Could Jenkins have been the key?

In an undoubtedly better season than last year, the Packers finally reached that magical 6 win mark for the year with a sloppy 17-9 win over the Motor City Kitties.

The running 1-2 punch of Green and Morency clicked for the 2nd straight week of getting over 130 yds rushing. Morency punched in 2 TDs as well (both very nice runs). I have to admit, I was not a big fan of the RB-by-committee approach that some teams use, which apparently the Packers subscribe to now. However, the results have been good this year so while I won't gush over the practice, I'm sure as heck not going to complain about Green not getting enough touches.

As good as the RB were, Favre was about as poor with 3 INT, 2 of which were unforgivable being in the red zone. He is getting ever so much closer to that all-time INT record, which is just as far away as the TD record, and Favre having an equal shot at hitting either one first. Given Favre turned the ball over so frequently, how did America's Team win this one? Defense.

Yes, that's right, the much-maligned Packer defense came through big yesterday: 6 sacks, 2 INTs, multiple QB pressures and a fumble recovery. Normally the Packers D makes pedestrian QBs look good and helps them keep their jobs a bit longer. Not so yesterday. Kitna had a horrific day with only a QB rating of 42.9 and only 135 yds passing.

The running defense was even more impressive with limiting Detroit to 58 yds rushing on 20 carries (2.9 yds/carry avg). Granted, Kevin Jones being out was likely a big part of that, but another move that happened a week ago perhaps had a big part of it as well. That being Cullen Jenkins being moved from DT to DE replacing KGB.

Jenkins has flourished since moving to DE and showed it as such with 3 sacks yesterday. Jenkins is a playmaker and the more of them you get on the field, the better your team is. His move to DE has had 4 big impacts with this defense so far. Granted, I am fully riding the big game he had yesterday, but the changes are noticable.

1 - Teams can no longer game plan to run at that side of the line where KGB was. Jenkins is far more stout against the run and does not take himself out of plays as KGB did and has proven this in the last 2 games. Plus, he's got about 40 more lbs for OL to move and is stronger than KGB.

2 - He's got good pass rushing skills to go along with his run stopping ability. He's deceptively quick and has good power and can go with a speed rush as well as a bull rush and be equally as effective vs the on-trick pony that is KGB. His ability to rush the passer will take some pressure off of Kampman as teams will need to account for him. This has already beared some fruit with Kampman getting 2 sacks himself yesterday to end his latest dry spell.

3 - He is able to occupy OL on running plays better than KGB and thus gives the LB that much more room to flow to the play and frees them up to make a play. With our LB, this is an absolute must.

4 - This also allows one of my favorite players to get some more playing time, Corey Williams. Williams has been a project for several years and has shown some flashes of the player he can be. With Jenkins moving to DE, Williams gets more playing time and has now been given the opportunity to display that talent. He's big (313 lbs) and like Jenkins is surprisingly quick for a DT as his sack yesterday attributed to. He is a playmaker, and I will say this again, you get more playmakers on the field, the better your team is.

This DL (Jenkins, Pickett, Williams and Kampman) has the potential to be a very good one. They all are very good against the run and they have proven to be good pass rushers. With a better pass rush from the front 4, the rest of the D can only be better in pass coverage.

Since Jenkins has been moved to DE, the Packers have given up just over 100 yds in rushing over 2 games (SF had under 50 after the move was made) combined and the Packers have given up only 21 total points. Granted, it was against SF and Detroit, but that's what they are supposed to do against them. Plus, add in that in the 2 games (and one possession) prior to that, they gave up 76 points, it's too coincidental.

There is a very good running team in the Vikings coming to town on Thursday and Jenkins is going to lined up against their $500 million left side of the OL. The true test is coming then, but I'm feeling pretty good about it.