The Packer Pundit

Harrington at helm
With Daunte Culpepper needing more time to regain his mobility after knee reconstruction surgery last year, the Packers catch a break because Joey Harrington will be Miami's starting quarterback. Harrington has started the last two games, and appears to be a little improved from his forgettable days with the Detroit Lions, but his passer rating is only 63.5 points and he's thrown only one touchdown to four interceptions. His career record against the Packers is 2-5, and he never showed much mobility and seemed to have more problems than most NFL quarterbacks when pressured. His ability to maintain poise and good decision making for the full 60 minutes will be a major factor.

Making a point
Points have been hard enough to come by for the Packers, and with Koren Robinson and Robert Ferguson out at receiver, the Packers are desperately short of experienced players, let alone anyone with playmaking talent. That leaves a solid starting duo of Donald Driver and Greg Jennings, and then who knows behind them? Is new No. 3 receiver Ruvell Martin anything more than a player who stood out among the fodder in training camp but not good enough to do much against NFL starters? Who knows? The Packers also will need one or two of their backup tight ends — David Martin, Donald Lee or the untested Tory Humphrey — to do something in the passing game.

Intangible time
There are a couple intangibles that could be factors, one in the Packers' favor, one against. To their benefit, they're coming off the bye, which means they've had time to get halfback Ahman Green and guard Jason Spitz, among others, healthy. They've had extra practice to repeat and repeat the zone run-blocking drills that their young offensive line needs to ingrain the quick reads and techniques into their minds and bodies. The Packers also got extra time to game plan for the Dolphins, which their line will need in case Miami plays much 3-4 defense — they're a 4-3 base, but defensive coordinator Dom Capers' background is in the 3-4, and they use it occasionally. On the other hand, the Packers never have won in Miami — they're 0-6 there. The forecast calls for a temperature of 88 degrees and rain, so the heat and humidity will be a major change and potential problem for the Packers.

Eager to debut
Will Blackmon, who missed all of training camp with a foot injury and then missed the first six weeks of the regular season with a shin injury suffered while rehabbing his foot, may finally make his debut Sunday, but McCarthy wouldn't say for sure. McCarthy said the decision will go "all the way to game day," but in the same breath he spoke of how excited he is to see what Blackmon can do. "He's talented. He made a big play down in the boundary today (in practice) that you like to see," McCarthy said. "He looks like he's moving well. I'm just excited to have him back out there." For Blackmon, a rookie fourth-round pick from Boston College, the wait has been brutal, so he'll live with a couple more days of uncertainty. "I have no idea what's going on. I don't know what they're thinking upstairs. I'm just doing what's told, getting my treatment and going to practice," he said. "I'm just waiting patiently."

Second opinion
Coach Mike McCarthy said the team is waiting on a second opinion from a doctor in Charlotte, N.C., on wide receiver Robert Ferguson's injured foot. McCarthy confirmed it is the dreaded Lisfranc injury, which occurs at the midfoot, where a cluster of small bones forms an arch on top of the foot between the ankle and the toes. Surgery is often required to insert pins, wires or screws to stabilize the bones and hold them in place until healing is complete. Chicago safety Mike Brown was put on season-ending injured reserve Thursday with the same injury. "It doesn't look good," McCarthy said.

Mike McCarthy column:
In NFL's chess match,
Game plan takes time
Football analysts often like to discuss the chess match that goes on between opposing coaches, or offensive and defensive coordinators, during games. But the chess match doesn't begin on Sunday. It starts early in the week in the film room, studying your opponent while he's studying you. Film study creates the game plan, in which you're trying to out-think or out-maneuver the other guy. To scout our upcoming opponent, we start on Monday night by watching at least three of their previous game tapes. As the play caller for the Packers, when I first look at an opponent, I'm focusing on two things — an understanding for the defensive play caller's scheme and personnel matchups that might be favorable for them or us. When I resume studying film the next morning, the work becomes focused on situational tendencies — normal down-and-distances and third downs, for example — as we put together the game plan as a coaching staff. By the time we're done going over all the film, we have a good idea what the opponent likes to do. But from there, we have to take it one more step — what will they like to do against us? That's where your own film and self-scouting becomes so important. You may have watched what the other coach has done against three or four other teams, but he's watching your film. What personnel matchups will he try to exploit? Based on your scheme, where will he stick with his tendencies and where might he change them? -- More







