 |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PACKERS, WITH LITTLE TIME TO REFLECT ON WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN, HOST NFC CENTRAL-LEADING MINNESOTA VIKINGS IN MONDAY NIGHT SHOWDOWN
posted 10/30/00
 | | Mike Sherman |
THE GAME: Coming off a bittersweet road venture, the 3-5 Green Bay Packers will have little time to reflect on what might have been. They return to Lambeau Field for a "Monday Night Football" showdown against the 7-1 Minnesota Vikings, entrenched leaders of the NFC's Central Division, next Monday evening (November 6).
Kickoff for the contest, a customary season-ticket sellout (60,890), will be 8 o'clock, CST (Wisconsin time).
The Packers, who discovered Sunday that a 17-point lead is not always sufficient to carry the day in the National Football League, will be encountering a Minnesota team that also simultaneously learned that a perfect season is next to an impossible dream.
After mounting a 17-0 second quarter lead at Miami, the Packers saw the host Dolphins rebound to ring up 28 unanswered points en route to a 28-20 victory.
And, at Tampa, the Vikings had their 7-0 record unceremoniously blemished by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who swept to a 41-13 win over the Purple Gang in Raymond James Stadium.
THE DIVISION: Despite their losing visit to Tampa, the Vikings continue to hold a two-game lead over the runnerup Detroit Lions (5-3), 30-18 victims of the Indianapolis Colts, a three-game advantage over the third-place Buccaneers (4-4) and a four-game margin over the 3-5 Packers. Minnesota is six games up on the fifth-place Chicago Bears (1-7).
THE TV-RADIO COVERAGE: Al Michaels will call the play-by-play for ABC's telecast of Monday night's game and share the booth with analyst Dan Fouts and commentator Dennis Miller, with Melissa Stark and Eric Dickerson reporting from the field. Don Ohlmeyer is the producer and Drew Esocoff directs.
The game also will be broadcast over the Packer Radio Network (Wayne Larrivee and Larry McCarren) and available on the internet at www.packers.com. CBS Radio will air the game nationally, with Howard David handling the play-by-play, Matt Millen and Boomer Esiason the analysis and John Dockery reporting from the field.
THE SERIES: Though not as venerable as their "relationships" with the Chicago Bears or the Detroit Lions, having been launched as recently as 1961, the Packers' rivalry with the Minnesota Vikings easily approximates both of those storied series in professional animosity.
The Packers have played 77 games against their neighborhood enemies and better than a third of them - 26, to be exact - have been decided by seven or fewer points, including both of their 1999 encounters. The Packers prevailed in their first '99 meeting, scoring in the final seconds on a 23-yard Brett Favre strike to Corey Bradford to emerge with a 23-20 victory on September 26 and the Vikings squaring accounts in a December 20 matchup at Minneapolis, 24-20.
The Vikings, having won three of the last four meetings, now hold a 2-game advantage in the series. They have won 39 games, the Packers 37, and there has been one tie - a 10-10 deadlock played at Lambeau Field in 1978.
The latter was one of five overtime games that have punctuated the series, further underscoring the level of intensity that inevitably surrounds every skirmish between the Packers and the Purple Gang. To the Packers' understandable displeasure, the Vikings have won the four other sudden death contests, winning 27-21 in 1979 (September 23) at Metropolitan Stadium, 20-17 in 1983 (October 23) and 23-20 in 1992 (September 6), both at Lambeau Field, and 13-10 in 1994 (October 20) at the Minneapolis Metrodome.
The Packers' longest winning streak in the series has been the six-game skein with which they launched the series (1961-63) while the Vikings' longest dominance occurred when they won seven in a row under Bud Grant from 1975 through 1978.
THE PACKERS ON 'MNF:' The Packers will be making their 34th appearance on "Monday Night Football" since the series was launched in 1970. To date, they have won 15 games, lost 17 and tied one, the latter a 14-14 standoff played against the Detroit Lions at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1971.
With respect to Monday night's opponents, the Packers own a 1-and-2 record against Minnesota on ABC's Monday night showcase. They defeated the Vikings in their first such encounter, 27-11, at Minneapolis on December 1, 1997, but the Vikings have won their last two meetings.
The Packers will not soon forget the first of those - the Vikings' rain-drenched, 37-24 victory in Lambeau Field the night of October 5, 1998, an occasion on which Minnesota ended the Packers' 25-game home winning streak, the second-longest such skein in National Football League history.
Minnesota also won their third 'MNF' meeting, 24-20, at the Minneapolis Metrodome last season (December 20).
The latter followed the Packers' most recent success on the prime time series, a 20-3 win over the 49ers at San Francisco the night of November 29, 1999.
Without question, their most memorable 'MNF' victory came on October 17, 1983, when they out-pointed the Washington Redskins, 48-47, in what remains the highest scoring game in the history of the series.
THE COACHES: Mike Sherman, midway through his first season as head coach of the Packers, is in the 22nd year of an extensive coaching career, one encompassing experience at every level.
His substantial credentials include a Super Bowl, following the 1997 season, during which he was a member of Mike Holmgren's staff that led the Packers against the Denver Broncos in SBXXXII at San Diego.
It was the first of three consecutive years in the playoffs for the 45-year-old New Englander, who returned to the postseason with the Packers in 1998 and with Seattle in 1999 while serving as offensive coordinator for the Seahawks after joining Holmgren's staff in Seattle.
The 13th head coach in Green Bay's distinguished, 80-year NFL history, Sherman earlier coached in the college ranks for 16 years, among them a year as offensive coordinator at Holy Cross and stints as offensive line coach at highly regarded Texas A&M and UCLA before entering the professional ranks. The Central Connecticut University alumnus began his coaching career at Stamford, Conn., High School in 1978.
