packers11
11-04-2007, 08:19 PM
Green Bay corners force QBs to pick their poison
Nov. 4, 2007
By Pete Prisco
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Tell Pete your opinion!
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Leave it to Al Harris, the talkative, fun Green Bay Packers corner, to sum up what he and fellow corner Charles Woodson mean to the team.
"We're Anthrax and Cyanide," Harris said.
Huh? So which one are you?
Charles Woodson makes the Chiefs pay for throwing his way with a pick six. (AP)
"It doesn't matter," Harris said. "They both can kill you."
Whichever one Woodson is, he killed the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in the Packers' 33-22 victory at Arrowhead Stadium. With the Chiefs trailing by four, they had one last chance to win the game. But Damon Huard made a huge mistake: He threw near Woodson.
Woodson jumped the route, picked off the pass and returned it for a game-sealing 46-yard interception return for a touchdown.
"I looked in his eyes and he threw it right to me," Woodson said.
That pick gave Packers quarterback Brett Favre a victory over the only team he hadn't defeated in his career. It did something far more important than that; establish the Packers as a real threat in the NFC.
When a team goes to Denver and Kansas City -- two of the toughest venues in the league -- and wins both games in a six-day span, it speaks volumes about where that squad stands. At 7-1, the Packers could easily stake a claim as the best team in the NFC.
"It's impressive," Packers defensive end Aaron Kampman said. "Everyone talks about us being the youngest team in football. What we just did in this two-week stretch is pretty impressive. I think to keep fighting, fighting and fighting says a lot about this team."
Second-year coach Mike McCarthy, who usually has his young team in full pads twice a week, shortened things up last week. The team returned from that tough road victory Monday night at Denver at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday. So the Packers had a light day Wednesday -- no pads -- and a full day Thursday before the normal light Friday.
"It's a tough turnaround for a young team," McCarthy said.
It helps to have Favre. He worked his magic again against the Chiefs. He completed 24 of 34 passes for 360 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions, one setting up the Chiefs for their first touchdown at the end of the half.
As he normally does, Favre made amends for it. With the Packers trailing 22-16 with just over three minutes left, Favre stared down a blitz, took a shot to the midsection and lofted a perfectly thrown pass to Greg Jennings, who gathered it in for a 60-yard touchdown catch.
"I just kept running, hoping I could catch up to it," Jennings did.
He did and the defense did the rest.
It's that defense that makes this team better than in years past. And it starts with the corners.
"We couldn't play the defense we do without them," McCarthy said.
They form the best duo in the league. Harris has been bothered all season by a back problem, but he has toughed it out the past few weeks and played well. It is Woodson, though, who has really excelled. He might be playing the best corner of anybody in the league, including Champ Bailey.
Now in his 10th year, and second with the Packers, the former Heisman Trophy winner is making all those who said his career was dead and buried in Oakland eat those words. Woodson had injury troubles in Oakland, but he also played on bad teams. Good corners on bad teams don't get the due they deserve.
"I played the game then exactly the way I play it now," Woodson said. "I just didn't get many opportunities. They never threw at me. So all they had to comment on was my injuries. We were 4-12. Nobody cares when you're 4-12."
Both he and Harris play a physical style of press corner that allows the Packers to do so many different things on defense. That is the luxury that is guiding the Green Bay defense. You can blitz more. You don't need to help as much.
"Them being able to get a slight jam on the receiver is the difference between us being able to get there," Kampman said. "That fraction of a second can be the difference between a sack and a completion."
The Packers gave up just 234 total years to the Chiefs, 173 through the air. Thirty of those yards came on a screen pass for a touchdown by Larry Johnson. Tight end Tony Gonzalez had 10 catches for 109 yards, mostly against safeties and linebackers.
Woodson did have a big interference penalty that helped set up the Chiefs' go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, but that's part of playing a physical brand of corner.
In talking with Woodson after the game, you get the idea he likes proving all the doubters wrong.
"I look at other guys in the league and when things happen to them, people make excuses for them," Woodson said. "You see somebody catch a pass on me and they want to know what's wrong with me? They say, 'He's not the player he used to be.' For whatever reason, people want to knock me. Who cares? I'm playing good football."
No, he's playing great football. So if you can take your eyes away from Favre, which is hard to do since he's playing so well, peek over to Green Bay's defensive side of the ball. You'll see something good happening over there, and if the Packers are to truly make a Super Bowl push it will be because of the improvement over there.
Favre can kill you. But don't forget about Anthrax and Cyanide.
