One and done.
The fate of the 1985 world champion Bears threatens the Green Bay Packers, who clearly aren’t what they were in 1996.
“I don’t think teams are as worried when they play us now as they were at the beginning of the season or the year before,” quarterback Brett Favre conceded.
Injuries top the list of reasons. The Packers’ injury report this week includes 17 players, a third of the team. Four are out, three are doubtful, five are questionable. In a 24-22 loss to Tampa Bay on Monday night that dropped the Packers to a modest 8-5, Favre was unable to throw a Hail Mary pass at the end because he didn’t have enough healthy wide receivers to run downfield.
“We’re breaking bones here,” General Manager Ron Wolf said.
“I turned around one time on the phones and told the guys upstairs, `I can’t believe what I’m seeing,’ ” coach Mike Holmgren said.
There is more than injury to blame. Holmgren cites turnovers and a defense that has yielded big plays, and not only to Minnesota’s Randy Moss.
Wolf says a lack of execution is “more important than injuries,” although one is a good excuse for the other.
“We’ve played four prime-time games and stunk them all up,” Wolf said.
An NFL scout believes the departure of veteran free safety Eugene Robinson to Atlanta via free agency weakened the defense.
“Eugene Robinson brought a whole lot to that football team,” said Mike McCartney, the Philadelphia Eagles’ pro scout who was an advance scout for the Bears from 1992-97. “He might be one of the top five leaders in all of football.”
The Packers aren’t dead yet, of course. A victory against the Bears Sunday clinches a wild-card playoff spot.
“Hopefully we can get some guys back and have a chance (in the playoffs),” Favre said.
But they won’t start their postseason in Lambeau Field unless the San Francisco 49ers collapse. And the Pack is no longer invincible at home anyway.
The future is uncertain. Defensive end Reggie White plans to retire, and for more than 24 hours this time. Wolf believes there is only a “20 percent chance” Holmgren will return because he will get lucrative offers elsewhere to become a coach-general manager. Will Chicago be one of them? Very doubtful, according to insiders. Even if Bears President Michael McCaskey believes it would be a good idea, Holmgren probably wouldn’t.
Wide receiver Antonio Freeman is looking for a blockbuster contract that could entice him elsewhere. The Packers went through similar negotiations last off-season with running back Dorsey Levens, who broke his leg after missing training camp and is only now rounding into shape.
“I’m not saying we’re falling apart, but history will tell you that does occur,” Wolf said. “The 1958-59 Baltimore Colts might have been the greatest team ever assembled. Two years, they were done. Fell apart in 1960.”
The Bears’ failure to win more than one Super Bowl practically overshadows their singular accomplishment.
“You go back through the ages and all of a sudden there are teams that are up a few years and then boom, they’re down, which makes the run in San Francisco just remarkable,” Wolf said.
The 1990s are a different era. The 1996 Packers were the first Super Bowl champions built primarily during the advent of the free-agency/salary-cap system. White’s arrival in 1993 from Philadelphia was the first of the major free-agent signings. The Packers had to make major salary-cap decisions that cost them Super Bowl MVP kick returner Desmond Howard and receiver Andre Rison. Both were cheap pickups during the 1996 season who turned themselves into commodities more valuable to others than to the Packers.
Wolf has another theory. As a scout for the great Raiders teams of the 1970s and ’80s, he saw firsthand the inability to repeat championships. Winning one is hard enough, so hard that he believes it takes a toll.
“I think we’re probably an example of how hard it is to win after you’ve had some success,” Wolf said. “I think after you have success, maybe the expectations from within aren’t as great as they should be all the time. It’s the sense of urgency. `So we lost a game, but we’ll get ’em the next time’–that type of thing.
“To say that’s what happened here, I don’t know that.”
Holmgren and his players would disagree, naturally.
“That has not been a problem for us,” Holmgren said. “There are good guys on this team. We can be down and bounce back pretty good. Everyone’s tired and everyone’s hurt, but there is also excitement about the playoff possibilities. We have no trouble getting ready to go.”
Getting ready physically is another story at the moment. Bears coach Dave Wannstedt has dreamed of catching the Packers at a weak moment, when their injury report matches his. Now he must be careful what he wishes for. Actually, he would feel much better if Favre were one of the limping 17.
