I have a BAD feeling about Al Harris.

[gbpackfan]

Brad Zimanek column: Harris' return inspires defense


Reality set in for Green Bay cornerback Al Harris shortly following the Packers’ last-second 16-13 season-opening win over Philadelphia.


He sat in front of his locker at Lambeau Field and couldn’t remove his shoulder pads.

His damaged right elbow – the same one that he played with wrapped like a mummy for more than two quarters Sunday against the Eagles – wouldn’t allow it.

After a few moments, with help from a friend, Harris was eventually freed.

But it didn’t come until after some painful grimaces and a few squeals of agony.

It was just part of a day’s work for Harris, who epitomizes the heart and soul of a resurgent defense that came to life the final month last season and carried it into 2007.

“I was coming back,” Harris said. “That was not an option.”

Try telling that to teammates who saw Harris writhing in pain on the sideline after he hyperextended the elbow while blocking on a punt return with 7:23 left in the first quarter.

“I didn’t think he was coming back, not the way he ran off the field,” defensive end Cullen Jenkins said

After several offensive plays, Harris was wheeled to the locker room for X-rays.

Defensive tackle Corey Williams said: “He easily could have said 'Forget it.'"

The initial X-rays were negative. Harris said they won’t know the extent of the injury until he undergoes more tests today, but none of that mattered to him at the time.

“I just wanted it immobilized so I could get back out there,” Harris said.

When he returned with 10:09 left in the second quarter, the crowd let loose with an applause that let everyone know how much his familiar dreadlocks were missed.

“When we were in the huddle and we saw him coming back out there we were like, ‘Whoa … hey, let’s go, ’” Williams said. “It gave us a lift. To know that he cared that much about us to get back out there.”

When asked what was his range of motion, Harris said not much.

“It was almost like a 90-degree,” Harris said. “I just had to stay close enough to the receiver where I could put my hand on him.”

Harris didn’t record a tackle and was credited with one pass defensed, but it’s obvious how important he is to the defense that limited the Eagles to 13 points and 283 yards.

Jenkins said it even gave him a boost to fight through his own struggles. He has had flu-like symptoms and had not eaten since Friday.

“Al is a big leader on this team, so to see him go out, you get depressed a little bit,” Jenkins said. “You feel like you are missing one of your leaders out there.

“When he came back, it was a big confidence boost for us, the fans … everybody.”

Following a shower, Harris had some more struggles before heading home. He needed a reporter’s help to button the collar of his shirt.

“We have to look at it and see how much damage is done,” Harris said.

Harris said he didn’t know about his playing status for next week, but was confident Sunday would be his last performance on special teams for the year.

“I’m through with special teams,” said Harris, who last played on special teams with the Eagles in 2002. “… unless Coach tells me I have to get out there. Then, I’ll get out there.”

Jenkins said he hopes that doesn’t happen again.

“Everybody on the sideline was questioning what the heck Al was doing on the punt return team,” Williams said. “Luckily, he was able to come back. Hopefully, he’s all right. We have people with great character and Al is one of those.”

Harris downplayed his return, but not what it meant for the Packers to get the win.

“This is a new year,” Harris said. “I see us going out every Sunday and trying hard and leaving it all out on the field.”

On this day, there’s no doubt Harris did exactly that.

Brad Zimanek is the sports editor of The Post-Crescent of Appleton. E-mail him at bzimanek@postcrescent.com.

http://www.packersnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070909/PKR0201/70909051/1989


It did not look good. I have a bad feeling that Al was playing through the pain and an MRI is going to show some pretty severe damage. That would really suck.

[Rastak]

Enjoy the win, bring this stuff up later in the week.

:wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

[RashanGary]

Looked like hyper extention to me. I don't know how bad that is, but it's probably some severely strained ligiments, hopefully not torn. The only good thing is that Bush looked really well while Harris was out. The bad thing is that after Bush, I don't like our other guys.

[GBRulz]

Enjoy the win, bring this stuff up later in the week.

:wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

My hell, if this isn't the quote of the day! :wink:

[]{ilr]3]

Dang, that sucks. I was hoping that his return to the game was a good sign the injury wasnt too bad.

Hope he is OK and nothing long lasting. Always enjoy watching him play.

[Lurker64]

If he can play, he will. If he can't, what's done is done and I wish him a speedy recovery.


I'm going to go enjoy the win, and revisit this thread later in the week.

[Rastak]

Enjoy the win, bring this stuff up later in the week.

:wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

My hell, if this isn't the quote of the day! :wink:


Just quoting gbpackfan himself in another thread.....

[BallHawk]

Talk about a warrior.

Curt Schilling ain't got nothing on Al. 8-)

[gbpackfan]

I knew that was coming! :D

But I believe there is a difference.

Maybe not.

And trust me, I AM ENJOYING THE WIN!!!!!

[Rastak]

I knew that was coming! :D

But I believe there is a difference.

Maybe not.

And trust me, I AM ENJOYING THE WIN!!!!!


