3 Reasons Why the Green Bay Packers will Win the Super Bowl this Year
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers defense is really good at creating turnovers and pressures
No, the Green Bay Packers defense has not been playing well as of late–in fact, it’s reasonable to say that they’ve been trending downward. As I discussed recently, over the last seven games, the Packers are allowing 27.2 points per game and have four-games where they’ve allowed 30 or more.
Another day we can get into what the issues have been, although the run defense struggling and some soft coverages haven’t helped, but even through these ups and downs over the last month and a half of football, there are two areas that this Green Bay defense has been really good at over the course of the entire season–generating pressure and creating turnovers.
Led by Rashan Gary and Preston Smith, who both rank top-10 among edge rushers in pressures generated, along with Kenny Clark, who ranks fourth in pressures among interior defensive linemen, the Green Bay Packers as a team rank top-5 in total pressures created this season, according to PFF ($$).
In terms of negatively affecting a play for the opposing offense, pressuring the quarterback, and doing so quickly, is the best way to accomplish that.
In addition to pressures, Green Bay has also been very opportunistic when it comes to forcing turnovers. This season, the Packers rank eighth in total takeaways, and Green Bay has forced at least two turnovers in 10 of their 16 games.
When you couple that many turnovers on defense with Aaron Rodgers, the least turnover-prone quarterback in history, it’s going to lead to extra possessions for the Packer offense. During the Matt LaFleur era, Green Bay is 30-0 when they win the turnover battle.
This defense certainly has its flaws, and they do need to play better than what they have been. But when a defense is among the best in forcing turnovers and creating pressures, more often than not, things are going to turn out well for that unit.