PHILADELPHIA If nothing else, the first round of the NFL playoffs revealed the stark difference between the Green Bay Packers of the 2009 season and the Packers of 2010.
A year ago, their defense hemorrhaged against first-rate quarterbacks, including giving up 379 yards passing and five touchdown passes to Kurt Warner in an overtime loss of a wild-card game at Arizona.
This year? Different story.
The always frightening Michael Vick came into Sunday at the helm of a Philadelphia Eagles offense that is among the NFLs best. But unlike a year ago, the Packers are moving on to the divisional round of the postseason because they had the goods to deal with an explosive offense that ranked No. 2 in the league in yards and No. 2 in points.
With the right mix of playmakers, blitzes, coverages and spies, the Packers kept Vick from taking control of the game and then made the clinching interception in the end zone with 33 seconds to play in their 21-16 win at Lincoln Financial Field.
Its tough for teams to score on us, I dont care who they are, Packers defensive end Ryan Pickett said. Vick is probably the worst were so happy to have that behind, hes such a headache to prepare for because he can throw it and run it. We do a good job keeping people out of the end zone. I think were much better this year.
The win means the sixth-seeded Packers (10-6) will play at top-seeded Atlanta (13-3) next Saturday night in an NFC divisional-round re-match of a game earlier this season that the Falcons won at the Georgia Dome, 20-17. The winner advances to the NFC championship game against the winner of the conferences other divisional-round game, Chicago vs. Seattle.
The Falcons are a daunting 20-2 at the Georgia Dome in games started by their fine young quarterback, Matt Ryan.
We feel like we left a lot of football out on the field in that (first Atlanta) game, Packers cornerback Charles Woodson said. We had points defensively where we could have gotten off the field, third-down situations, missed tackles our tackling was probably the poorest weve been all season,. We dont foresee that happening again. We look forward to going down there.
To get there, the Packers charge on Sunday was to make Vick a pocket passer, at least as much as is possible against the games premier scrambler. Though Vick has been a much more accurate passer in his second incarnation in the NFL, hes still at his most dangerous when hes gashing a defense with a big scramble on one play, then breaking out of the pocket and throwing a dart down field to his explosive receivers (DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin) or tight end (Brent Celek) on the next.
A big part of defensive coordinator Dom Capers plan was for the pass rushers to hold their lanes whether it was a conventional four-man rush, or a five- or six-man blitz, and sacrifice possible sacks to prevent Vick from getting outside the pocket. The Packers also did all they could to push the left-handed Vick to his right, like defending a left-handed scorer in basketball. Thats why Capers dialed up several blitzes overloading Vicks left.
Even if youre in the blitz lanes, some of the times (Vick) still can break loose, Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop said. But we definitely made an emphasis of staying in our blitz lanes and not letting him escape left, thats where he wants to escape. Play defenses where we can keep our eye on him, zone. And also being in throwing lanes. The combination of things helped us contain him.
The Packers sacked Vick three times and held him to a passer rating of only 79.9 points, a full 20 points less than his regular-season rating of 100.2 points, which was fourth-best in the NFL. He also gained only 33 yards on eight runs, with a long scramble of 14 yards. That counts as an excellent day against a quarterback who can dominate games with his running.
Capers also kept Vick off balance by varying defensive calls like a veteran pitcher mixing up his pitches. Capers played his nickel or dime passing down defenses virtually the entire game and blitzed regularly but not all the time. He also occasionally deployed either cornerback Charles Woodson or outside linebacker Erik Walden to mirror Vick as a spy, on maybe one-quarter of the defensive snaps.
Its all about limiting Vicks playmaking ability, outside linebacker Clay Matthews said.
While Vick was only able to flash his abilities, his counterpart, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, played a steady, mistake-free game.
Rodgers didnt have a huge day his 180 yards passing was his season low aside from when he was knocked out of the game at Detroit because of a concussion in the first half but he didnt throw an interception and made enough plays to put up three touchdowns. Probably his best was a tough scramble and throw for a nine-yard touchdown to receiver James Jones that put the Packers ahead 14-0 in the second quarter.
The key, though, was the Packers defense being good enough to help make that lead stand.
Vick had a final shot at winning the game in the final 1:45 of the game. But on first down from the Packers 27, he made the mistake Rodgers refused to and floated a ball to receiver Riley Cooper on a go route to the end zone. Vick might not have realized that the Packers best cover man, cornerback Tramon Williams, was the matchup, and Williams easily out-jumped Cooper for the game-clinching interception.
(Vick) just tossed it up, Tramon went up, made a (heck) of a play, safety Nick Collins said, and were moving on.
"Pete Dougherty" wrote: