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A defensive history of the Green Bay Packers.
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<blockquote data-quote="Packerlifer" data-source="post: 606726" data-attributes="member: 1242"><p>PART 2: Forrest Gregg had turned around losing teams in Cleveland and Cincinnati. He had been named AFC "coach of the year" with the Browns in 1976 and had taken the 1981 Bengals to the Super Bowl. But he had also been fired from both his previous NFL head coaching jobs as his teams had started to regress. Gregg's demanding intensity and brusque personality could be wearing on players and in an organization in time. But the Packers were close to contention and the club led by president Robert Parins thought he could push the Pack "over the top."</p><p></p><p> Gregg was also expected to bring the answer to the Packers' defensive debacle of 1983. His Cincinnati team had the top ranked defense in the league and accompanying Gregg to Green Bay would be several members of his defensive staff, including highly regarded coordinator Hank Bullough. Bullough was a master at that time of the 3-4 defense and played a leading role in introducing and popularizing the scheme in the NFL. He was one of the major formative influences on **** LeBeau; who had also served on that Bengals staff. LeBeau, however, did not return to Green Bay with the Gregg hire.</p><p></p><p> Before Bullough could take over the Packers defense, however, he was intercepted by a head coaching offer in the United States Football League. The deal fell through but he was hired instead as head coach of the Buffalo Bills. To replace him Gregg promoted another member of his Cincinnati staff defensive line coach **** Modzelewski as coordinator. "Modz" would dc the Packer defense for the entire four year term of Gregg.</p><p></p><p> Gregg set about straightaway to deal with the Packers' defensive issues. His first round pick in the 1984 draft was de Alphonso Carreker. In the third round he took Donnie Humphrey, projected as a nose tackle but able to play end as well. He also brought in an undrafted, small college nose tackle Charles Martin. Robert Brown, a 1982 draftee, would be promoted to defensive end and become one of the longest tenured players in Packers' history.</p><p></p><p> Gregg also began to bring in bigger, more physical linebackers to replace the relatively smallish ones that Starr had been using in his 3-4. Between 1984-87 Gregg would add John Dorsey, Tim Harris, Burnell Dent, Johnny Holland, Brian Noble and Scott Stephan.</p><p></p><p> Gregg also liked "hitters" in his secondary as well. Coming in to Green Bay during the Gregg years were safeties Tom Flynn, Ken Stills, Tiger Greene, and cb Mossy Cade.</p><p></p><p> The Packers improved markedly on defense in 1984, moving up from 28th to 16th in their league ranking and giving up 130 fewer points than the previous season, ranking 10th at 19.3 ppg. In 1985 they moved up even a little more becoming the league's 12th ranked unit. But the Packers were able to produce only a pair of 8-8 seasons in Gregg's first two years and he decided the team had "plateaued out" at .500 and needed a major shake up.</p><p></p><p> Gregg massively purged the Packers' roster in 1986 and the result was a club record 12 loss season, including an 0-6 start. Most of the change came on the offense and the defense managed to keep its 12th ranking but it fell to 27th in scoring at 26.1ppg. Some of the point yield, though, could be blamed on a struggling, turnover prone offense that allowed turnovers to be run back for touchdowns against them or placing the defense in difficult short field situations.</p><p></p><p> Confidence in Gregg began to dissipate among the fans and with the Packers executive committee. But he still had two years remaining on his contract and there was reluctance to deny him a fair chance. But the club did bring in an executive vice president of football operations, Tom Braatz, a long time NFL front office exec. Problem was there was no clear delineation of authority between the new general manager and the head coach; a reason they didn't land another interviewed candidate for the job Ron Wolf in 1987.</p><p></p><p> The only winning Packers team Gregg coached was the 1987 strike replacement team. After two weeks the NFL was hit for the second time in 5 years by a player strike by the NFL Players Association. This time the league played on, using "replacement players" while the regulars walked picket lines. The Packers replacement team managed a 2-1 record. The regulars, before and after the strike, were only 3-8-1.</p><p></p><p> The Packers were not only losing but acquiring a negative reputation and image on and off the field under Gregg. There were several serious incidents of off field bad acting by some players; the most notorious being the case of cb Mossy Cade. On the field, too, the Packers were coming under complaint for being an at least borderline "dirty" team. Especially in games against their oldest rivals the Bears. <a href="http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/mike-ditka-to-this-day-i-dont-respect-forrest-gregg/" target="_blank">http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/mike-ditka-to-this-day-i-dont-respect-forrest-gregg/. </a></p><p></p><p> Gregg resolved the increasingly deteriorating situation by resigning in January 1988 to become athletic director and football coach at his alma mater Southern Methodist University. After 13 years of trying to recapture the glory of the Lombardi era with former Packers greats as coaches the club was ready to try for a "real" head coach on the next search. Their first choice was the recent Big Ten and Rose Bowl championship winning coach George Perles of Michigan St. Perles had been defensive coordinator of the famous "Steel Curtain" defense of Pittsburgh's Super Bowl dynasty of the 1970's. But Perles turned the Packers down at the last minute which sent them to their second choice Lindy Infante.