I really enjoyed the article below:
The Packers saw immediate success their first season as they amassed an astonishing 10-1 record and beat their opponents by an average of 50 points per game.
According to Wolf, “I believe that the one thing you need to succeed in professional football, what you need most is a quarterback. If you don’t have a quarterback, you can’t win.”
When we played in Dallas, we were just not a good artificial turf team. I think that got into our heads. They had our number. I always had this thing that if we were to lose, we would switch hotels. We lost eight consecutive times down there. We were running out of hotels.
About Holmgren: Wolf added, “I talked to Bob Harlan long and hard about it that if you would rather have Mike than me, you could offer him the general manager and keep him. They did not want that type of relationship. They did not want a coach/general manager type of thing. They had been through that a lot. It didn’t work.”--I find that kinda funny since that's exactly what they did with Sherman when Wolf retired.
There were some errors, though: giving John Elway his first and only Super Bowl victory
http://www.kencrippen.com/Building_1996_Packers.htm [quote=KenCrippen]The author would like to thank Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren for taking time to speak with him about their championship team. The author would also like to thank Ken Herock for taking the time to speak with him about the Atlanta Falcons' perspective on the Brett Favre trade.
Having one of the most storied histories in the National Football League (NFL), the Green Bay Packers have earned the moniker Titletown, USA. With twelve championships to their credit and the distinction of being the only NFL team to win three straight championships[1] (accomplished twice: 1929 through 1931, and 1965 through 1967), the Packers are considered one of the league’s most successful franchises. However, there were downtimes throughout their existence. After legendary coach Vince Lombardi gave up the reins to defensive coordinator Phil Bengtson before the 1968 season, the team had only two winning seasons over the span of 24 years. It was not until Ron Wolf was hired in 1991 before the franchise returned to its winning ways, taking the 1996 championship with one of the league’s historically best defenses.
The Green Bay Packers were officially formed on August 11, 1919 in the editorial room of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Organized by Earl ‘Curly’ Lambeau, an employee of the Indian Packing Company, and Press-Gazette sports editor George Calhoun, the Green Bay Packers started a long rollercoaster ride that spanned almost the entire history of the NFL.
The Packers saw immediate success their first season as they amassed an astonishing 10-1 record and beat their opponents by an average of 50 points per game. They followed that with a 9-1-1 season the following year and Lambeau decided to join the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which is now called the National Football League. Backed by John and Emmitt Clair of the Indian packing Company, Lambeau purchased a franchise in the league, but success was not so easy. Going 3-2-1 for the year, the Packers finished in a tie for sixth place in the league with the Evansville Crimson Giants, who also joined the APFA that year. To make matters worse, the Packers lost their APFA franchise. At a league meeting in Canton, OH, Packers owner John Clair admitted to fielding college players during the 1921 season, which was strictly forbidden. Clair asked for, and was granted, permission to withdraw his franchise from the league. A few months later, Lambeau went to a league meeting and applied for a franchise. It was granted and the Green Bay Packers[2] were back in the league, which was renamed the National Football League.
Green Bay struggled financially during the 1922 season. Local businessmen banded together to form the Green Bay Football Corporation, and paid off Lambeau’s outstanding debts. The Packers were changed to a public non-profit corporation, with shares in the team selling for $5. By the time the season started, 1000 shares were sold.
As the Green Bay Packers entered the late 1920s, the team was in better financial shape and in better shape on the field. Between 1929 and 1931, the Packers won three straight championships behind players like halfback Johnny ‘Blood’ McNally, end LaVern Dilweg and tailback Verne Lewellen. The teams contained five eventual members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Along with McNally and Lambeau, tackle Robert ‘Cal’ Hubbard, guard Mike Michalske and back Arnie Herber found their way to Canton.
In 1934, the Packers faced another financial crisis when a fan fell from the stands and successfully sued the team. The team was reorganized and generated enough capital to continue.
