While Aaron Rodgers and the offense have received a lot of the publicity for the Green Bay Packers’ five game winning streak, their win over Minnesota may have reestablished an equally important dynamic.
Linebacker Clay Matthews, who has been playing the last month with a separated left shoulder, looked much more like his old self on Saturday against the Vikings, sacking Sam Bradford, batting down two passes, and forcing a vital fumble in the second quarter that was arguably the turning point of the game.
“Just to see him come back and to dominate a game, it sparked the entire defense,” teammate Datone Jones said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “The entire stadium was sparked. I’m excited moving forward. We’ve just got to keep that type of play style up and keep that type of effort up.”
After their season looked like it was floundering out of control a few weeks ago, they’ve done exactly what Rodgers said they were capable of doing so far. One more win next Sunday and they’ll take the NFC North. They’ll likely be looking for another big game from Matthews to do it.