</p><p></p><p> Infante was a highly regarded offensive coordinator. He had been oc for Gregg in Cincinnati in 1981 when the Bengals reached the Super Bowl. And under Marty Schottenheimer in Cleveland he had produced one of the league's most efficient offenses and helped the Browns to two consecutive classic AFC Championship games against John Elway and the Denver Broncos in '86-'87. He had also briefly been a head coach in the USFL.</p><p></p><p> Since the offense at the time was the unit particularly struggling Infante seemed a good hire. But the Packers also gained a bonus when they got the defensive coordinator they had expected four years earlier Hank Bullough. People remembered what happened the last time the Packers had been turned down by a Big Ten coach and went with an NFL offensive coordinator of Italian background instead. If Infante was to be a latter day Lombardi Bullough would be his Bengtson.</p><p></p><p> Of course it never played out that way. In three of the four years Infante ran the team the Packers finished with double-digit losing seasons. But there was one exceptional teaser in the second year in 1989 when the Pack went 10-6 and just missed the playoffs by tiebreaker.</p><p></p><p> The offense was mostly responsible for that season. It would be one of the ironies of the Infante era that offense, which was his forte, would most of the time by the major liability for the team. Injuries and some notably bad luck with prime draft choices would be at the heart of those problems.</p><p></p><p> The defense, however, under Bullough was generally respectable. It was only 16th in ranking in '89 but was top ten in the first and fourth seasons; reaching 7th in 1988 and 10th in '91. The unit was 11th in points allowed in '88 (19.7 ppg).</p><p></p><p> During this time the Packers had, arguably, the best set of linebackers they would ever have while playing a 3-4. Brian Noble and Johnny Holland were steady on the inside and , first, Tim Harris and John Anderson and later Bryce Paup and Tony Bennett would give them outstanding outside linebacker play.</p><p></p><p> <a href="http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HarrTi00.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HarrTi00.htm </a></p><p> <a href="http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PaupBr00.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PaupBr00.htm </a></p><p> <a href="http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/N/NoblBr21.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/N/NoblBr21.htm </a></p><p> <a href="http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HollJo20.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HollJo20.htm </a></p><p> <a href="http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BennTo21.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BennTo21.htm </a></p><p></p><p> Harris had a particularly great year in the 10-win season of '89. He set the Packers' still standing official record for qb sacks in a season with 19.5. Paup and Bennett would follow him as double-digit sackers themselves.</p><p></p><p> The Packers played with a veteran secondary group during these seasons. Long time Packers Mark Lee, Mark Murphy, Ken Stills were still around. The club also made trades for experienced veterans Dave Brown and Jerry Holmes.</p><p></p><p> They didn't lack youth, however. A hard hitting safety Chuck Cecil emerged during the Infante years and in 1990 the Packers drafted a safety who would in time go on to become one of the greatest in team history LeRoy Butler.</p><p></p><p> The line,however, lacked consistency. Former first rounder Alphonso Carreker left after the '88 season and Robert Brown was in the late stages of his long career with the team. The Packers shuffled Blaise Winter, Matt Brock, Bob Nelson, Jerry Boyarsky, Esera Tuaolo, Lester Archambeau and Shawn Patterson around in hopes of finding a winning combination up front.</p><p></p><p> As the Packers opened the 1990's with a 10-22 start it appeared they were only beginning a third decade of losing. It was approaching a quarter century with no title in Titletown, by far the longest championship drought in club history. Talk of privatizing the club and possibly relocating it; not heard since the dismal 1950's, was once again being revived.</p><p></p><p> But changes were underway at 1265 Lombardi Avenue. In 1989 Bob Harlan became club president and ceo. Harlan had been in the Packers front office for almost 20 years and had a front row seat for the goings on in the organizatiion during the '70's and '80's. Harlan had a vision of making the Packers winner and champions once again. And in 1991 he began to translate the vision into reality.