Michael Cohen

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

GREEN BAY - During the buildup to Sunday’s game, a number of defensive backs for the Green Bay Packers faced questions about Brock Osweiler, quarterback for the Houston Texans. Osweiler had thrown more interceptions than touchdowns up until that point.

The exact wording of each question was different, but the general theme was the same: What runs through your mind when preparing for a quarterback with clear accuracy problems?

Their general responses were the same, too: We think about interceptions.

“You want to be a little more aggressive at those times,” cornerback LaDarius Gunter said Monday, “and hopefully you’ll get you one.”

Though the Packers failed to intercept Osweiler in their 21-13 win, the defensive backs aggravated the quarterback and his receivers with tight coverage and overt physicality. The defense broke up seven passes during Sunday’s squall — its highest total since Oct. 20 against the Chicago Bears — and the secondary accounted for five them. It equaled the most disruptive performance of the season for the Packers’ defensive backs.

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The leader was Gunter, a player who began the season as the fourth corner before injuries launched him to No. 1 on the depth chart. Of the five pass breakups (PBUs) ascribed to the secondary, Gunter was the only player with more than one. He thwarted Osweiler twice and remains the leader on the team with nine passes deflected this season.

“I thought LaDarius Gunter did a nice job being physical,” defensive coordinator Dom Capers said. “You saw him get some broken-up passes, make some plays, made some nice tackles. I thought he had a nice game for us.”

Said cornerback Makinton Dorleant: “He has an ability to put his hand on a receiver every single down, and that’s just something that you don’t find in the NFL is a corner that can do that, you know? Some guys can’t touch receivers. His ability to put his hands on a receiver every single time, that’s just something you can’t find in every single corner. That’s what makes him really good at what he does at the position.”

And Gunter had help. If Osweiler’s erratic tendencies did anything for the Packers, it likely bolstered their confidence. From Gunter to Quinten Rollins to Micah Hyde to Damarious Randall, the defensive backs oozed with aggression.

Their feistiness showed within a few yards of the line of scrimmage, a place Gunter excels thanks to long arms and a penchant for jamming. But the press-man style spread from player to player for large chunks of Sunday’s game. Even Rollins and Hyde, two players who rely more on positioning than physicality, engaged in hand battles after the snap.

Hyde, Rollins and safety Morgan Burnett deflected one pass each.

“I thought they did a great job of getting their hands on the receivers and so forth, keeping the point total to 13,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “They obviously gave up the touchdown there late but they did a lot of good things we can build off of, and we have to make sure whatever fits for the Seahawks, we need to do it better.”

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It had been eight weeks since the Packers’ secondary deflected as many passes as they did Sunday. Three times this year the defensive backs have tallied five PBUs in a single game, but both prior occasions came in the first five weeks of the season against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New York Giants.

As a team, the Packers ranked near the middle of the league before the win over Houston. Their seven PBUs against the Texans elevated them to a tie for eighth with 68 on the season.

Gunter, the team leader with nine deflections, ranks tied for 42nd among defensive backs. The NFL leader is former Packer Casey Hayward, whose 24 PBUs are three more than any other player. He also leads the league in interceptions with seven.

“I know against a lot of receivers, they don’t like to be touched in and out of their routes,” Gunter said, “so I kind of just want to aggravate them a little bit. It kind of throws their game off.”

An encouraging sign for the Packers was the pivotal timing for some of their deflections. Two of them arrived at key moments in the fourth quarter with the Packers protecting a seven-point lead.

The first belonged to Gunter, who was matched against the speedy rookie Will Fuller. Gunter broke hard to the inside on a post pattern to out-leap Fuller and knock the ball away. Then he turned to the crowd and offered a double Dikembe Mutombo finger wag.

Four plays later, on a critical third-and-7 play, Hyde ran step for step with tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz as he crossed the field from left to right. Hyde made contact as the pass arrived to knock the ball away.

“We were out there just having fun yesterday,” Gunter said. “It was one of those days where everybody was just clicking. And it showed.”