Packers are dominant when they hold the opposition under 20 points

Most of the offseason banter surrounding the Green Bay Packers has focused on a certain former QB. Now that Aaron Rodgers has jettisoned off to New York, conversation about the 2023 Pack can shift to more important topics like: Can the Packers' defense make an impact this season?

Consider this: In the 2022 season, the Packers were 5-1 in games when the defense held the opponents to less than 20 points. That means they were 3-8 last season when the opposition scored 20 points or more. The only loss the Packers had when their defense allowed less than 20 points was a 15-9 defeat in Week 9 to the Detroit Lions.

Holding the opponents under 20 points scored is not, however, just a Packers thing. In fact, last season, NFL teams went 171-44 (a .795 winning percentage) when they allowed their opponents to score less than 20 points.

The San Francisco 49ers topped this stat as they held opponents under 20 points in 13 of their 17 games. Pittsburgh with 11 games and Denver with 10 games were second and third in this stat.

Back to the Packers: If we go back a few years, you can see that holding the opponents under 20 points has been a key stat for the Green and Gold. Sure, it helped that for the last 31 years the Packers had Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers under center leading the offense, but it's defense that can really be the difference between a good season and a great season.

In the 31-year Favre-Rodgers era (1992-2022), the Green Bay Packers had 220 games where they held opponents under 20 points. Their record in those games? 192-28 (.873 winning percentage). That .873 winning percentage is the second-best in the NFL dating back to 1992.

Here are the records of the Top 10 NFL teams when they allowed less than 20 points in games from 1992-2022.

NFL win-loss records when holding opponents to 20 or fewer points from 1992-2022

• Indianapolis: 168-23
• Green Bay: 192-28
• Pittsburgh: 224-36-1
• San Francisco: 186-32
• New England: 212-38
• Minnesota: 172-33
• Denver: 181-38
• Houston: 94-20
• New Orleans: 153-33
• L.A. Chargers: 160-35
• Atlanta: 147-32

Thirty-one of the 32 NFL teams had a winning percentage above .700 when they held opponents under 20 points going back to the 1992 season. The only team under .700 were the Cleveland Browns… they were 113-66 (a .631 winning percentage).

If you were wondering how the Packers fared in this stat during the Favre era and in the Rodgers era, the Pack was 111-16 (.874) from 1992-2007 in the Favre era (third-best in the league). In the Rodgers era, the Packers were 81-12 (.871) from 2008-2022 (sixth-best in the league).