Fifteen minutes of game

By Os Davis  |   Tuesday, September 19, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Green Bay Packers
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For a while, it was beautiful in Lambeau Field.

It was 1959, it was 1995, it was 1967 ... all that incredible, confident, no-nonsense play that created a pantheon of Green Bay Packers legends. One of the all-time greats was running the show at quarterback, a couple of name players were living up to all-star potential, and on both sides of the ball were coming contributions from exciting youngsters and mainstay dependables.

After last week's potentially utterly demoralizing defeat, the Packers needed this win for themselves, for the fans, for the green Green Bay coaching staff. On a team full of question marks, mystique alone can be an answer. The Packers are never going to lose back-to-back at Lambeau in the first two weeks of the season. Uh uh. These are the Packers, and on Sunday these Green Bay Packers had some of that Green Bay Packer magic.

For fifteen minutes.

The Packer defense came out all business. For a solid quarter, they gave no quarter, and a mere three plays were needed before unheralded Aaron Kampman got to New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees for the sack, the fumble and the ball. An optimistic old-timer or two out there might have vaguely reminded of the late 50s and ragtag defenses just in need of a coach.

Given a starting point at the New Orleans' 37, a touchdown drive should have been child's play for a quarterback who should go down in history as the all-time leader in TD passes. And it was. Brett Favre used old personal and Packer favorites Ahman Green and Donald Driver before finally finding promising rookie Greg Jennings for a 22-yarder. Cheers, and memories of success which suddenly don't seem nearly as far away as they did just last week.

Back to the defensive side, the Pack got scary again. Kampman was inexplicably there again, stopping Reggie Bush for a loss. The "1" of the Saints' 1-2 punch, Deuce McAllister, also picked up little. And on play number three, it was six-year vet DE Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila punching through for the sack and forcing a second fumble from Brees. And somewhere not far from the field of play, a hopeful cheesehead or two thought fondly of Reggie White and wondered if maybe this defense could induce fear like in the mid-90s.

The Packers' offense next did nothing on three Favre incompletions, and when Brees appeared to be putting together a drive, that recent nausea threatened to return. When McAllister whipped off a 24-yarder to go deep into Green Bay territory, it looked bad. But these were the Packers and they wouldn't be shrugged off this easily. Charles Woodson - shades of 1959, some might muse, he's a bit of an Emlen Tunnell out there in terms of circumstance and greatness - and sophomore safety Nick Collins stifled McAllister. Collins chased this by tipping a Brees pass into Al Harris' hands. Interception.

Three drives, three turnovers. The Packers wouldn't add to the statistical category for the rest of the game.

But the Cheeseheads didn't know that as Favre took control once again. As he took his team 75 yards, including a sweet 48-yard gain on a pass to Driver, Favre looked good. Quite good. Nearly peak Favre good. Sure, there was a sack and a fumble, but that nagging doubt of last week or of the leanest times last year, was gone. Favre was in control, looking like it was 2003 or 1993 or 1996, but even better because it was the present. Driver looked like a legend out there, too, on his way to 153 yards on the day.

Another field goal was put up on the board, and the defense forced a no-answer three-and-out to end the quarter. Favre's line was a nice 6 of 10 for 97 yards, zero INT, one TD. More importantly, the scoreboard read: Packers 13, Saints 0. No matter what else happens in this season, football heads can look back on Week 2, quarter one, when the Packers - for a little while at least - captured a mystique-like excellence.

And for those fifteen minutes of play, they'll say, things felt right at Lambeau.

Insight into every quarter of every Green Bay Packers game at RealFootball.com.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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