Dennis Green, along with Pittsburgh's Bill Cowher the longest tenured coaches in the NFL, is in his ninth season as field leader of the Vikings. During his 8-1/2 years in the role, he has guided the Minnesotans to an 88-48 regular season record.
Along the way, he has led them into postseason play in seven of the eight previous seasons (1992-94 and 1996-99).
In 1999, he escorted the Vikings to their fourth double-digit win season (10-6) during his tenure as head coach. The Vikings also hosted a playoff game in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1975 and '76 seasons and, for the first time in franchise history, won a playoff game for the third consecutive season.
Green, a running back at Iowa (1968-70), began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Iowa in 1972. Later an assistant at Dayton and Stanford, he became a head coach for the first time at Northwestern (1981-85). He subsequently became head coach at Stanford in 1989, a post he left to become head coach of the Vikings in 1992.
THE CONNECTIONS: Two faces familiar to the Packers faithful will be returning to Lambeau Field Monday night with the opposition - Sherman Lewis and Emmitt Thomas presiding as offensive and defensive coordinator, respectively, for the Vikings.
The Minnesota coaching staff also includes three other former members of the Green Bay staff - line coach Fred von Appen, who held that position as a Packer in 1979-80; wide receivers coach Charlie Baggett, who oversaw the Packers' wideouts in 1999; and defensive assistant Chuck Knox Jr., who held a similar position on Ray Rhodes' staff in 1999.
The Vikings' roster also includes two former Packers, defensive end Bryce Paup (1990-94) and linebacker Jim Nelson (1998-99).
On the home side of the field, Ray Sherman, Minnesota's offensive coordinator in 1999, will be holding forth as coach of the Packers' wide receivers.
THE LAST TIME(S): Characteristic of the rivalry, both of the Packers' 1999 meetings with Minnesota literally went down to the proverbial wire.
The Packers scored with only 12 seconds remaining to win their first '99 encounter, wide receiver Corey Bradford streaking past Vikings defender Jimmy Hitchcock into the end zone to pull in quarterback Brett Favre's on-line throw.
The subsequent rematch in Minnesota on "Monday Night Football" (December 20) was a tight and tense defensive struggle which saw the Packers and Favre attempting to work another "miracle" finish. At the Vikings' 27-yard line in the waning seconds, Favre made one last attempt to expunge a 24-20 gap, rolling out to his right and unfurling a throw into the end zone. There it was intercepted by Vikings safety Robert Griffith and the game was over.
Until Favre located Bradford in the end zone in the final minute of that September meeting, the Packers' only touchdown of a surprisingly sultry afternoon - the thermometer registered a toasty 82 degrees at kickoff - had been a 26-yard scoring interception return by rookie cornerback Antuan Edwards, who purloined a Randall Cunningham pass and sprinted around and through members of the Vikings' offensive unit into the end zone midway through the second quarter. His heroics lifted the Packers into a 10-78 lead at that juncture.
The Packers' remaining points were provided by placekicker Ryan Longwell, who authored three field goals (22, 35 and 34 yards) between Edwards' touchdown and the decisive Favre-Bradford collaboration in the final seconds.
The Green and Gold were required to come back with the Bradford score after the Vikings went up, 20-16, on a 10-yard Cunningham pass to Randy Moss in the middle of the end zone with only 1:56 remaining.
In the rematch at Minneapolis, the Packers went ahead for the last time in the third minute of the fourth quarter - on the wings of a surprise strike when Head Coach Ray Rhodes opted to try a fake field goal in a 4th-and-4 situation at the Minnesota 9-yard line.
It worked just like it was drawn up. Holder - and backup quarterback - Matt Hasselbeck fielded the snap from Rob Davis flawlessly, stood up and, moving to his left, lofted a pass to tight end Jeff Thomason, totally alone in the flat. Thomason gathered in the football and swept into the end zone untouched and Longwell's conversion gave the Packers a 20-17 lead at that point.
That advantage, however, was of short duration. The Vikings proceeded to execute a 7-play, 64-yard scoring drive of their own. The key maneuver en route was a 36-yard Jeff George pass to Moss, who pulled down the ball at the one-yard line and was simultaneously felled by free safety Darren Sharper. Running back Leroy Hoard then completed the project on first down, bolting up the middle into the end zone.
THE (NFL) STATISTICAL UPDATE: Packers placekicker Ryan Longwell continues to hold second place among NFC kick scorers with 68 points, his production including 18 field goals in 20 attempts and all of his 14 conversion attempts.
Quarterback Brett Favre ranks seventh in conference passer ratings with an 80.1 mark, based on 173 completions in 285 attempts for 1,973 yards and 10 touchdowns, with 9 interceptions.
Favre also is fifth in the NFC in third-down passing with a 83.3 rating, based on 37 completions in 66 attempts, a 56.1 percentage, for 407 yards and 3 touchdowns, with one interception.
Teammate Allen Rossum stands seventh among both NFC punt and kickoff returners - with an 8.4-yard average for 15 punt returns and 24.5-yard average for 25 KOR.
Free safety Darren Sharper is in a five-way tie for third place in the NFC in interceptions with four.
Punter Josh Bidwell ranks 12th among NFC punters with a 39.3-yard average for 38 punts and 11th in net average (34.3).
Running back Ahman Green is tied for fifth in NFC third-and-one rushing with an 85.7 percent success rate, having made six first downs in seven attempts.
As a team, the Packers are tied for 13th in the NFL on offense (25th in rushing and 8th in passing) and 10th on defense (ninth against the run and 12th against the pass).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
