But the big news this week is that the Packers will finally get a measure of themselves against the best of their conference.  Philadelphia is without a doubt one of the elite teams in a not too impressive NFC.  Atlanta is the other team ahead of the Packers in the standings, but Philly's only loss this year was to the Pittsburgh Steelers, undoubtedly the best team in the NFL this year, while the Falcons dropped one game each to Kansas City and Detroit.  On top of the opponent, the Packers are playing on the road, at Philadelphia, this week.  If they win this game, they have to be considered among the top five teams in the league.  If they lose, then they're just a decent club beating up on weak NFC opponents.  Biggest game of the season so far folks, no doubt.  Go Packers!

Rams, In Fact, Ate Turf

Well, if there's a right time to get hot it's at the end of the season.  A Packers defense that seemed deeply suspect comes up with two defensive touchdowns and almost managed a third, while holding a still potent Rams offense to only 17 points.  It was a fun game to watch, with all phases of the game coming together for the Packers.  On the statistical front, the Rams rushed for a total of 47 yards on 17 (!) attempts, while Marshal Faulk ran seven times for seven yards.  Obviously Mike Martz gave up on the run early, but holding a back like Faulk to a yard per carry is pretty amazing no matter what the circumstance. We also saw the trend of not throwing at Al Harris continue.  He mostly covered Tory Holt who managed only five catches for 51 yards.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that Isaac Bruce, covered mostly by Ahmad Carroll, racked up 170 yards on nine catches. Mr. Walker loves Al and his dreads, but we still wonder how much his success is the result of offensive coordinators deciding to pick on whoever is covering the other guys.

On offense the Packers were simply stellar.  Favre had another lackadaisical 17-27 day with 217 yards passing, three TDs, and no picks.  Ho hum.  Najeh Davenport averaged over NINE yards per rush, with two runs of more than 30 yards.  While this is an impressive achievement, he had a lot of help up front.  It's become a cliché to always say "you have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line" when a running back has a good day, but it was certainly true against the Rams.  There were a few shots from behind the offense using that funny sky cam thingy where I said to Mr. Walker, "wow, Grady Jackson could have run for six yards through that hole." Both Ahman Green and Davenport have contracts through 2006, and it's unlikely that the Packers will be able to keep both of them.  It's nice to know that either one is certainly a starting quality back, though it remains to be seen if Davenport can catch like Green.

Being Mike Sherman

We finally had our secret and smallish green and gold door installed in the seventh-and-a-half floor of our building.  However, instead of sending us into the mind of John Malkovich, it appears that it can send us into the mind of a Packer coach or player.  After a celebratory toast with Mr. Walker (black label, for Favre's 200th), we jumped into the abyss just as Sherman was heading to his post game news conference.  Let's listen in .  .  .

