The Packers defense has heard the criticism. Ever since Aaron Rodgers’ collarbone injury Oct. 15, the defense has been exposed with inconsistent play.

“To continuously hear how much we’re not showing up, I think we just showed up today,” said defensive tackle Mike Daniels, who got the pass rush started with the Packers first sack on Mitchell Trubisky. “And that was a tough offensive front that we did it against.”

Of course it’s easy to write this 23-16 win off because the Bears, are well, the Bears. It’s a team that is still trying to figure out who they are and the Packers defense played their most complete game since shutting the Seahawks down in the season opener.

“I think everybody did a good job with staying in their lanes, doing their job, creating pressure on the quarterback — as well on the back end covering guys up,” said linebacker Nick Perry, who tallied three sacks. “And it was just complete football by the defense.”

That was the first time Perry has tallied over two sacks in the regular season as he plays through his sixth season.

Is this unit finally starting to buy in? Instead of playing like 11 individuals, they are figuring out that defense is much better if they can rely on each other. The guys up front mask problems in the back end and vice versa. Perry got the stats because he is supposed to in the 3-4.

Defensive coordinator Dom Capers did a good job of keeping Trubisky off-balance by calling everything from Cover-2 to various blitzes. And that’s why the Packers sacked him five times — a huge number considering Green Bay only had 13 sacks through the first eight weeks.

And the defense rounded it off by stopping Jordan Howard, who came into Sunday’s game averaging 102 rushing yards over his last four games. The Packers bottled him up to the tune of 54 yards on 15 carries.

Was it a perfectly-played ballgame? Heck no. There were a combined 13 penalties and even a boneheaded challenge by Bears coach John Fox that still doesn’t make any sense.

But this was the Black and Blue division at its best.

“These are the type of games that you live for,” Daniels said. “The weather was excellent. Overcast skies, it was raining. The grass was tore up. And it was just ground and pounding, that’s essentially what football comes down to. It was definitely fun to play in this type of game.”

The Packers had lost three straight and many had written them off. In fact many have even said that they should tank in order to get a top 10 draft pick.

But what Sunday showed me was that the Packers are capable of going 5-2 the rest of the way. A 10-6 record will push for a wildcard berth if Minnesota continues to play well on offense, which means the Vikings will win the NFC North.

“This one feels great, to end the streak to get some momentum rolling,” Perry said. “We got some tough opponents to come and I think we’re off to a great start right now.”

There’s something to be said about playing as a team. The Packers were desperate for a win and earned it with unselfishness.

This season isn’t over yet folks, because the defense has uncovered the winning road map.