Just kidding, you're just posting about a possible injury....not the same thing as major negativity...just had to give you a small ration of crap.

[esoxx]

Why was Harris out there on punt return? I don't remember him playing ST in previous years.

Packers have a lot of young bodies they should be using instead of one of the most important players on the team that's getting up there in age.

[Bretsky]

Why was Harris out there on punt return? I don't remember him playing ST in previous years.

Packers have a lot of young bodies they should be using instead of one of the most important players on the team that's getting up there in age.

agree

[gbpackfan]

Why was Harris out there on punt return? I don't remember him playing ST in previous years.

Packers have a lot of young bodies they should be using instead of one of the most important players on the team that's getting up there in age.


I have one hell of a rant to give on this issue but I'll wait until I find out how bad the injury is. Plus, I am enjoying this win too much to care right now. :wink:

[Lurker64]

I have to say though, if Harris does have to miss time, I feel a lot better with Bush, Walker, and Blackmon filling in than last year when we'd have Caroll or Dendy. Still Harris is our best or second best CB and I want him playing if he can. He was still decent out there with the elbow immobilized after all. I'd take him playing like that until he's better.

[Willard]

Why was Harris out there on punt return? I don't remember him playing ST in previous years.

Packers have a lot of young bodies they should be using instead of one of the most important players on the team that's getting up there in age.


I have one hell of a rant to give on this issue but I'll wait until I find out how bad the injury is. Plus, I am enjoying this win too much to care right now. :wink:

It could have been worse. How about this scenario: Starting CB Woodson who is returning punts gets into a high speed collision with starting CB Harris during an ill-conceived return, taking out both of our starting cornerbacks on one special teams play!. See, it could have been worse.

[footballfever]

If it is a hyperextended elbow that would be the same injury that put Miree on the shelf last year and he never returned to form. Before anyone gets carried away with a diagnostic on an injury we are all in the dark on there is a good chance it was a sever bruise, elbow to the helmet doesn't feel good. There would be significant swelling from that and it would be understandable that hes in a lot of pain, so before anyone goes jumpin off any bridges (take the Driver injury 2 weeks ago, people were crying a bout lis franc injuries and all sorts of obscure shit) just relax take a few hits off the kool aid bottle and enjoy the victory. Not a lot of people believed it would happen but we managed and its a good day, let the mid week injury reports come and be what they will

[OS PA]

If it is a hyperextended elbow that would be the same injury that put Miree on the shelf last year and he never returned to form. Before anyone gets carried away with a diagnostic on an injury we are all in the dark on there is a good chance it was a sever bruise, elbow to the helmet doesn't feel good. There would be significant swelling from that and it would be understandable that hes in a lot of pain, so before anyone goes jumpin off any bridges (take the Driver injury 2 weeks ago, people were crying a bout lis franc injuries and all sorts of obscure shit) just relax take a few hits off the kool aid bottle and enjoy the victory. Not a lot of people believed it would happen but we managed and its a good day, let the mid week injury reports come and be what they will

I've been saying all day, if there was something SERIOUSLY wrong with Harris he would not have been allowed back in the game to risk further injury. I'm guessing he just bruised the hell out of the elbow and the swelling caused the nerves and ligaments to tighten up.

Also, even if he has to play in a sling all season he's an upgrade over starting Bush. Look at the play-by-play, Al Harris was thrown at one time in the game, sling and all.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Week 1: LeRoy Butler analyzes Eagles-Packers game

Q. LeRoy, what did you think of starting cornerback Al Harris suffering an elbow injury while playing on the punt return unit? Should he even be on special teams?

A. During the Mike Holmgren era I was always in and out of the lineup on special teams because we tried to get as many yards as possible. A lot of teams use their starters on special teams. Once the season starts everyone is available. Of course, you won't see Donald Driver returning kicks. But you'll see Charles Woodson returning punts and Al Harris holding up fliers. It's the nature of the game. It's not a bad decision. You have to have the best holdup guys you can. He's used to being one-on-one bump-and-run with guys. So you have one guy to shade him and one guy who is the aggressor. You have two guys to hold him. Every now and then you see two special teams guys holding a guy up, but the returner gets killed. So most teams use a starter as one of the holdup guys. It's a fluke thing he got hurt. I did it with Doug Evans and I did it with Craig Newsome. Eugene Robinson was on the other side and we were very good at it. That's football. You can't protect everybody once the ball is kicked off. You want your best guys on the field and I think it's a good coaching decision to have your best guys out there.

Q. The Packers gained just 47 yards on 17 carries against the Eagles. What went wrong?

A. I think the Packers struggled with protection and blocking Philadelphia's stunts. The linebackers were lined a lot deeper so it's hard to kind of get to those guys if they do stunts. I really think the Packers offensive line struggles with a real, quick defensive line. They beat them to the punch. Philadelphia guessed right sometimes. That was the main thing I saw. Sometimes they just did some gap rushing, but they were a lot quicker, so small defensive ends or people who run stunts give them a problem. That's something that can be corrected. But it wasn't corrected during the game. You could really see that Philadelphia was not concerned about the run. I don't know if it was because they saw a rookie back there, but you saw a lot of different fronts that were hard to block for whatever reason. One of the reasons was because they were very active. The ends were up the field and the tackles were moving into the gaps.

