2 Green Bay Packers
WHAT'S NEW
> A shut-downdefense. While all of football waits for Brett Favre to break the alltime marksfor touchdown passes (he needs seven), passing yards (he needs 3,862) andvictories by a quarterback (he needs two), the Packers' opponents have to thinkabout how to dent a resurgent Green Bay front four. That quartet helped key aterrific December in which the Pack won its last four games and held foes to anaverage of 10.5 points. Ends Aaron Kampman and Cullen Jenkins hold thepoint well on the run and just might combine for 30 sacks this year. RyanPickett and Corey Williams are strong middle-cloggers, and first-rounder JustinHarrell should eventually be a solid addition at tackle. If Green Bay can finda running back to replace Ahman Green (second-round pick Brandon Jackson orthird-year back Vernand Morency, who has had only one season of more than 140carries since his arrival at Oklahoma State) and survive a tough early schedule(four 2006 playoff teams in the first 29 days), this season won't be only theBrett Favre Race for the Records; it will be a playoff-contending year aswell.
WHERE THEY'REHEADED
> The biggestquestion around the Packers this summer: Was the 4-0 finish a mirage, withthree wins over teams going nowhere and a fourth coming against the Bears, ateam coasting into the postseason? Or was it an important jump on 2007,something that would carry over from December to September?
Of course, theplayers and coaches are going to say the momentum is still there, and it maywell be. The most important game of the four was the 26-7 night-game win overChicago on Dec. 31, and we'll never really know how much effort the Bears,having clinched home field advantage in the NFC, put into it. Chicago'sstarters played into the third quarter, except for Rex Grossman, who was pulledat halftime after throwing three interceptions that helped the Pack build a23-0 lead. (Grossman later admitted his focus was off because "it's thelast game, it's New Year's Eve.")
"That was ahuge game," says wide receiver Donald Driver. "They made the Super Bowllast year, but that day we beat them in all phases. We proved we were a betterteam than them that day." Asked if he thinks the Packers are better thanthe Bears today, Driver says yes: "Remember--we owned that division forthree years, before [2005]."
Now there's somebulletin-board fodder for their first meeting this year, a Sunday-nighter atLambeau on Oct. 7. For the Packers to have a prayer, though, they'd betterkeep Favre upright and safe from the fearsome Bears front. In the three gamesagainst Chicago before last year's finale, the Bears chased Favre all over thefield, sacked him seven times and picked off eight passes; he didn't throw atouchdown.
Favre, meanwhile,has put behind him an off-season in which he was at odds with the Packers'front office, and, at 37, he feels a bona fide hope that this can be a playoffyear. "I came back to win," he said during training camp. "I wasnever worried about the records before, and I certainly didn't come back tobreak them. I would be absolutely miserable if I ever played for records oranything other than to win ball games. I hope I don't need any records forpeople to remember me as a pretty good quarterback."
In the off-seasonhe felt general manager Ted Thompson didn't move quickly enough to trade forRandy Moss. The quarterback believed that teaming Moss with Driver, second-yearwideout Greg Jennings and glue-handed rookie James Jones could have made thePackers' receiving corps among the best in football. When Thompson dawdled, trying to get a better deal from the Raiders, the Patriots jumped in andsent a fourth-round pick to Oakland for Moss. "I was pretty upset aboutthat for a while," Favre said. "I'm still not sure why we didn't doit." Thompson admitted this summer that he might have been "a littletoo conservative."
At least this year,unlike the past several, Favre doesn't come in thinking he has to throw fourtouchdown passes in every game to win. In their 4-0 season-ending run, thePackers got terrific play from five cornerstone defenders--ends Jenkins andKampman, cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Al Harris, and linebacker A.J. Hawk.(Hawk had a Nitschke-like three-game stretch in November in which he made 39tackles.) "I feel so good about our first unit on defense," says coachMike McCarthy. "That'll be the catalyst of our team."
It's been a longtime since the catalyst in Green Bay was anything except Favre's play. It comesat a time when the quarterback would happily be a complementary player, if itjust meant the Packers were playing for something in Week 17.
PROJECTED STARTINGLINEUP
WITH 2006STATISTICS
COACH MIKE MCCARTHY(8-8 in NFL), second season with Packers
OFFENSE
DONALD DRIVER
POS WR
REC 92
YARDS 1,295
TD 8
 
