Packers Need To Shore Up Run-Defense To Make Playoff Run

The Green Bay Packers lost to the Tennessee Titans Sunday, but the story of this most recent loss sounds eerily similar to the Packers three previous losses thus far in 2008. To find the plot of this recurring tale, look no farther than the Green Bay run-defense.

First, lets take a gander at the Packers early struggles stopping the run. In week one, the Vikings were able to rumble for 187 yards, including 103 by Minnesota's star running back Adrian Peterson. The Packers won the game, but it most definitely wasn't attributed to the Packers run-defense.

Then, in week two, Green Bay held the still-winless Detroit Lions to a meager 47 yards rushing. The Lions were down 21 points before they even knew they were playing a football game, so at that point running the ball wasn't going to be an option. Even so, seven weeks later, this hardly looks like an accomplishment as the Lions rank 31st in the NFL in rushing per game.

All hell breaks loose for the Packer run defense from there. In weeks Cowboys-Packers">three, four, and five, the Packers gave up 217, 178, and 176 rushing yards, respectively, and Green Bay lost all three games. Packers coach Mike McCarthy said afterwards that run defense is "the thermometer of a defense". In all fairness, the run-defense in Green Bay was a Lambeau-in-January type cold to start the 2008 season.

But then, in the following two weeks, Packers fans saw a glimmer of hope, a definitive rise in McCarthy's hypothetical thermometer. Things were starting to heat up for the Packers run-defense.

This "mini-rejuvenation" started in Seattle, where Green Bay held the lowly Seahawks to only 113 yards rushing. That number was even skewed slightly higher when quarterback Charlie Frye had a 29-yard run in garbage time for the Seahawks. More importantly, the Packers won the game and the run defense appeared to be making positive strides.

The next week, the Packers got the luxury of facing the NFL's worst running team, the Indianapolis Colts. Green Bay held the rushing-challenged Colts to 73 yards, and heading into the bye, the Packer run-defense was actually gaining confidence that the unit could actually stop an NFL rushing attack.

Packers defensive coordinator Bob Sanders praised the unit after the Colts win. "We've been taking enormous steps forward in our run-defense in the past couple of weeks," Sanders said. "Hopefully, with the bye week and rest, we can continue our recent success and build on it moving forward."

That was all proved to be false advertising in week nine, as the Titans smash 'n' dash duo of Chris Johnson and LenDale White ran every-which-way all over the Packers. Tennessee accumulated 178 yards on the ground, and in the fourth quarter and overtime again exposed Green Bay's deficiencies in run defense.

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