GREEN BAY – There's the top two in the league, and then there's everybody else.
Sure, it's only two weeks, but the Browns have allowed just 91 rushing yards thus far in 2025, while the Packers have allowed only 97.
After that? Only one team in the league has allowed fewer than 140 (New England, 117). So Cleveland and Green Bay may already be separating themselves when it comes to run defense.
It could make running the ball a tough slog for either team in Sunday's matchup, but it could also mean whichever ground game is able to break through, even slightly, could change the complexion of the opponent's defense.
That's why multiple thoughts coming from Green Bay's side this week indicate a steadfastness when it comes to getting Josh Jacobs and the running game going.
"We've got to have a next-play mentality," said left guard Aaron Banks, who missed last week's game with ankle/groin injuries but is now off the injury report and will play. "Not every play's going to be explosive. One or two yards here and there is definitely not what we want, so if that happens, we're going to keep trucking."
That mentality has produced success in the Packers' first two victories. In Week 1, Detroit held Jacobs to just eight yards on six carries in the first half before he churned out 58 yards on 13 attempts in the second half.
Then against Washington, it may have taken Jacobs 23 carries to get to 84 yards (his longest rush was just 10), but that commitment to his power game opened up some outside runs for receivers on a crucial fourth-quarter TD drive.
"For us it's all about setting our identity and going out there and playing our game," QB Jordan Love said. "And obviously trying to set up the run early and building stuff off that with some of our passes and play-action.
"They're a good defense against the run, but that's not going to discourage us from trying to run the ball."
Jacobs certainly remains confident. While right guard Sean Rhyan admits the offense has had its share of "dirty runs" and Head Coach Matt LaFleur has seen plenty of "ugly runs on tape" against Cleveland's defense, Jacobs likes what the Packers are bringing into the matchup.
He articulated his perspective this way: "I'm not going to say as a proving ground; more so as a heavyweight fight," said Jacobs, who's going for a 12th straight game with a rushing TD, which nobody in the NFL has accomplished in 20 years. "You know it's going to be a battle. You know they're going to have to swing and take some punches, but you've got to keep swinging."
Jacobs' counterpart will be Cleveland rookie Quinshon Judkins, who made his NFL debut last week after missing all of training camp due to a legal matter. The high second-round pick from Ohio State led the Browns with 61 rushing yards in their loss to the Ravens, including a 31-yard run that their offense hopes is a sign of things to come.
As a relative unknown in the league who's just now becoming his team's lead back, Judkins faces a huge test against Green Bay's stingy run D, which Micah Parsons characterized as having a "relentless nature." Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said the Packers are preparing for Judkins to get more touches than the 13 he had last week (10 rushes, three receptions).
"He's a strong back, he runs hard," Hafley said. "I thought he got better as the game went on, so I'm sure they'll try to get him going even more."
The ranking competition isn't lost on anyone.
"We want to be the best defense and I think it's a great opportunity to show that this week," Parsons said. "They've got the No. 1 run defense, we're a little bit behind them, so we've got some making up to do."
Friendly confines: The Packers don't go to Cleveland all that often. In fact, due to the Browns' three-year absence from the league in the late 1990s and a quirk in the NFL scheduling formula when divisions were realigned in 2002, Green Bay actually went 14 years between visits to Cleveland, from 1995-2009.
But that '95 game started a Packers streak of three straight victories in Cleveland, with three different starting QBs no less. Love will be the fourth different Green Bay starter in as many trips to Cleveland after Brett Favre's win in '95, Aaron Rodgers' victory in '09, and backup Brett Hundley's overtime triumph in 2017.
The last time the Packers lost in Cleveland was all the way back in 1992, Favre's first year as a starter when the opposing Browns QB was … Mike Tomczak, who had started seven games in Green Bay the year prior, just before Favre's arrival.
