The Green Bay Packers are off to a suprising 5-1 start this season and much of the credit is being given to the resurgence of Brett Favre, who at 38 still has plenty of zip left in his right arm.

With Favre and the pass-happy offense sputtering against the Washington Redskins on October 14th at Lambeau Field, it was the young, unheralded but quickly improving Packer defense that bailed the team out in a 17-14 win on a dreary day in Greeen Bay.

The only team with a better record than the Packers in the NFC are the Dallas Cowboys at 6-1. With the Cowboys not playing this weekend (bye), Green Bay can tie Dallas for the best conference record with a win Monday night in Denver.

With everyone focused on Favre’s record breaking performances this year and the Packers fast start, little attention is being paid to the heart and soul of this team, the defense.

Shutdown cornerbacks Al Harris and Charles Woodson are the cornerstones of one of the league’s rising defensive units. They help ease the burden on Favre and the NFL’s worst rushing offense, by clamping down on opposing receivers and helping turn the heat up on the opponents quarterback.

In a league dominated by Cover-2 type defenses, which are designed to prevent explosive passing plays, Harris and Woodson are defiant throwbacks.

They form arguably the best tandem practitioners of the ever increasingly lost art of the bump-and-run, press-man coverage.

Harris and Woodson have certainly lived up to the term “lockdown corners.” The dynamic duo this year has pretty much shut down every opponents aerial attack except for one game against the San Diego Chargers at home. How ironic that Favre and the offense had to bail the defense out in a 31-24 win at Lambeau.

The Packers secondary has been lights out this year. The average game day stats for a starting receiver against Green Bay this year is mind-boggling. Opposing receivers has averaged 2.2 receptions per game, for 34.1 yards per game, and 0.3 touchdowns.

Those numbers sound like the stats for the starting receivers of the hapless Miami Dolphins not the receivers that the Packers secondary has faced this year. Lining up opposite of Harris and Woodson have been the like of Reggie Brown, Kevin Curtis, Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer, Vincent Jackson, Bernard Berrian, Muhsin Muhammad, Santana Moss, and James Thrash. Add All-Pro tight end Antonio Gates to the mix and the Packers have face some very good receiving tandems.

Green Bay’s shadow men thrive on getting their hands on receivers and throwing off their timing with their quarterbacks. They buy timee for a talented, swarming front seven to pressure quarterbacks, who are completing just 56.7% of the passes against Green Bay.

More impressive, the Packers are limiting opponents to a 34.5% third-down conversion rate, fifth best in the league.

All the talk in the league is that Champ Bailey and Dre’ Bly of the Broncos form the best cornerback combo. I’ll take Al “Operation Shutdown” Harris and Charles “Game Time” Woodson anytime over those clowns in Denver.

Bailey and Bly will need new jockstraps after Favre and company roll 34-20 Monday night in Denver. Green Bay clinches the game on a Woodson interception return late in the game as the Pack picks up a much needed win against a quality opponent on the road.

If Woodson and Harris are not in the Pro Bowl this coming February in Hawaii, it will be the biggest travesty in the Pro Bowl selections since Tony Romo of the Cowboys was voted into the Pro-Bowl last season.