Ouch!  That Really Hurt Westbrook!

Well, Brian Barker sure had a hell of a game.  I was pawing through the box score, looking for a silver (or copper, or even slightly tarnishing chromed) lining, and what do I see but the punting stat line.  Brian punted eight times for a 45.1 yard average, stuck two inside the twenty and had along punt of 51 yards.  Now that, sports fans, is some Packer punting.  Considering the punting clinic Barker was putting on, I'm surprised defensive coordinator Bob Slowik didn't ask Barker to take a shot covering Brian Westbrook.  In my opinion that would have been a canny move.  Nobody expects the punter to be able to cover a running back who can run routes better than a lot of third receivers.

Joe Buck: Troy, Barker was just burned for another 30 yard touchdown pass, what are the Packers doing here?

Troy Aikman: Well Joe, it's hard to say.  I remember playing the Packers when I was in the league, and they were never much for doing things like this.  They always tried to play the percentages and keep it close to the vest.  I just don't understand it, punters shouldn't be covering receivers.

Chris Collingsworth: I have to disagree Troy, when your team is down 28 points you have to make some changes.  Nobody wants to use a punter in coverage, but at least the receivers are running past him so fast that the penalties against the secondary have stopped.  Besides, I think Barker's footwork is improving.

And let's not forget long snapper Rob Davis, because if he snaps the ball over Barker's head, it's pretty tough to punt it very far.  That Rob Davis, he sure can snap.

I was actually planning on writing an entire piece only about Davis and Barker, do a little hagiography on just those two guys.  A sort of deeply sarcastic "if you can't say something nice..." piece.  Oh, by the way, for the first time in years I actually didn't watch the end of the game.  After the middle of the third quarter a friend of mine called to see if I needed to weep, and we went bowling.  Thus I can't cover all of the game, but I can mention a few things.  Here are a few statistics to remind everyone just how awful the Packers defense was against Philly.  The Eagles averaged 7.7 yards per play on offense, and each pass attempt averaged a staggering 9.2 yards.  Amazingly, the Eagles averaged a little less per play in the second half which began with Philly nursing a 35-3 lead.  One would think it was clock grinding time, but the Feagles apparently couldn't help but get a ton of yards on the Packer defense.

The defensive meltdown was nearly complete.  Everyone in the secondary got burned at least once, most more than that.  The modestly compensated Mark Roman blew two that I saw, while highly compensated Darren Sharper was blown up by Brian Westbrook once as well.  Speaking of the highly compensated Darren Sharper, he who was supposed to be the "playmaker" to benefit most from the new defensive regime, through 14 weeks he has 56 tackles, zero sacks, one forced fumble, and three picks.  Those are numbers that don't exactly scream Pro Bowl.

On offense, Favre had one of what I call his "meltdown" games.  Don't know why, but that happens to him on occasion.  It wasn't just the deja vu pick to a double covered Javon Walker, it was the way he played the whole game.  It's exceedingly rare to see Favre just throw bad balls, he might throw one he shouldn't throw, but he doesn't flat out miss too often.  Halfway through the first quarter Donald Driver (I think) ran about a nine yard comeback route and an exquisitely protected Favre nearly hit Driver's feet.  It was just an ugly, ugly game, so let's forget about it and move on.

A Blah Win Over the Lions

If there has been one signal characteristic of the Mike Sherman dynasty it would be either making exceedingly bad choices on defensive line personnel, or the fact that the Packers get hot at the end of the year.  Last year they were "the team everyone wanted to play the least" and all of that.  Sure doesn't look like that now, does it?  The Lions game, from our perspective, was notable for it's distinctly blah nature.  Yes, a win is a win is a win, but a last second field goal to beat Detroit at home?  Not exactly inspiring. The stats from the game are similarly blah.  Joey Harrington had a blah five completions, Ahman Green ran for blah 3.3 yards per carry, and so on.  Only Ryan Longwell was better than blah, kicking another game winner as the clock ran out.  Then again, game winning figgies are getting pretty blah for him these days.

Highlights, and Lowlights, From the Rest of the Games

I wrote the above two bits after those games, but a few notes about the rest of them... The other Mr. Walker, Javon, continues his march to superstardom.  His touchdown catch against the Bears, where at full speed he jumped, reached, and snatched a nearly uncatchable ball over a defender was special.  That it came from Craig Nall may be a newsreel from the future.  If, as I believe, he is in TO/Randy Moss/Mushin Muhammad territory as a player, consider what a great teammate he is.  Can you imagine him leaving the field early in a loss?  Or chasing Favre around the sideline screaming for more balls thrown to him?  The Packers will have to break the piggy bank when it comes time to extend his contract, but it will be well worth it.

