Before I move onto our next game, I want to examine how our defense faired against Green Bay.  Overall, our defense did just enough to let our offense win the game. The goal line stand at the end of the game was beyond hugh and Beason's interception sealed the deal. But what about the rest of the game. During the first half the Packers were held to 153 total yards on 37 plays a 4.1 yard average; 65 rushing & 88 Passing. Rogers longest throw was 17 yards. The Packers ended the game with 438 total yards on 76 plays (5.8 yards per play); 145 were on the ground and 293 through the air. The difference is most glaring in passing yards allowed per half, with an extra 177 passing yards allowed in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

Looking over the stat sheet, another item that jumps out at me was starting field position. The Packers average starting field position was their own 23rd yard line. This by itself is a good stat, but as I started thinking about it, this made me realize they scored 31 points by driving the field.

Here you can see their drive summary:

However, this gives me reason to be optomistic about our next games. End one of these scoring drives early and the game becomes a more convincing win. 

I then looked up our previous defensive performances. Here are the defensive stats:

We gave up the most yards in any of our games against the Packers at 438 total yards. But their 9th, 10th, and 11th drives combined equalled 250 of those yards. Again stop one of those and things change. Another thing I noticed was the average total yards at 313 per game. It's only 19 yard more than it was at the end of week 8. Not that much of a difference.

What does all this mean, stat wise our defense hasn't changed dramatically. The main difference in the last 4 games, the D has been allowing teams to finish their drives. Stop one or two additional drives a game and these games take on a whole new look.

Against the Falcons our defensive rubberband broke, this week it was stretched to the limit but held. If the defense can carry the momentum from the end of the fourth quarter into next week, our bend but don't break defense from the first half of the season should make an appearance once again.

I'll leave you with this, Coach Fox said this week:

I'm just not in the mood for debating statistics. I don't like statistics anyway.

While we've heard it before from Fox, it made me think about all the statistics I just covered. Sure you can look back and say oh we didn't do that or have been doing poorly there. On the other hand a team can look at their stats and think they are the best out there. But take away the stats sheets and what does it mean? It means every game is played starting 0-0 and you must prove you can win THAT game. You can't take anything for granted. A good record or bad record doesn't matter, it's the 60 minutes of game time that determines the outcome.