Packers fans can debate whether or not the failure to close out last weekend's NFC Divisional Playoff game was the fault of the players or the defensive coaching staff, but it's hard to counter the fact that the defense was not reliable enough for a team with Super Bowl aspirations when the postseason began.

And that problem isn't isolated to Brown County, either, as the state's other major football team can attest. The UW Badgers are also in a defensive lurch after longtime Barry Alvarez staffer Kevin Cosgrove made a lateral move to lead Bill Callahan's defense at Nebraska.

Like Cosgrove, ex-Packers defensive coordinator Ed Donatell also has a new job; he is now Jim Mora, Jr.'s coordinator in Atlanta. Both men must interview well, because neither's recent body of work was all that impressive.

The phrase "Defense wins championships" may be a tired cliché, but if either the Packers or Badgers want to return to their excellence of the late 1990s, they'll have to recapture the defensive intensity and accomplishments of those teams.

Brett Favre was younger and better in 1996-'97 (the Packers' two Super Bowl campaigns), but the rest of the offense -- from Ahman Green, to the line, and even extending to the blossoming wide receiver corps -- is probably better today than it was then. The tight end combination of Mark Chmura and Keith Jackson edges out Bubba Franks and Wesley Walls, but not by much. Basically, the current offense is as good or better as it was under Mike Holmgren.

Obviously, then, the Packers are not as good defensively. If they were, the Pack would have not be in the midst of a six-year conference title game drought.

In the Super Bowl XXXI season, the Packers led the league with 456 points; this year, they were 4th with 442. But in '96, the Packers also led the league defensively by allowing only 210 points; compare that to a decent, though from far great total of 307 this season.

The '96 team had some of the best defenders in franchise history, including Reggie White, a younger, dominating Gilbert Brown and LeRoy Butler. But it also had accomplished veterans like Santana Dotson, Sean Jones, Eugene Robinson and Craig Newsome, as well.

The 2004 Packers don't need to accumulate the same level of talent for the team to contend in the NFC. But it does need a more consistent pass rush, the ability to generate timely turnovers and sacks and better tackling from the secondary and linebackers. These things can be accomplished via new leadership from Bob Slowik, Mark Duffner or another candidate who will replace Donatell, and it can also be accomplished with one or two key personnel additions through free agency and the draft. With Grady Jackson, Na'il Diggs, Nick Barnett, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Darren Sharper and Mike McKenzie, this defense isn't that far away.

In Madison, the distance to title contention is greater. The Badgers won three Rose Bowls in the '90s with a punishing ground game and a stout -- and at times dominating -- defense. But over the last few seasons, Cosgrove's defensive teams were as porous as they were before Alvarez revitalized the program in the early part of the last decade.

In college perhaps more than the NFL, it's all about talent. If you watch any old NCAA games on ESPN Classic, count the number of future pros dotting the rosters of teams like Florida State, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska and Miami. Similarly, the Badgers can trace much of their past defensive success to stars like Wendell Bryant, Jamar Fletcher, Tom Burke, Donnell Thompson, Bobby Myers and Mike Echols.

Is there a talent gap at Camp Randall? Perhaps a subtle one, but players like Alex Lewis, Anttaj Hawthorne, Jim Leonhard and Jeff Mack stack up favorably with some of the best players of the Alvarez era. Yet the team has allowed 306, 322 and 346 points over the past three seasons, an embarrassing average of 25.6 per game (including bowls). Compare that to averages of 11.8 and 12.9 in the two most recent Rose Bowl campaigns (1998-'99).

Cosgrove's lack of recent success leading the defense is emblematic of the program's overall downward trend. The team didn't have a 1,000-yard rusher for the first time in more than a decade this season, Camp Randall Stadium is rarely a hostile place for visiting conference foes anymore, and the special teams are no longer worthy of the name.

All these reasons inflate the importance of Alvarez's upcoming hire at defensive coordinator. For the team to again become a contender in the Big 10, the best way is to unveil a physical, aggressive defense able to counter those in Columbus, Ann Arbor, Iowa City and, now, West Lafayette. While talent may rule in NCAA football, emotion and leadership also go a long way.

And though the glory days of autumn in Wisconsin seem increasingly distant, it could be a short trip to the top if Mike Sherman and Alvarez make wise defensive decisions in the upcoming weeks.