[I hate this part of the job.  Sportswriters.  What was it Frank Zappa said about rock journalism?  People who can't write interviewing people who can't think to provide articles to people who can't read.  Reminds me of sports writing.] Yes, it's an incredible achievement for Brett.  People outside of this organization don't see the kind of dedication he brings to the team day in and day out.  What he does on Sundays is what you see, but what he does every other day is what we see, and we're not surprised by what he does. Amazed, yes, but not surprised.  [really folks, you don't have a clue.  He could mail it in if he wanted at this point, but he really doesn't, even in practice.] Absolutely.  We've been expecting this kind of performance out of our defense all year, but tonight they did a fantastic job.  I really appreciate what the rookies did to help us win.  They've made some mistakes before and they'll make mistakes in the future, but a good player learns from his mistakes while at the same time doesn't dwell on them.  [So you think I didn't realize it might take some time to get the defense coming together?  That I'm so dense I couldn't look at my own roster and assess it accurately?  And why do you think I started Ahmad Carroll when Hawthorne was playing better?  Because the playoffs don't happen in fucking September that's why, and ain't nobody winning the NFC with Michael Hawthorne starting at cornerback.  We'll have to play even better than we are now, but at least the guys on defense are getting it together and starting to believe in themselves. That's a huge start.] Of course, as a coach I would like to have the security of Ahman Green playing in the game.  He's one of the finest running backs in the league.  But I knew that we had other players ready to do the job if they were given the opportunity, and tonight Najeh was that player.  I enjoyed seeing him play the way I know he can play. [Dual role my ass.  I picked Davenport in the fourth round as a backup freaking fullback and in his first start at tailback he picks up 178 yards.  OK.  Joe Johnson.  Not such a good idea.  But if the Dolphins are sniffing around my backup tailback to replace Ricky Williams, I'm not that stupid, am I?] No, we're not thinking about the playoffs.  We're just thinking about our game next Sunday in Philadelphia playing the Eagles.  Their quarterback is playing extremely well, they have very talented receivers, and we have seen what they can do on defense.  We can't think about playoffs until they're here, all we can think about is our next opponent, which in this case is probably the team playing the best in the NFC.  [Sweet Jesus I wish the Jaguars could have pulled out that game against the Vikings.  What's a guy got to do for a one game cushion?] No more questions?  All right guys, see you Wednesday.  [Right then, where's the burgers?]

The Iggles

Man oh man is this a big game.  At Philly, trying to keep pace with the Vikings, and a chance to get a true measure of where the Packers are as a team.  Doesn't get much better than this, and it's not being shown locally in Connecticut so I get in HD on Sunday Ticket!  Whoo hoooo!

When a team is 10-1, a good place to start finding a way to beat them is to see how that one came about.  I watched every minute of the Eagles-Pittsburgh game and decided that the best way to beat the Eagles is to have the Pittsburgh defense.  I hear that Sherman asked the Steelers if they would be willing to trade defenses this week, but Bill Cowher thinks he might need his against Jacksonville.  Playing the Eagles offense presents very similar problems for the Packers as playing the Vikings offense.  Both have a receiver so good almost nobody can cover him.  Both have a top flight quarterback who can pick up third and five with his feet.  Both have running backs that are strong and quick.  The good news for Packer fans is that the Eagles are seriously nicked up on the offensive line, where they are down to their fourth and fifth guards.  Look in particular for what the Packers try to do to Scott Sciullo, the likely starter at left guard.  Sciullo is a fourth round pick waived by the Colts early this year.  Guards picked in the fourth round are supposed to be at least solid backups, so the fact that the Colts waived him speaks volumes.  I'm not a coach or anything, but do ya think the Packers might try to stunt KGB his way every now and then instead of pushing against Tra Thomas all day long?  One great way to keep Owens from catching the ball is to have McNabb on his back.  Of course, every game this year it's necessary to check who the second and third defensive backs will be covering. This week it's Todd Pinkston and (make sign of the cross, grab rabbit's foot, throw a virgin into the volcano) Freddie Mitchell.  Neither should be too scary to cover, but nobody knows better than the Packers that one reception to the third receiver can do some serious damage.  If Pinkston or Mitchell have big games, it's probably a loss for the green and gold.

The other thing that was obvious watching the Steelers beat the Eagles was that they can be run on pretty well.  Jerome Bettis ran for 149 yards and a 4.5 yard average, while the whole team blew through the Philly defensive line for 252 (!) yards.  Hmmm, do the Packers have tough, strong back who can run through the middle?  Oh, that's right, they have two of them.  The Eagles pass defense is ranked sixth in the NFC, which sounds a little weak until one notices that the Packers are currently ranked 15th in the same category, besting only the New Orleans Saints.  We guess that the Packers are going to run until Philly stops them, and take only the occasional shot down field.  With that as the recipe, Mr. Walker suspects his friend Javon Walker might have a big game.  Probably not a lot of catches, but they will probably be for big yardage.

