The Green Bay Packers defense has another challenge on its hands this week. Joe Barry’s group will face the Rams on Sunday, a team with the fourth best passing offense in the league based on average yards passing per game, but they will have to do it without several of their top edge rushers.

The Packers have been without Za’Darius Smith since the season opener against the Saints. Since then, he was placed on the injured reserve after underdoing back surgery. No timetable has been given for his return.

Rashan Gary and Preston Smith have been the starters in Za’Darius Smith’s absence. Gary missed the game in Minnesota with a hyperextended elbow. Gary is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Rams, although he was a full participant in practice on Friday and the Packers are hoping he can play some role on defense on Sunday, even if he won’t be able to take his full number of snaps.

The team is also missing many of its depth pieces at edge rusher. Whitney Mercilus was lost for the season two weeks ago with a biceps injury. Mercilus had a sack against Seattle and provided the team with good situational pass rush off the bench. In the four games he played for the Packers, he was credited with four pressures, two hurries and one knockdown. Now, Mercilus is done for the year.

The Packers are also without backup edge rusher Jonathan Garvin who was recently placed on the Covid reserve list. Garvin had 1.5 sacks and nine pressures on the season according to Pro-Football-Reference.com and was starting to show signs of becoming a dependable contributor off the bench. It is unclear how long Garvin will be out of action.

Gary didn’t play at all against the Vikings, but the Packers were still able to pressure Kirk Cousins on more than 40 percent of his drop backs. Most of the time, when you get that kind of consistent pressure on a quarterback, it reduces the effectiveness of his play. That didn’t happen to Cousins last Sunday as the Vikings signal caller completed 24-of-35 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns. He was not intercepted and had a quarterback rating of 128.4. The Vikings scored 34 points and won the game on a last-second field goal.

The Packers pressure did force three near interceptions. One was called back on a penalty and the other two were dropped before they could be completed with one of those two being overturned by instant replay. If the Packers had intercepted any one of those passes, they would have likely won the game.

The Packers will face a familiar foe on Sunday in Matthew Stafford. Stafford has faced the Packers 20 times during his NFL career with all those games coming when he played with Detroit. The Packers won 13 times while intercepting Stafford 20 times and holding him to a quarterback rating of 89.9. But Stafford has a better supporting cast in Los Angeles.

Barry will have to devise different blitz packages to try to get pressure on Stafford this Sunday. He may have to resort to A-gap blitzes like he did last week when inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell came up the middle and pressured Cousins twice, forcing incompletions.

The Packers also have Tipa Galeai who has seen more playing time since injuries struck at the edge rusher position. Last week, Galeai played 36 snaps on defense and blitzed the quarterback three times. He did not get any official pressures but did make some plays including three total tackles. He came close to making a tackle for loss on one play and showed flashes of ability to be a contributor. Obviously, the key is doing that consistently.

The Packers will also have to rely on their defensive line to get more pressure on Stafford on Sunday. Kenny Clark has three sacks on the season and eight quarterback hits. He has the ability to get a push from the interior of the defensive line and has an advantage in his matchup against Rams center Brian Allen.

Kingsley Keke is back in the lineup and could also add pressure from the interior line. It was Keke who wiped out one of the Packers three near-interceptions last week with a roughing the passer penalty. Keke has 2.5 sacks and four pressures in nine games. When he’s on his game, Keke is a capable pass rusher.

The Packers may have Gary back and that is good news as the former Michigan star has been Green Bay’s most consistent pass rusher this season. He has 5.5 sacks but changes the game even when he doesn’t tackle the quarterback with the ball. Gary has 25 pressures and 19 quarterback hits this season which means he is disruptive of the pocket on a regular basis.

If the Packers can’t get pressure on Stafford, they will be vulnerable to the Rams talented receiving corps. The Rams offense is predicated on the pass so the pass rush will be critical for the Packers. When injuries strike, the expression is next man up. So far, the Packers defense has played well despite their long list of missing players. They need that to continue Sunday against the Rams.