It sure is fun beating the Vikings.  It's one of those things like cop and donut jokes.  They shouldn't keep being funny but they are.  It shouldn't still be so fun to see Mike Tice's high school gym coach visage so much more than usually grim, but for some reason it is.  I can't explain this.  Is there any better indication how bad the NFC is that the Packers, clearly one of the better teams in the NFC, couldn't hold up against the Jaguars at home? The Jaguars who didn't make the playoffs in the AFC?  Yup, those Jaguars.

It's great to see William Henderson finally make not only the pro bowl but the All-Pro team as well.  It should be remembered that for most of his career he was skipped over for Mike Alstott, who though listed as a fullback never really was one.  One wonders also how much Chris Berman's endlessly repeated "You're in good hands with Alstott" crack helped keep Henderson, a better player and actually a fullback, out of the post season honors sweepstakes.  But better late than never, and he capped off the season with a lovely touchdown run against the Bears where one of the DBs clearly was thinking about the incipient off season and somehow managed to miss tackling the rumbling Henderson. Big up to William, it's long overdue bro.

KGB ran up his sack total to 14 with four of them against the Bears.  That would be quite and impressive achievement if it weren't against the Bears.  In the last quarter of the season the pass rush has seemed to get home a little more often.  That said, in the Colts- Titans tilt we saw Dwight Freeney (a smallish speed rusher much like Kabeer) do what we had hoped KGB would be doing this season--own an elite tackle.  Freeney had Jonathon Ogden finally just give up trying to block him and held him every play.  Freeney STILL got to the QB.  Here's hoping KGB is getting hot at the right time, and that he can do the same thing to better teams.

On To The Playoffs, And Can They Make It?

Mr. Walker and I always marvel at the complexity of NFL playoff scenarios the way we marvel at the color and texture of Mel Kiper's hair.  Even going into week 17, it's tricky to get things right.  However, it finally comes down to yet another game between the Packers and Vikings.  I've been reading that it's "boring" to have teams play a third time in a year.  I think the opposite; it's a lot more interesting because the teams know each other so well and the game will likely be another nail biter.

The Vikings are such familiar foes that it's almost pointless to write about them.  We could just as easily copy and paste the write up before the first Vikings game.  Contain Moss, don't let Culpepper convert third downs running, and so on.  However, the two things that will most likely decide the Vikings game are the two things that will decide the fate of the green and gold throughout the playoffs.  Those two things are pass defense and turnovers, and lo and behold they're related to each other since part of defending the pass is occasionally catching one your own damn self.  The Packers are an astonishing -14 in turnovers, meaning they averaged almost one more giveaway per game than takeaway. That ranks fourteenth in the NFC, where defense is played only occasionally.  The Pack ranks even worse (fifteenth, ahead of only the Rams) in interceptions with seven.  There are seven individual PLAYERS in the NFL with six or more interceptions.  Now then, there is no statistically valid argument that a team or a player is "due" to turn something around.  However, Darren Sharper picked up his fourth pick against Chicago (yes, four interceptions from the "playmaker" around whom this defense was designed), and his first since week six vs.  Detroit.  In general, Packer defenders have been close to the ball more of late.  So, while we can't say the Packers are due to get a run of turnovers, it wouldn't exactly surprise is if they do.

Against the pass the Packers have been similarly abysmal.  However, in the last two games they played reasonably well.  It appears they may have learned how to play that exotic defense called a "zone defense" that is used so rarely at other levels.  It was interesting, by the way, to hear Sherman after Al Harris complained to the press about playing too much zone.  Somewhat icily, coach suggested that professional athletes should be able to play whatever defense is called, particularly if it's one that's used largely unchanged from the time they're 12.  While statistically the pass defense is unsalvageable, the play in the secondary has improved over the last few games.  While there are still too many penalties, and it looks like the league is going out of its way to see the playoffs called tight against DBs, again the trend seems to be going in the right direction with the Packers.  In other words, they're clutching and grabbing a little less. With an offense still capable of lighting up the scoreboard, some better play against the receivers and a few breaks in the turnover department could allow the Packers a serious run.

Mr. Walker and I even have a dark horse scenario for an NFC title game at Lambeau.  The Rams aren't playing terribly well now, but then again who is in the NFC?  They are as defensively challenged as any team in the playoffs, but absent a big time pass rush they can still rack up points.  They could ambush a rusty Eagles team in a shootout.  Then, if the Packers can catch a few breaks in Atlanta, voila, the NFC is decided in Green Bay.  A lot of "ifs" we'll grant, but much stranger things have happened.

The Rest of the Field

I never root for players to get hurt, even when their last name is Owens or Moss, but TO being out for the season sure does alter Ye Olde NFC Playoffe Picture doesn't it?  Instead of rolling everything to his side and running scared every time he touches the ball, a defense can work on keeping Brian Westbrook under wraps because Todd Pinkston and that other guy don't scare anyone.  Well, maybe they scare the Packer secondary a little, but who doesn't scare them, right?  However, we have some bold predictions that are probably incredibly wrong.