Not yet on receiving end
Packers hope young players catch on quickly
By Tom Silverstein / journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 21, 2006
Coaches like to say that football is a simple game. And often it is. Say you have only two high-quality wide receivers. The other side has four defensive backs, so it's not hard to figure out who has the advantage. The Green Bay Packers will face that simple mathematical dilemma in their game against the Miami Dolphins today and quite possibly for the rest of the season after losing two of their top four receivers. With Robert Ferguson facing a possible season-long foot injury and Koren Robinson suspended for a year for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy, the Packers are basically down to two receivers: Donald Driver and Greg Jennings. Their two backups - Ruvell Martin, a street free agent who was recently serving as the No. 5 receiver, and undrafted Chris Francies, who was plucked off the practice squad to take Robinson's spot - can't be considered viable threats in the passing game until they actually prove they belong in the NFL. -- More



Ferguson over Chambers still boggles the mind
By Jason Wilde / madison.com
They remain indelibly linked, even now, more than five years later. Judging from the way people still bring it up, football fans in Wisconsin will never forgive Ron Wolf, or Mike Sherman, or whoever the knucklehead was running the Green Bay Packers' 2001 draft and ultimately decided to choose Robert Ferguson instead of Chris Chambers in the second round. "There's probably a million stories like that in the NFL, where a team could've taken one guy and took another guy instead," Ferguson said this week, as his Packers prepared to play Chambers' Miami Dolphins. "It just comes with the game." Perhaps, but seldom does a team pass up a local college star - and turn out to be so wrong. Never will that be more obvious than today at Dolphin Stadium, where Chambers will line up for the Dolphins and Ferguson, sidelined by a potentially season-ending Lisfranc foot injury, won't be anywhere to be found. The numbers aren't pretty. Six weeks into the sixth season of his star-crossed NFL career, Ferguson has played in 60 of a possible 85 regular-season games, and caught 116 passes for 1,577 yards and 12 touchdowns. And Chambers? All he's done is be a starter since his rookie year, play in 84 of a possible 86 games and catch 341 passes for 4,866 yards and 42 TDs, and earn his first Pro Bowl selection last year when he had 82 receptions for 1,118 yards and 11 TDs. He ranks sixth on Miami's all-time list for career receptions, fifth for receiving yards, fourth for touchdown receptions and third for 100-yard games (14).
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Today's game will tell us a lot about future
By Chris Havel
There is a reason it takes two words to reference one area. The locker room is a double-edged sword that cuts in whatever direction the players allow it. Seniority doesn't rule. Neither do ability, stability or credibility. Majority rules. It is why the NFL has winners and losers, champions and chumps. It may be the No. 1 reason — if not a close second to coaching — why some teams succeed and some fail. When the regular season ends and the Packers and Bears shake hands and jog off Soldier Field, will Green Bay be a team on the rise? Will it be a team to get excited about? Will it be reasonable to think 2007 playoffs? Or won't it? In 15 seasons worth of locker rooms, I have seen the awe-inspiring and the awful. I have seen teamwork at its finest, friends at their best and men taking pride in their profession. I have seen envy, indifference and intolerance. Which way is it going to fall for the Packers? -- More



Packers lacking young talent at cornerback
By Pete Dougherty
The Green Bay Packers have developed a troubling void at a cornerback position they were calling a strength just last summer. Look at the recent draft picks: Chris Johnson, Ahmad Carroll, Joey Thomas, Mike Hawkins. Somewhere in that group of players was supposed to be a couple cornerbacks playing key roles for the Packers now and forming the nucleus of that position for a year or two. Instead, with Carroll's recent release, all four are gone, and only Carroll is in the NFL after he signed as a deep backup with Jacksonville this week. That leaves General Manager Ted Thompson in the unenviable position of having two aging starting cornerbacks in Al Harris, 31, and Charles Woodson, 30, with no ready replacements behind them. Instead, there's only one remaining drafted prospect of note. That player is Will Blackmon, a fourth-round draft pick out of Boston College. He missed all of the organized team activities, training camp and the first five weeks of the season because of a broken foot and then shin injury. He probably will make his Packers debut today at Miami.