BRANDON JACKSON (R)(New Aquisition)
POS RB
ATT 188
YARDS 989
AVG 5.3
REC 33
YARDS 313
AVG 9.5
TD 10
 
BRETT FAVRE
POS QB
ATT 613
COMP 343
PCT 56.0
YARDS 3,885
TD 18
INT 18
RATING 72.7
 
BRANDON MIREE
POS FB
ATT 0
YARDS 0
AVG --
REC 9
YARDS 57
AVG 6.3
TD 0
 
GREG JENNINGS
POS WR
REC 45
YARDS 632
TD 3
 
MARK TAUSCHER
POS RT
HT 6' 3"
WT 315
G 11
 
JASON SPITZ
POS RG
HT 6' 3"
WT 300
G 14
 
SCOTT WELLS
POS C
HT 6' 2"
WT 295
G 16
 
DARYN COLLEDGE
POS LG
HT 6'4"
WT 305
G 16
 
CHAD CLIFTON
POS LG
HT 6'5"
WT 320
G 15
 
DONALD LEE
POS TE
REC 10
YARDS 150
TD 0
 
DEFENSE
A.J. HAWK
POS WLB
TACKLES 119
SACKS 3 1/2
INT 2
 
AARON KAMPMAN
POS LE
TACKLES 89
SACKS 15 1/2
 
RYAN PICKETT
POS LT
TACKLES 64
SACKS 0
 
COREY WILLIAMS
POS RT
TACKLES 34
SACKS 7
 
CULLEN JENKINS
POS RE
TACKLES 32
SACKS 6 1/2
 
BRADY POPPINGA
POS SLB
TACKLES 60
SACKS 1
INT 1
 
CHARLESWOODSON
POS CB
TACKLES 59
INT 8
 
NICK COLLINS
POS FS
TACKLES 80
SACKS 0
INT 3
 
NICK BARNETT
POS MLB
TACKLES 105
SACKS 2
INT 2
 
ATARI BIGBY
POS SS
TACKLES 2
SACKS 0
INT 0
 
AL HARRIS
POS CB
TACKLES 41
INT 3
JON RYAN
POS P
PUNTS 84
AVG 44.5
 
MASON CROSBY (R)(New Aquisition)
POS K
FG 19-28
POINTS 76
 
NEW ACQUISITION(R) Rookie (college statistics)
> 2006 RECORD8-8 NFL RANK (Rush/Pass/Total): OFFENSE 23/8/9 DEFENSE 13/17/12
 
2007 SCHEDULE
SEPTEMBER
9 PHILADELPHIA
16 at N.Y. Giants
23 SAN DIEGO
30 at Minnesota
OCTOBER
7 CHICAGO
14 WASHINGTON
21 Bye
29 at Denver (M)
NOVEMBER
4 at Kansas City
11 MINNESOTA
18 CAROLINA
22 at Detroit (T)
29 at Dallas (T)
DECEMBER
9 OAKLAND
16 at St. Louis
23 at Chicago
30 DETROIT
SCHEDULE STRENGTH
NFL rank 23
Opponents' 2006winning percentage .492
Games againstplayoff teams 7
(M) Monday (T) Thursday
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ENEMY LINES AN OPPOSING TEAM'S SCOUT SIZES UP THEPACKERS
> The running game could doom this team. VernandMorency's been hurt all camp, and Brandon Jackson, the rookie from Nebraska,was not a 25-carry guy in college. If Brett Favre doesn't have a ground game,he won't win. . . . James Jones, the rookie out of San Jose State, had the besthands of any receiver in the draft, including Calvin Johnson. . . . Theoffensive line hurt Favre last year, but I think a season in the system willmake the two second-year guards, Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz, a lot better.Colledge has to play with better leverage; he got steamrolled at times lastyear. . . . Never thought I'd see Charles Woodson play so hard, and so well,after dogging it in Oakland. It helps that he's playing alongside one of thereal gamer corners in football, Al Harris.
THE KING 500
Aaron Kampman
16
> DEFENSIVE END
Kampman was the NFL's best end at disrupting thepassing game in '06, according to Pro Football Prospectus, with 57 1‚ÅÑ2 combinedsacks, QB hits and hurries. That's more than Julius Peppers, Dwight Freeney orJason Taylor. Plus, he's played 93% of the defensive snaps over the last twoseasons. At 270 pounds, he says, "my game has to be explosion andflexibility."
PHOTO
WALTER IOOSS JR.
 Insight
Favre takes aim at the alltime passing records with a strengthened supportingcast.
PHOTO
TOM DAHLIN/WIREIMAGE.COM
ILLUSTRATION