After the trade for Micah Parsons, Green Bay\u2019s pass rush immediately became one of the most dangerous in the league, with each of the other Packers pass rushers pushed down into complementary roles. The question was how they would hold up in run defense. The Dallas Cowboys wanted Kenny Clark in the trade to bolster their run defense, so the Packers lost some beef up front. Dallas also pushed the narrative that Parsons\u2019 freelancing was a huge deterrent to their run defense.<\/p>\n
The Packers would be tested against the Detroit Lions, one of the best rushing offenses of the last few years. Detroit\u2019s offensive line is in flux, having to replace center Frank Ragnow, but the Lions still should have an upper-echelon run game.<\/p>\n
The Packers completely shut the door on the Lions\u2019 run game Sunday. In terms of rushing success rate (22.7 percent), this was the Lions\u2019 worst game since 2023. They finished with 46 yards rushing on 22 attempts (2.1 yards per attempt).<\/p>\n
The Packers\u2019 defensive line was stout. It was two-gapping with physicality, keeping the linebackers clean and making the picture messy for Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. Second-year linebacker Edgerrin Cooper looks like he\u2019s ascended to the top tier of his position. He was fitting the run inside, chasing perimeter plays down and finishing tackles with physicality. Linebacker Quay Walker was not to be outdone and had a strong game as well. When runs did get past the first level, the secondary came up, taking good angles, and were willing tacklers.<\/p>\n
This Packers\u2019 defense is a well-coached unit. It can rush four, and defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley can scheme up disruption with the best of them. The corners didn\u2019t get tested much, and how well they play will determine the ceiling for this unit. The spine of this defense is rock solid, though. This should be at least a top-10 unit, and Hafley will be getting head coach interviews this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the trade for Micah Parsons, Green Bay\u2019s pass rush immediately became one of the most dangerous in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-136215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}