Behind the throwing of tailback Cecil Isbell and the receiving skills of all-time great Don Hutson, the Packers won championships in 1936, 1939 and 1944. But Green Bay would face additional monetary issues as the 1940s came to an end. From 1946 through 1948, the Packers failed to sign two of their three first-round draft picks as the newly-formed All-America Football Conference (AAFC) won the bidding war for the draftees.
After the AAFC folded with the conclusion of the 1949 season, Curly Lambeau found himself in trouble with the board of directors after he purchased the Rockwood Lodge, located just north of Green Bay, to be used as a training facility for the team. Lambeau had spent over $25,000 for the lodge; money the franchise could ill afford.
Lambeau resigned in 1950 and accepted the head coaching job of the Chicago Cardinals. After almost two seasons, Lambeau left the Cardinals and finished his coaching career with a two-year stint with the Washington Redskins.
Gene ‘Tuffy’ Ronzani had the distinction of taking over for Lambeau as head coach and general manager, but his tenure was short-lived. After three years, Ronzani resigned and was temporarily replaced by Hugh Devore and Ray ‘Scooter’ McLean to finish the 1953 season. Marquette’s Lisle Blackbourn coached for four years and ‘Scooter’ McLean spent the 1958 season in charge. Between the two coaches, the team went 18-41-1. The Packers needed to regain their former glory and that came in the form of Vince Lombardi.
Vincent Thomas Lombardi started his playing career at Fordham University as a member of the famous Seven Blocks of Granite.[3] After graduation, Lombardi started coaching at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, NJ. In 1947, he returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach under Andy Palau. Following the 1948 season, Lombardi left to join the coaching staff at West Point, where the legendary Red Blaik was running the show. In 1954, Lombardi became an assistant coach on the New York Giants, winning an NFL Championship in 1956. In January of 1959, Vince Lombardi became the next head coach of the Green Bay Packers, where he won five NFL Championships and two Super Bowl victories in his nine years as head coach.
After Lombardi resigned in 1968, defensive coordinator Phil Bengtson assumed the head coaching duties. Over the next two-plus decades, the team struggled to find its way. With only two ten-win seasons (10-4 in 1972 and 10-6 in 1989), the championships of the past were a distant memory.
Enter Ron Wolf.
He started his professional career as a talent scout for the Oakland Raiders in 1963. “I was hired by Al Davis on a trial basis over the telephone,” recalled Wolf. “One of the great things at that time was that there were eight teams in the American Football League. There were only 33 players so there were only 264 players. What they did was every night they would study a different team and I would sit in there and by that you could see who the really good players were and why. That’s through osmosis I guess. A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Wolf left the Raiders after the 1974 season to take the job as general manager of the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team lost their first 26 games before winning the final two of the 1976 season. The only team with a worse record was the 1942-1945 Chicago Cardinals, who lost 29 straight games. After his third year with the team, his contract was not renewed and Ron Wolf was out of a job. Wolf recalled his time in Tampa Bay, “The biggest problem I had was a tri-part type of agreement. There were three people: Hugh Culverhouse, John McKay and myself. Hugh Culverhouse and John McKay were contemporaries. They both served in World War II. They were the same age. They golfed together. They dined together. The vote was usually two-to-one. I could still do pretty much what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it as long as McKay was on board with it. I learned an awful lot, let’s put it that way, which I put into play in Green Bay years later.” The year after Wolf’s departure, the Buccaneers won their division with a 10-6 record and advanced to the Conference Championship Game, but lost 9-0 to the Los Angeles Rams.
After leaving the Buccaneers, Wolf interviewed in Detroit. “Monte Clark wanted me up there and I went up for an interview. I was coming from Tampa to Detroit and I will never forget the ride up to Pontiac. I never saw over the snow banks the whole way up there and that had a big influence on what I was going to do.” Wolf did not take the job in Detroit, but instead returned to the Raiders.
