Grant will be Packers’ snowmobile

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, November 15, 2007  |  Comments( 0 )

Green Bay Packers
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You can't win in the NFL without a running game. That's what eats up the clock, sets up the pass, and wears down opposing defenses.

So how does one explain the Green Bay Packers, who are last in the league in rushing and tied for best in the NFC with an 8-1 record?

Part of the explanation is QB Brett Favre, who is having a magical season in the twilight of his career. Along with his spreading gray hairs, the former wild child from Kiln, Miss., has finally learned that it's OK if he doesn't heave the football 60 yards on every play.

The new Favre plays within himself, employs his tight ends and running backs as sure targets when the wideouts are covered (all three of his scoring passes against Minnesota last week went to TEs) and has, in effect, used short throws as a sort of pseudo ground game.

Moreover, the ball-toting numbers are a bit deceiving. The three backs who have mostly been used as starters -- Ryan Grant, DeShawn Wynn and Vernand Morency -- all average over 4.0 yards a carry. That's not LaDainian Tomlinson or Adrian Peterson, but it's not bad.

The thing is, the famously bad Midwestern weather is coming, and there will come a time when the aerial game will be compromised by Mother Nature. And that means Grant's recent emergence is right on time.

Grant rushed for 112 yards on 25 carries against the Vikings last Sunday -- and what made that remarkable was that Minnesota had been allowing only 70 rushing yards and a 2.9 average per carry.

"We're getting close to being balanced," said left tackle Chad Clifton, a key cog in a line that has emerged as one of the best in the league.

The Packers have climbed aboard the zone blocking bandwagon this season, and that's meant some adjustments in the running game. In terms of passing, though, the line has allowed only 13 sacks of Favre in nine games.

Besides Clifton and Mark Tauscher at tackles, the unit includes Scott Wells at center as well as second-year men Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz at guards. It's a relatively small unit, as lines go these days, but tough and athletic.

Wells was out for a few games earlier this season, and the uptick in the running game coincided with his return. Meanwhile, Colledge and Spitz have steadied after some up and down games.

"They must be doing something right, those guards," said former Packer O-lineman Mike Wahle, whose Carolina Panthers face Green Bay on Sunday. "They're putting up a lot of points"

Tauscher is hobbling somewhat on a gimpy ankle, and was held out of practice on Wednesday.

Grant, who reminds Favre of former Packer star Dorsey Levens, is the perfect back for the Frozen Tundra -- a 6-foot-1, 215-pound package of straight-ahead power. He hit the hole quickly, and he has the speed to go a long way if the initial battering bears fruit.

"Every once in a while, we block everybody," Clifton said, "and he (Ryan) has the speed to take advantage of that."
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