The importance of Blackmon's development over the next year or two shouln't be overstated, because even if he's a bust, there always are ways to fill positions. But that means spending big money at a premium position in free agency, using high draft picks or making trades, like the Packers did for Harris (a second-round pick). The point is, after going 0-for-4 on Johnson, Carroll, Thomas and Hawkins, the Packers would be spending even more of their treasure pursuing even more cornerbacks if Blackmon doesn't develop into a starting-caliber player in the next couple years. This, for a team that has a world of other uses for that treasure. The Packers are in this predicament because of that 0-for-4 in the draft — three picks (Johnson, Carroll and Thomas) by former coach Mike Sherman, and one (Hawkins) by Thompson. Two of those selections fall into the sleeper-type category where the Packers used late-round picks on players they thought had huge upsides, despite their draft status: Johnson, a seventh-rounder in 2003, and Hawkins, a fifth-rounder last season.
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Sports merchandising took off
the same time as Favre
By Richard Ryman
greenbaypressgazette.com
Had Brett Favre become a star in 1980, the only place you'd have seen No. 4 was on the field or the television. Or maybe in the J.C. Penney Christmas catalog. Though it's taken for granted now, the everywhere availability of pro sports merchandise is relatively new. When Kate Hogan discovered the Packers Pro Shop more than 15 years ago, it was a 400-square foot store in a small corner of the old stadium offices. The selection was as small as the store. "I think there were some Tim Harris T-shirts, when I started working, and right away he was gone," she said. "Player-only merchandise was kind of rare the first few years." About the time Brett Favre came to Green Bay in 1992, the sports apparel and merchandise market took off.

The Packers rank among the best teams in the NFL for selling stuff, which is not a surprise. Under Hogan's direction they've been one of the most creative. "In my first couple of years here, I wanted to do a yellow baseball cap. It took two full years to get it," she said. "Now, secondary color is a big thing." Hogan said a popular player is good for sales, but you never know how popular they are going to be, or when they will get hurt or traded. "Players that come in and establish themselves as fan favorites, they just naturally will benefit from all those (marketing) things," she said. Hogan, a three-sport athlete and Green Bay native, would have loved to have the Packers Pro Shop of today 30 years ago. "If I could have had a John Brockington jersey, wouldn't that have been the coolest thing?" Hogan said. -- Story



Popularity of Packers merchandise transcends Favre
No. 4 is top seller in team's sports merchandise
By Richard Ryman
greenbaypressgazette.com
Brett Favre threw a team-record 29 interceptions in 2005 and the Green Bay Packers had their first losing season during his 14-year tenure, but week after week he scored big in the Packers Pro Shop. "In the 36 years I've been here, I've never seen anyone dominate the sales the way he's done," said Bob Harlan, Packers chairman and chief executive officer. Last year, the Packers sold $1 million worth of Brett Favre merchandise, from the ever-present No. 4 jerseys to bobble-head dolls to life-size cutouts. No other player is close in popularity when it comes to parting Packers fans from their George Washingtons and Andrew Jacksons. Which raises the question, more often asked on the field than off: What happens when Favre retires to Mississippi to coach high school football? Fewer sales, no doubt, but the impact will be less than it might with other teams, say Packers executives and local marketing experts. -- More

Meet Rachael
Oakland Raiders
Cheerleader

Rachael is starting her third season as a Raiderette. During her previous seasons as a Raiderette, she traveled to the Atsugi Naval Air Facility in Japan during Super Bowl XXXVI. Currently attending California State East Bay, she will be graduating this year with a degree in mass communication and broadcasting. She is also a member of the Students in Free Enterprise at Cal State East Bay.

Rachael attended Castro Valley High School, where she participated in ballet, tap and jazz. She later attended Las Positas College, where she earned her associate's degree. She hopes to one-day work for a small television network, as an entertainment host and reporter.