Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
From big chill to Big Easy
Editor’s note: This story was published Jan. 13, 1997.
Green Bay — It takes the Super Bowl to validate greatness in the National Football League.
And that fact will never, ever change. But after winning 13 games in the regular season, then destroying the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 4 and the Carolina Panthers, 30-13, on Sunday in the National Football Conference Championship Game at Lambeau Field, the irrepressible Green Bay Packers are dead on course to thrust themselves onto the list of the more dominant teams of the modern era.
The Packers’ final opportunity to leave an indelible impression will come in New Orleans in two weeks when the emerging force from the NFL’s smallest city will return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 29 years.
Their opponent in Super Bowl XXXI will be the New England Patriots, 20-6 winners over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the championship game of the American Football Conference.
“We have a great football team, and we’re not finished yet,” Packers coach Mike Holmgren said on the field during the raucous presentation of the George S. Halas Trophy, symbolic of the NFC championship.
Some in the crowd of 60,216 at Lambeau Field wept tears of joy, having waited almost three decades for the Packers to recapture glory after mostly 30 years of largely post-Lombardi mediocrity.
“Not bad, huh?” ebullient Packers general manager Ron Wolf said. “A lot of people never thought this was going to happen. They thought this was a dead issue up here in Wisconsin.”
But with Wolf procuring the players and Holmgren installing superb systems in a disciplined but sanguine environment, the Packers improved every season since their administration began in 1992.
Today, they are a prohibitive favorite to add the franchise’s third Lombardi Trophy.
“We’re a very good football team,”
Packers two-time MVP quarterback Brett Favre said. “Everyone expected us to win that ball game today, including ourselves. And we did.
“I’m assuming that people will think we should win the Super Bowl, and we probably should, if statistics and records come into play. But anything can happen.”
At least the Patriots won’t have to cope with the frigid weather - 3 degrees, minus-17 wind chill at kickoff - and rabid crowds that have turned Lambeau into the league’s most overwhelming venue for visitors.
Carolina (13-5) suffered the worst defeat of its storybook season mainly because its quirky zone-blitz defense allowed 479 yards, most against the Panthers in their two seasons.
“I would have never guessed we would come in here and have our butts handed to us like we did today,” Panthers linebacker Kevin Greene said. “Another thing I never would have believed is that a team could run the ball on us like they did.
“They just gashed us here and gashed us there.”
After a typically sluggish start, including two turnovers by Favre that led to Carolina’s first 10 points, the Packers unleashed the full authority of their offensive might in a startling mix of grind-itout running and big-play passing.
The West Coast offense, in all of Holmgren’s subtle alterations, seldom, if ever, was this unstoppable.
In fact, Green Bay offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis, who won three Super Bowl rings as a 49ers’ assistant from 1983-’91, went so far as to say that the Packers’ offense is as complete and potent as any he ever was associated with in San Francisco.
“Right now we are,” Lewis said, “because we’ve got the right blend of run and pass. That’s tough on a defense. We’ve been in the 30s the last four or five games.
“Since the Detroit game (Dec. 15), we are running the ball better than any team I’ve ever been with. With Roger (Craig) and Tom (Rathman), we never ran the ball like this.”
Operating with equal effectiveness from the I-formation against Carolina’s base 3-4 and with three and four wide receivers against nickel defenses, the Packers amassed 201 yards on the ground against a defense that held Dallas to just 85 last week.
This shocking resurgence in rushing has left Green Bay with a 152.2-yard average in its last six games compared with just 91.4 yards in the nine games before that.
Obviously, the ball carrying of Dorsey
Levens (10-88) and Edgar Bennett (25-99) has been magnificent. So, too, according to Lewis, has been the lead blocking of fullback William Henderson and an offensive line that seems on a mission to prove its worth.
“We’re getting a hat on a hat now in the running game,” Lewis said. “We’re not making the mental mistakes we used to make and leaving a guy free. And William is always at the point of attack.”
Wary of Panthers coach Dom Capers’ defensive scheme, Holmgren did almost everything on offense except put Favre back seven steps and wing it. Starting with Levens’ 35-yard burst on the final play of the first quarter, the Packers struck for seven plays of 20 yards or more, equaling their season high set in Week 2 against Philadelphia.
It was all there for the Panthers to behold and, ultimately, fail to contain: Two dangerous tight ends forcing the safeties to stay back, wide receivers breaking tackles after the catch, running backs moving fluidly as receivers, screen passes executed in exquisite fashion, and a dashing quarterback making it all work.
Despite trailing by 7-0 early and then 10-7 late in the first half, the Packers had no real reason for self-doubt. Despite its many limitations in personnel, Carolina was well-prepared and surprisingly dangerous on offense, but its defense kept guessing wrong and ended up being humiliated.
“Yeah, I felt we’d come back,” Favre said. “I don’t think anybody can stop us, I really don’t.”
As the game wore on, Capers rushed five, even six defenders from every conceivable angle. But not often did rushers come free, a tribute to Favre’s preparation and the other players and coaches on offense.
In fact, the zone blitz scheme no doubt hurt Carolina’s run defense because all the movement left open lanes. The 479 yards represented the Packers’ second highest total under Holmgren.
Meanwhile, the Panthers’ overachieving offensive line discovered that even double-team blocking on defensive tackles Gilbert Brown and Santana Dotson couldn’t support a viable ground game. The Panthers settled for 45 rushing yards, equaling their franchise low set in ‘95 against Atlanta.
Carolina, which had outscored opponents, 200-62, in the second half, was in danger of being counted out before Holmgren mercifully quit passing early in the fourth quarter.
“We have a lot of individuals who had awards presented to them but they have a bunch of no-name players with tremendous heart, a great quarterback and a great coach,” Panthers linebacker Lamar Lathon said. “We should pattern ourselves after them.”