Defense Dominated

The Packers had, arguably, their best showing of the season on defense. Green Bay held Minnesota to 145 total yards on just 44 plays (a 3.3 yards/play) while generating 3 turnovers. The Packers also forced three consecutive 3 & outs in the 2^nd half, 5 punts, and a turnover on downs. Just an incredible performance all around. Green Bay also had 5 sacks, highlighted by Micah Parsons’ bull rush over Vikings Center, Ryan Kelly, which might’ve been the best play of the season. The longest play the Vikings had was a 22-yard rush by Jordan Mason.

The 2^nd half defense might’ve been the best we’ve seen in Green Bay since the Week 8 game of the 2010 season where the Packers pitched a shutout of the NY Jets. Even in that game the Jets gained 360 yards. In Sunday’s game, Hafley’s defense allowed a total of -1 yards on 15 plays and picking off McCarthy twice just in the 2^nd half.

Rookie Warren Brinson led the team with 5 QB Pressures, also getting his 1^st career sack (half a sack). As mentioned before, Micah Parsons was incredible once again, completely flipping this game sideways. This is now the 7^th time Green Bay has held their opponent to < 20 points. No mystery to why this team has 7 wins – easily could be more as the Packers are 4-3 in games giving up less than 20 points. Considering the offense has averaged 10 points in each loss…begs to question, “How close is this team to being 11-0?”

Committed to the Run

Matt LaFluer had a gameplan and was quite stubborn to stick to it. Green Bay ran 65 plays, dropping back on just 25, meaning they called a rush on 40, or 61.5% of the time. The Packers were effective enough, gaining 146 yards on 42 rush attempts (3.5 yards/rush).

Without Josh Jacobs, Green Bay turned to Emanuel Wilson and he delivered enough. It took him 28 carries to reach 107 yards (3.8 yards/rush – oddly enough that’s the same avg. Jacobs has on the season) along with both Packer TD’s. There’s been some chatter from Packer fans (and radio stations) calling for Wilson to be more involved and maybe the starter, but a healthy Jacobs likely goes off for 150-165 yards on his own with 28 carries. Wilson missed hitting some holes on time, and he’s not in the same stratosphere as Jacobs in terms of elusiveness. All in all, a very strong performance at the right time. A major reason for the Packers first 100-yard rusher this season was bringing Rookie big man, Anthony Belton, in at RG to utilize his strength and size to create bigger running lanes – he needs to be the RG moving forward and let Jordan Morgan battle for the LT spot – considering he’s the LT of the future, that would make sense.

Special Teams Came Through

The Special Teams contributed to this win in a big fashion. McManus hit on all 5 of his kicks (3 field goals/2 extra points) which was huge and the game-turning punt fumble/recovery to open the 2^nd half. That play essentially won the game. After Green Bay went 6 plays and out, punter Daniel Whelan uncorked a perfect punt which back spun to hit the return man making it a live ball and ultimately Green Bay jumped on. Two plays later Green Bay punched it in to make 17-6, which seemed insurmountable given the way the D was playing and how bad JJ McCarthy has been in his career.

Could’ve Closed It Sooner

After forcing a 3 & out with 2:17 left in the 3^rd quarter, Matt LaFluer decided to run the clock out – much like Mike McCarthy tried to do in the 2014 NFC Championship Game. The difference being, McCarthy’s QB was struggling AND facing a top defense whereas Love’s stats aren’t they could’ve/should’ve been due to lack of opportunity. LaFluer ran the ball on all 8 plays of the drive, while leading 17-6. Scoring a TD there ices the game by making it a 3-score game. It’s the “safe” way to play, but while you can trust your defense, you shouldn’t call a game to completely RELY on them, especially against stiffer competition. Now, I’m not saying he should’ve gone for it on 4^th down on Minnesota’s 12-yard line leading by 11 early in the 4^th quarter, but just running on every play was the play “not to lose” gameplan. It worked, but that can easily come to bite you as early as Thursday against a competent QB and dangerous offense. However, this was the most complete game Green Bay has played, so the answer to the question is YES.

Again, regardless of the outcome of this game and the Giants/Lions game, this Thanksgiving matchup was going to be a monumental one. While neither are leading the division, the winner of this game WILL be the division favorite beginning Friday.