Green Bay Packers: Defense Is The Key To Beat Manning And The Broncos

The Green Bay Packers travel to the Mile-High City, for a Sunday Night Football dance with the Denver Broncos. The Packers lead the series 6-5-1. The action will be fast and furious between the two 6-0 giants. But, the key to this game will be the Packers’ defense shutting down Manning and the sleeping Denver offense. Green Bay has the talent to do it.

When the Packers are mentioned in a conversation, the first thing that usually comes to mind is their quarterback. Who can forget the days of Brett Farve and Bart Starr? Soon, Aaron Rodgers will be mentioned along with those names. Some Packers fans are doing it now.

Passing will definitely play a role in the Sunday night battle. But the duel that’s being hyped between Rodgers and Manning will take a backseat to the defensive struggle that both teams will have.

Aaron Rodgers is having a phenomenal year for the Cheese Heads. His stats look like an early ticket punch for MVP. In the past five seasons, his passer rating hasn’t dipped below 105 and his completion percentage is always 65 or better. The Packers have been blessed by the football gods to have him as their signal caller.

The Packers are going to need Rodgers’ gunslinger numbers against the Denver Broncos defense. They have been racking up most of the wins as Manning tries to find his rhythm.

The Packers also have a championship caliber defense. Julius Peppers can bring the rush. His 5.5 sacks have him at No. 8 in the league. They are one of the stingiest units in the NFL, as ranked by Sporting Charts. They are striving to become that next level defense which can take over when the offense is struggling. Teams that build upon those types of defensive units have done well in the playoffs and beyond. The Packers are one of those teams.

Dom Capers has created a defense that continues to improve with each game. The Packers’ defense will have a breakdown here and there. But, overall, they are a highly respected unit that will grind it out until the final tick of the clock. Outside of a horrendous yardage outing against Philip Rivers and the Chargers, the Packers have been able to remain strong.

Capers was disgusted with the yardage the Packers gave up, but he was satisfied with the aggressiveness the defense showed against the Chargers.

“I don’t like the yardage, obviously, but I liked the way our guys competed, because to me good football teams find a way to win,” Capers said, via ESPN. “You do it different ways each and every week. You’ve seen over the last two, three weeks to where we’ve won different ways. To me, that’s the sign of a… I always tells guys, ‘Winners find a way to win.’ You never know what play’s going to make the difference. Yeah, I think that we can take and learn and I think in the long run we’ll take some positives out of this thing in terms of the plays.”

Winners find a way to win. The Packers have won six in a row and don’t look like they will be stopped anytime soon. The Red Zone defense was the key to stopping the Chargers. The next step is to keep it from happening too often.

The Packers are not taking the struggles of Peyton Manning lightly. Dom Capers and the rest of the Packers’ staff understand that the Broncos’ quarterback could snap out of his funk at any time.

A Rodgers-Manning duel looks good on paper. And with the Green Bay Packers’ defense playing the way they are, that’s going to be a tall order.

[Photo by Jonathan Daniels/Getty Images]