Do you like defensive football?
The Green Bay Packers suddenly do. The Packers held the Seattle Seahawks to just nine points in a defensive struggle on Sunday.
The Packers also held the Seahawks — who quite honestly, we don’t know if their team is any good yet — to just 225 yards of total offense.
Regardless of what we know, it was an impressive effort. Especially impressive considering the Packers had the 31st-ranked pass defense in the NFL in 2016.
The tenets of what will make the Packers’ defense work were there on Sunday.
In short, pressure on the quarterback.
Mike Daniels delivered 1.5 sacks. Nick Perry did the same. Clay Matthews looked like a new man and was regularly in the Seahawks’ backfield.
Additionally, the secondary held up.
Davon House, Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins — the very starting three Shawn predicted — did a mostly fantastic job against Russell Wilson and Co.
And this was a day when Aaron Rodgers wasn’t necessarily at his best. Perhaps to be expected against one of the league’s best defenses, and also considering history.
Rodgers still threw for 311 yards, a TD and an interception, but he had just a 86.5 rating. That’s not very Aaron Rodgers-like.
What turned out to be the winning strike was a 32-yard throw to Jordy Nelson late in the third quarter, when Rodgers caught the Seahawks with 12 men.
We’re certainly not going to complain about any win over the Seattle Seahawks. This one goes a certain way toward establishing NFC dominance.
You want the conference?
Come and get it.