GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers used their bye week in November to fix their defense, so what will they do during their playoff bye?
"I'm excited about some of the new wrinkles that we may move forward with and what we'll be able to do in the playoffs," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said.
That defensive coordinator Dom Capers can spend this week cooking up something new rather than fixing the old shows just how much progress his unit made since the halfway point of the season.
The Packers' defense was in shambles when they reached their bye in Week 9. Capers' unit had just allowed the New Orleans Saints to ring up 495 yards of total offense, including 193 on the ground in the Packers’ 44-23 loss.
McCarthy put it as bluntly as possible when he said at the time that the Packers "need to be more than a football team that just has to rely on winning the turnover ratio."
If that was his way of putting Capers and the defense on notice, he has to be pleased with the response in the second half of the season. A team that could not stop the run – it ranked dead last in the NFL through eight games, when all eight opponents rushed for at least 100 yards – was one of the best run-stopping units in the second half of the season.
Outside of one troubling half against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 14, when the Packers allowed 304 yards in the second half alone and let Julio Jones catch 11 passes for 259 yards (the most ever against the Packers) for the game, there was little to quibble with in the second half of the season, except that perhaps it wasn't against a murders' row of powerhouse offenses. Of their eight second-half opponents, four finished 21st or lower in total offense and just two (the Philadelphia Eagles and Falcons) ranked in the top 10.
"I think it's not how you start, it's how you finish," defensive tackle Letroy Guion said. "That's probably the best way I can sum that up. Some teams have to get going. Some teams come out [fast]. Some teams can't finish strong. You have all different types of ways that teams come together or break apart."
What led to the turnaround? Consider these factors:
Beginning with the Week 10 game against the Chicago Bears, Clay Matthews began splitting his time between inside and outside linebacker. He provided a steadying force in the run defense and still found ways to get pressure on the quarterback. He had just 1.5 sacks through seven games yet finished with 11, his fourth time in double figures in his six seasons.
Linebacker Sam Barrington's role increased, while A.J. Hawk was relegated to only playing in the base defensive package. Barrington provided more speed in the middle of the defense.
McCarthy's offseason mantra of "more personnel, less scheme" came to fruition as Capers found ways to get the likes of hybrid outside linebackers/defensive ends Julius Peppers, Mike Neal, Nick Perry and Matthews on the field more while also utilizing his best defensive linemen, Mike Daniels and the newcomer Guion.
Still, there's one question that looms about the defense as the Packers head into the postseason: Is it good enough to succeed where the previous three incarnations failed? In the 2011 playoff loss to the New York Giants and the consecutive postseason losses to the San Francisco 49ers in 2012 and 2013, the defense failed to do enough to win the game.
Not since the run to Super Bowl XLV has Capers' unit delivered with a big game in the playoffs (and the 2012 wild-card win over the Minnesota Vikings with backup Joe Webb as the quarterback doesn't count).
"I think our health is better and I think our confidence level is good," Capers said. "I think those two things are important. Momentum, you've heard me say that you want to keep that arrow pointing up, and the only little bump in the road we had was that second half of the Atlanta game where you didn't feel good coming out of that.
"You want confidence and guys feeling good about where you are and carry that into this time of the year. It's a big part of it. We all know this is a game of momentum."
Said McCarthy: "You want momentum built throughout your whole football team, and I think our defense has played exceptional football really since the bye week."