The Green Bay Packers are now a glittering 7-1, a record they reached Sunday at Lambeau Field with their 13-7 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Not since 1966 have they opened a season with such success, and that one they ended with a victory over Kansas City in the very first Super Bowl.
This kind of omen is taken very seriously up here, where ghosts live and tradition breathes and a guy named Lombardi–the coach back in ’66–is still nothing short of an icon. Yet, even buoyed by all that, the Pack must confront the present.
For suddenly the primary receiver, the go-to guy in their precision West Coast offense, is Don Beebe, who just a season ago was not good enough to start for the expansion Carolina Panthers. He takes up that role after the season-ending knee injury Robert Brooks suffered two weeks ago against San Francisco, and after the broken forearm Antonio Freeman suffered midway through Sunday’s first quarter. Freeman will miss at least a month.
And lined up opposite Beebe now in their high-flying, quick-striking attack is Desmond Howard, who has been nothing short of a bust since he won the 1991 Heisman Trophy and was selected in the first round of the ’92 draft by Washington. He and Beebe, in fact, were among the last two to make this Packer team, and were kept over former Bear Anthony Morgan since they came cheaper and also returned kicks.
Their third receiver is now Derrick Mayes, a rookie out of Notre Dame who entered Sunday’s affair with but a single catch to his name. The only other receiver they have on hand is Terry Mickens, a third-year man who was injured in their second exhibition game and has not played since.
“I’m not as comfortable with them as I am with Robert and Antonio,” Packers quarterback Brett Favre said. “When you lose a starter, it can’t help you any.”
Could that lead to a change in the Packer attack?
“It’s something we’ll have to look at,” said coach Mike Holmgren. “We’re a little inexperienced certainly at wideout, we have two good tight ends (Mark Chmura and Keith Jackson), and I’m happy the way we ran (129 yards on the ground). Maybe we’ll re-evaluate the way we do some things. But we have the MVP of the league at quarterback, and I don’t want to take the ball out of his hands too much.”
Favre, like his team, surely did not perform up to his reputation on Sunday, and for the first time in 15 games he ended one without a touchdown pass. He was 19 of 31 for 178 yards. His offense, which had been averaging 32.5 points per game, managed but a pair of Chris Jacke field goals and Dorsey Levens’ 1-yard touchdown plunge in the first half. They were shut out after halftime by the Bucs, who face the Bears next Sunday in Soldier Field.
It was the Packers’ defense that saved them, limiting Tampa Bay to 57 rushing yards. “We didn’t score enough points, and that concerns me,” Holmgren said later. “But you have to win games like this sometime during the season.”
Was Freeman’s injury the problem?
“That’s part of it,” he said. “They practice a certain position all week, then suddenly the flanker who’s the key goes down. Now you have to juggle everything.”
Much juggling now awaits Holmgren and the Packers, who so suddenly find themselves not on the Super Bowl express, but confronting some gnarlsome questions.
Should the Packers renew their attempts to re-sign Morgan, who after Brooks was hurt spurned their offer of a minimum-salary contract? (“Regarding our last conversation,” said Holmgren of Morgan, “it’s over.”)
Can this team continue to ride the arm of Favre with its top two receivers on the shelf?
“I don’t really know what I foresee now,” said Favre, surely speaking for team. “I’ll wait and foresee tomorrow.”