Commenting on his time working under Al Davis, Wolf recalled, “I think that I was blessed with that because he was energetic. So smart. In those days, if you were in a pro football operation, you ran the operation entirely from a business sense and from a coaching sense. He had that capability. We are talking about George Halas’, Paul Brown’s, people of that ilk who could do that and Al was in that vein. The same vein. Brilliant man. He took the time to train me, for which I am very, very fortunate to have been under his tutelage.”
He stayed with the Raiders until 1990, when he accepted a job to work under Dick Steinberg at the New York Jets. “That was just fabulous for me, because for the first time I learned a different system and how you work within an organization that is tied to one thing and one thing only: that is bettering a team from a scouting standpoint,” recalled Wolf. “It is a marvelous system. A system that was established by Bucko Kilroy and tweaked by Gil Brandt. Steinberg was Kilroy’s number one pupil. It was a fabulous system for me because it showed me that, I hate to use this phrase, to skin a cat. There is another way of doing things. I say that year-and-a-half was both mind-boggling and eye-opening for me with all I learned from Dick Steinberg.”
In November of 1991, Ron Wolf was hired to be the general manager of the Green Bay Packers. According to Wolf, “I had worked with Mike Reinfeldt when we were with the Raiders and he left to go to the University of Southern California and he took a job with Green Bay as chief financial officer. They contacted me…asked permission to talk to me. Mike initiated the phone call. I talked with Bob Harlan. I came out to Green Bay and I took the job. There wasn’t any way that I wasn’t going to take the job because this time, due to my age, no one my age had ever been hired except for George Young. So I thought if I ever had a shot again, I am going to take it regardless of where it is and this was the shot.”
That was not the first time Wolf had interviewed in Green Bay. “I had interviewed when Forrest Gregg was the coach there. They were just a mess. There was no organization. I hate to speak, but it wasn’t organized and it wasn’t about football.” When Wolf returned, he compared the state of the franchise then to 1991; “When I interviewed, the best player on the team was a tackle named Ken Ruettgers. When I came back five years later, the best player was Sterling Sharpe, but the second best player was Ken Ruettgers. So, they didn’t really do much to help that team.”
Not only did they do little to improve the team, the overall mentality of the organization was that of a loser. With only four winning seasons – and one of those was a strike year – over a twenty-year span, the Packers were in shambles. An overhaul was needed. Head coach Lindy Infante was let go after the season. Philosophical differences were the key to his departure. According to Wolf, “I believe that you win with players. You do not win with systems. He didn’t want to swap out players. I believed that you had to do that. That was probably the big difference between us and that was a huge difference as far as I was concerned… He was a good football man, but he and I would not have been able to work together.”
Wolf needed to find a head coach and turned his sights towards San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren. The highly sought-after coach had his choice of destinations, but picked Green Bay for his first head coaching job. Wolf recalled, “Fortunately, we were able to get him and once we got him, I think that it signaled that we were here.”
Holmgren and Wolf then turned their attention towards the quarterback position.
According to Wolf, “I believe that the one thing you need to succeed in professional football, what you need most is a quarterback. If you don’t have a quarterback, you can’t win.” In 1991, the Packers had three quarterbacks on the roster: Don Majkowski, Mike Tomczak and Blair Kiel. None had the talent or leadership necessary to deliver a championship to Green Bay. Wolf remembered the 1991 NFL draft with the New York Jets and the quarterback they almost selected: a guy out of Southern Mississippi named Brett Favre. “He was the highest rated player on our board,” recalled Wolf. “Dick Steinberg had made a deal with the Cardinals to move up in front of Atlanta. The Jets would have taken Favre, but when the second round came around, the Cardinals said that the player they wanted was there and that they were not going to make the deal.” The Cardinals selected Mike D. Jones, a defensive end out of North Carolina State. The Falcons proceeded to take Brett Favre with the 33rd pick in the draft, followed by the Jets taking Louisville quarterback Browning Nagle.