The final X factor in this game will be something we've been harping on all year--can the Packers stop a running quarterback?  The only one they're played this year is Culpepper and they did a good job against him.  The scenario for the Eagles to win is Owens has a huge game, Pinkston and Mitchell pitch in, and the run game is decent with the occasional third down converted by McNabb.  For the Packers, the scenario is that they get up in a shaky offensive line to contain the offense, and run it down their gullet.  More so than usual, we think this is a game that will be won or lost in between the tackles, and we think the Packers will win that on both sides of the ball.  So, we go out on a limb and say the Packers win one going away, 34-21.

A Short Lesson in Linguistics

Yes, not as fun as musings about Javon Walker, but nevertheless important.  Today we consider the word "kudos." This one gets tossed around all of the time, and almost always incorrectly.  Kudos is one of a comparatively small set of words directly adopted into English from Greek.  Many words in English have more or less Greek roots.  The most common example is the word philosophy.  Phil- or philo- is a Greek prefix that means having an affinity or love for something.  Sophia is a Greek word meaning knowledge or wisdom.  Thus, a philosopher is one with an affinity or love for knowledge or wisdom.

The trick with "kudos" is that some Greek words adopted into English end with an "s" phoneme that in English would make a noun plural.  One cat is a cat, but a whole mess of them are cats.  The best example of this is the English word "pathos." That word derives from the Greek "path" or "pathy" which means suffering or feeling.  Thus pathology is the study or disease and death, and pathetic means something that arouses pity.  In common usage, pathos would be used in this way, "as the rookie cop entered his first crack house, its pathos overwhelmed him." Kudos derives from the Greek word meaning glory or praise, and should be used in English in precisely that way.  Thus, the proper sentence would be "Kudos [i.e.  praise] is [not are] due to Mike Sherman for the play calling against the Vikings." Or, for another example, "In his post game interview, Brett Favre singled out Najeh Davenport.  'It's hard to say enough about Najeh,' said Favre, 'we all owe him a bit of kudos for the effort he brought tonight, the offense didn't miss a beat even with Ahman out of the game.'"

So then, impress your friends and neighbors with the proper use of this word.  In usage, just pretend you are using "praise" instead of "kudos." "Javon Walker earns kudos [praise, not more than one kudo] for another 100+ yard game." Keep in mind that there is no singular form of the word; one cannot give out a kudo any more than one can experience a patho.  "As the rookie cop entered his first crack house, he felt his initial patho of the day." English is a wonderful combination of mostly Germanic, Latin, and Greek words--with a smattering of other languages tossed in.  It also has wonderfully relaxed rules about grammar and syntax, but let's not use that as an excuse to use words improperly!  It's a tricky enough language to use correctly without carelessly messing things up!  I give kudos to all of you who take the time to learn its usage well!

Run Ricky Run

Following up on my sports punditry of last week about the Pacers-Pistons fight, this week in the guise of sports pundit we consider the case of Ricky Williams.  A small ocean of ink and a small hurricane of breath has been spent covering Williams in the sports world recently.  Nearly every story takes a slightly pejorative or suspicious angle.  One pundit will portray Williams as a freaky hippy hiding out in California.  Another will say that he only retired because he was facing league suspension.  Len Pasquarelli at ESPN.com went out of his way to mock Williams for his ganja smoking in a piece full of condescending puns.  Nobody I have heard or read, however, has considered that maybe Ricky Williams means precisely what he says.  He loved playing football for many years and now wants to move on with his life to do other things.  When the lead singer in the best local rock band arrives at the far side of his twenties and decides to become a schoolteacher or a lawyer, nobody finds that particularly surprising.  But when a professional football player does the same thing sportswriters find it impossible to believe that anyone could give up the life that so many sportswriters wish could be theirs.

