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Green Bay vs. New England
7/31/97 - Packers win 7-3 (Preseason)
NOTE-WORTHY:
- With Thursday night's victory over New England, Head Coach Mike Holmgren remains unbeaten in the Bishop's Charities series. It was the sixth straight success in the charity series for Holmgren, who made his Green Bay head coaching debut in the 1992 Charities game (August 8) with a 21-13 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Overall, the Packers' field leader owns an 8-and-1 preseason record in Lambeau Field.
- The victory was the Packers' 19th in the 37-game history of the Charities series. They have lost 17 times and there has been one tie.
- The attendance for Thursday night's game, 60,778, established a new preseason record for Lambeau Field. The previous record, 59,284, was set at last year's Midwest Shrine Game (against the Pittsburgh Steelers), August 11, 1996.
- Thirteen Packers did not dress for Thursday night's game. The list included wide receiver Eric Matthews (foot); offensive tackles Earl Dotson (knee) and Bruce Wilkerson (back); guards Gary Brown (knee and shoulder) and Lindsay Knapp (calf and knee); center Mike Flanagan (leg); tight end Kyle Wachholtz (quad); defensive ends Walter Scott (knee) and Tony Daniels (knee); linebacker George Koonce (knee); and cornerback Carl Greenwood (quad strain), in addition to wide receiver Robert Brooks, and running back Edgar Bennett (Achilles' tendon), who is expected to miss the regular season.
- Record 'Espionage:' Twenty-one personnel executives and scouts from rival National Football League teams, presumed to be a stadium "record," were in the Lambeau Field press box Thursday night for the purpose of assessing talent being placed on display by the Super Bowl champion Packers, as well as by the AFC champion Pats. The visiting evaluators, conversant with the Packers' personnel depth, are well aware that August 19 is the NFL-mandated reduction of team rosters from the training camp limit of 80 to 60 players, and that the subsequent cut to the regular-season limit of 53 must be made by August 24.
- The Packers' first defense has not been scored upon in the two preseason games to date.
- The only score the defense as a whole has permitted came by way of a Adam Vinatieri's 52-yard field goal with only 1:03 remaining in the third quarter of Thursday night's game. which means that Coordinator Fritz Shurmur's defenders had shut out the opposition for 103 minutes, 57 seconds before Vinatieri connected from long range.
- In addition to quarterback Doug Pederson, named the Most Valuable Player on offense in the Charities game for the second year in a row, Reggie White was chosen as the game's MVP on defense.
- Running back Chris Darkins posted his most productive performance as a Packer to date, accounting for 84 all-purpose yards against the Patriots. The breakdown shows 3 rushes for 16 yards, a 5.3-yard average, one pass reception for 19 yards and two kickoff returns for 49 yards, a 24.5-yard average.
- Darkins complemented his offensive efforts by making the tackle of New England linebacker Marty Moore following Moore's interception of a third quarter pass by quarterback Doug Pederson. Darkins felled Moore following a 13-yard runback.
- Rookie fullback Jerald Sowell made his presence known in the second quarter, picking up back-to-back first downs via 11 and 21-yard passes from quarterback Steve Bono.
- Second-year pro Keith McKenzie sacked New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe for a 6-yard loss on a third down play late in the second quarter, with the Patriots in possession at the Packers' 49-yard line.
- Reggie White had thrown the elusive Dave Meggett for a 4-yard loss on the previous play to help negate a budding Patriots threat. White earlier had combined with tackle Gilbert Brown to sack Bledsoe for a 6-yard loss in the first quarter.
- Derrick Mayes, a leading candidate to succeed the departed Desmond Howard as the Packers' resident punt returner, turned in a workman-like performance against the Pats, closing out the evening with 55 yards via 5 runbacks. They included a 22-yarder on his first return.
- Running back Travis Jervey, continuing to make strides, produced a first down on back-to-back rushes in the second quarter, sweeping left end for consecutive 6-yard gains.
- Marcus Spears, the former Chicago Bear who opened in place of Earl Dotson (knee) at right tackle Thursday night, was making his first start since he started all 10 games at left guard for the Amsterdam Admirals in the World League's 1996 season.
- Placekicker Brett Conway may have had directional problems with field goals in the Patriots contest but he had none with distance on his kickoffs, booming the second half kickoff 8 yards deep (a 78-yard effort) and -- kicking from his own 45 when a 15-yard penalty was assessed to the Pats following Conway's fourth quarter conversion -- he dispatched his final KO beyond the end line of the end zone, in excess of 65 yards.
- Wide receiver Antonio Freeman (offense), tackle Santana Dotson (defense) and linebacker Lamont Hollinquest (special teams) were the Packers' captains for the Patriots contest.
- Tackle/guard Ross Verba of Iowa, the Packers' first round selection in this year's NFL draft, signed a Green Bay contract last Thursday afternoon, a few hours prior to the Patriots game, ending an 22-day holdout. He joined the team on the practice field Saturday morning (August 2).
- Ronnie McAda, the rookie quarterback from Army, left Friday to begin fulfilling a two-year military commitment. McAda, the Packers' eighth and final selection in this year's NFL draft, reported to Fort Sill, Okla., for officer's training.
- In the wake of McAda's departure, Head Coach Mike Holmgren indicated that Kyle Wachholtz will begin working as a fourth quarterback in practice, in addition to taking his customary snaps at tight end.
- With Thursday night's contribution, the Bishop's Charities Game has raised more than $2,450,000 for the Bishop's diocesan charities since the series was inaugurated in 1961.
- The Packers' new site on the World Wide Web -- Packers.com -- is off to an impressive start. Launched July 23, it had received more than 2.75 million hits as of Sunday night (Aug. 3) -- a span of 11 days -- and more than 100,000 people already had accessed the site.
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