What the hell is going on out here?

On the whole, except for the later part of the third quarter and fourth quarter against the Chiefs Dom Capers seems to have a clue the past two games. The aggressiveness of the front two and three combined with the outside linebackers has been dominating in both pass rush with 13 (should have been 14) sacks and against the run allowing just 76 yards a game (although at still a high 4.1 carry) and 225 yards passing a game.

 

Over the first two games the Packer defense gave up an average of 154 yards rushing (5.3 average), 215.5 yards passing and 20 points a game.

 

Over the last two games, if you take away the 21 points the Chiefs scored late in the game when Capers returned to form and played soft the defense has given up just 10 points in two games.

 

Phil Bengston

Is Capers spending his nights with mediums meeting with Phil Bengston or Fritz Shurmur? Has he suddenly had a revelation about being aggressive instead of sitting back in coverage and waiting for the quarterback to find the soft middle on long completions? Did Mike McCarthy's oversight last year take a year longer to make a difference? Whatever reason it's nice to be force to be reckoned with instead of a patsy that the other teams would ridicule, except for Clay Matthews, of course.

 

Hard to say if the matchups were more favorable, but I can't see facing Jamal Charles and Carlos Hyde was any easier than facing Matt Forte and Marshawn Lynch. I will admit facing Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick was easier than Jay Cutler and Russell Wilson.

 

Now it seems Capers not only had a revelation, but seems to have had an epiphany. The word is he decided over the summer to decomplicate the Packer defense on how the signals are delivered so that they can get into position quicker than the offense and in some of the coverage.

 

It is working, but why would making things less complicated take four preseason games and two regular season games to work. If you remember the secondary was having communication issues in those games. Something doesn't add up, but who cares? If it's working now why question some self-serving explanation.

 

Next up is the St. Louis (at least for 12 more games) Rams and I am now extremely worried about the game when I was actually waiting for this game earlier in the season after four tough games. But now the Rams look like a serious threat with an offense that complements their extremely tough front four.

 

Todd Gurley

The reason is the Packers now have another stud running back to worry about after Todd Gurley made his NFL debut a resounding success. He rushed for 146 yards on 19 carries, including runs of 52, 30, 23 and 20 yards with 106 coming in the fourth-quarter on just nine carries.

 

Gurley seems like the real deal and if Capers' suddenly solid run defense is for real we'll know after Sunday. All I can say is thank god the game is at Lambeau Field now that it seems Aaron Rodgers and the boisterous Packer Backers fans have turned the Shrine into hostile territory.