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Even Green Bay offensive coordinator Joe Philbin wouldn’t sugarcoat the way his offensive line run blocked in the Packers' Week 2 win over the New York Giants.

“It was a little shoddy,” Philbin said on Monday, “and that would probably be kind.”

Yet, here the Packers are, four months later and about to play the Giants in the NFC championship game on Sunday at Lambeau Field, and they probably couldn’t feel much better about their offensive line, especially as a run-blocking unit.

What was one of the biggest question marks for most of the season turned into one of the dominant units in the 42-20 rout of the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday in the NFC divisional playoff round.

Behind an offensive line that had been in flux at the guard positions all season, first-year running back Ryan Grant ran for a team playoff-record 201 yards and scored three touchdowns, even after fumbling twice on his first three touches against the Seahawks.

Highlighted by a near-flawless individual performance by right tackle Mark Tauscher, who essentially shut down Seahawks defensive end Patrick Kerney, it was perhaps the best collective performance by the Packers’ offensive line all season.

“Probably from a consistent standpoint, Saturday’s ball game appeared to be the best they had all year from start to finish,” Philbin said. “At the end of the game, it became a little tougher to run the ball, but I would say it was a good performance.”

This season, perhaps only the offensive line’s production in the Nov. 11 home 34-0 victory over the Minnesota Vikings rivaled Saturday’s performance.

“I would say it was one of the best (performances) of the season,” Packers offensive line coach James Campen said. “Definitely one of the best.”

With little or no help, Tauscher all but dominated Kerney. Much of the focus last week was on that matchup, especially after Kerney had a field day in the Seahawks’ wild-card win against Washington. Kerney had 14½ sacks in the regular season but never got close to Favre.

“I don’t know about perfect, but Mark played an exceptional game,” Philbin said. “There was a lot of hype, a lot of talk about the matchup he was up against, but Mark’s a professional, a consummate team guy, and I thought he did his job very well.”

The guard combination of Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz also came through with strong showings. Colledge returned to the starting left guard spot after playing in a platoon system with Junius Coston late in the year, and Spitz bounced back from the quad injury he sustained late in the regular-season finale against Detroit.

The playoff bye week helped both players, allowing Colledge to settle into the starting job, knowing that Coston’s calf injury sustained against the Lions had knocked him out for the rest of the season and giving Spitz the time to heal.

With the interior of the line blocking well, it allowed coach Mike McCarthy to throw his full complement of running plays at the Seahawks. Though a large part of Grant’s yardage came on outside stretch plays, the interior linemen executed well on the inside zone plays, too. Colledge, Spitz and center Scott Wells effectively attacked the Seahawks’ defensive tackles, getting good movement on their three-technique tackles and cut blocks on their nose tackles.

“The run-blocking unit, they graded out with pluses across the board,” McCarthy said. “Just very pleased with the effort. Ryan made excellent decisions throughout the game, did a great job on the second level and with that, we had the big day in rushing. The pass protection, I know we had the one sack on the scramble, but the pass protection was excellent, too. They played very, very well.”

For Tauscher and left tackle Chad Clifton, the assignment only gets tougher against the Giants, whose defensive end combination of Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora combined for 22 sacks during the regular season. Neither got to Favre in the Packers’ 35-13 win at Giants Stadium on Sept. 16, but Strahan was just rounding into shape, because he skipped training camp while deciding whether to play this season. Tauscher likely will face Strahan, who typically plays the left defensive end spot.

“He consistently matches up well against the better defensive ends in the league,” Campen said of Tauscher. “To limit Kerney to no tackles, no sacks and no pressures – and Kerney’s a fine football player – for what we asked him to do schematically in that game, he did an outstanding job.

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