America's Game - 1996 Packers

i watched the dvd of the 96 superbowl last night with my son, and i was shocked at what a lackluster performance it was by the packers. aside from the two big pass plays to rison and freeman, favre did not do much at all. he was inaccurate with most of his passes. dorsey levens had a few good runs, but edgar bennett did nothing on the ground. favre was sacked several times. a lot of failed 3rd down converstions.

the defense and special teams won that game. hardly a dominating performance.

Watched last night and a few things

1. Very close superbowl, Reggie and Desmond were huge late.
2. I forgot that TOG went to rehab BEFORE the season, for some reason I thought that was before the 97 season.
3. The story of Beebe, TOG and Winters going over to Holmgren's place was awesome.
4. That was one helluva team, most 25+ poitn victories in NFL history.
5. Part of me got angry as that group only got 1 superbowl win, when I think they could have had 3.

Turned the game on just prior to Howards run back. Awesome everytime I see it.

quote:

Originally posted by The GBP Rules:
On NFLN now. Also tomorrow at 7:30 AM. You may have seen this but for those that have missed it. Not sure how they're only the #16 Super Bowl winner ever, but that's beside the point.

Ask Brian Billick about that 1996 Packer team. At the time he was OC in Minnesota. He said they were the best team he's ever faced as a coach.

People forget they are still the ONLY team to be #1 in Offense & #1 in Defense to win the Super Bowl. I think they may have been #1 in Special Teams too but not positive about that.

Pffftttt....#16 my ass!

It's funny, but I never felt like the defense was really that great in Super Bowl XXXI until after Desmond Howard's return. Once the Pack was up 14 the Pats started getting one dimensional and that's when Reggie took over.

I'll just disagree a bit with some on Favre's performance. Those 2 long bombs for TDs were huge, and that TD run he had just before the half was also big. Overall he had a good game, maybe not an all time great game, but he was pretty darn good. I'd say Favre's peformance overall that day ranks as probably one of the top 20 performances a Super Bowl winning QB has had in the game.

There's been alot of Super Bowl winning QBs that had stats like say for example Joe Theismann did in winning Super Bowl XVII (143 yds. passing, 2 TD, 2 INT). When you start looking at it in context, you realize that Favre's performance that day was overall a good one for a Super Bowl winning QB even if he may not have been consistently awesome that day.

quote:

Originally posted by johnnie gray:
i watched the dvd of the 96 superbowl last night with my son, and i was shocked at what a lackluster performance it was by the packers. aside from the two big pass plays to rison and freeman, favre did not do much at all. he was inaccurate with most of his passes. dorsey levens had a few good runs, but edgar bennett did nothing on the ground. favre was sacked several times. a lot of failed 3rd down converstions.

the defense and special teams won that game. hardly a dominating performance.

I think Parcells had a very nice offensive game plan. The TD to get within 6 made a game that really should have been out of reach, appear winnable at the time.

There is one play that I especially remember in the SB. I believe it was a 3rd quarter drive and it was something like 3rd and 2. They ran someone wide for a loss of a couple yards. It stalled the drive, gave the Pats hope, and I think was the turning point of what might have become a blowout.

At the time, I really had a hard time with that play. If the Pack had scored on that drive, I think they may have won going away.

I finished watching it (for the 500th time). One of the things that I realize is just how much harder this team's journey has been to the Super Bowl. The last two games of the regular season were essentially playoff games, followed by three road playoff games, against the three division winners, to make the Super Bowl. I would love to hear the players talk about that journey.

I would take great joy in watching an America's Game episode on the 2010 Packers.

Let's make it happen, boys.

This was from 4 years ago, so the Favre interviews he was still in GB. I made note to watch Favre in the post game celebration stuff because people had always talked like he didn't even look happy. He really did have that look of "oh that's all there is?" Reggie had a huge smile running around with that trophy. Desmond had as big a smile as you could imagine. Meanwhile Favre just looked like he was going to the dentist. He also said that the NFCC game was the game that was more special to him than the Super Bowl, because the fans were all Packer fans.

Then when Favre was talking about it he was talking how he was like "oh this is it" and while Holmgren was doing a post game speech he just went to the showers.

How telling was it that Favre didn't stand with his teammates when Holmgren addressed the team? He said he was in the shower. It wasn't as good as he thought it would be, and he didn't have any desire to share it with his teammates.
That ought to tell you everything right there. Fast forward to the 2000s... he's on the doorstep but his desire to win it all isn't strong enough to overcome the cold. The only reason he ever returned in '97 was #92.

Maybe he thought he should have been the MVP.

Favre was pedestrian in that game. While he did complete those two long TD's, his completion rate was Big Ben-like and his overall numbers were nothing to get excited about.

quote:

Originally posted by njs III:
Maybe he thought he should have been the MVP.

I'm sure Desmond would've let him borrow the Taurus if he would've asked.