Now that Wolf was in Green Bay, he still had his eyes on Favre. The first game the Packers played after Wolf was hired was against the Atlanta Falcons. According to Wolf, “One of my good friends was Ken Herock [vice-president of player personnel with the Falcons]. He told me when I was walking into the stadium that if I wanted to see Brett Favre throw, that I would have to look at him now, because when the team came out, they wouldn’t let him throw. Right away, I knew that I could get this quarterback.”
Wolf then went to the Packers’ executive committee to plead his case for Favre. According to Wolf, once Bob Harlan approved of the deal, it was done, but Harlan suggested that Wolf speak to the executive committee for the sake of protocol. “I started talking and explained to the people in the room what I thought this person would mean to our franchise, comparing him to some of the former greats to play for the Packers. In the end though, he was a much better player than even I thought he would be.”
Wolf recalled, “I think the biggest thing was that he came on the field with his team, it tilted in his team’s favor. Everything about him from a quarterback standpoint, he was mechanically sound. He got himself into some bad positions with his feet, but mechanically, when he threw the ball, he was perfect. Plus, he had a cannon of an arm. He could get out of trouble. Fierce competitor. I think the big thing was a proven winner. He played on a mediocre college team and he upset some really good football teams and the reason why they did was because of Brett Favre.”
There was a problem, however. When Favre went for his physical examination before joining the Packers, the doctor detected avascular necrosis in his hip, a degenerative bone condition where cells within bones die due to a lack of blood supply. The doctor was going to fail Favre, but the Packers had another doctor on staff. According to Wolf, “At that particular time, our doctors were by committee. We had a doctor in Milwaukee and a doctor in Green Bay. After that, we just ended up with the doctor in Green Bay. That is a true story. He did fail the physical. The orthopedist in Green Bay had not examined him, but then he examined him and said that he could play a minimum of about four to five years. That is all I needed to hear.”
Wolf had his quarterback.
Heading into the 1992 season, Brett Favre was the backup quarterback to Don Majkowski. However, it was not log before he saw action. In the second game of the season, the Packers were in Tampa Bay to play the Buccaneers. With a 17-0 Tampa Bay lead, Packers coach Mike Holmgren benched Majkowski in favor of Favre. His first pass was deflected back to Favre, where he was tackled for a seven-yard loss. The Packers lost the game 31-3. The following week, Majkowski regained his starting role against the Cincinnati Bengals, but a torn ligament forced him out of the game. Favre had another shot to redeem his poor play from the previous week, but fumbled four times. It was not the start that the Packers wanted for their future franchise quarterback. However, late in the game, Favre started to show flashes of why Wolf wanted him in Green Bay. With 13 seconds left in the contest, Favre capped a 92-yard drive with a 35-yard pass to Kitrick Taylor to give the Packers a 24-23 victory. Overall, he went 22 of 39 for 289 yards and two touchdowns in the win. With Majkowski out for at least four weeks with his injury, it was Favre’s team. He never relinquished his starting role.
The Packers lost four of their next six games, but followed that with a six-game winning streak to guarantee themselves a winning season; only the second in twenty years. They finished the season with a 27-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings and a 9-7 record. The Packers were improving, but there was a lot of work to do to build the team into a champion.
After the 1992 season, the Packers focused their efforts on defense, targeting a big-name free agent in Reggie White. According to Wolf, “We realized that we needed a great player on our defense. Here he was: Reggie White. The two best free agent players in the game were Reggie White and Deion Sanders. There was no way that Deion Sanders was going to come to Green Bay. I didn’t think that there was anyone who thought that Reggie White would come to Green Bay, either. We put a massive recruiting job on Reggie White. Ray Rhodes did a fabulous job with that. Mike Reinfeldt did a great job engineering the financial thing with his agent and we were able to pull it off. I think that we were able to pull it off because we were just us. He came to Green Bay and got picked up in an SUV, not a limousine. He was taken to a Red Lobster to have catfish. He saw us as we are. I believe that sold him. Also, the fact that he was paid all that money helped too. I think the money had more to do with it than anything.”