The presence of Favre, only 29, is the Packers’ great hedge against the danger of disintegration.
“As long as Favre is in there, they have a chance to win every game,” Bears Pro Personnel Director Rick Spielman said.
Said Wolf: “I think as long as we have him standing . . . you have a leg up, so to speak. I don’t think we’re as desperate or as dead as people want to assume we are. We still have Antonio Freeman, Mark Chmura, Dorsey Levens. Darick Holmes, the new guy, has added a lot.”
It was Favre who erased the worry of losing Sterling Sharpe, once the Packers’ primary offensive threat. With Favre throwing, Robert Brooks proved an outstanding replacement. When Brooks got hurt, Freeman stepped up. When Freeman was hurt in 1996, enter Rison and Don Beebe, then Derrick Mayes and Bill Schroeder. When tight end Keith Jackson left, Chmura and Tyrone Davis stepped up.
But this week, the Packers activated practice-squad receiver Brian Manning and signed Russell Copeland. Schroeder and rookie Corey Bradford are out for the season. Mayes’ knee is still puffy. Freeman might try to play with a broken jaw. Brooks is nursing a hamstring injury and hasn’t been the same player since his 1996 knee injury.
“You have to wonder at what point do you not survive it anymore,” Favre said. “Who’s to say this is not it?”
Favre’s 19 interceptions are second in the league to the 25 thrown by Indianapolis rookie Peyton Manning. The minus-10 turnover ratio puts the Packers near the bottom of the league.
“In my opinion, you can’t play as conservatively as you would if you have your starting guys in there,” Favre said. “You have to try to make plays. If things are going good and we’re running the ball well, I’m able to drop the ball off and get five yards. That hasn’t been the case for me this year, so I may have pressed a little bit.”
Raymont Harris left the Bears for the Packers and proved contagious. Levens, Harris and Travis Jervey all suffered broken legs. Favre lost center Frank Winters for the season on Monday night. Guard Marco Rivera had replaced free-agent departure Aaron Taylor until he got hurt, leaving the job to Joe Andruzzi, again testing depth.
On defense, cornerback Doug Evans’ departure to Carolina via free agency left the Packers so thin they had to sign Carolina reject Rod Smith and play him three days later. White is having an outstanding swan-song season, and first-year end Vonnie Holliday looks like the defensive rookie of the year. But nose tackle Gilbert Brown looks so fat he can hardly wrap his arms around himself, let alone ballcarriers. An immovable object during the Super Bowl season, he has made a total of five solo tackles all season.
White’s arrival in 1993 dispelled notions African-American players would shun Green Bay in free agency. When he leaves, will the Packers have to reprove the point?
“I don’t think so,” Wolf said. “I think the network is fine. Players like coming to play here.”
Strong safety LeRoy Butler remains one of the great defensive playmakers in football, but young free safety Darren Sharper still is learning as Robinson’s replacement.
“Just watching film, in certain coverages, Robinson would anticipate and tell a player, `Take a chance on this route, I’ve got your back.’ Things you can never measure,” McCartney said. “He really allowed the other corners and safeties to play more free.”
Any defense, of course, plays better with a lead and an offense that isn’t prone to turnovers. The Packers, like the 49ers, used to thrive on jumping off to early leads and burying teams.
The Packers drafts remain impressive. If the last two haven’t yet proved as spectacularly deep as the 1995 bonanza (Craig Newsome, William Henderson, Brian Williams, Freeman, Jervey, Adam Timmerman), they did yield solid linemen Ross Verba and Holliday.
Favre and others insist Holmgren’s uncertain status has no carryover. Who’s to gauge the recent loss of offensive assistants Marty Mornhinweg (49ers) and Gil Haskell (Panthers)?
“The players and agents all understand free agency,” Holmgren said.
Fans don’t. Holmgren lost his cool two weeks ago when a Lambeau fan heckled him at halftime, suggesting he pay more attention to the job at hand. Holmgren later apologized for his crude response. He could have challenged the fan to meet him outside on Holmgren Way, just down the street from Lombardi Avenue. But that seems like such a far distance now from the way it was only two years ago.
“At some point, we’re all replaceable,” Wolf said. “At some point, like the players, I’m going to hit a wall too.”