The Patriots are the most overrated team in the Playoffs.  Bellicheck genius blah blah blah.  Their secondary is banged up like crazy and you can't do it with smoke and mirrors forever.  Also, as we said before, it looks like the refs are calling the pass interference rule even tighter than midway through the season, and the Patriots are going to have to play like everyone else where you can only tackle the guy AFTER he has the ball.  It would be not at all surprising to see the Colts finally beat them and I don't think they have a chance if they draw Pittsburgh in the AFC championship game.

As good as the Chargers are, teams in the playoffs for the first time in a while rarely go too far.  And is it just me, or does it seem like one of the reasons they're so good is that Marty Shottenheimer hasn't been able to recruit his usual Over the Hill Gang to play for him?  Remember Marty in Kansas City, where if you were over 35 going to the Hall of Fame, you got a contract extension even missing a limb? Does anyone want to watch Seattle play St.  Louis?

I'll watch the Jets and root for the Jets but I have no idea what to expect of them. The Falcons remain the biggest mystery in the playoffs.  Though the second seed and obviously a good team, this is also a squad that lost at home to Detroit, and suffered two road blowouts--27-0 at Tampa Bay and 56(!)-17 at Kansas City.  In fact, one has to wonder how much the scheduling quirk of playing the sad sack NFC West helped them get to 11 wins.  However, they still have Mike Vick, and Ed Donnatel can coach him some defense when he has some decent players.  From here, they look as likely to win it all as they do to lose their first game.

How anyone can NOT pick the Steelers to win it all this year is beyond me.  They have an elite running game, a superior offensive line, a thunder and lightning duo at receiver in Plaxico Buress and Hines Ward, and a defense that hits as hard and clean as any in the league.  In the final game of the season, with the streaking Buffalo Bills playing for their playoff lives, their practice squad guys closed out a game better than most starting defenses could.  Unless someone has a meltdown, and I don't see that happening, they can win about six different ways, and don't forget they handed Philly and New England their asses mid-season.  Maybe the Colts could just outscore them, but Jerome Bettis is bigger than most of the defensive tackles and can outrun their linebackers, so I dunno.  However, the official Me and Mr. Walker pick to win it all this year is Pittsburgh by 10 lengths, pulling away.

Reggie

Reggie White shuffled off this mortal coil since last we wrote.  Reggie always presented some vexing problems for me.  We Packer fans saw him at the tail end of his career, when his best days were certainly behind him.  By the time he played in the Super Bowl he won, he was at his B game at best, drifting towards C.  The toll of all those linemen and running backs and grim relentless entropy were showing more every year.  Still, he was a player who desperately wanted to win a Super Bowl, believing that his football legacy would be incomplete without it.  And in the game where he finally got a ring, despite his declining abilities, he picked up two huge sacks on successive plays to shut down the last chance for the Pats to come back.  It was as clear a case of one player simply willing himself to win as I've ever seen.

But, for better or for worse, my greatest Reggie memory doesn't have Reggie in it.  It was an interview with a Wisconsin state senator after a rambling, hour plus speech for the legislature in which Reggie repeatedly stated his belief that homosexuality is a sin, and where he used nearly every ethnic stereotype ever created.  Blacks, according to Reggie, were great spiritualists, whites excellent at organizing things and making money, Asians so industrious and inventive they can "turn a television into a watch." According to Reggie, all of this hideous bigotry when added together into a composite showed "the face of God." The post speech interview was with some semi-bigwig and he was literally at a loss for words, something more politicians should be more often, but so rarely ever are.  That, sadly, is my greatest memory of Reggie White.

After the speech, he apologized for the stuff about race, but stood his ground on the evils of homosexuality.  Since same sexers comprise at least 10% of our population and buy sneakers, shaving cream, and Chunky Soup just like the rest of us, Reggie's endorsement deals dried up.  After CBS sports shied off of hiring him as a football commentator, during an interview on puffball "news" show 20/20, Reggie's wife chimed in helpfully that the network was just "too scared of the Sodomite community."

It's certainly easy to make a case that in public discussions in the US we are far too uptight with what we say--in private Americans are probably about as racist as the rest of the world, but most of that has been chased out of the public sphere.  Hatred and suspicion of that which is different is an unattractive but constant human trait.  If one reads history carefully, it appears that the primary (though of course not exclusive) method of human interaction at the macro level is genocide.  Rarely when one people meets another does the more powerful and militarily sophisticated group allow many of the weaker group to stick around too long.  Probably it's a good thing to have a prominent figure slip up in public just to remind us of what so many people say privately but would never admit to the world.  But if Reggie White is a reminder that hard work and talent can take an athlete far, he's also a reminder to be damn careful what you say when a tape recorder is running.

TCB is a contributing writer for Packer Palace.
© January 8, 2005.

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