Woodson: Packers defense has 'problems'

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If the 14-1 Packers are going to make it back to the Super Bowl this season, Green Bay's defense knows that it's on them to make major improvements, and quickly.While Aaron Rodgers has led the Packers' offense to be the NFL's highest-scoring group, their defense is near the bottom of the league in many categories."Defensively we still have some problems," veteran cornerback Charles Woodson said after Green Bay beat the Bears on Sunday. "We just give up way too many things on a consistent basis. We have a long way to go."With a relatively meaningless game this weekend in the Packers' regular-season finale against Detroit, followed by a first-round playoff bye, there won't be a game of significant consequence until Green Bay hosts a Divisional Round game on Jan. 14 or 15.But Woodson believes they can figure it out before then."There's a lot of time," Woodson said. "There's time to get it done and think about it and make sure we're all on the same page going into the playoffs."Throughout most of this season, it has been the Packers' passing defense which has struggled the most by allowing big plays, long drives and a lot of yards.With one week remaining in the regular season and Green Bay locked in to the NFC's top seed, the Packers rank second-to-last in passing yards allowed, 27th in allowing opponents to convert third-down plays and 28th in penalties. "We're just not playing good football at times," Woodson said. "We've been consistently inconsistent throughout the season. It's on each man to get it done. Everybody on this team, to the man, has to look within himself and just get the job done."Green Bay has also struggled in taking down opposing quarterbacks, ranking 27th in sacks. Last season, the Packers had the second-most sacks in the NFL, but have 20 fewer sacks this season.Recently it hasn't just been Green Bay's passing defense looking for answers, it's been their run-stopping, as well.Against the Bears on Christmas night, Chicago ran for 199 yards without its top two running backs -- Matt Forte (knee) and Marion Barber (calf)."It's probably our worst performance from a pure grading standpoint that we've had in our time here," coach Mike McCarthy said. "Our performance (in that game) was clearly not in line with the expectations of our defense."With Forte and Barber injured, undrafted third-year player Kahlil Bell ran for 121 yards on 23 carries (5.3 average).However, Packers defensive lineman Ryan Pickett was unable to play against the Bears due to a concussion and his absence may have been a major factor in Green Bay's inability to stop the Bears' run game."Well, Ryan Pickett is clearly probably our best run defender up front," McCarthy said. "I would say that is definitely accurate. Run defense isn't about talent. It's about doing the little things right, and we didn't do a very good of it in our last game."Even though Pickett wasn't on the field for the game, he had to sit in on the defensive team meetings this week and hear about how bothered the coaching staff was by the team's poor performance in stopping the run."It's hard (because) I wanted to get out there and help," said Pickett, who returned to practice this week. "That's the hardest thing I had to do was sit and watch. We are much better than what we played against Chicago. That's the same team we held to nine yards rushing with Forte (in Week 3 in Chicago). That tells you the story there."A quick glance at the Packers' run defense numbers would show a 16th-ranked group with 114.4 rushing yards allowed per game. A closer look, however, shows that only six NFL teams have defended fewer running plays than Green Bay. Basically, with the number of points that Rodgers and the offense score on a weekly basis, opposing teams don't have a chance to run the ball very often.Additionally, the Packers are 26th in the NFL in yards allowed per carry at 4.7."We've got to clean that up if we're going to make a playoff run," Pickett said. "We're not playing Packers-style defense right now. We've got to tighten up on defense. We just have to do it. And we're running out of time to do it. We've got a lot to prove on this defense."Despite all of the yards allowed this season, Green Bay's defense hasn't given up a lot of points. In fact, the Packers are 12th in the league in points allowed at 21.2, better than other playoff-bound teams such as New Orleans, New England and Detroit.That discrepancy in points compared to yards is due in large part to Green Bay leading he NFL in interceptions with 29, which is eight more than the next-best team."There's been flashes of times where we've played outstanding run defense, outstanding pass defense, getting after the quarterback," linebacker Clay Matthews said Sunday. "Now the real issue is putting together a complete game."Follow Paul Imig on Twitter