Wags
by Len Wagner
Monday, September 25, 2000
"Bring on Da Bears"
Bye-Bye Birdies, as the old Broadway musical sort of goes.
The Packers have now shot down both the Eagles and the Cardinals. Good
hunting. Never mind that both species had difficulty flying, that is,
getting anywhere in the air. It made the Pack’s pursuit considerably easier.
This is not to take anything away from the Green Bay defense. Thanks to
some apparent individual improvements and Coordinator Ed Donatil’s
mind-spooking -- at least for young quarterbacks -- schemes, the Packers
have been mostly brilliant stopping both birds without a touchdown. It’s
been pure fun watching it.
While the Eagles provided a staunch resistance, Arizona’s defense, as the
statistics and the reality of Sunday proved, is about as sturdy as the
little pig with the house of straw. Again, this is not to take anything
away from the Green Bay offense Sunday. As any attacking unit must do, it
took advantage of the Arizona vulnerabilities -- which was pretty much the
whole lineup. The impressive part of the game plan was the mixing of
weapons: runs and a variety of passes.
And even though the Cardinals forced the Packers to wear their more
heat-absorbent green jerseys (normally the visiting team wears white), the
visitors from the tundra wore down the hot-weather foes in their own desert
grill with long, clock-eating drives.
Oh, it was pretty. It brought the Pack back to 2-2, which is reason to
celebrate in this year of uncertainty. And it kept the Packers on track in
this part of the schedule that has them playing a string of games (except
for Detroit) against teams that, if not exactly Pop Warner All-Stars, at
least appear to be the dregs of the league. After the Bears in Lambeau come
the Lions in Detroit and then the 49ers in Green Bay. Too bad we can’t
replace the Lions with the Cowboys or Bengals. But the point is the Packers
should be favored and need to win against Chicago and San Francisco. After
a bye, they hit the NFL version of Murderer’s Row.
The current good news is that the Bears, despite their more ferocious name,
do not seem to be any more vicious than the Birds. They are 0-4. But you
can bet they will be snarling in Lambeau Field Sunday. This will be an
opportunity for the Packers to show some consistency on both sides of the
ball. That consistency would give them and all of us at least a tad more
confidence.
We noted above that there has been some "apparent" individual improvement
-- apparent because that progress must be proven through more than three
games. But give proper credit to a sharper Darren Sharper, a more active
Bernardo Harris, a tighter-covering Tyrone Williams and a rejuvenated John
Thierry, who has somehow found a way to distinguish himself in key
situations. Offensively, Brett Favre was brilliant Sunday, in contrast to
mostly average performances in the three previous games. The line, except
for somewhat slow-footed Mike Wahle, was outstanding Sunday. Note that this
included Mike Flanagan at center for Frank Winters. Flanagan didn’t even
get a holding call.
But if you detected just a bit of hesitancy in some of the above remarks,
you are a budding Sherlock Holmes. Why, you say? Couple of items -- some of
you may consider them nit-picky -- that remain bothersome:
The Packers offense settled for too many field goals. Ryan Longwell was a
sharpshooter with his toe. But he shouldn’t have had that many
opportunities. Against the defenseless Cardinals, there should have been
more touchdowns.
The offense needs more input from Bubba Franks. The guy has amazing
athletic ability. He hasn’t figured out how to use it in the NFL yet. The
tight end is a primary part of the West Coast offense. Double tight ends
are even better. Some work is needed in this area.
The complicated, blitzing, position-switching defense has simply boggled
opponents the last two weeks. It is complicated and prone to mental
mistakes. The Eagles and Cardinals didn’t see many mistakes but they could
happen any time. All those multiple blitzers also require tight, most often
one-on-one coverage in the secondary. The Eagles and Cardinals didn’t have
any receivers to really test the DBs.
There are a couple of other things -- but, what the heck, let’s enjoy an
uplifting victory and bring on the Bears.
---------------------------( ADVERTISEMENT )---------------------------
Get your sports tickets (yes even Packer tickets) from OpenSeats.com
southendzone.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
South End Zone Mailing List
southendzone.com
SouthEndZone-subscribe@egroups.com
SouthEndZone-unsubscribe@egroups.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
=*= Over 2,600 subscribers in 14 countries. Tell all your friends! =*= |
