the Vikes games was a lack of creativity and timing. Not a simple matter of blitz or no blitz.

Would the point here be that against a team with a decent and smart QB, that our defense will get toasted? If we can't blitz against experienced QB's, and we generate no pass rush apart from blitz, then it follows that the defense has no chance against the good QB. This logic says if you blitz, they love it and will toast you. And if you don't blitz, they'll have all day and will toast you. Toast if you do, toast if you don't?

Unfortunately to a large degree I think that may be the case. We can stop bad teams or running teams.

But we have yet to show we can stop good passing teams.

Although what about Romo? He has normally been viewed as a decent and reasonably experienced, reasonably intelligent QB. And Dallas's passing offense hasn't been bad this year. But in that game we were able to blitz enough to keep them off balance; and able to blitz with some effectiveness; and able to blitz without completely giving up the run.

Hopefully our players are getting smarter about how to blitz, or how to cover up when we do, and how to disguise when we do. In explaining why they have blitzed so relatively little, Capers referred to a couple of effective runnings plays earlier in the year versus the blitz. Maybe those were coincidental, but scared him off. Or maybe some other guys are getting better at preventing those.

One way or another, if the defense wants to be a good one against even decent passing teams or even downright good passing teams, they are going to have to be able to way to effectively bring some pressure without getting sieved by big runs and big plays in the process. we'll see.

I think this team is really now starting to pick up some of the intricacies of this defense.

Believe it or not there are certain techniques when blitzes are performed. It isn't just wildly running into a certain a gap and hoping it doesn't get picked up.

Since this team hasn't been blitz or stunt-heavy in several seasons I really think that the personnel weren't used to it and probably didn't practice it as much in past seasons as they do now. So now I think that you're starting to see the timing improve and subtle nuances that can really make a difference come to be. Plus Capers has improved familiarity with the personnel.

Hopefully this is the case.

I would suggest no, that is not true. It would be more likely that againt a team that has an effective gameplan for the blitz, your blitz will not be effective. Remember, the west coast offense was developed to neutralize the 3-4 of the time by getting the ball out quick. That is exactly what brett did. Romo has never been a quick release QB.

Brett really shredded Tramon Williams in that last game. My interpretation of what I saw is that Tramon plays a ways off the line of scrimmage, which opened up the opportunities given how well Favre is throwing it. To beat a Favre style west coast team, you have to be able to obstruct the route at the line of scrimmage. 2007 showed just how hard it is to stop Favre in that short quick passing game,as very few teams could do it when it wasn't below zero, and he didn't even have the threat of a running game for the first half of the season. Using the Minnesota games to evaluate our D would be like using Marissa Miller to judge our wives against.

I don't think we can complain about this defense. Even Pittsburgh's defense last year had some trouble with passing teams, as witnessed by Warner's production in the super bowl. Our defense last week shut down one of the top offenses in the league against Dallas, though Dallas developed some key injuries on their OL.

I think it likely we end the year with at least a top 10 defense, maybe a top 5 as many of out tough games left are tough because of the defense of the opponent, not a high powered offense. Arizona can light it up, but by the last game of the season I think they will be mailing it in as they will have already determined their fate. Our D is good enough to take us far right now. Now we need to fix the O and special teams.