I was sitting here with the smell of Thanksgiving preparations wafting through the air and began to reminisce.
I remember a team which overcame important injuries, had an old defensive coordinator, some big fat guys on the defensive line, a fiery young QB who had real wheels when he needed to, a break open receiver and a slightly chunky head coach....ahhh...the '96 Packers. Can anybody think of any other similarities?
I was re-watching the Packers Minnesota game of 96, the first one, and it reminded me so much of this team.
That team had lots of injuries, like we do, and the D was aggressive, and predicated on creating turnovers and scoring, like we do. Actually, watching the game, that D was less aggressive than ours, they allowed more big plays than we're allowing now.
That O started slow, but once it got in a rythm, it was extremely hard to stop. Like our O.
Go ahead and watch that season, that team was extremely similar to this team. There were some differences, though.
We generate MORE pressure than they did. And we have a better secondary than they did.
However, the 96' linebacking corps was much more active than ours. They were a better team against the run altogether.
On offense, we have better perimeter players than they did. Greg Jennings, Doland Driver, James Jones and Jordy Nelson are much better than Brooks, Freeman, Beebe, Rison and Howard.
But the TEs (without Finley) were much better, Chmura and Jackson and so were the RBs Bennet and Levens.
The QB play was eerily similar, Favre missed more plays, but made more plays.
And the OL was also similar, if you look at the tape and don't go by memory. They struggled, then settled down. Even the RT changed midway.
The biggest difference between that team and this was ST play. Howard, Heintrich and Jacke were key factors in winning that SB.