</p><p></p><p> He replaced Tom Braatz as GM with Ron Wolf. He gave Wolf full authority over the Packers' football operation: drafting, trading, free agent signing and the hiring or firing of the head coach. Wolf spent the closing weeks of the '91 season evaluating the Packers team and coaching and when the 4-12 season ended he fired Infante and brought in Mike Holmgren as the new head coach. (End of Part 2.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Packerlifer, post: 606726, member: 1242"] PART 2: Forrest Gregg had turned around losing teams in Cleveland and Cincinnati. He had been named AFC "coach of the year" with the Browns in 1976 and had taken the 1981 Bengals to the Super Bowl. But he had also been fired from both his previous NFL head coaching jobs as his teams had started to regress. Gregg's demanding intensity and brusque personality could be wearing on players and in an organization in time. But the Packers were close to contention and the club led by president Robert Parins thought he could push the Pack "over the top." Gregg was also expected to bring the answer to the Packers' defensive debacle of 1983. His Cincinnati team had the top ranked defense in the league and accompanying Gregg to Green Bay would be several members of his defensive staff, including highly regarded coordinator Hank Bullough. Bullough was a master at that time of the 3-4 defense and played a leading role in introducing and popularizing the scheme in the NFL. He was one of the major formative influences on **** LeBeau; who had also served on that Bengals staff. LeBeau, however, did not return to Green Bay with the Gregg hire. Before Bullough could take over the Packers defense, however, he was intercepted by a head coaching offer in the United States Football League. The deal fell through but he was hired instead as head coach of the Buffalo Bills. To replace him Gregg promoted another member of his Cincinnati staff defensive line coach **** Modzelewski as coordinator. "Modz" would dc the Packer defense for the entire four year term of Gregg. Gregg set about straightaway to deal with the Packers' defensive issues. His first round pick in the 1984 draft was de Alphonso Carreker. In the third round he took Donnie Humphrey, projected as a nose tackle but able to play end as well. He also brought in an undrafted, small college nose tackle Charles Martin. Robert Brown, a 1982 draftee, would be promoted to defensive end and become one of the longest tenured players in Packers' history. Gregg also began to bring in bigger, more physical linebackers to replace the relatively smallish ones that Starr had been using in his 3-4. Between 1984-87 Gregg would add John Dorsey, Tim Harris, Burnell Dent, Johnny Holland, Brian Noble and Scott Stephan. Gregg also liked "hitters" in his secondary as well. Coming in to Green Bay during the Gregg years were safeties Tom Flynn, Ken Stills, Tiger Greene, and cb Mossy Cade. The Packers improved markedly on defense in 1984, moving up from 28th to 16th in their league ranking and giving up 130 fewer points than the previous season, ranking 10th at 19.3 ppg. In 1985 they moved up even a little more becoming the league's 12th ranked unit. But the Packers were able to produce only a pair of 8-8 seasons in Gregg's first two years and he decided the team had "plateaued out" at .500 and needed a major shake up. Gregg massively purged the Packers' roster in 1986 and the result was a club record 12 loss season, including an 0-6 start. Most of the change came on the offense and the defense managed to keep its 12th ranking but it fell to 27th in scoring at 26.1ppg. Some of the point yield, though, could be blamed on a struggling, turnover prone offense that allowed turnovers to be run back for touchdowns against them or placing the defense in difficult short field situations. Confidence in Gregg began to dissipate among the fans and with the Packers executive committee. But he still had two years remaining on his contract and there was reluctance to deny him a fair chance. But the club did bring in an executive vice president of football operations, Tom Braatz, a long time NFL front office exec. Problem was there was no clear delineation of authority between the new general manager and the head coach; a reason they didn't land another interviewed candidate for the job Ron Wolf in 1987. The only winning Packers team Gregg coached was the 1987 strike replacement team. After two weeks the NFL was hit for the second time in 5 years by a player strike by the NFL Players Association. This time the league played on, using "replacement players" while the regulars walked picket lines. The Packers replacement team managed a 2-1 record. The regulars, before and after the strike, were only 3-8-1. The Packers were not only losing but acquiring a negative reputation and image on and off the field under Gregg. There were several serious incidents of off field bad acting by some players; the most notorious being the case of cb Mossy Cade. On the field, too, the Packers were coming under complaint for being an at least borderline "dirty" team. Especially in games against their oldest rivals the Bears. [URL='http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/mike-ditka-to-this-day-i-dont-respect-forrest-gregg/']http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/mike-ditka-to-this-day-i-dont-respect-forrest-gregg/. [/URL] Gregg resolved the increasingly deteriorating situation by resigning in January 1988 to become athletic director and football coach at his alma mater Southern Methodist University. After 13 years of trying to recapture the glory of the Lombardi