They can kill, too.
Nov. 4, 2007
By Pete Prisco
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Tell Pete your opinion!
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Leave it to Al Harris, the talkative, fun Green Bay Packers corner, to sum up what he and fellow corner Charles Woodson mean to the team.
"We're Anthrax and Cyanide," Harris said.
Huh? So which one are you?
Charles Woodson makes the Chiefs pay for throwing his way with a pick six. (AP)
"It doesn't matter," Harris said. "They both can kill you."
Whichever one Woodson is, he killed the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in the Packers' 33-22 victory at Arrowhead Stadium. With the Chiefs trailing by four, they had one last chance to win the game. But Damon Huard made a huge mistake: He threw near Woodson.
Woodson jumped the route, picked off the pass and returned it for a game-sealing 46-yard interception return for a touchdown.
"I looked in his eyes and he threw it right to me," Woodson said.
That pick gave Packers quarterback Brett Favre a victory over the only team he hadn't defeated in his career. It did something far more important than that; establish the Packers as a real threat in the NFC.
When a team goes to Denver and Kansas City -- two of the toughest venues in the league -- and wins both games in a six-day span, it speaks volumes about where that squad stands. At 7-1, the Packers could easily stake a claim as the best team in the NFC.
"It's impressive," Packers defensive end Aaron Kampman said. "Everyone talks about us being the youngest team in football. What we just did in this two-week stretch is pretty impressive. I think to keep fighting, fighting and fighting says a lot about this team."
Second-year coach Mike McCarthy, who usually has his young team in full pads twice a week, shortened things up last week. The team returned from that tough road victory Monday night at Denver at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday. So the Packers had a light day Wednesday -- no pads -- and a full day Thursday before the normal light Friday.
"It's a tough turnaround for a young team," McCarthy said.
It helps to have Favre. He worked his magic again against the Chiefs. He completed 24 of 34 passes for 360 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions, one setting up the Chiefs for their first touchdown at the end of the half.
As he normally does, Favre made amends for it. With the Packers trailing 22-16 with just over three minutes left, Favre stared down a blitz, took a shot to the midsection and lofted a perfectly thrown pass to Greg Jennings, who gathered it in for a 60-yard touchdown catch.
"I just kept running, hoping I could catch up to it," Jennings did.
He did and the defense did the rest.
It's that defense that makes this team better than in years past. And it starts with the corners.
"We couldn't play the defense we do without them," McCarthy said.
They form the best duo in the league. Harris has been bothered all season by a back problem, but he has toughed it out the past few weeks and played well. It is Woodson, though, who has really excelled. He might be playing the best corner of anybody in the league, including Champ Bailey.
Now in his 10th year, and second with the Packers, the former Heisman Trophy winner is making all those who said his career was dead and buried in Oakland eat those words. Woodson had injury troubles in Oakland, but he also played on bad teams. Good corners on bad teams don't get the due they deserve.
"I played the game then exactly the way I play it now," Woodson said. "I just didn't get many opportunities. They never threw at me. So all they had to comment on was my injuries. We were 4-12. Nobody cares when you're 4-12."
Both he and Harris play a physical style of press corner that allows the Packers to do so many different things on defense. That is the luxury that is guiding the Green Bay defense. You can blitz more. You don't need to help as much.
"Them being able to get a slight jam on the receiver is the difference between us being able to get there," Kampman said. "That fraction of a second can be the difference between a sack and a completion."
The Packers gave up just 234 total years to the Chiefs, 173 through the air. Thirty of those yards came on a screen pass for a touchdown by Larry Johnson. Tight end Tony Gonzalez had 10 catches for 109 yards, mostly against safeties and linebackers.
Woodson did have a big interference penalty that helped set up the Chiefs' go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, but that's part of playing a physical brand of corner.
In talking with Woodson after the game, you get the idea he likes proving all the doubters wrong.
"I look at other guys in the league and when things happen to them, people make excuses for them," Woodson said. "You see somebody catch a pass on me and they want to know what's wrong with me? They say, 'He's not the player he used to be.' For whatever reason, people want to knock me. Who cares? I'm playing good football."
No, he's playing great football. So if you can take your eyes away from Favre, which is hard to do since he's playing so well, peek over to Green Bay's defensive side of the ball. You'll see something good happening over there, and if the Packers are to truly make a Super Bowl push it will be because of the improvement over there.
Favre can kill you. But don't forget about Anthrax and Cyanide.
They can kill, too.