Paul Bretl | 11/30/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Following a performance against the Chicago Bears coming out of the bye week that defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said was “not to our standard,” the defense made a quick turnaround over these last two games. An important contributing factor to that success has been their ability to contain the opponent’s run game.
And not only did the Green Bay defense limit San Francisco and Miami on the ground, but they did so against two very dynamic running backs.
The 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey was held to just 31 yards on 11 carries. As a team, San Francisco totaled just 44 rushing yards at 2.8 yards per attempt. A few days later against Miami, with a backfield that features De’Von Achane, the Dolphins would muster just 39 rushing yards on 14 carries. Achane was held to just 2.0 yards per rush on seven attempts.
“I just think it all starts up front, in terms of being able to set edges,” Matt LaFleur said after the Miami game. “Anytime in the run game you can get penetration and get some knock-back, it makes it extremely difficult on offenses. We’re getting a lot of hats to the football, and that’s what I see. I see a physical brand of football where guys are running to the ball and we’re not missing a ton of tackles. Guys are doing their job.”
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Defending the run successfully, as the Packers have, has a physical component to it and begins in the trenches, as LaFleur mentions. The defensive ends are setting edges to keep the ball carrier from bouncing the ball outside, while the interior is taking on blocks to free up other defenders, and attempting to generate a quick push up the middle, which is the best way to disrupt any offensive play.
But contributing to Green Bay’s ability to stop the run these last two games has been the superb play of the linebacker position. Led by Quay Walker, this is a fast and physical group right now, filling gaps between tackles, fighting through blockers, and getting sideline-to-sideline to contain any outside runs.
“Just staying square, killing blocks,” said Quay Walker about the run game. “Anytime guys can kill blocks and get off, things will go well. I think whenever you try to go one-for-one, just say I did my job, I got in my gap, whatever the case may be, that’s when you can get explosive runs and stuff like that. But anytime we can kill blocks, shed, get off, we have a pretty high percentage chance of stopping a run.”
Holding players like McCaffrey and Achane to 45 combined yards on 18 carries is very much a total team effort, and all 11 defenders rallying to the football. These are two backs that can make defenders miss and look silly, even if, as a defensive player, you are positioned well and do what you’re supposed to do. Unison from the front end to the back end is a must.
“It’s just complementary football from all three levels,” said JJ Enagbare of the run defense. “The D-tackles, D-line, linebackers able to flow to over top and then the DBs able to make the open-field tackles when it comes to them, so it was pretty much just all 11 playing together and playing with each other.”
In what is the ultimate team game, where the phrase ‘complementary football’ is vital and thrown around often, the Packers’ offense has played a hand in the run game’s success as well. While it is the defenders who are obviously the ones making the plays, the offense has helped put that unit in some advantageous situations when it comes to the run game.
With the Packers jumping out to early leads in each of these two games, it takes away the opponent’s ability to lean heavily on the run game. It forces them out of their offensive gameplan as they can become more pass-heavy in an effort to try to catch up on the scoreboard, thus limiting the number of opportunities that McCaffrey and Achane get to touch the ball.
“It’s good. It works out in our favor every time,” said Xavier McKinney when asked about playing complementary football after the 49ers game. “When we do that, we’re a really good football team and I think it shows because when we execute on all levels and everybody’s kinda doing their job and our playmakers are making plays, we’re a hard team to beat, so just gotta continue to keep trying to do that.”
While these past two games have been arguably the best that the Packers have played against the run all year, they have steadily been solid in this regard for much of the season. Before the majority of teams play on Sunday in Week 13, the Packers currently rank eighth in yards per rush allowed at 4.2.
A strong run defense has a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of the defensive unit. It puts the offense behind the sticks and in ‘get back on track’ situations, where the defense now has the upper hand. On these obvious passing downs, the pass rush can pin its ears back, and coverage-wise, there are only so many routes that can be run in those long down-and-distance scenarios, giving the secondary the advantage.
“I think we’re starting to accumulate reps together, and everything’s just starting to click I think defensively as a whole,” said Eric Wilson. “Everybody’s playing together, figuring out exactly what we need to do each week in order to do what we’ve got to do. Just playing together, I’d say is the biggest thing.”