In a Super Bowl '96 Rematch, the Packers took out the Pats last night 26-21. Here's how they beat the NFL's "best team" and "best quarterback" (Skip Bayless, this morning).

Taking a second look at the Packers’ D

What’s the party line when it comes to Green Bay’s Defense?

Swiss cheese. Melted butter. Occasional heroes?

The pros of the defense (athletic pash-rushers, better-than-good secondary and dynamo linebacker Clay Matthews) were on display last night. The fact is defense won this game for the Packers, who only scored 3 points in the second half. A huge sack by Mike Neal and Mike Daniels at the end of the game helped seal the game for the defense, which had been described as the soft spot of this team.

Shades of 2010 Super Bowl run

This isn’t the first time McCarthy’s teams have needed both sides of the ball to win. Packers fans have relied on big stops from the defensive side of the ball ever since the Super Bowl run in 2010, which relied heavily on turnovers and momentum-changing sequences from the much aligned unit.

A 9-0 defensive-led defeat over the Jets that year, as well as a 10-3 win to earn a trip to the playoffs against Chicago in week 17, were perfect examples of the balance it takes to win an entire NFL season.

Big plays that stood out were BJ Raji’s hula-hooping interception, a forced fumble caused by Matthews in Super Bowl XLV, and a last-minute swat of a Ben Roethlisberger pass to cement the Packers 6-point victory in that game.

Against New England, Dom Capers’s magic 8-ball of a defense found an answer to Tom Brady through the blitz, bringing 5-man rushes continually throughout the game. This constant siege of pressure kept New England’s offense, as well as the audience, on its toes each time the Patriots dropped back for a pass.

It wasn’t just Clay Matthews Tokyo-drifting around the corner towards Brady’s blind side. Julius Peppers didn’t flash often tonight, but his deflected pass and looming presence in coverage stood out.

Also, don’t look now but unheralded Sam Barrington just made another big play at the linebacker position. He had a lot of screen-time, most of it good.

Defensive attitude

Wins like last night bring out the attitude in this streaky, confident defense. They hate that you sleep on them, and they love to prove skeptics wrong. More than once they have described themselves as "dogs on the hunt," which fits their attacking 3-4 style.

When they’re on, the secondary led by Tramon Williams and Sam Shields as well as a stable of up-and-coming safeties (Clinton-Dix, Micah Hyde, and even Morgan Burnett still, hopefully) can be downright assassin-like.

When they’re off, Capers’ circus of a defense looks more Mr. Magoo than James Bond. Too many times Packer fans have been burned by long nights of missed tackles and giant, gaping holes to run through. There was a play last night when someone named (hold on while I go look this up) Brandon Bolden gashed the D for an ugly TD run that looked almost comical. Luckily that defense did not rear its head too often last night.

Side effects

Practically, this game did a lot of good for the Pack.

It moved the team to 9-3, good for first in the NFC north over the 8-4 Lions who lost to this same Patriots team last week. It also vaulted Green Bay into the #2 seed in the NFC, big considering how well (well is a huge understatement) they are playing at home in Lambeau. Least importantly, many experts will now rank Green Bay #1 in their NFL overall Power Rankings (a legally binding hierarchy notarized by God himself). Heavy is the crown.

Special team?

"The Crosby Show" was in full swing tonight. Mason’s missed field goal was frustrating for a minute, but ultimately forgivable as the Packers ended up winning on a night when he went a respectable 3-for-4 with the boot.

Fans still could have done without the OOB kick to give Tom Brady the ball at the 40 early in the game. There’s a dangerous underbelly to the Packers special team unit and you take the good with the bad. Considering Hyde’s TD return last week it and the fortitude not to give up any huge plays last night, the strategy seems to be paying off this year.

Tone of the game

The Packers took a 13-0 lead early in the first, and despite a few peeks in the rearview mirror, they never looked back.

NFL games are "what if" nightmares. You can tweak tiny hypotheticals throughout this game and get different results. It’s a zero-sum game and a fool’s game.

What if the obvious OPI against Davante Adams had actually been called? What if Adams hadn’t dropped that easy TD on the slant from Rodgers late in the 4th quarter? What if Gronk holds onto the ball in the endzone on that late-game diving TD attempt? The old adage "if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its ass when it hopped" applies here.

In the end, many people predicted the team that scored last would win, and that ended up being the case. What happened along the way was an aesthetically-pleasing contest between a great quarterback fighting the twilight of his career vs. his younger shadow.

Mr. Rodgers’ neighborhood

You can’t talk about a Packers win and not talk about Aaron Rodgers. Elusive, efficient, precise, dominant. He hit all the right notes throughout the game, free-styling through the air and ground to pound the Pats with multiple scoring drives, limited to only a single punt and no turnovers. He is the rare player who can dictate the pace of an NFL football game with his mind, arm and especially feet. Watching him command the pocket is enough to make most NFL QB’s jealous. At his best, he plays calm but urgent. He forces the action upon the defense by taking whatever they give him (targeting Adams and Richard Rodgers against New England’s weakest spots).

Extra point

The Packers are 6-0 at home this year.

They are something like 32-3 at home since 2010 (*Correction: Packers are 29-3 when Rodgers is healthy, hat tip to @BrewersFanJP).

McCarthy is drawing up beautiful game plans (and if Julius Peppers catches that touchdown pass in the Saints game, he’d be looking even better), especially at home. The wrinkle of Cobb in the backfield was unexpected and effective. The record crowd of 78,000 was into it. Jordy Nelson couldn’t help but rip off one more 40-yard back-breaking touchdown.

It’d be great to get home-field advantage in the playoffs, but that’s looking way too far ahead. The team cannot afford to take their eye off the ball of another division win and hopefully a play-off bye.

Things are in sync in Green Bay.

They have been for a long time.