Jerry Tagge
01-26-2007, 03:58 PM
Yes, it was 10 years ago today that the Green Bay Packers brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy back home. I can't believe it's been that long.
Super Bowl XXXI, Jan. 26, 1997: Packers 35, Patriots 21
By Pete Dougherty
PackersNews.com
From start to finish this year, those Green Bay Packers simply packed the biggest punch in the NFL. They showed it early in 1996, and they showed it when it mattered most: During their stretch run to the NFL championship.
The title became official Sunday, when they returned the Vince Lombardi Trophy to its namesake’s home after a 29-year wait with a 35-21 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI at the Louisiana Superdome.
The win culminated a five-year climb for the Packers, who as recently as 1993 were a one-dimensional team with a wild young quarterback in Brett Favre and his one-weaponed passing attack of Sterling Sharpe.
Now Favre is the toast of the NFL, the league’s MVP, and he has probably the most impressive array of weapons in the league, ranging from Antonio Freeman to Andre Rison to Keith Jackson and Mark Chmura, to the incomparable return man Desmond Howard.
Almost every week this season one or several have stepped forward, and in the NFL’s biggest showcase Sunday was no different. Freeman and Rison caught long touchdown passes, Howard was at his backbreaking best, and Favre ran the team with precision.
“I think the Packers’ weapons now in the 19th week of the season speak for themselves,†said Al Groh, the defensive coordinator for the vanquished Patriots. “The highest-scoring offense in the league. It’s usually done with weapons so they don’t need me to speak for them. I think they’ve made their own statement here this month.â€
The Packers finish the season at 16-3 and clearly the best team in football. With Favre just coming into his own at the age of 27, and with a nucleus of key players coming back, Sunday’s win begged for a look forward as much as a look back. Could this be just the start of something really big for general manger Ron Wolf and coach Mike Holmgren? Or will the possible free agency of players such as defensive tackle Gilbert Brown and linebacker Wayne Simmons erode the talent the Packers need to stay on top of the football world?
“Our guys have done an excellent job — Ron Wolf and Mike and the people in personnel have done a great job of evaluating talent,†said Sherman Lewis, the Packers’ offensive coordinator. “We’re going to lose some good players, but we’ll also acquire some. As long as we have the quarterback and a good, sound defense we’ll be competitive. But to get this far you have to have a little luck, too.â€
Just how good are these Packers? They finished the regular season as both the highest-scoring and stingiest team in the NFL. They needed both against a Patriots team that had some quick-strike offense of its own that turned a 10-0 deficit into a 14-10 lead in a four-minute stretch late in the first quarter. That threatened to give the Packers’ dream season a terribly bitter ending.
But the Packers’ punch was too much. Favre finished the day 14-for-27 passing for 246 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Most of those yards came on two scintillating plays: An audibled 54-yard touchdown to Rison on the Packers’ second play, and an 81-yard touchdown to Freeman that put the Packers back on top 17-14 less than a minute into the second quarter.
Throw in Howard’s 99-yard kick-off return for a touchdown that won him the game’s most valuable player award, and the flurry was more than the Patriots could withstand.
It also invited comparisons to the team after which this Packers’ club is patterned, the San Francisco 49ers clubs that Holmgren and Lewis worked for assistant coaches. Those teams won Super Bowls in 1989 and ’90 with an offense as good as the game probably has seen.
As impressive as these Packers have been, they can’t yet be put in that class. “That team had a lot of weapons,†Lewis said. “We had Jerry Rice and John Taylor and Brent Jones and Roger Craig and Joe Montana. Talk about some talent.â€
If Rison’s touchdown got the Packers off to a smoking start and Freeman’s a quick rebound from the Patriot’s’ surpassingly quick comeback, Howard’s might have been the biggest. New England stopped the Packers on fourth down on their initial second-half possession, and then the Patriots got a touchdown of their own that cut the Packers’ lead to 27-21.
But Howard slammed the door on the very next play and in some ways ended the contest right there with his 99-yard score.
“Up until that point, I thought we still had an opportunity,†said Patriots coach Bill Parcells.
If the quick strikes lifted the Packers on this day, their defense also buckled down in the second half. The Patriots came at the Packers with a startlingly pass-oriented attack, with quarterback Drew Bledsoe throwing 48 passes (he completed 25) and 1,000-yard rusher Curtis Martin getting only 11 carries.
But after the Patriots’ big plays of the first half — a 26-yard pass interference penalty that receiver Shawn Jefferson drew from cornerback Craig Newsome, and a 44-yard pass to receiver Terry Glenn that set up another score — the Packers held the Patriots to only seven second-half points.
Martin ran for only 42 yards, so New England was unable to control the clock, and four Packers intercepted Bledsoe: Newsome, Doug Evans, Mike Prior and Brian Williams.
“We didn’t think they could win the game running the ball,†said Sean Jones, the Packers’ right defensive end. “But I still thought they would have tried.â€
That kept the Packers comfortably ahead for most of the second half.
