Broncos vs. Packers: 5 Things to Watch for Green Bay

The Green Bay Packers take on the Denver Broncos at Lambeau Field in a Week 4 showdown on Sunday. Undefeated through three games, the Packers look to make it a perfect 4-for-4 against the AFC West foe. 

Heavily favored, the Packers will look to handle their business and send the Broncos back to Denver with their third loss this season. A win would be the 10th straight game the Packers have won dating back to last season. 

Here are five things to watch for as the Packers play the Broncos. 

Marshall Newhouse

With the high likelihood that Bryan Bulaga is unable to play with his knee sprain, the Packers will rely on backup Marshall Newhouse to hold down the right tackle position. Newhouse took over against the Bears after Bulaga left the game in the second quarter. 

Against the Bears, Newhouse had the opposite type of performance from his preseason where he didn't look the part. It is crucial to the Packers, both passing and running, that Newhouse holds up well and helps to keep Rodgers on his feet. 

The Broncos are likely to get Elvis Dumervil back from injury, who will look to create problems against the backup tackle. Newhouse did not need help blocking against the Bears, but this is something to watch as the game progresses.

Packers' Pass Defense

Currently, the Packers are ranked 31st against the pass, second only to the New England Patriots for worst in the league. A Kyle Orton-led Broncos passing attack should present the Packers defense with a chance to rise from the cellar of pass defenses. 

Bringing in the 23rd-ranked pass offense, the Broncos will look to play dink-and-dunk football in order to keep the chains moving against the Packers. In average yards per attempt, the Broncos are only averaging 6.5 yards which is good for a lowly 27th in the league. 

The Packers have given up 396, 404 and 278 yards in their first three games. Look for the trend of giving up bountiful yards to opposing quarterbacks to end in Week 4. Even in a league that has heavily gone to the pass, the Packers are too good defensively to keep allowing quarterbacks to slice them up.  

Aaron Rodgers

Before the playoffs last season, it was being debated whether or not Aaron Rodgers was an elite quarterback belonging in the category with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. Fast forward to the first couple weeks of the 2011 season, and Rodgers is now being debated as the best in the game. 

Rodgers has destroyed defenses with his play so far, earning a quarterback rating of 120.9. Tom Brady is the closest at 113.8, with only six others over 100 after those two. In a quarterback-dominated league, the Packers have the one of the top two in the game, if not the best. 

Look for Rodgers to keep it rolling against an average Broncos defense. If the offensive line can hold up in its protection, there is no reason that Rodgers won't top an 110 quarterback rating. The Broncos will blitz frequently in an attempt to slow down Rodgers. Fortunately for the Pack, Rodgers excels against the blitz. 

Clay Matthews Quiet on Stat-Sheet

Statistically, Clay Matthews is off to an incredibly slow start after opening the 2010 season with six sacks in the first two games. In three games, Matthews has only registered one sack and 12 tackles. While Matthews hasn't shown up big on the stat-sheet, the Packers' coaching staff says Matthews has ranked out very highly in each game.

Matthews has consistently faced double teams and even triple teams this year, as defenses have taken the approach to eliminate Matthews and force somebody else on the Packers to step up and make plays. This approach has worked out well for the Packers so far, as players such as Jarius Wynn have answered the call.

The question becomes whether or not Matthews will get an opportunity to get to the quarterback and make plays. It would be nice to see him register a sack or two in this game as well as take on the double and triple teams.  

Killer Mentality

As I wrote in a previous article, the Packers have suffered from allowing teams to hang around and stay in games late. Twice they have allowed opponents to come back from double-digits leads and were forced to recover onside kicks to close out the game. 

There is no doubt that the Packers should win this game and fairly handily. It will be interesting to see if the Packers can put the Broncos away for good early in the game and handle their business. While the Broncos are much improved from last season, they just don't have the weapons to keep up with the Packers.

So far this season, this has been a weakness of the Packers and could ultimately end up hurting the team down the line if not corrected. This is not to say the Packers should carelessly pass the ball until the clock hits triple zeroes, but rather improve execution in the fourth quarter of games regardless of play calls.