Green Bay Packers top 10 teams since 1992: No. 7 – 2009 Packers

Continuing on with our countdown of the top 10 Green Bay Packers teams since 1992, at number seven, we have the 2009 Packers.

The 2009 Green Bay Packers entered their season with some optimism as the previous season was filled with the distraction of the summer of Favre. They finished 6-10, but were in several close games and Aaron Rodgers looked the part of a franchise quarterback.

Their season began with a big win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football. It was the debut of new Bears’ quarterback Jay Cutler and the Packers began a trend that would last until the end of his career in Chicago as they intercepted Cutler four times, along with Rodgers hitting Greg Jennings deep down the sideline for a game-winning touchdown.

However, inconsistency would mar much of the rest of the first half of the season. The Packers entered the second half of the year at 4-4 following an ugly loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Their season’s turning point would come in a home contest against the Dallas Cowboys where the Green Bay Packers’ defense was dominant from start to finish. And it would also mark the beginning of Charles Woodson’s campaign for defensive player of the year.

Green Bay would win 7 of their last 8 games, with their only loss coming on a last second touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh.

They entered the playoffs as a road team against the Arizona Cardinals and what happened after that became one of the most memorable playoff games in the history of the NFL. Kurt Warner and Aaron Rodgers dueled to a 45-45 tie going into overtime before Rodgers was stripped by Mike Adams in overtime, eliminating the Packers from playoff contention early.

Mike McCarthy fell to his knees after the play. The loss served as a motivational tool for the team the following year where the Packers would have a much happier ending than they did in 2009.

Key players

Charles Woodson: Woodson is famous for being the heartbeat of a championship defense that was in Green Bay in 2010. Before that, however, he had his best season as a pro in 2009. Woodson was a turnover creating machine, leading to him winning the DPOY award. He finished the year with two sacks, nine interceptions, four forced fumbles, and to put the cherry on top, Woodson finished the year with three touchdowns.

His best game came at the turning point of the Packers’ season where Woodson had a monster performance against the Dallas Cowboys, a game the Packers won 17-7. Woodson had a sack/fumble, an interception, and another forced fumble on Cowboys’ receiver Roy Williams.

Clay Matthews: Woodson was not the only defensive dynamo the Packers had in 2009. Clay Matthews was a rookie out of USC that most people noticed immediately because of his flowing locks.

Matthews burst onto the scene on Monday Night football where he stripped Adrian Peterson mid-play and returned the ball for a touchdown. But, he was far from a one-hit wonder as he would finish his rookie season with two sacks. He had shown that he can be the player the Packers wanted him to be when they traded up for him in the first round of the previous April’s draft.

Jermichael Finley: Finley was someone the Green Bay Packers were excited about because of his potential, and it started to come to fruition late in the year. He had big games against the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers that season and he capped that off with a historic performance in the team’s playoff game in Arizona.

Finley was a matchup problem that the Packers built their entire offense around the following season. Unfortunately, Finley’s career ended too soon with a neck injury, but it is fun to think about what he could have been had he been able to play to his full potential.

Greg Jennings/Donald Driver: Both receivers went over 1,000 yards, while Jennings continued a three-year progression in becoming the team’s top option in their offense.

Jennings and Driver were a nightmare for opposing defenses and monsters after the ball was in their hands. Jennings had a huge game in Arizona along with Finley and the duo gave the Packers a scary offense for opposing defenses to match up with.

Highlights

After losing in Tampa Bay, the Packers would win seven of their last eight games and they were downright dominant for stretches. The offense found potency and the defense was dominant at times, although struggled at others, but more on that later.

A 17-7 win against the Dallas Cowboys was the defense’s best performance of the season. And then a 34-12 win on Thanksgiving Day against the Lions had shown how well-rounded the team could be. But it was a huge 48-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks at home that clinched a playoff berth and got some in Green Bay dreaming big.

Lowlights

A loss midseason to Tampa Bay was arguably the lowest point of the year. The Bucs had not won a game all year, and they were starting a rookie quarterback. Unfortunately, the Packers were unable to take advantage and the loss dropped them to 4-4 which started some rumblings that Mike McCarthy may have to have his job status examined at the end of the season.

Yet, the biggest lowlights of the year came against the Vikings. The Packers were torched by old friend Brett Favre not once, but twice. Jared Allen was in the backfield what felt like every other play and while Green Bay was able to come back in both games, neither was as close as the final score would indicate. Thankfully, the Vikings were unable to win the Super Bowl that season as that would have been an even bigger lowlight.

Why didn’t they win a championship?

Eventually, this became a trend under Dom Capers but was unknown at the time. The Green Bay Packers struggled against the league’s best quarterbacks with Brett Favre tearing the Packers apart twice, along with Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner both shredding the Packers’ defense late in the season. In the playoffs, Warner threw more touchdown passes, than incompletions. It was an embarrassing finish to what was otherwise a good season.