The Packers continued to improve. In 1993, they again had a 9-7 record and placed second in their division, but made the playoffs for the first time since 1982. They traveled to Detroit and beat the Lions 28-24, but lost 27-17 to the Cowboys in Dallas the following week. The 1994 season was a mirror of 1993, as the Packers went 9-7 and placed second in the division, beat the Lions in the wildcard playoffs and lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs. In 1995, the Packers went 11-5 to claim their first divisional title since 1982. With wins over Atlanta and San Francisco in the playoffs, Green Bay traveled to Dallas for the NFC Championship game. As was the case with the previous two contests with the Cowboys in the playoffs, Dallas won the game and the Packers’ season was over. According to Ron Wolf, “It was one of those things. You see this from time to time in football. It didn’t matter who the quarterback was. They had Aikman. They lost Aikman and they put Garrett in. They could have put three players and eight helmets out there and we would have still found a way to lose.
When we played in Dallas, we were just not a good artificial turf team. I think that got into our heads. They had our number. I always had this thing that if we were to lose, we would switch hotels. We lost eight consecutive times down there. We were running out of hotels.”
The Packers were close, but trouble presented itself heading into the 1996 season. Their two-time Pro Bowl quarterback and 1995 Associated Press Most Valuable Player (MVP) Brett Favre was addicted to pain killers.
On November 15, 1992, Brett Favre had his shoulder separated when he was sacked by future teammate Reggie White. After the game, he took his first Vicodin. Over the next few seasons, Favre increased his dosage to where he was taking over ten pills a day. He hit rock bottom when he suffered a seizure in February 1996 when he was in the hospital to have bone chips removed from his ankle. The NFL stepped in and demanded that he attend a rehabilitation program or be fined four-weeks pay. On May 14, 1996, Brett Favre addressed the media to acknowledge his addition and checked into the Menninger Clinic to start his treatment. On June 28, he completed the program and returned to the Packers.
Green Bay was favored to win the Super Bowl, but questions remained as to whether Brett Favre would be able to come back from his rehabilitation and regain his MVP form from the previous year. Those questions were put to rest when the Packers opened their season by soundly beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa head coach Tony Dungy’s first game saw his team turn the ball over six times en route to a 34-3 drubbing at the hands of their division rival. Favre completed 20 of 27 passes for 247 yards and four touchdowns. It was the fifth time in eight starts that Favre had thrown for at least three touchdowns in a game. Buccaneer quarterback Trent Dilfer struggled, completing 13 of 30 passes for 123 yards and four interceptions. The Tampa Bay offense was only able to generate 176 total yards, compared to the 406 amassed by the Packers. It was not the debut that Tony Dungy wanted, but it was exactly what the Packers needed heading into their game with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Green Bay was looking to exact a little revenge against Philadelphia. Former Packer defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes was now the head man with the Eagles. He stole assistant coach Jon Gruden and made him the offensive coordinator. With former Packer coaches controlling both the offense and defense, the Packers knew what to expect. According to Packer tight end Keith Jackson, “You look at them and go, ‘Hey, that’s our play! Hey, that’s our play, too! There are so many similarities.” However, having the same plays and executing those plays are two different things. The Eagles started their first drive with a pass to receiver Chris T. Jones, but lost possession to Packer cornerback Doug Evans. This was the first of four takeaways on the first half, giving Green Bay an average starting position of their 41-yard line. Even though Favre overthrew his first five passes, he finished the game going 17 for 31 for 261 yards and three touchdowns. This game him seven touchdowns for the season with no interceptions. After the 39-13 loss, Rhodes commented, “We were physically dominated on both sides of the ball tonight…It hurts to get beat like that.”
