Packers Just Beginning to Scratch Surface of Their Potential
By Chris Havel
Care to guess which two teams boast the National Football League’s best win-loss record (12-1) during the past 13 regular-season games?
The New England Patriots are the easy answer. The Green Bay Packers are not.
On Sunday, it will be one day shy of a year since the Patriots pounded the Packers 35-0 at Lambeau Field.
Sideline cameras notwithstanding, it was the Packers’ most demoralizing defeat in recent memory. It launched a three-game losing streak that saw Green Bay plummet to 4-8 with little hope in sight. The Patriots’ defense KO’d Brett Favre and hammered Aaron Rodgers, and Packers coach Mike McCarthy’s tenure seemed in jeopardy.
So much has changed since then.
The Packers managed to regroup after losses to Seattle and the New York Jets to finish 2006 on a four-game winning streak. They have gone on to win 12 of 13 regular-season games with no letup in sight.
That isn’t to suggest the Packers are the Patriots’ equals, but it does illustrate Green Bay’s steady, methodical improvement under McCarthy.
The Packers’ 34-0 victory over Minnesota last week was the exclamation point.
Until that dominating display many critics suspected the Packers were merely the beneficiaries of good fortune and good timing. They got the Eagles in Donovan McNabb’s first game after knee surgery. They got the Giants while Eli Manning was nursing a bruised shoulder and ego. They got the Chargers while they were still trying to adjust to first-year head coach Norv Turner.
Furthermore, the critics believed Green Bay lacked the running game necessary to have the balance required to succeed in cold-weather games and the post-season.
Then came the demonstrative victory over the Vikings. So much doubt was washed away in a single afternoon.
Favre looked like the league’s MVP. Ryan Grant looked like the second coming of Dorsey Levens. The defense looked like one of the finest in the NFL.
What took a year in the making came together last week.
Now the Packers’ fans, if not the team, are talking playoffs in earnest. Green Bay is more than a one-trick pony by the name of Favre. The future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback has been superb, and without his grit, guile and right arm there is no telling where the Packers would be right now.
But to imply the Packers are winning simply because of the magic in No.4’s right arm isn’t fair to the quarterback or his teammates. Furthermore, it isn’t accurate.
Led by Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker the Patriots’ mighty offense has had 22 pass plays of 25 or more yards this season.
Led by Favre, Donald Driver and an unheralded group the Packers’ offense has had 21 pass plays of 25 or more yards this season. Greg Jennings, James Jones, Ruvell Martin, Donald Lee, Driver and the rest lead the NFL in yards after the catch. The Packers’ receiving corps has logged 1,300 yards after the catch, which puts them ahead of the Patriots (1,157 yards) and everyone else.
Meantime, Green Bay’s special teams have been solid and its defense superb.
While the Packers’ offense was searching to hit its stride early in the season, the defense took few risks and great pains not to put it in a bad position. It blitzed rarely and gambled little. In return, it allowed the Packers’ offense to play from ahead in most games. Favre didn’t feel compelled to take chances borne of desperation because he knew if he limited his mistakes the Packers’ defense would keep them in games.
The Packers’ rout of Minnesota was the culmination of an ever-improving offense coupled with a much more aggressive defense. The units have achieved a level of trust that enables them to perform at a high level without being fearful of mistakes.
Certainly the Packers have much more to accomplish and the prevailing feeling is that they are just beginning to scratch the surface of their potential.
McCarthy’s steady, methodical march on the path of improvement has put the Packers in position to make noise in December and beyond.
It is almost unfathomable that an NFL team – especially one as prudent in free agency as the Packers – could come so far in a single year.
Chris Havel is a freelance writer, best-selling author and host of northeast Wisconsin’s top-rated sports radio talk show, Sports Line, heard Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sports Radio 107.5 FM and 1400 AM THE FAN. He writes a weekly column exclusively for Packers Fan Tours’ Website throughout the 2007 season.
Give us your feedback!
Like this article? Talk about this and other Packers
topics in our new Fan Forum!