Kenny Clark shares insightful perspective about what the Packers will do differently to finally stop the run

SÃO PAULO — When the Green Bay Packers faced the Philadelphia Eagles two years ago, the running defense lived a nightmare. The Eagles scored 40 points, running for 363 yards and three touchdowns — including 157 rushing yards from quarterback Jalen Hurts, who ran for more yards than he passed in that game.

It was obviously not an isolated issue. Since Matt LaFleur took the reins as the Packers head coach in 2019, the team is 32nd in EPA/play and success rate defending the run. In the three years with Joe Barry as the defensive coordinator, they were 31st.

The Packers open their season on Friday night against the Philadelphia Eagles in São Paulo, Brazil. The new defense from coordinator Jeff Hafley is not necessarily built to stop the run — nor should it be these days —, but the expectation is that the same philosophy used to affect the passing game will bring good results in the ground game.

"Just allowing us to get up field and be more disruptive solve a lot of these problems," defensive tackle Kenny Clark said, in Brazil , when asked about how the new scheme would help them in that area. "At the end of the day, it's football, you got to be physical at the point of attack. Guys got to come downhill and make plays on the ball, limit the quarterback runs and stop the guys."

It's mostly a different idea of how to attack gaps, and that has an effect in every area. While the defensive line wants to blow up the backfield, off-ball linebackers are also more aggressive to chase the ball carrier, not giving opposing offensive linemen so much time to escalate to the second level.

No system is perfect, and this type of defense is more susceptible to misdirections, for instance. But they believe it can bring positive results in the aggregate after so many years with subpar performances.

Fast start

Preseason work plan has been a challenge for Matt LaFleur. Starters basically didn't play exhibition games when Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback, they did play a lot in 2023, and it helped them start faster against the Chicago Bears.

This year, it was a mixed bag. Starters played in week 1 against the Cleveland Browns, but the most important players had only a series or two and never came back. Even so, the roster feels ready to compete from the get go.

"Execution, energy, I think these are the two biggest things," safety Xavier McKinney mentioned when asked about what it takes to start the season with positive results. "We've done a great job of just making sure that we know our keys going into this game, we know our scheme well now, at this point. So just going into the game with high energy and with a high level of execution. Just a sense of urgency. That's something that we have as a team, that we've been building up to this point."

It's a unique experience to play the first NFL game in Brazil , and Packers players are making the most out of it. But there's a game to be played on Friday night, and that's the ultimate goal after all.

"I feel like we are all honored to be here, honored to be able to play here," Kenny Clark added. "At the end of the day it's a business trip, we are here to win a game."

Related: Four observations from Packers practice in Brazil before the regular season opener