Denver Broncos: Five questions on the Packers

With the Denver Broncos taking on the Green Bay Packers, I sat down with Paul Bretl over at Dairyland Express and got his takes on Denver’s opponent.

It is going to be quite an interesting game in Lambeau Field. The Denver Broncos take on the Green Bay Packers in search of their first win of the 2019 season. It is going to be a tall task going up against Aaron Rodgers and the undefeated Packers.

Denver might be a solid underdog in this game. But as the great Herm Edwards has said in the past, “You play to win the game.” If Denver can execute and slow down Green Bay, there is a chance of victory.

We shall see when the game kicks off on Sunday. But for now, we take a closer look at the Green Bay Packers. And Paul Bretl over at FanSided’s Dairy Express chatted with us about the next opponent for Denver.

PO: The Packers are 2-0 after two wins against their divisional opponents. What has stood out to you the most in the two victories?

DE: Easily it’s been the play of this defense. A huge priority for the Packers this past offseason was revamping that side of the ball. Through free agency, they added Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith at the EDGE and then Adrian Amos at safety.

Then with their two first-round picks, they’d take another EDGE rusher and safety in Rashan Gary and Darnell Savage. Prior to the season, I expected to see a much-improved defense, but through two weeks, they’ve exceeded those expectations.

For example, in week one against the Bears Za’Darius and Preston combined for 16 total pressures, to put that into some context last season Clay Matthews and Nick Perry – neither of which are with the team anymore – combined for 43 total pressures the entire season!

Those two additions alone have been huge game-changers. Also, creating turnovers has been an issue for Green Bay defenses in the past, but through the first two weeks, they have five.

For just about his entire career, Aaron Rodgers has had to carry this team to victory but this year is different. Rodgers does not have to be Super Man in order for the Packers to win a game, which is huge.

PO: Green Bay is in currently playing five home games in their next six weeks. Do you believe having a heavy home schedule early is going to help them down the stretch when it comes to getting to the postseason?

DE: When the schedule was released I had mixed feelings about this. Any team would want to have home games on the schedule over the final month of the season and there is no home-field advantage quite like Green Bay, Wisconsin in December.

With that said, this is a rookie head coach, implementing a new offense and Green Bay has some very difficult defenses that they have to face early on. So for that reason, I am glad they have as many home games this early in the season as they do because it should make things easier on the new offense and allow them to start fast which will be helpful in the playoff race.

PO: What is going to be key for the Packers to start the season 3-0 against Denver?

DE:  On the offensive side of the ball, as always it is keeping Aaron Rodgers upright. The Packer Tackles, David Bakhtiari and Bryan Bulaga have been tested early on but have performed quite well and they’ll have another tough matchup this week with Bradley Chubb and Von Miller.

The second key on offense is establishing the run, the Matt LaFleur offense is all about disguising what they are going to do and each play builds off of the previous one. Having an effective running game makes doing this much easier.

As far as the defense goes, creating pressure and forcing Joe Flacco to make mistakes which the Green Bay defensive front has done a very nice job with over the first two weeks against Mitch Trubisky and Kirk Cousins.

Second would be slowing down Emmanuel Sanders. He’s had a very nice start to the season and if the Packers can take away the big play and limit his production, things will be much more difficult for the Denver offense.

PO: Is there one player on the Packers team that not a lot of fans know about that could be a factor in Sunday’s game?

DE: On the defensive front, many will know Preston Smith, Za’Darius Smith, and Kenny Clark but another interior lineman who will wreak havoc is Dean Lowry. Over the summer the Packers signed Lowry to a contract extension and he has looked very good through the first two weeks as he’s already totaled eight pressures.

He is just one of those players that can fly under the radar but has improved every year that he’s been in the league and has shown that he can make some big-time plays in crucial moments.

PO: Do you believe this team has what it takes to get to the postseason and perhaps the Super Bowl after all that has happened in the NFL in the last two weeks?

DE:  As of now I absolutely believe that they can be a playoff team. It’s not just that they are off to a 2-0 start but both wins have come against NFC North opponents which gives them a huge advantage early on.

And as I mentioned above, they can rely on this defense to win ugly for them which is something that they haven’t been able to do in the past and the burden doesn’t all rest on Rodgers’ shoulders. Those aspects coupled with a favorable home schedule early on and the potential for the Packers to get off to a fast start is definitely there.

When it comes to the Super Bowl, I’m not quite ready to go that far yet as I need to see more from this offense. Now, it’s a new system and they’ve gone up against some very good defenses early on so it was very reasonable to expect them to struggle a bit in the first few weeks.

However, they’ve made some nice strides between weeks one and two and I’m expecting the same against Denver. With that said, if this Green Bay offense can perform to the level that many think it can, then they very well should be considered a Super Bowl contender out of the NFC. But as of now, I need to see it first before I can get to that point.

Thank you Paul for taking the time out to chat with me. If you want to see the interview I did with him, you can check it out here.