GREEN BAY – A running back matchup doesn't get any better than this, especially in the playoffs.
On one side is Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley, who led the league with 2,005 rushing yards. On the other is Green Bay's Josh Jacobs, who finished sixth with 1,329. The pair combined for 28 rushing touchdowns, and each workhorse carried the ball more than 300 times this season.
Sunday's NFC Wild Card showdown at Lincoln Financial Field won't necessarily be decided by which star runner has the better game. But the team that runs the ball and stops the run better will certainly put itself in the best position to advance.
Which is exactly what gives No. 7 seed Green Bay (11-6) better than a fighting chance against No. 2 Philly (14-3) – the Packers are running the ball and stopping the run better than they have in a long time.
Jacobs' 1,329 rushing yards are the most by a Packers running back since Ahman Green's 1,883 back in 2003. His punishing, physical style defines not only his game but that of the offensive line in front of him, too.
"It's just the mindset that we've developed over the season," offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said of the ground game's physicality. "It always starts up front, but Josh is the one that everyone rallies around.
"The offense kind of runs through him."
That's music to an O-lineman's ears, and the variety of ways the Packers run the ball helps give them an edge up front. Green Bay attacks with a combination of outside and inside zone, gap schemes with pulling blockers, misdirections off motion fakes and delayed handoffs, plus the occasional jet sweep or end around.
In any given game, the Packers feel they can find a tone-setter that works, and that goal will be no different against Philadelphia's 10th-ranked rushing defense.
"It means a lot, especially when people load up the box and then we're able to cover our guy up, dig our guy out, and give our running backs opportunities to get those yards," veteran offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins said. "I feel like as an offensive line and running backs, we complement each other well, mixing up the scheme."
But the Packers know what they're up against. Philadelphia's tandem at defensive tackle, Jordan Davis (6-6, 336) and Jalen Carter (6-3, 314), is both difficult to move and disruptive, and linebackers Nakobe Dean and Zack Baun, a newly anointed first-team All-Pro, on the second level can really run and tackle.
Still, the Packers believe in the foundation they've established on the ground, particularly with Jacobs' impressive vision and footwork to maximize every chance.
"Very confident," QB Jordan Love said of how he feels about the running game. "A big strength is their D-line and their front seven … but I'm confident in our game.
"I think our run game is as good as anybody's."
That's saying something when the playoff opponent is the Eagles and Barkley. While the Packers feel they can grind out yards when necessary, Barkley is a home run hitter. He had 17 runs of 20-plus yards this season, including four TD scampers of 65-plus. By contrast, Jacobs' longest rush of the season was a 38-yard TD.
"He's the type of back where maybe some might get 10, 12 yards, and he might go 80 yards," Head Coach Matt LaFleur said of Barkley. "So everything is important in terms of playing sound football, setting edges, using your hands, defeating blocks. I mean, everything matters, and then you've got to have a great tackling plan for him as well."
Rookie safety Evan Williams, who is expected back in the lineup after a three-week absence due to a quad injury, said the key against a runner like Barkley is to not break down into tackling position too early and get caught flat-footed.
"It just gives him more space to eat up, more time to think of a move," said Williams, who didn't play on defense against the Eagles back in Week 1 in Brazil. "It's about closing space, getting to that near hip and taking your shot."
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is emphasizing discipline over the four-quarter challenge, saying the unit must be locked in "over and over and over." The Packers found that out with Barkley back in September when they were containing him reasonably well until he broke off a 34-yard run on the last play of the third quarter that flipped the field. On his other 23 carries that night, he was held to just 75 yards.
That overall effort was the first evidence Green Bay's run defense might be headed in the right direction under Hafley, and by regular season's end it rose to seventh in rushing yards allowed (99.4 per game) and third in yards per carry (4.0).
Seventh is Green Bay's highest finish against the run since ranking first back in 2009. The only time since then the Packers were in the top 10 was 2016 (eighth), defensive lineman Kenny Clark's rookie season, and the veteran confirmed this is Green Bay's best run defense of his career.
"Yeah, 100%, just the physicality, the way guys are running downhill," Clark said. "Just how we're coached about the run, we truly care about it and it's everybody's job. I think that helps you. It's not only the D-line and the linebackers, we've got the nickels the safeties coming up in the run, setting edges.
"It's definitely been the most detailed we've been playing the run."
Clark added what makes Barkley so dangerous is his ability to bait defenders into peeking into gaps that aren't their responsibility, and then exploiting any hole that's been abandoned. It's a special combination of shiftiness and breakaway speed few, if any, backs possess.
If the Packers have an X factor in this rematch with Barkley, it's the emergence of rookie linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, who played just 11 snaps in the opener in Brazil but is now an every-down defender whose anticipation and speed frequently get him into opposing backfields.
In being named the NFC Defensive Rookie of the Month to conclude the regular season, Cooper has racked up eight tackles for loss over the last four games, and any shots he gets at Barkley, he can't afford to miss.
In the end, that's what makes Jacobs and Barkley such a challenge. Even when defenses do a lot right, these backs can break tackles and still get their yards.
Who makes more miss, or whose tacklers miss less, could go a long way toward determining which team moves on.
"Right now, we've only got four quarters," Jenkins said. "The only thing promised to us is the game. We have to go out and play loose, play confident, start fast and help each other out.
"You've got four quarters, and you've got to maximize those four so you can get your next four."