era with former Packers greats as coaches the club was ready to try for a "real" head coach on the next search. Their first choice was the recent Big Ten and Rose Bowl championship winning coach George Perles of Michigan St. Perles had been defensive coordinator of the famous "Steel Curtain" defense of Pittsburgh's Super Bowl dynasty of the 1970's. But Perles turned the Packers down at the last minute which sent them to their second choice Lindy Infante. Infante was a highly regarded offensive coordinator. He had been oc for Gregg in Cincinnati in 1981 when the Bengals reached the Super Bowl. And under Marty Schottenheimer in Cleveland he had produced one of the league's most efficient offenses and helped the Browns to two consecutive classic AFC Championship games against John Elway and the Denver Broncos in '86-'87. He had also briefly been a head coach in the USFL. Since the offense at the time was the unit particularly struggling Infante seemed a good hire. But the Packers also gained a bonus when they got the defensive coordinator they had expected four years earlier Hank Bullough. People remembered what happened the last time the Packers had been turned down by a Big Ten coach and went with an NFL offensive coordinator of Italian background instead. If Infante was to be a latter day Lombardi Bullough would be his Bengtson. Of course it never played out that way. In three of the four years Infante ran the team the Packers finished with double-digit losing seasons. But there was one exceptional teaser in the second year in 1989 when the Pack went 10-6 and just missed the playoffs by tiebreaker. The offense was mostly responsible for that season. It would be one of the ironies of the Infante era that offense, which was his forte, would most of the time by the major liability for the team. Injuries and some notably bad luck with prime draft choices would be at the heart of those problems. The defense, however, under Bullough was generally respectable. It was only 16th in ranking in '89 but was top ten in the first and fourth seasons; reaching 7th in 1988 and 10th in '91. The unit was 11th in points allowed in '88 (19.7 ppg). During this time the Packers had, arguably, the best set of linebackers they would ever have while playing a 3-4. Brian Noble and Johnny Holland were steady on the inside and , first, Tim Harris and John Anderson and later Bryce Paup and Tony Bennett would give them outstanding outside linebacker play. [URL='http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HarrTi00.htm']http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HarrTi00.htm [/URL] [URL='http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PaupBr00.htm']http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PaupBr00.htm [/URL] [URL='http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/N/NoblBr21.htm']http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/N/NoblBr21.htm [/URL] [URL='http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HollJo20.htm']http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HollJo20.htm [/URL] [URL='http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BennTo21.htm']http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BennTo21.htm [/URL] Harris had a particularly great year in the 10-win season of '89. He set the Packers' still standing official record for qb sacks in a season with 19.5. Paup and Bennett would follow him as double-digit sackers themselves. The Packers played with a veteran secondary group during these seasons. Long time Packers Mark Lee, Mark Murphy, Ken Stills were still around. The club also made trades for experienced veterans Dave Brown and Jerry Holmes. They didn't lack youth, however. A hard hitting safety Chuck Cecil emerged during the Infante years and in 1990 the Packers drafted a safety who would in time go on to become one of the greatest in team history LeRoy Butler. The line,however, lacked consistency. Former first rounder Alphonso Carreker left after the '88 season and Robert Brown was in the late stages of his long career with the team. The Packers shuffled Blaise Winter, Matt Brock, Bob Nelson, Jerry Boyarsky, Esera Tuaolo, Lester Archambeau and Shawn Patterson around in hopes of finding a winning combination up front. As the Packers opened the 1990's with a 10-22 start it appeared they were only beginning a third decade of losing. It was approaching a quarter century with no title in Titletown, by far the longest championship drought in club history. Talk of privatizing the club and possibly relocating it; not heard since the dismal 1950's, was once again being revived. But changes were underway at 1265 Lombardi Avenue. In 1989 Bob Harlan became club president and ceo. Harlan had been in the Packers front office for almost 20 years and had a front row seat for the goings on in the organizatiion during the '70's and '80's. Harlan had a vision of making the Packers winner and champions once again. And in 1991 he began to translate the vision into reality. He replaced Tom Braatz as GM with Ron Wolf. He gave Wolf full authority over the Packers' football operation: drafting, trading, free agent signing and the hiring or firing of the head coach. Wolf spent the closing weeks of the '91 season evaluating the Packers team and coaching and when the 4-12 season ended he fired Infante and brought in Mike Holmgren as the new head coach. (End of Part 2.) [/QUOTE]
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