Q. Packers coach Mike McCarthy said after the game that Eagles coach Andy Reid tried to attack the Packers' "quarters" coverage in every way possible. What did McCarthy mean and why were the Packers successful in containing Donovan McNabb?

A. What they did was split (Brian) Westbrook out and tried to go four verticals and a lot of crossing routes. On the touchdown to (Jason) Avant, he brought the receiver inside to run what we call a stutter route, and scored on it. It's all isolation when you figure the defensive backs are in quarters coverage. Quarters is hard to get the ball deep. You try to get a receiver on a linebacker in the middle. Or you try to get Westbrook on a safety, or you try to get Kevin Curtis on a safety. It's all about matchups. They had those opportunities a couple of times. If it wasn't for (Johnny) Jolly on a couple of them, those might have been touchdowns or long plays. He blocked a couple that could have been out of the gate. No question the one he blocked when Westbrook was out there could have been a huge play because he was open. Another one he blocked Kevin Curtis was out there running slant and he was wide open. Jolly could have been the player of the game if you look deeper into it because if he had not gotten his hands up those could have been huge plays. Of course, the rookie kicker is the player of the game, but those plays Jolly made were huge. If it weren't for the front four as a group, there would have been a lot more big plays. Those guys didn't give McNabb a lot of time to sit back there and be comfortable. I think as a group they're the best in the NFL right now. No one is close to the top seven or eight they rotate it in.

Q. It appeared the Eagles blitzed from the strong side on the pass Brett Favre threw that was intercepted by cornerback Sheldon Brown. What happened on that play?

A. What happened was the guy was blitzing and as Bubba was going down the field, once Bubba sees a guy go past him he can probably break his route into the middle and that's where Brett threw the ball. But Brett had to double-clutch because of protection. The guy (blitzing) jumped over (Brandon) Jackson. Brett had to double-clutch and bring the ball down and try to throw off his back foot and the guy made a great play for the interception. That play is a play where if Brett puts more air under it, it's a touchdown. And it's another touchdown if Bubba breaks the route off. It goes back to the protection. You have to stand up there, Jackson, and you have to give Brett enough time. That's the matchup they wanted, big Bubba at 6-5 on a small corner. If you protect better, Brett steps up and makes the throw and it's a huge, huge play. Protection is first. Protect Brett and he can find these kind of weaknesses in the defense.

Q. The New York Giants put up 438 yards in a 45-35 loss to the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night. What kind of problems will they present for the Packers next week if quarterback Eli Manning is healthy?

A. The one thing the Giants have is big receivers, Plaxico (Burress) and Amani Toomer and they run a lot of downfield quarters passes. They're always trying to get the ball down the field. And they cause matchup problems because they have a very capable tight end in Jeremy Shockey, who they will split out wide and put the slot away from and go four verticals. Sometimes they'll go three wides to one side and Plaxico by himself and they look for the best matchup. What they want is to find out if it's man-to-man. If a linebacker or safety goes out with Shockey, he's getting the ball. If Plaxico is being covered bump-and-run, man-to-man he's getting the ball. Those are the two hot guys right away. If they're covered then it goes to Toomer immediately and if that's not open they check down to the running back. They have a fast tempo offense. There's not a lot of holding the ball. It puts pressure on A.J. Hawk, Nick Collins and the backside corner, whoever that is, Al Harris or Jarrett Bush. Whoever is backside man-to-man with no help on Plaxico is going to get all the pressure. The big thing will be getting pressure with the front four. If the front four plays like it did Sunday they'll be OK.

Reader Question
Q. As one of the best safeties to ever don the green and gold, I am interested in your evaluation of Atari Bigby's strengths, areas where he can improve his game, and in your eyes is he as good as he is going to get, or will he improve with game experience? - Jon, Duand, Ill.

A. I think he'll be good with the more experience he gets. It's going to be a situation where he's going to have to make plays. Both safeties have to make plays. For example, Nick Collins had an opportunity for an interception and he wasn't able to bring it in. In the Packers' defense, the safety play is very important. They got a lot of downfield passes last year and you'll continue to see that until you see Bigby and Collins step up and make these plays. And the one thing I'm worried about is play-action. Play-action deep passes. I think they did well Sunday. I think Bigby is aggressive and brings something they need at safety, a combination of speed and aggressiveness and the willingness to take a chance. I don't like conservative safeties. I can't stand conservative safeties. You have to fly around out there. That's the only way you can make plays.

[Scott Campbell]

Leroy Butler "Those guys didn't give McNabb a lot of time to sit back there and be comfortable. I think as a group they're the best in the NFL right now. No one is close to the top seven or eight they rotate it in."


This team will manage to hang around and pull out a few games they have no business winning because of this defensive line.