We find it particularly hypocritical that so many people writing about Williams focus so heavily on his ganja smoking to explain his behavior.  The NFL imposes brutal fines and suspensions for players caught smoking pot or using other recreational drugs, while hypocritically allowing teams to shoot players full of all manner of dangerous drugs to keep them in uniform on Sunday.  Packer fans in particular remember the Favre's vicodin addiction--just by bumming painkillers off of teammates he managed to get himself a serious, 5-10 pill per day habit.  That dependency was on a highly addictive schedule B narcotic, not on a misdemeanor possession drug like marijuana.  To its credit, the NFL has been the second most aggressive sport in stamping out steroid use (the first being track and field), but at the same time de facto encourages players to put on demonstrably lethal amounts of weight to compete with the Ted Washingtons of the NFL.

In addition, Williams was diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder that was treated with Paxil, a drug for which he was briefly a spokesman.  Paxil is the brand name for one version of a group of anti-depressant drugs that modify the way serotonin works in the brain.  Without getting too geeky, serotonin is a brain chemical that is believed to be partially responsible for feelings of depression or elation, sleep patterns, anxiety, and sex drive.  Drugs like Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft change the way the brain produces and consumes serotonin in order to treat depression, anxiety, or obsessive compulsive behavior.  Some people find serotonin modifying drugs to be extremely effective and live much better lives after taking them, while other experience little therapeutic benefit with serious side effects ranging from greater depression to drastically lowered sex drive to stomach problems.  Ricky Williams was one of the latter group, and found that for him smoking pot managed his anxiety at least as well as the serotonin drugs and produced far fewer side effects.  In fact, he once said that pot was "ten times better for me than Paxil" as a treatment for anxiety and a lack of social confidence.  If a player were to come to the league with an unorthodox but seemingly effective treatment for torn knee ligaments, I'm sure they would be all ears.  But when a player with a diagnosed mental illness says that smoking pot helps him get through the day he is a pariah, a junkie, a weirdo, and a freak. Stick to percocets and cortisone shots and you're one of us, rip a bong hit and you're one of them.

Of course the NFL has the right to decide under their collective bargaining agreement what chemicals their players can and cannot take.  The league has always placed a premium on showing a wholesome, clean living face to the US public, and that is their undeniable right.  Our criticism is of the coverage of Ricky Williams as a player and a human being.  This is, after all, a player who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a wedding dress, posing with his new coach Mike Ditka.  When his eccentricities make for good copy and good press, everyone loves him, but when his eccentricities pitch an image slightly off with what the NFL wants to think it is he's sent off to the freak farm or the laugh factory.  Again, having read much of his web site and seen the recent reports about what he is doing, we think Williams might just be what he says he is--an inquisitive, sensitive, gentle, self reflective soul unfit for celebrity and professional sports.  It takes more bravery to walk away from fame and a few million dollars than it does to run at Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.  He should be neither mocked nor pitied.

Random Thoughts

In the "where you been" category, Jeff George signed with the Bears.  George has been treated as radioactive since he ended his time with the Vikings.  Why this happened is mysterious, but we will say this--professional athletes will tolerate almost anything from a player who is a winner.  George is a winner, and his teammates couldn't tolerate him, so one has to wonder if he is a world historical jerk.  One need not wonder if he can throw, however, particularly the deep ball, which Packer fans will remember from his days with the Vikings.  Here's hoping he gets in the game and hot against the team that spurned him last, and hands Minnesota an ignominious defeat at Chicago.

After this week, the Packers get two home games in a row, Jacksonville and Detroit. After that respite, it's off to play at Minnesota and at Chicago to finish the season.  Think the Vikings game might matter just a teensy bit?

Had the Packers beaten the Giants and the Bears, which shouldn't have been all that tough playing at home, they would be 9-2, playing the Eagles for first place in the NFC.

Stat factoid.  In the NFC the top five defenses vs. the pass belong, in order, to Tampa Bay, Washington, the Giants, Chicago, and Arizona.  Those teams are a combined 20-35, and only the Giants can even sniff a winning record.

TCB is a contributing writer for Packer Palace.
© December 3, 2004.

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