“We had the better team,†Lewis said. “It’s as simple as that.â€
http://www.packersnews.com/favre/articles/favre_24428574.shtml
Super Bowl XXXI, Jan. 26, 1997: Packers 35, Patriots 21
By Pete Dougherty
PackersNews.com
From start to finish this year, those Green Bay Packers simply packed the biggest punch in the NFL. They showed it early in 1996, and they showed it when it mattered most: During their stretch run to the NFL championship.
The title became official Sunday, when they returned the Vince Lombardi Trophy to its namesake’s home after a 29-year wait with a 35-21 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI at the Louisiana Superdome.
The win culminated a five-year climb for the Packers, who as recently as 1993 were a one-dimensional team with a wild young quarterback in Brett Favre and his one-weaponed passing attack of Sterling Sharpe.
Now Favre is the toast of the NFL, the league’s MVP, and he has probably the most impressive array of weapons in the league, ranging from Antonio Freeman to Andre Rison to Keith Jackson and Mark Chmura, to the incomparable return man Desmond Howard.
Almost every week this season one or several have stepped forward, and in the NFL’s biggest showcase Sunday was no different. Freeman and Rison caught long touchdown passes, Howard was at his backbreaking best, and Favre ran the team with precision.
“I think the Packers’ weapons now in the 19th week of the season speak for themselves,†said Al Groh, the defensive coordinator for the vanquished Patriots. “The highest-scoring offense in the league. It’s usually done with weapons so they don’t need me to speak for them. I think they’ve made their own statement here this month.â€
The Packers finish the season at 16-3 and clearly the best team in football. With Favre just coming into his own at the age of 27, and with a nucleus of key players coming back, Sunday’s win begged for a look forward as much as a look back. Could this be just the start of something really big for general manger Ron Wolf and coach Mike Holmgren? Or will the possible free agency of players such as defensive tackle Gilbert Brown and linebacker Wayne Simmons erode the talent the Packers need to stay on top of the football world?
“Our guys have done an excellent job — Ron Wolf and Mike and the people in personnel have done a great job of evaluating talent,†said Sherman Lewis, the Packers’ offensive coordinator. “We’re going to lose some good players, but we’ll also acquire some. As long as we have the quarterback and a good, sound defense we’ll be competitive. But to get this far you have to have a little luck, too.â€
Just how good are these Packers? They finished the regular season as both the highest-scoring and stingiest team in the NFL. They needed both against a Patriots team that had some quick-strike offense of its own that turned a 10-0 deficit into a 14-10 lead in a four-minute stretch late in the first quarter. That threatened to give the Packers’ dream season a terribly bitter ending.
But the Packers’ punch was too much. Favre finished the day 14-for-27 passing for 246 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Most of those yards came on two scintillating plays: An audibled 54-yard touchdown to Rison on the Packers’ second play, and an 81-yard touchdown to Freeman that put the Packers back on top 17-14 less than a minute into the second quarter.
Throw in Howard’s 99-yard kick-off return for a touchdown that won him the game’s most valuable player award, and the flurry was more than the Patriots could withstand.
It also invited comparisons to the team after which this Packers’ club is patterned, the San Francisco 49ers clubs that Holmgren and Lewis worked for assistant coaches. Those teams won Super Bowls in 1989 and ’90 with an offense as good as the game probably has seen.
As impressive as these Packers have been, they can’t yet be put in that class. “That team had a lot of weapons,†Lewis said. “We had Jerry Rice and John Taylor and Brent Jones and Roger Craig and Joe Montana. Talk about some talent.â€
If Rison’s touchdown got the Packers off to a smoking start and Freeman’s a quick rebound from the Patriot’s’ surpassingly quick comeback, Howard’s might have been the biggest. New England stopped the Packers on fourth down on their initial second-half possession, and then the Patriots got a touchdown of their own that cut the Packers’ lead to 27-21.
But Howard slammed the door on the very next play and in some ways ended the contest right there with his 99-yard score.
“Up until that point, I thought we still had an opportunity,†said Patriots coach Bill Parcells.
If the quick strikes lifted the Packers on this day, their defense also buckled down in the second half. The Patriots came at the Packers with a startlingly pass-oriented attack, with quarterback Drew Bledsoe throwing 48 passes (he completed 25) and 1,000-yard rusher Curtis Martin getting only 11 carries.
But after the Patriots’ big plays of the first half — a 26-yard pass interference penalty that receiver Shawn Jefferson drew from cornerback Craig Newsome, and a 44-yard pass to receiver Terry Glenn that set up another score — the Packers held the Patriots to only seven second-half points.
Martin ran for only 42 yards, so New England was unable to control the clock, and four Packers intercepted Bledsoe: Newsome, Doug Evans, Mike Prior and Brian Williams.
“We didn’t think they could win the game running the ball,†said Sean Jones, the Packers’ right defensive end. “But I still thought they would have tried.â€
That kept the Packers comfortably ahead for most of the second half.
“We had the better team,†Lewis said. “It’s as simple as that.â€
http://www.packersnews.com/favre/articles/favre_24428574.shtml