In Control: Packers Sack Critical Defensive Mission

Football really is a simple game.

Yes, the explosion of fantasy football and hyperfocus on quarterback play exists, but the game is won and lost at the line of scrimmage.

Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst knows that.

He knew a season ago that his team, especially on defense, was too prone to losing the battle at the line of scrimmage. In his season-ending news conference following the disappointing playoff loss in Philadelphia, Gutekunst issued what now can be viewed as a mission statement.

“We’ve got to be able to get after the quarterback with four,” Gutekunst said. “We’ve got to affect the quarterback more with just four players. It [the pass rush] needs to be able to control the game when we need to control the game and finish games off.”

The Packers took two key steps toward controlling the game on the line of scrimmage.

They started by coach Matt LaFleur dismissing last year’s defensive line coach and hiring Demarcus Covington. Covington has received rave reviews from his peers and his players.

“I like the fact that he can coach a bunch of different techniques,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said in the summer. “He’s been involved in a lot of different fronts. I love his demeanor, I love the way he coaches, I love the relationship he has with his players. We did our homework on him.”

The goal was to get more out of a front that was set to have four first-round picks in the starting lineup.

Last year, those four men, Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt, Lukas Van Ness and Rashan Gary, were all disappointing for one reason or another. The Packers felt a new voice would lead to better results.

Of course, Covington has become a relative footnote in moves made to bolster his pass rush. After an offseason of preaching urgency, Gutekunst had a chance to put his money where his mouth was.

Literally.

Micah Parsons was inexplicably available after a contract impasse caused him to request a trade out of Dallas. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, believing he had had an extension in place with Parsons, acquiesced to the trade request, sending him to Green Bay for two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark.

Words matter. Cultures matter. Coaches matter.

What really matters is having great players.

Parsons certainly has been that through his first two games with the Packers. He has recorded at least-half of a sack in both games, and was particularly disruptive in Thursday night’s 27-18 win over the Washington Commanders. He had eight pressures and freed up opportunities for others.

Wyatt and Gary have a sack in each of the first two games, and the Packers recorded four sacks apiece in a pair of statement victories to open the season.

You know the storyline by now about how Green Bay could not win big games against good teams a season ago. It’s true, which is why the schedule release had a daunting task staring the Packers right in the face.

The Detroit Lions were last year’s division winner and top seed in the NFC. They’d beaten the Packers at Lambeau Field three years in a row and looked like the bully of the NFC North block.

Just four days later, they were going to play the Commanders, who knocked the Lions out of the playoffs on their way to the NFC Championship Game and have an MVP candidate at quarterback with Jayden Daniels

Green Bay did not just win both games. It was dominant with a new play style.

“Relentless. Just physical, aggressive, attacking,” LaFleur said after Thursday’s victory. “The play style is exactly what we want from these guys, and it always starts with the energy and effort. That’s going to get you through and can overcome some of the mistakes.

“I think our front is extremely disruptive, getting after the quarterback. It didn’t seem like they ran the ball very effectively at all, either. I think Haf’s done a hell of a job, I think our players are doing a great job feeding off one another, and it’s definitely exciting to watch our defense go out there and perform, because they allow us to get up on somebody.”

That play style that LaFleur mentioned has not always been a hallmark in Green Bay. Too often, their defense was passive and unable to dictate terms to opposing offenses.

One of the signs of a defense playing with a sense of urgency is the way in which they rally to opposing ball-carriers.

“When I’m watching film, when I hit the pause button at the end of the play, and see 11 guys all in the clip, that is like the greatest thing in the world for a coach,” Hafley said on Tuesday.

That relentless playstyle has spearheaded Green Bay’s 2-0 start.

The offense, while it has scored 27 points in each of the first two games, is still trying to put a full game together.

The defense has put a full game together.

Twice.

They’ve done so against offenses that were among the best in the NFL a season ago. They did not just hold these offenses down. They suffocated them.

Neither the Lions, who finished first in the league in scoring last season, nor Commanders, who finished fifth, found the end zone until deep into the second half and the Packers had built two-score leads. In the Lions’ case, the game was essentially over by the time they scored their touchdown in garbage time.

The biggest reason for that is Green Bay’s ability to fulfill the mission set forth by Gutekunst.

Want to control a game? Hit the quarterback after your offense builds a lead.

All four of Green Bay’s sacks in the first game of the season came in the second half. Three came in the second half of Green Bay’s encore on Thursday night.

It’s part of a new attitude on defense.

“Yeah, teams are going to be like, this is going to be a heavyweight fight,” Parsons said after Thursday’s game. “We’re coming out here, we’re running to the ball, we’re playing fast, trusting each other, communicating. That just makes you hard to beat. As long as you just keep doing that every week and challenging ourselves to keep up with that same energy and effort, we’re going to be a hard team to beat.”

If you weren’t going to take Parsons at his word that Green Bay would be tough to beat, perhaps a pair of two-score wins will do the convincing.

Either way, the Packers have been in total control through two games, and it’s because they’ve responded to their general manager’s plea.