Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Green Bay protects its turf
Editor’s note: This story was published Dec. 9, 1996. This story was edited for space.
Green Bay — Brett Favre’s brilliant quarterbacking. A mature, opportunistic defense.
More than any other elements, those are the salient reasons why the Green Bay Packers have planted the seed of a dynasty in the Central Division of the National Football Conference.
It was fitting, then, that a pair of plays made by Favre and the defense turned a close game against the unmotivated and injury-riddled Denver Broncos into a 41-6 blowout before 60,712 fans Sunday at Lambeau Field.
Everyone had a different spin for a game that meant nothing for the Broncos, who were without their leader, quarterback John Elway, their best offensive lineman, left tackle Gary Zimmerman, and any incentive because they already had wrapped up homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
“It says we didn’t give a damn about this game,” Broncos defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry said. “Do you see any real down faces in that locker room?”
However you want to slice it, though, the team with the best record by two games in the National Football League had come to Green Bay and suffered its worst loss since November 1988.
“We needed this game a lot more than they did, that’s obvious, and John Elway did not play,” Packers coach Mike Holmgren said. “But all those things will not detract at all from what we accomplished today.
“Football players are football players, and coaches are coaches. When you step on the field, don’t tell me anyone goes out there not wanting to win. That never happens.”
The victory, the Packers’ 25th in 26 regular-season and playoff appearances at Lambeau since September 1993, made them the first team since the Chicago Bears of 1984-’88 to win consecutive championships in the NFC Central.
Still, despite a conference-best record
of 11-3, the Packers haven’t locked up even one home game in the playoffs.
“That is our next step,” Favre said. “I think we have a great team, but it’s not easy for anyone to go on the road and make it to the Big Show.”
Despite their wounds, the Broncos (12-2) scoffed at the possibility of emotional residue should the teams meet again seven weeks from now in the Super Bowl.
“No, not at all,” Denver linebacker Bill Romanowski said. “We didn’t lose to a superior team. They just outperformed us today. That happens.”
“Now, don’t be crazy,” defensive tackle Jumpy Geathers said. “If we had had No. 7 (Elway), maybe. But it ain’t like they came out and boom, boom, boom, boom, right down the field. You saw the first half. Did you see them throwing us around?
“But you take your whipping. If we
were going full-go, I could evaluate it better.”
Packers general manager Ron Wolf didn’t really disagree.
“This got out of hand, but this was in doubt for a long time,” Wolf said. “We are what we are, an upper-echelon team in the NFC. The barometer for us has to be Dallas. Until we get over that hurdle . . . and it’s a significant hurdle, like the Himalaya Mountains.”
With 29-year-old dink-baller Bill Musgrave making his first NFL start, the Broncos had no hope to throw downfield and no chance to win unless their defense could hold the Packers to 14 points or fewer.
Musgrave was exposed by the Packers’ blitzing defense as the third-stringer that he is. The Broncos finished with just 83 yards net passing, the lowest total