The Packers were 2-0 for the season and both side of the ball were on fire. The offense outscored their opponents 73-16. The defense had ten takeaways, two rushing touchdowns allowed and no passing touchdowns allowed. It was still early in the season and people wondered of they could keep the momentum going. Packer safety LeRoy Butler commented, “People are wondering how we’re going to react to close games and we don’t want to know.” Enter the San Diego Chargers.
Favre had his first multiple interception day in ten games against the Chargers, but they were still able to generate offense. Leading 28-3 after three quarters of play, the Packers thought they were well on their way to victory. The Chargers felt differently. Stan Humphries completed six straight passes, including a touchdown pass to bring the score to 28-10. According to Butler, “The momentum was swinging a little bit toward the Chargers.” The Packers drove, but running back Edgar Bennett fumbled and lost possession – his first since November 22, 1992. According to Charger head coach Bobby Ross, “If we can get points on the board at this point, its 28-17 and there was still better than seven minutes to go.” San Diego drove to the Packer twelve-yard line, but a pass to Terrell Fletcher was intercepted by LeRoy Butler, who returned it 90 yards for a touchdown. Ninety seconds later, Desmond Howard returned a punt 65 yards for another score to end the game at 42-10.
The Packers were 3-0 for the first time since 1982. Another impressive offensive game was also highlighted by a strong defensive performance. Green Bay held San Diego to 141 total yards with only one passing touchdown allowed.
The Minnesota Vikings were projected to be no better than fourth in their division in 1996. Heading into their game against the Packers, they were undefeated and looking for their fifth straight home win over Green Bay.
The Vikings led 17-7 early in the third quarter and Green Bay looked to come back. Favre threw a five-yard pass to Don Beebe, who broke through the Minnesota defense and streaked for an 80-yard touchdown. The defense stepped up. Green Bay linebacker George Koonce intercepted a Warren Moon pass and ran it back 75-yards for a touchdown. In under a quarter of play, the Packers tacked on 14 points to take a 21-17 lead into the final period. However, a 37-yard run by Robert Smith allowed Minnesota to regain the lead and seal the victory. Two Minnesota field goals late in the game gave the Vikings a 30-21 win to remain unbeaten.
The Packers did not play well. Favre was sacked seven times with two forced fumbles. Green Bay wide receiver Robert Brooks summed it up; “You just can’t be careless with the ball. It doesn’t matter how potent your offense is. It doesn’t matter how tough your defense is if you don’t take care of the ball.”
Even with only eight first downs and 217 total yards, the Packers were still optimistic. According to defensive end Sean Jones, “We’re still the best team in the league. I don’t care what anybody says. I am not worried about it. We’ll see how it all shakes out in the end.”
The Packers continued their road trip with a game in Seattle to take on the Seahawks. Seattle was coming off their first win of the season; beating the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17-13. Green Bay needed to take advantage and prove that Sean Jones was correct in that the Packers were the best team in the league.
Both the offense and defense were in rhythm. Favre went 20 of 34 for 209 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. But it was the defense that carried the game. They had five takeaways, including four interceptions of Seattle quarterback Rick Mirer. This brought their total to 22 takeaways for the season with a +13 takeaway/giveaway ratio. Four of the defenses five takeaways directly led to scores, totaling 24 points. Green Bay defensive tackle Santana Dotson, who recovered a fumble in the game, summed it up; “This was a game for the defense. This is what you need to do when you play on the road.”
