Yes, I believe you did. I'm not saying the defense is responsible for the great performance by the offense. What I'm saying is that, without the D's TDs, the Packers wouldn't be #1 in scoring.
We scored 560 points. Take away the 5 defensive TDs, and it's 525 points. The Saints scored 547, take away their 3 defensive TDs, and it's 526 points, which would make them the #1 scoring offense.
I'm not saying the offense is good because of the defense, I'm not saying the defense doesn't have problems. What I'm saying is that the rankings are subjective because they lack context. And the point regarding the 3 losses is true, if you go by the logic that the offense is the sole reason we won all those games.
I don't agree with either logic, that the defense is porous, and that the offense was the reason we won the games, the same way I don't agree that it was the offense that costed us the game. There's much more to it than just yardage. There're reasons the defense gave so many yardage, poor play is one of them, but the other factors, mainly the fact that they've been thrown against more than any other, are completely forgotten when discussing the defense.
There're problems with this defense. The safety play has been terrible, without Collins there's no way to hide Peprah, he's going to be a liability. The DL play has been abysmal, the only good play has been Pickett, and only against the run. The ROLB spot has been nonexistent. Hawk is still a liability covering man-to-man.
But there's plenty of great in this D. Woodson is still good for 2 game changing plays per game. He still needs to be acounted for in every play. Matthews is a beast, a better player than last year. He's been so good that offenses have to stay away from him at all times. They don't run to his side, they don't bootleg to his side, they rarely leave him one-on-one. Tramon Williams has struggled the whole year, but he is finally healthy and able to play bumb and run. Bishop appears to be healthy again, with him and Pickett this run D is stout. And there's still Capers calling the plays.
Not counting the last game played without the 2 best and most important players, we were #11 in points per game, #1 in turnovers, #2 in scoring defense, #8 in QB rating, and #7 in redzone defense at home (don't have the stats for overall redzone defense by week 16). Hardly a "porous" defense.
McCarthy and Capers don't care for yardage rankings, and they've said so. If you look at the past MM pressers, he specifically mentioned turnovers and QB rating when talking about the defense. Those, together with rushing attempts against (5th in the league), are the stats that reflect the defensive philosophy of this team.
This Packers team has some building principles, but it's mainly about winning the turnover battle. The offense is built around exploiting mismatches in the passing game and taking care of the football at all times. The defense is built around forcing turnovers, usually by confusing and pressuring the QB, and by preventing the opposing team of controlling the game with the running game. Thus the importance of the rushing attempts against, instead of the YPC or the rushing yards (though it would be optimal if all three were great, but without Pickett we couldn't stop a nosebleed). Another key component of this team is redzone play and 3rd down conversion (where we've struggled, but more on that later).
It would be awesome if the D was playing to last year's standards. It would be awesome if they were a stout D in all areas. But that's unrealistic. The D has done it's part, overall. It has limited teams to being one dimensional, with Pickett. It has forced mistakes galore. Like I said before, they need to do a much better job on 3rd downs. I think this is the one key area of improvement needed for the playoffs, and one I'm confident will get corrected, with all players being healthy and with Capers having enough film from the season to know what works and what doesn't. But, again, because of everything I've said, the D has played well overall. Not saying they've been great, they haven't, but for what they're asked to do, they rank top 12 in most areas.
Just looking at the yards given up and saying this is a porous D is well beyond short sighted. Now I'm done. No, for real, I mean it this time.