Two scores in the final 35 seconds of the first half gave the Packers all the momentum they needed to easily beat their division rival Chicago Bears. Tight end Keith Jackson caught a two-yard pass from Favre with just over half-a-minute remaining in the second quarter. On the next drive, Packer cornerback Doug Evans intercepted a pass, leaving only 20 seconds on the clock. Favre threw a ‘Hail Mary’ pass to Antonio Freeman, who brought it down for the score and a 20-3 halftime lead. Freeman finished the day with seven receptions for 146 yards and two touchdowns. In a desperation move, the Bears resorted to trickery to try and get back in the game. Punter Todd Sauerbrun faked a kick and passed to Bobby Engram. Green Bay backup middle linebacker and former Bear Ron Cox commented, “I think the worst thing is when you got to run trick plays just to try to stay in the game. Right there, that makes you know that something’s wrong.” The Packers took the easy 37-6 victory to go 5-1 on the season, while the Bears fell to 2-4.
Robert Brooks, wide receiver for the Packers, suffered a season-ending knee injury on the first play from scrimmage against the San Francisco 49ers. He was replaced by Don Beebe, who subsequently caught eleven passes for 220 yards and a touchdown. But the Packers needed record performances from their players to keep up with the 49ers. Green Bay was down 17-6 at halftime. In the third quarter, Favre connected with Don Beebe on a 59-yard score. The pass to Edgar Bennett was good for the two-point conversion and the Packers were back in it 17-14. A 35-yard field goal by Chris Jacke tied the score in the fourth quarter.
With 2:13 left on the clock, 49er cornerback Marquez Pope intercepted Favre on the Green Bay 24-yard line. This led to a 28-yard field goal by Jeff Wilkins to give San Francisco a 20-17 lead. Green Bay started the final drive with 1:42 left in regulation. Favre methodically drove to the San Francisco 13-yard line, but three straight incomplete passes forced the Jacke field goal to tie the game to send it into overtime. The Packers won on a 53-yard field goal by Jacke, which was the longest field goal in overtime history. Jacke also tied a Packer record with five field goals in the game. Brett Favre threw a club record 61 passes in the 23-20 overtime victory.
A much needed win for the Packers as they headed into their bye week.
The injury bug struck again during the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the bye.
Antonio Freeman was running a slant route near the goal line on their second offensive series. Free safety Melvin Johnson hit Freeman, breaking his forearm. Combine that with the Robert Brooks injury earlier in the year, and the receiving corps was decimated. Don Beebe, Desmond Howard and Derrick Mayes were left to fill the void. Freeman’s loss hurt the Packers as they put up their worst offensive performance of the season to date. According to Brett Favre, “It was kind of a ho-hum day on offense. That’s kind of frustrating to me because I expect us to go out and score 30 points.” Favre was held without a touchdown pass for the first time since November 5, 1995. With all of the negatives in the game, the Packers still won 13-7 for their eleventh straight home victory.
Green Bay could ill-afford to have any receivers get hurt while they are waiting for Antonio Freeman to return. During their next game against Detroit, Don Beebe took two massive hits in the first half. Holmgren recalled, “I was concerned. The way our luck’s been going with our wide receivers.” Fortunately, Terry Mickens, who had been sidelined all season due to an ankle sprain, was able to suit up and play…and he played well. Mickens finished the game with seven catches for 52 yards and two touchdowns. According to Mickens, “I didn’t care if I started or just got out there on special teams. I just wanted to play again.” While Green Bay’s offense clicked, their defense was not up to par. Detroit running back Barry Sanders rushed for 152 yards on 20 carries. That was the first time Sanders ran over 100 yards in eight games, and he had 105 yards by halftime against the Packers. According to Holmgren, “I expect better things from our defense. Of course, Barry Sanders can make any defense look average.” However, they did hold him to 47 yards in the second half of the game.
Green Bay took a 14-10 halftime lead and score twice in the third quarter to jump out to a 28-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Detroit scored late in the final period, but ran out of time and the Packers took a 28-18 win to improve to 8-1 on the season. Detroit fell to 4-5.
Green Bay started a three-game road trip with a game in Kansas City against the 6-3 Chiefs, and the defense continued to struggle. On the first play from scrimmage, Kansas City connected on a 69-yard pass on their way to racking up 383 total yards, of which 182 were rushing yards. Kansas City...